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Insider News: New Arrivals!
Announcing the arrival of Joshua Robert Juarez!
Born: December 21, 2006
Time: 12:12pm
Weight: 7lbs, 4oz
Length: 21"
Terri, Tinker, and Joshua are doing great and looking forward to 2007. The family would like to thank everyone for the letters and gifts, they are truly appreciated.
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| Tech Talk: Tinker's Signature tires are now available!
Check out the Kenda website for details.
http://www.kendausa.com/bicycle/tinker.html
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| Tech Talk: Cannondale's newest Rush
http://www.velonews.com/tech/report/articles/10929.0.html
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Tinker Wins The Subaru 24 Hour Champion Challenge
With tropical storm Ernesto making his way up the east coast, lots of rain and wind were expected at the Subaru 24 Hour Champion Challenge at Seven Springs, PA. The rain started on Friday and continued through the morning on Saturday. Ernesto passed more to the east of the Seven Springs venue so it didn't rain as much as expected but the storm brought colder temperatures, a constant drizzle and bone chilling winds until after 10:00AM on Sunday as the race was wrapping up. Only to be teased with sun for about 10 minutes around 11:00 AM.
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Thank you RAAM Crew
 The crew that supported me for the RAAM was the best anyone could ask for. Vic's stories mentioned some of them, but I wanted to let everyone know who they were and how much I appreciate everything they did for me to make sure everyone got across America safely and somewhat sanely!
Many thanks to each and every one of the crew members, especially to my friend Trevor Finch for being the team captain and organizing it all for us. The main goal was to get across safely and I couldn't have asked for a better crew. It was tough but it was a great race! Here is a photo of us at the finish line in Atlantic City.
In no particular order, here is a list of the crew members and what they did.
Jim Trout - Driver, only one on the crew with RAAM experience, answer guy, weather guy, photographer, etc...
Scott Mulleary - Massage therapist, driver, and mechanic
Trevor Finch - Team captain, driver
Ed Kocina - Driver, map organizer, and guide. Also kept us smiling.
Rose Juarez - Kept us organized, fed, and happy
Dean - Driver, mechanic, etc...
Jennifer Finch - Driver, etc...
Vic Armijo - Race documentation, photographer, mechanic, RV driver
I'll post some more pics in my blog soon.
Thanks very much everyone for all you're support and sticking it out for the whole race. You really were the "Dream Team"!
Tinker
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Dirt Rag Fresh Dirt
http://www.dirtragmag.com/web/news-article.php?ID=713
8.23.2006
Fun Ride With Tinker Juarez
By: Karl Rosengarth
The Dirt Rag crew will attest to the fact that the Subaru 24-Hour Champion Challenge is lot of fun. There's free camping on top of the mountain at Seven Springs ski resort and a top-notch race course that offers a perfect blend of rocky technical sections and fast, swoopy singletrack. Fielding a Dirt Rag team (or two) for this "backyard" event has become a Labor Day weekend tradition. More...
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Mountain Biker Tinker Juarez Ties the Knot at ANSE CHASTANET in St. Lucia
ST. LUCIA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- July 10, 2006 -- Mountain biking champion rider Tinker Juarez married micro-biologist Terry Slifko on July 6 at ANSE CHASTANET RESORT in St. Lucia. The ceremony was attended by close family and friends and took place in the Resort's Treehouse Restaurant overlooking the ANSE CHASTANET beach and the Caribbean Sea. The wedding cake sported 2 miniature bikes. After the ceremony, the wedding party sailed into the sunset on the resort yacht Serenity.
http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release_html_b1?release_id=142516
http://www.marketwire.com/mw/frame_multimedia?prid=142516&attachid=293082
ANSE CHASTANET RESORT which has been voted to be "One of the World's Top Ten Most Romantic Resorts" by A&E television is set amidst a 600 acre lush tropical estate with 2 soft sand beaches, 8000 feet of Caribbean coastline and breathtaking views of St. Lucia's twin Piton mountains rising out of the calm Caribbean Sea. Aside from catering to escapists and honeymooners like Tinker, ANSE CHASTANET has developed a very successful soft adventure program, including a professional scuba centre, miles of biking and hiking trails, a mountain bike facility with 50 Cannondale bikes, as well as a specialty kayak division for coastal kayaking.
For more information call 800-223-1108 or contact ANSE CHASTANET RESORT at Tel 758-459-7000, Fax 758-459-7700, e-mail ansechastanet@candw.lc, website www.ansechastanet.com, www.bikestlucia.com, www.scubastlucia.com
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| Tinker has a new Webmaster
Bruce Wiley is a good friend of mine that has been working on the website for the past year. He redesigned it and worked really hard to make sure it was updated frequently and did a super job. I really appreciated everything Bruce did, he's a great web guy! THANKS BRUCE!!!
But now I'm working with a new web guy named Matt Goforth. He's a mountain biker that lives in south Florida. Welcome aboard Matt!! I look forward to working with you! Matt will be posting updates each day while I'm on the road racing the RAAM so check back daily to see what's new and see the race hightlights. My friend Vic Armijo will be on the road crewing for me and will be writing the daily updates.
-Tinker
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Tinker is ready for RAAM 2006
The 25th Race Across America (RAAM) will begin at Noon on June 11, 2006 as the solo riders roll out of Oceanside, CA. With less than a week before the start of the RAAM, Tinker is making all the last minute preparations. His crew has already been working hard organizing the logistics. The RV is reserved and will be set up with all the necessary safety equipment, sponsor logos, and stocked with food, supplies, and other essential items later this week. Tinker is making the final adjustments on his new Cannondale bicycles and making sure they are ready to go and that he has plenty of spare parts, tools, tubes, tires, wheels, nutrition, and other extra supplies and equipment.
Here, Tinker poses with three of the bicycles he'll ride as he and his team make the journey across the United States. The three models he selected include Cannondale's Ironman 6-13 Slice, Carbon Synapse, and 6-13. Cannondale designed the bicycle and clothing graphics shown here especially for the RAAM and Tinker's other endurance racing with a day-fading-to-night theme.
Good luck Tinker! Those of us that can't be there will be cheering you on from our computer workstations!!
If you want to drop Tinker a note of encouragement, send it to: dtinkerj@aol.com.
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 PRESS RELEASE
RE: Tinker Juarez to be a daddy of twins!
May 19, 2006, For Immediate Release
TWINS FOR TINKER
Cannondale’s mountain bike icon Tinker Juarez has met many challenges of endurance, having won numerous 24-hour endurance races; he recently won a 500-mile road race, and in June he’ll ride from San Diego to Atlantic City in his first assault on the Race Across America. But all those feats pale in comparison to his future that holds the prospect of him chasing a pair of toddlers around the house. “We’re having twins!” Tinker announced from his Winter Garden, Florida home. “We’re absolutely thrilled,” says his fiancée Terri Slifko.
An ultra-sound confirms, the couple are getting two-for-one with a due date of December 22, “But the doctors tell us that twins usually arrive early,” Terri adds. “We’ve really been looking forward to having kids,” Tinker says, “We just didn’t realize we’d get our first at the same time as our second!”
 The couple are currently shopping for all the standard kidlet accoutrements, cribs, bassinettes, etc., “But two at a time,” Terri explains. “And we’ve realized that Tinker’s Volvo doesn’t have enough room for two child seats, two adults, plus two bikes and all the assorted stuff that goes with all that…so the ‘mini-van’ word has officially been mentioned,” she adds.
PHOTOS: (Top/Left) In February Terri and Tinker enjoyed a sunny biking and sight-seeing trip in Costa Rica. (Left) Photo taken at the coffee mill ruins at Anse Mamin in St. Lucia. Tinker and Terri will be married there in July.
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Another Win at the Dirty Spokes Productions 12 Hours
May 6, 2006, Fort Yargo State Park, Georgia
Sometimes getting to a race is as much stress as the race itself. I like to get to a race early the day before, settle in, get some rest. But the day before this one my fiancée Terri had to work and we didn’t get going until after 3pm. With traffic and getting stuck behind an accident, it took forever to drive from our home near Orlando, Florida to the race in Georgia. I didn’t get to sleep until 1am. Then it was get up at 7am, and then race 10am to 10pm. But it all worked out.
Even though I hadn’t done a pre-ride of the course, on the first lap I set the fastest lap of the day, something like 52-minutes. Which won me a nice pair of wheels. And that lap was actually a little longer because they had a parade lap section. Off the start I followed this one guy on a singlespeed—he was going out real fast and obviously knew the course. So I was able to pace off him for a while, then got by him and the way the course was, I was still able to keep a fast pace, there weren’t any blind corners or anything that I had to be wary about. From then on most of the laps were around an hour.
It’s good course. It has few open fireroad climbs and some fast single-track that was really smooth—not rough at all. Just enough climbing, maybe 700 feet per lap. Weather was perfect too, low 70’s no clouds, some shade on course. Nice! The race also had good riders with good attitude. No one gave me any trouble when I had to pass.
I felt good most of the day except for one lap toward the end I was feeling a little burnt, but got some more food in me and recovered. I did 12 laps in a 12 hour race. The laps were a little over 12 miles. I did the whole 12 Hours. That is, at the 11 hour mark my lead wasn’t so big that I knew that I could sit out early. Still, I had plenty of oomph left. It wasn’t a struggle to go out for one more.
Feeling so good that late in the race after starting out without enough sleep to begin with, is a good sign of things to come at the Race Across America. I put in a lot a lot of miles in all winter and into April, and it’s good to know that it all worked. At this race I had good speed, good power, just all around fit and ready. RAAM is going to be completely new challenge. Every moment will be new, never seeing or experiencing the same thing twice. A few more weeks of preparation and then it’ll be time to head to Oceanside, point my bike east and put my head down until Atlantic City. Maybe I’ll see you along the way?
Peace and out for now.
Tinker
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HEART OF THE SOUTH
500
500 Mile Road Race
First off I gotta tell all you fans, I won!
Winning is always good. And I came within minutes of
the course record held by last year’s second place
Race Across America rider, Chris MacDonald from
Denmark. I really wanted to beat that. But the main
goal of this race was for me and my crew to use this
as preparation for the Race Across America. We
improved quite a bit from the Furnace Creek 508, and
learned a few more things along the way.
The promoter put on a good event. It was really
hard—as hard as I expected. It rained for the first
hundred miles. It wasn’t cold, just a rain jacket
and leg warmers was enough. When the sun came out
things dried up quick and I peeled off some layers.
The wind was almost always going, and wouldn’t you
know it, never a tail wind. There was 30,000 feet of
climbing, constantly rolling up and down. The
longest climb was maybe five miles, so I couldn’t
get into any good climbing rhythms for long. Since
moving to Florida I’ve only had a handful of times
to do any climbing, so it was tough.
The start was really different. The promoter wanted
to have everyone finish between noon and 8pm, so
they do a staggered start depending on when a rider
thinks he’ll finish. I started at the end of the
last group - 3 other riders and a 2-man team. I
started pulling away from the other solo guys right
from the start and I tailed along behind the 2-rider
team. These two guys were keeping a good pace and I
followed them for a long time until they dropped out
at about the 250 mile mark. I wished they hadn’t, I
missed having my pacers!
The roads were fantastic. I was amazed. It felt like
I was on a carpet the whole time. Navigating was
hard. The crew said it was the hardest navigating
they’d ever done with something like 200 navigation
points. Staying on course wasn’t hard for the
riders, the corners were all marked with painted
arrows and I never missed one, but the arrows were
hard to see for the guys back in the van.
One thing on our “to-do” list was for me to get some
time on my new Synapse. We had it set up with
aero-bars for the flat sections. But there were
hardly any of those, so I didn’t use that bike so
much, not with so many rolling hills. I got on the
Synapse when it got dark so the crew could put my
lights on my Six/13. The aero-bars felt good for the
little bit of flat stretch that there was.
At night I got tired mentally. When you look up and
the stars are right there touching your face, you
realize that there’s a long way to go. It’s tough to
keep riding on your own. In a 24-hour mountain bike
race the terrain keeps your mind occupied, but out
on a road where you just keep going straight ahead,
that wears on you. I train with music, but you can’t
wear headphones in a race. I’m thinking that the
two-way radio idea is good. That way my crew can
talk to me and keep me alert. I didn’t think I was
ever going to see any light. One thing that did keep
me alert for awhile was some crazy people in weird
trucks stalking us 'Deliverance' style in the night.
And there were so many loose dogs out there.
Suddenly I’d hear toe-nails on the pavement and
would have to grab a few gears and pick up the pace.
Finally with no one to chase or follow, it kind of
burned me out for awhile. My legs were fine, but I
was starting to zig-zag on the road a bit. So I took
a break for a little while, maybe ten or fifteen
minutes, had some food and was leaning back and had
my eyes shut for a moment and heard one of my crew
snoring like a lawn-mower. I took that as a signal
to get up and get going again.
Morning came and that perked me up. With about 50
miles to go my crew told me that I still had a shot
at the record if I kept my speed up. I remember
looking back at them for a moment when they told me
that and later they said “If looks could kill,” I
guess I wasn’t real happy about having to keep
pushing so hard. But I did anyway and it was looking
like the record was in reach for a while until the
headwind picked up again.
Finally the finish came, but I missed the record by
ten minutes. Arrrgh! Coming so close to the course
record was tough, but it’s still good to know that
I’m right in there. It could have been a million
different things I could have done to make up a
minute here or there. Like changing the lights, we
lost a lot of time there For RAAM we’ll have a
second bike all set-up for night. And my mom wasn’t
there; I count on her so much for taking care of the
food. I didn’t grocery shop as smart as I should
have and lost time fussing about what to eat. If she
was there she’d have had something ready for me that
she knows I would like.
On the good side, we learned a lot and I didn’t get
a single flat. My pre-production signature tires
from Kenda are so nice! The second place rider
finished about an hour behind me. That guy’s goal
was to qualify for RAAM, not so much to fight for
the lead. So overall it was a good event. I was
happy with it. The next morning one of my crew
members asked if I felt like I was ready to go do
another 100-miles. And honestly, yeah. I recovered
pretty well.
Me and my crew, we know where we’re strong, where we
need to improve. RAAM is only two months away. The
work is all laid out in front of us. It will all
come down to putting in the time training and
planning now. You gotta show up at RAAM beyond
ready. I’ll be there.
Thanks for reading.
TJ
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400K BREVET, CLERMONT, FLORIDA:
The Long Way Home
Here in
Florida the Florida Freewheelers bike club puts
on a series of “Brevets,” which are these events
that aren’t really races, they’re more about
just getting in a long, long day of riding, 400
kilometer or more. The way it works is you ride
unsupported, you have to carry your own tubes
and tools and stuff, they give you a route sheet
and a map and they have checkpoints along the
way. For this one the check points were at four
or five convenience stores where we had to go in
and have them sign our ride card and at the same
time. Having them at stores is good ‘cause you
can grab some food or a drink or whatever. I’m
so glad to have found out about these—perfect
training for me at this time of year.
We started at
4 in the morning, using lights for the first two
hours. I didn’t ride with the main group. I
wanted to use it as training for RAAM and at
RAAM you can’t draft. So I stayed back, kept
them in sight and kept the same distance. At one
point we crossed this wooden bridge, a rider
caught the edge and crashed. He was bleeding bad
from his arm, so we guided him back to the last
check-point. We waited with him for awhile until
he told us he’d call for a ride for us to go
ahead.
From then I
stayed with the group and eventually we caught
the guy who had been leading solo. We went to
the next check-point I didn’t feel like stopping
long, so I took off by myself, and sure enough I
got lost. I kept looking for this road listed on
the route slip, but ran into a dead end, so all
I could do was backtrack. Eventually I find my
way and asked some people who told me that I
needed to go 30miles down this bike path. I
finally caught up to the group that I originally
started out with. They asked me “Where have you
been?” Honestly, I didn’t have a clue. I told
them where I thought I’d been and they figured
what turn I must have missed and guessed that I
did at least an extra 20 miles. That’s when I
stuffed my route sheet into my pocket and told
them, ‘I don’t need this anymore, I’m staying
with you guys.” That was the way to go. These
guys knew every little corner.
I was ready
to get the last miles done and was able to take
some long pulls for those guys. So we were
making good time. When we stopped to eat, we
were all ready for some serious chowing. In the
end it took us 16 hours to go 260 miles, or in
my case, more like 280. I learned a lot about
Florida riding that day. I didn’t realize they
had bike paths that go for so long. And they’re
not like the bike paths back in L.A. No shopping
carts, no homeless guys. Although I did come
across some big turles crossing the road. They
have the right away, I guess. You don’t want to
hit one, it would be like hitting a stump.” All
in all it was good. I can’t wait for next one!
Click here to read a blog about the ride.
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