We were busy with back to back gear company appointments at the Outdoor Retailer in Salt Lake City, UT, and professional cyclist Timmy Duggan was busy training at the Garden of the Gods, but we both somehow found a few minutes to talk over the phone and discuss his recent race in the Olympics as well as his upcoming races in both Utah and Colorado!

Born and raised in Boulder CO, Timmy Duggan of team Liquigas-Cannondale has come a long way, recovering from a catastrophic bicycle crash in 2008 to National Champ in 2012 . Today at the age of 29, and just arriving back from across the pond at the London Olympic games, he is ready for some action back at home.

Timmy takes a break at Garden of the Gods for interviews. Photo by MacKenzie McGrath, Vladimir Jones

Even though he didn't start out as a young cyclist, he took his alpine skiing athletic ability and "shifted gears" around the age of 18. He found that this was something he was good at and started training right away. Today, he is not only a National Champion but an Olympic athlete, Tour of Utah top 10 finisher and last year, rightly earned the USA title of "most aggressive rider" in the inaugural USA Pro Cycling Challenge.

Timmy says the Olympics were awesome, the team had a good showing even though they were just shy of a medal at 4th place. Now he's back in the states, sporting his stars and stripes jersey for the Tour of Utah which starts tomorrow, followed by 1 week of rest, and then it's off to Colorado's USAPCC!

When I asked Timmy what stage he was most excited for, he said definitely the Boulder stage, which goes through both of his home towns, Boulder and Nederland, where he and his wife now reside. When asked which stage would be the most challenging for him,  Boulder wins again. "It has so many factors, it's at the end of the race, it's hot, windy, there are big climbs, and the always present altitude...it has it all."

Being a Colorado Springs native, I wanted to know how the 2011 Prolouge compared to other stages in other areas of the state. Timmy said Colorado Springs did a great job hosting the prologue and that "it was a very technical and fast decent, we blew into town in about five minutes and the fans were incredible!"

In only 10 minutes, its very hard to get to know a person, but I thought I would ask what tips he had for motivation. For instance, when he's climbing to the top of say, 12,126-foot summit Cottonwood Pass during the Gunnison to Aspen Queen Stage, what goes through his head? A motivating song? A personal mantra? Timmy says he focuses on the little things that you might forget at a time like that. Basically, when the tough gets going, think simple. "It's easy to lose track, plus there is a killer downhill on the other side." That's good motivation, especially for those crazy UpaDowna fans out there that love killer downhills!

I want to thank the folks at Vladimir Jones for allowing me to call in for the interview as well as Timmy for giving us a few minutes of his precious training time! Good luck in the Tour of Utah and we'll see ya during the USAPCC in Colorado Springs!

Adventure On!

~MtnMama