Clint Claassen

Clearing My Head - Prairie City Race Series #6

2013-05-09T10:34:00.001-07:00

Nothing like a long bike ride, a hard workout with tough competition, fun course and being surrounded by hundreds of awesome people to help clear my head!

Photo Credit- Brian Joder

Last night was the 6th race of this years Prairie City Race Series and it was a good one! Some new, tough competition showed up from out of town... Brodie Stringer and Gareth Feldstein from team Muscle Milk / Specialized and Kurt Wolfgang of P1/2 road team Squadra SF (who just won Boggs 8hr last weekend, on a single speed!). In addition to those there's always pressure from locals Cody Kaiser, Ron Shevock and others.

I didn't know quite how I'd feel, after not riding the day before, the weekend before, and getting in just a few rides last week while out in Colorado. I certainly wasn't feeling as... um... "lean" as usual after the time off and indulging in some "comfort food" the night before (Jen made AWESOME gf/df lemon bars!), but my hour long ride out to the venue from work helped warm me up.

Photo Credit- Paul Stewart

The first lap was quite fast and the three MM/Spec guys were working together which got me a little worried. So on the second half of the lap when the course got tight and a little more techy, I went to the front to try and push the pace.

Photo Credit- Tim Westmore

By lap two it was Kurt and I out front working together as we started to get into lapped traffic. With nearly constant "On your left!" "On your right!" we worked our way through the hundreds of riders out there for the remaining laps and pushed each other... hard! My left pedal is getting quite loose and my foot came flying out a few times, so my ability to sprint was hindered, but thankfully the Tallboy makes it easy to put down good power while seated.

On the last lap, Kurt got a gap on me when I had to check up for a lapped rider in a corner before passing, but about a half mile later he got held up by some traffic on a sketchy climb (love those cobbles!) so I was able to catch back up.

Photo Credit- Paul Stewart

I went to the front in the same spot as lap 1, thinking that with the course layout and traffic there might not be another opportunity to pass. With about a 1/4 mile to go, I hugged the inside of a corner and Kurt had enough room and momentum to attack the outside and went by. I stayed on his wheel and we were hammering the last rollers, but with the final sweeping turn being just one lane in the cobbles I ran out of real estate before the finish line to come in 2nd.

After the race I did some more riding around the park and had some fun playing on some of the trails that aren't normally part of the race courses. This was actually my first ride on a new pair of ENVE 29xc wheels, this time paired with Chris King hubs on a 28 spoke count instead of 32. I have to say that the engagement on the King hubs is every bit as awesome as they're reported to be (even with the "angry bee" freewheel sound!) and the wheels are still wonderfully stiff with four fewer spokes. I put them to the test, accidentally, casing a double off camber with the front which led me towards a ditch where I totally bottomed out the rear end hard. Both wheels still true as ever...

It felt great to have such hard, close racing out there and to really be pushed by strong riders. It really helped clear my thoughts and help me move on to keep doing what I need to do, realize just how blessed I am to have had the Highball in the first place and to have other great bikes to ride as well. But more importantly to reflect on just how awesome and supportive this MTB community is! Thanks to everyone who expressed their condolences and who are on the watch for my stolen Highball. And thanks to Tony, Brian, and the rest of the PCRS crew for an awesome course and event.

Alert: Stolen Highball Carbon

2013-05-08T07:23:00.001-07:00

Well my new Highball was stolen from the parking garage at my work in Sacramento yesterday at about 3:30pm. Please keep an eye out for the complete bike or any of these parts someone may be selling at a swap meet or something. Here's a couple photos and the build spec. Thank you.

Build Spec:
Frame: XL 2013 Santa Cruz Highball c (matte carbon / green)
Fork: Fox 32 Float 29 100 FIT CTD w/ Trail Adjust
Wheels: ENVE Twenty9 XC on Chris King 28h hubs
Brakes: Shimano XTR Trail
Shifters: Shimano XTR SL
Crankset: Shimano XTR Race - 42/30 Chainrings
Rear Der: Shimano XTR Shadow +
Front Der: Shimano XTR
Cassette: Shimano XTR - 36/11
Chain: KMC X10SL Gold
Seatpost: Thomson Masterpiece 30.9
Saddle: WTB Devo SLT
Stem: Thomson X4 100mm
Handlebar: Easton Haven Riser
Grips: ODI Flangeless Longneck
Tires: WTB Prowler SL
Front Brake Rotor: Ashima Airotor 160mm
Rear Brake Rotor: Ashima Airotor 140mm
Bottle Cages: Blackburn camber carbon cage on downtube and titanium cage on vertical tube.
Pedals: Crank Brothers Candy 4Ti (Red/Gold)

And if you're on Facebook, please share this photo from our team page with the build info as well: Facebook Info: Stolen Highball

Riding in the Rockies and a Cannondale Synapse 5 Review

2013-05-06T09:51:00.000-07:00

Last week I had the opportunity to head out to Denver and take advantage of some training for my “real” job. Of course I still wanted to get some riding in, so I started calling some local Santa Cruz dealers and asking if they might have a familiar ride that I could use for a few days. Tom from Pedal of Littleton went above and beyond. While he didn’t have a Santa Cruz in his demo fleet available for me to use, he offered up his personal Highball! Awesome! I was stoked that I’d have the chance to go check out some sweet Colorado riding. But on Monday evening when I got into town, I heard mention of a snow storm coming in on Wednesday. A quick check of the weather forecast confirmed… Doh! Once I got to the shop, I talked it over with Tom and decided that a road bike would be my best option considering the weather. He set me up with a Cannondale Synapse Alloy 5, an aluminum road bike, and told me about a fast group practice Crit that rolls in the area on Tuesday’s and Thursday’s I could hit up.

So Tuesday evening I rolled on down to the Meridian business park and joined in with about 25 others. It was only 41 degrees and less with the wind chill which meant I could wear leg warmers to cover up my hairy legs J, but I think I still stood out with my MTB shoes and Santa Cruz / Fox kit. The group was nice and I sat in for the first few laps and then took my turn out front when it came time to catch a breakaway. I had a good time and it was great to join up with the group to push me for an hour. Afterwards, there was still some daylight so I went on exploring and eventually found the newly build Cherry Creek MTB Park. This place is sweet! There are a ton of nice features (drops, rock climbs and descents, and skills areas) all packed into a pretty small space. A lot of work went into it and I had fun riding around on the singletrack, hopping the water bars and trying to navigate the switchbacks on the road bike.

On Wednesday it snowed… all day. Big fluffy flakes and accumulated over a foot in places. It was beautiful, but quite the change from the upper 80’s we’d been getting back home!

Thursday it was clear but still quite cold. My training class ended a little early so I opted to skip the practice crit and head for the Rockies! I pedaled out and around Mt. Morrison and climbed up “Grapevine Rd.” which mostly consisted of a well maintained dirt road. I only had to stop once for a herd of white tail deer before making it across the next valley and heading up towards Lookout Mountain.

There were some pretty awesome views looking back towards downtown Denver to the East, the city of Golden to the North, and the big Rockies to the west.

The final descent down to Golden was fun but COLD! Once I finally made it to the bottom with frozen hands and feet (no winter gloves or shoe covers), I unfortunately didn’t have time to swing by the Coors factory but headed over to check out Red Rocks Park and Amphitheater which is definitely a unique place.

Although it was cold, it turned out to be an awesome 65 mile ride with over 5k feet of climbing.

After a mock crit race and a decent climbing ride, I have to say I was pleasantly surprised with the Cannondale Synapse Alloy 5. It wasn’t as “snappy” and stiff as my Giant TCR Composite but it still performed well in both settings. I could sprint and keep up with the guys in the crit just fine without noticing too much flex under power. And for the big ride it was pretty comfortable with the carbon fork and flattened chainstays providing some vertical compliance over rough roads. It had the Shimano 105 components I was used to which were reliable and crisp. The Shimano RS10 wheels were good for the price point and probably added to the overall comfort of the bike. But I did notice their "softness" on the tighter corners coming down from Lookout Mountain. They were also heavier than I'm used to so they didn't accelerate as quickly, but I think they're good for the price point. Big thanks again to Pedal of Littleton for the loan, even though I really wanted to take out that Santa Cruz Bronson Carbon they had on the showroom floor! Stop by if your in the area, the shop is nicely put together with a big inventory. I of course had to pick up a shirt that just says “PEDAL.” Nice and simple J.

2013 Sea Otter Classic Racing Report

2013-04-24T13:03:00.000-07:00

The Sea Otter Classic, a "must" for any cyclist. Even if you don't race, there's a ton going on and it's a blast of a weekend. Outside of the Prairie City Race Series this was my first race back in 2006 where I raced in the "Sport Clydesdale" category for the XC race.

Yep, that's me. It took me 2 hours to finish the old 20 mile course which was faster/easier than the new course. I finished 13th in Sport Clydes... and was wiped!

Seven years later...

On Friday I lined up for the Pro Short Track race in a world class field 75 riders strong. The course was different than previous years, starting on the Laguna Seca track and winding around in the expo area. I liked it better than the old course on the hillside and it was a lot better for spectating. I snaked my way up towards the front as riders were being called to the line and anticipated the mad rush rollup to find myself in about row 2 1/2 behind Ryan Trebon. Sweet! I would be on the inside for the first 180 degree corner. When the gun went off, I had a bit of trouble clipping in but didn't loose much ground... I stayed on the inside and skidded into the cluster, tangling bars and barely making it clear of the barrier before sprinting to the next corner. This was the "cattle chute" choke point corner for the course right at the base of the only climb on the course. I tried to funnel in on the right side but as I went through the gap another rider turned into me and I was pinched between him and the barrier. I had to unclip and awkwardly scoot through before remounting and heading up the climb.

Right in front of tons of photog's and heckling spectators. It was a mess and I lost a bunch of spots. But I finally pulled back in on the upper plateau as we hammered over in front of some grandstands before looping back down and across the worst part of the course, the gravel pit. Yeah, they routed us through the gravel trap designed to stop race cars... by sinking. Turns out bikes sink pretty easily too and trying to ride through there was energy sapping! Your only chance was to follow an existing groove and hope it didn't abruptly end in a deep pile. On the first lap I made it about 1/2 way and had to run. But running was just about as fast and used less energy. So as soon as I remounted I was able to pass by a few of the riders who rode it. The field was strung out and mostly single file as the course wound its way through the venue with about six more 180 degree turns, some 'S' turns, a few rolling mounds of dirt and about an 8 foot rock garden. I just set my sights on the next guy, whoever that was, and always tried to out accelerate him coming out of a corner or out brake him going into one. I was moving forward and after a few laps was settled in with a group of about five or six and we seemed to see-saw a bit and mainly try not to wash out in the loose corners.

This short track was longer than the others I've done this year at 20 minutes plus three laps. I was happy to have survived past the 15 minute mark as I could see a lot of riders had already been pulled. I could see that the leaders were way ahead, but nowhere near close to catching us before our time was up so when I started a lap about 18 minutes in I sat up a bit more on the straights to recover and didn't pass everywhere I could. I was planning on really hammering the last three laps and trying to bridge up to the next chase group on the next lap. I should have just kept the power down because when I came around the final turn of that lap the USAC official was waving us to the side. What?!?! I was pissed! They were pulling WAY too early! I was in the last group to get pulled and finished 46th. So then I loaded up with water, food, and set off for a pre-ride of the XC course. It was a beautiful, warm day and it felt good to cruise for a couple hours.

Saturday's weather forecast called for a high of 64 degrees. They were wrong! It was pretty darn toasty by 11am when I started to warm up for the 12pm race. I made sure to get in a nice long warmup in the hopes that maybe I'd feel decent in the first hour of the race, since we'd only be doing one lap and there wouldn't be much time. I seemed to feel ok and recovered from Friday but you never really know until the gun goes off. As I waited in the staging area listening to the callups, I think they named off about 20 riders before they stopped saying former or current world champion or national champion of some discipline! This was an incredibly stacked field of well over 100!! Once we rolled up I was on the right side again and about mid pack. But start line position isn't as critical here since we roll around the asphalt raceway for about a mile before hitting the dirt. Riding in a group of 100+ knobby tire bikes spinning around the track is one of the coolest sounds... but being IN that group also one of the scariest things I do all year!

Riding in a huge MTB peloton with guys who are all nervous, twitchy, and not used to being smooth and predictable in close proximity at high speed is nerve wracking at least to me. And sure enough there was a pile up less than 100 yards into the race, thankfully on the left side. I heard it and looked over to see the Specialized rider with his face on the pavement.

I think that spooked me a little because I just wanted to stay out of trouble and not be caught up in something stupid before we even really start the race! I hung towards the back but got trapped in the middle. Someone hit a cone in one corner which was flipping up in the middle of the group and right in front of me, I checked up and thankfully didn't loose contact with the draft. As we started the climb up the hill towards the dirt, I could see that my teammate Ryan had made his way around the right side towards the front and was right where I wanted to be. But I just couldn't get there before the exit of the track, which was yet another "cattle chute" cluster where those of us in the back had to dismount to get through and hope someone's pedal doesn't break a spoke, bend a rotor, or rip off a derailleur! Jason Moeschler came leaping over the concrete wall and tires, passing probably 15 guys in the process... nice line Jason!

Finally I was on the dirt and the race could start! I had lost a ton of track position. Pissed and motivated... I sprinted up the first dirt road climb and got my passing underway. The first downhill is a wide open stretch called "40mph DH" and the only clean line is to the far left. The rest is full of ditches and cross ruts. I had planned for this in advance though and put my water bottle in my jersey pocket so I wouldn't risk loosing it if I needed to slam through some of those ruts... which I did... passing another handful before rocketing the Highball up the next climb and passing some more! This was the best I've felt all year in the first hour of a race and I was making the most of it! I started to think I was finally gain some ground when I passed Adam Craig, Carl Decker, and some others I recognized. After a few more rollers on the ridge line I caught up with my teammate Ryan in a group of about 4 guys. He was coasting around a corner and a downhill so I yelled at him, "PEDAL!! We have to go now!!" I went around and took off giving it max effort and drifting the gravel corners before coming to "the wall." This steep but short climb was really loose this year, I made it about half way up before slipping and running the rest which wasn't any slower. One more descent after that where I passed a couple more before hitting the flowy singletrack. I fell in line behind Macky Franklin and Ryan Trebon and the pace was decent but not pushing it. It was nice to be in a group that could actually ride and not feel like I was actually being too held up. I recovered a bit here before we started up the next climb. About half way up, Trebon pulled over for us and we motored by. Then we passed another Kenda/Felt rider off to the side. I guess they redlined a bit too early? Or the maybe heat was getting to them.

Up on top of the next ridge Decker went by and I stuck on his wheel. We see-sawed a bit and on one downhill corner I took the inside line to pass and smacked a rock, rim strike to both wheels! I held my breath as I drifted to the outside, making the pass. "That didn't sound good!" I said to Carl... and thankfully no damage was done to the tires. I didn't even worry about the ENVE rims... they were fine. We caught up to a good sized group as we entered some of the rutted and techy sections. The dust was very bad and I couldn't see much, but it was nice to be able to trust the riders around me to pick good lines. We made it through everything clean and eventually we were dumped back down to flat fire road for a transfer over to the next singletrack climb.

Just before that turn, Decker passed most of that group and I should have followed. I figured we'd been going at a decent pace and these guys would motor up this climb too. They didn't. It's one of the longer steep climbs on the course and they just settled in to spin up. It was tight and not much room to pass. It could be done but would take a lot of effort. Jason Sager (Team Jamis) went by really huffing but I elected to stay where I was and not blow up trying to make a few passes that might not stick. I knew there were plenty of opportunities later. Once we got to the ridge I made my way to the front of this pack but over the next few ridge line climbs we see-sawed. I was giving it everything I had though and we were still catching and passing riders here and there. I refueled with a Clif Shot and took down some more water before heading down the new trail for this years' course. It was a smooth trail, but full of abrupt and tight turns which really broke the flow. And unfortunately I was stuck behind a rider who was on the brakes a bit more than I wanted and he wasn't bursting out of the corners. Nowhere to pass though and I was stuck to watch a couple riders pull away.

We popped out of the trees and down the road to the feed zone where I took down some more water before heading up the next ridge for some more good climbing. I felt good on the steep stuff and caught up to team Giant rider Josh Carlson before hitting the gradual road descent. I took the pull down to the bottom and as I turned to climb up the "goat trail" singletrack Josh complimented my strong pull. I wanted to be in front for the goat trail climb. I don't know what it is but I really like climbing this trail and always feel strong here. It's mostly a steady climb with a few steep pitches, so you're alternating between standing and sitting, and it just has flow.

We caught and passed Macky and another rider before the trail widened up a little on some steeper climbs. I needed a little break and Josh went by. We passed Russ Finsterwald (Treck Factory Racing) who looked like he'd cracked... jersey open and sitting up. I was maxed out too but could keep going. With only the Skyline ridge climbs to go, I popped an Espresso Clif Shot hoping for one final jolt to the finish.

Josh, Macky and myself set out to try and catch a few more before all the climbing was done. We worked together a little but we were all pretty gassed.

We still managed to pass a few and Macky got away from us both with two climbs to go. And I had dropped back from Josh just a bit before hitting the last singletrack downhill as we got back to Laguna Seca where I caught back up to him and a Scott / 3 Rox rider Cameron Jette.

We powered up the last sandy climb to the track and hammered down the last 1/4 mile of pavement to the finish. I locked out the CTD lever on my fork and gave it everything I had left. I passed Cameron but couldn't get by Josh before we crossed the line.

I finished 36th, about seven minutes back from the winner Miguel Martinez (ITA) who was the Sydney Olympic gold medalist and former world Champion. I'm really happy with my race and it was really cool to be up there with some "big names" in racing... and beating some. And I'm always happy to come racing back to my awesome wife cheering me on at the finish line!

But as I was spinning around to cool down, a couple other racers asked me, "What happened on that downhill?!" "Uhhh... what downhill? I didn't crash." Turns out they didn't know there was another rider that same green helmet and kit out there. So they thought it was me who'd crashed hard on the first blind rutted downhill. After about ten minutes we were getting a little worried and riders started to trickle in slower and slower. I went over and checked with the medical guys but they didn't have any reports of Ryan needing assistance. Finally about 20 minutes after I finished, Ryan came rolling in, just a wee bit dirty!

Turns out he'd crashed so hard it cracked his helmet and he was knocked out!! He didn't think he was out for long, and got going again but still felt out of it and stopped at a course medic station. They checked him out and determined he was ok to continue so he went on to finish! We made him go get checked out again, because he seemed a little excited about having knocked himself out :-). But he was all good, at least physically.

Another cool thing about Sea Otter is that there is racing of all different types and it brings everyone together who loves bikes. And for our team it meant we were finally all in one spot!

Marshall was there to watch us finish and we'd be there to cheer him on for his DH race on Sunday... in the one-of-a-kind white team skin suit!

Quite the different experience from my first 'Otter back in '06 eh? It's amazing how much mountain biking has changed my life.

US Cup Triple Crown Finals / Santa Ynez Valley Classic

2013-04-15T14:59:00.000-07:00

Last week three new carbon 29ers were brought into the world... just in time for the final round of the US Cup Triple Crown at Santa Ynez (actually... Los Olivos, CA) where each would get their very own race! Teammate Ryan Chandler also made it down for each of the three races... aiming to get more black and green on the podium.

First up was short track on the brand new Highball. The course is fast and flat, starting off with some long singletrack into a headwind.

We'd soon make a u-turn and head up a short climb to a plateau and make our way back on some more singletrack, bust through a couple 'S' turns and head down into a banked turn before looping back around to do it all over again.

The group all stayed together because of that headwind and I sat 3rd or 4th wheel most of the time until the later half where Ryan and I would be 1-2. At this point I really started thinking... how can we work together? I guess we should have discussed this before hand but we've never had this happen before! And we've never raced road so we had no idea about tactics. Mountain bike races rarely have situations where you can work together. So I sat in behind Ryan... thinking... when should I go? I feel good... but is it worth expending the effort just to get caught again after we turn into the wind? The laps ticked by and I did nothing, and neither did anyone else. With two laps to go I thought there were three, so I was waiting to try something on the next lap. But then we came around with the one to go signal... oops! Ok, well I figured I'd attack on the climb. The pace picked up right before the corner at the climb and Cody Kaiser went with one other guy as we got there. Just as we entered the corner I was getting ready to go when another rider cut in front of me and then slowed down as we climbed right when the front three attacked. AHHH!!! A gap opened and I tried to sprint around this guy, there wasn't much room but I pushed by and tried to bridge back up. They were haulin' and I gave it all I had and caught back up by the time we hit the turns and the final drop down to the corner. But that effort left me with nothing for the final sprint and I came in 4th. Ryan ended up getting edged out by Cody in a final sprint to the line... but Ryan did awesome for his first short track race!

Next up... Super D just a few hours later and it was the maiden voyage for my new Tallboy LTc. In my preriding I dialed in the Fox Float 140 CTD fork, Float CTD Boost Valve rear shock and D.O.S.S. dropper post to my liking. So much adjust-ability and fine tuning options! I'll probably be fiddling with it all for a while but I seemed to get it pretty dialed in by my start time. The Super D course was SUPER climb-y... and my Tallboy c would probably have been a better choice since I didn't need much travel. I just wanted to ride the LTc because it's so fun! And it pedals pretty darn well anyways! The course started off on the top of the ridge, with a small drop about 20 feet from the start line. My first goal was to get clipped in before that! Check mark! Next were two more log drops I got to pedal into with some good speed and just soar... WEEE!!! That fun ended way too quickly and after only about 10 seconds into the run the first climb up the next ridge started and it was time to feel the burn and try to chase down Cody who started 30 seconds prior. Once I finally got to descend again, I railed the first banked turn into a hip jump... sweet! I couple more banked turns and then a loose off camber led into a traverse over to I high speed trail along a creek bed where I could really open it up to about 30mph even though it was barely downhill. It was smooth and had banked corners and rollers to pump off of before it eventually flattened out and turned uphill again. The gap to Cody seemed to be stagnant so I kept pushing. The next climb was a doosey and would take about two minutes to complete before finally getting to turn down again. I caught a female racer in a bad spot, going around a knoll where the trail fell away. She pulled to the inside slightly and I went outside on the loose edge of the trail. I fell off the side a bit and had to unclip for balance but made it back on to the trail fairly quickly. Right after that I hit one of the small doubles with speed, trying to make up the time I felt I lost and the crosswind just about took my wheels out from under me but thankfully I hit the dirt again before I got too sideways! I absorbed the next big jump on the course to keep the pedals turning (and because I'm a penguin) and hammered home the last couple sections to the finish.

I felt pretty good about my run but the gap to Cody didn't really seem to close, so I wasn't sure about my placing. Ryan would come down a few minutes later... also feeling good with his run on his Tallboy but also unsure of his placing. While waiting for results I posed with some adoring fans... MORE COWBELL!!!

But they were unimpressed by my wheelie skills... Moo...

After a while results were finally posted... Ryan 1st, me 2nd! YEAH!!! Team Santa Cruz / Fox 1-2!!! We were separated by just 1.5 seconds over the 10 minute course. Was that the difference between the Tallboy c and the Tallboy LTc for all those climbs? Hard to say... but pretty cool!

After the podium celebration Jen and I headed down to the town of Buellton for some dinner with my parents as well. The first place we went was super busy so we went to our next choice. Once we finally got seated I was starving and thankfully food came quick... ahhh much better! After eating all I could we checked into our motel to relax. I'd say fitting XL 29ers into a small motel room, such that you don't impale yourself on a handlebar or chainring in the middle of the night is a skill...

Sunday morning was the final race of the weekend and I'd be on my Tallboy c... ready to rock! Or was I?

Multi-time Aussie National Champ Sid Taberlay, probably in the country for Sea Otter (next weekend) rolled up to the line late and he suddenly became the guy everyone would be watching. We set off at 11am under beautiful weather for two laps of the 12.5 mile course, and Ryan jumped out front right at the start.

The first part of the XC course was the same as the Short Track, so I fell in line, about 8th place, until Sid went by just after the climb so I followed.

I felt like I was barely hanging on even though I was working as hard as I could. It just didn't feel right. I looked down and my heart rate was only at 160. What's the deal!? I had warmed up for about 45 minutes, but since I had my GPS off to save battery and couldn't see my heart rate, did I not warm up hard enough? Regardless... I just hung on as we climbed up the first set of switchbacks to the top... and the leaders started to pull away. I had nothing. It felt like I had already been riding for three hours or so. The legs were just flat and I had no power for the climbs, or really to push it period. So I changed my focus just a little and really tried to maximize the speed I could generate on the downhills and flat pedaling sections where the Tallboy is king. About half way through the first lap I was in 5th with 6th place right on my wheel and I pulled him through the rest of the lap.

I could see Ryan and Cody Kaiser about 30 seconds to a minute ahead but I just couldn't get there and it was so frustrating! I was passed by my "trailer" going up the first big climb of the second lap and I still had no power to stay on his wheel. I just hung on and survived the rest of the lap, trying not to get the wheels blown out from under me in the cross wind if I caught air, and trying to make clean passes on the Cat 1/2 traffic we were catching. As I was cruising into the venue area to finish up the final lap, I heard a spectator yell "GET 'EM CHUCK!!!" to someone behind me... I looked to see a grimacing face sprinting towards me with about 200 yards and one corner to go. I had to at least try to protect my position so I pulled out whatever power I had left and gave 'er... protecting the inside on the final corner. He was right there now, we turned, I stayed left to protect the inside on the corner exit. The finish shoot was on the right and I made my way, sprinting, to the right as he was slowly coming up on my right and slowly gaining. The finish shoot came and I was able to hold him off for 6th place. Afterwards I congratulated Ryan on his 4th place finish and we debriefed the race.

Looking back feel like I know what happened and the mistake I made. And it's as simple as not eating enough, soon enough, after ending the days riding on Saturday. It left me in a fatigued state (my average heart rate for the race was 147!) and I know better... which is so frustrating. So then I kicked back with my Mom and had some tacos and a Firestone Double Barrel Ale to help improve my mood :-).

So three races, three bikes, and three podiums! I know what you're thinking... Short Track, Super D, he didn't podium in XC so what's the third? It's the top step of the US Cup Triple Crown Series!!!!

Huge congrats to Ryan for his very strong weekend which put him in 2nd for the Triple Crown races on the weekend! We're both looking forward to Sea Otter coming up fast next weekend and getting the black and green out there to mix it up with the big boys!

US Cup Triple Crown #2 / Fontana Pro XCT

2013-04-05T15:59:00.004-07:00

Friday... worst... pre-ride... day... ever. The bad: 3 crashes, bent spoke on front wheel (wobbly but ok to run), bent crankset, broken big ring, 5 bites from a demon insect, and realized I forgot my 12mm rear hub endcaps. The good: Confirmed the Tallboy was the best choice for the XC. And despite a few scrapes and a little knee pain I was still physically good to race.

Moving on...

I was at the venue early in the day to watch my brother take 4th in his Cat 1 race. After that I started asking around to see if I could wrangle some 12mm end caps so I could run my ENVE wheels on the Tallboy. HUGE thanks to Jordi, the mechanic for Team Cannondale Sho-Air for pulling them off of his bike for me. I seriously owe you!!

The first race would be the XC, and at 1:45pm it was pretty toasty in the sun. Well at least for what we've been used to. I got a decent call-up and was in the 3rd row... but not quite close enough to catch some shade from Jeremiah Bishop's umbrella.

As usual though when the gun went off I slipped back a bit, but not too far as we went through the first few corners.

I managed to keep a decent position and was feeling pretty good before having to slam on the brakes as we funneled into the first bit of singletrack. After we got going again I sat down and relaxed in the comfort of rear suspension and recovered, since there was nowhere to pass for a little bit. At the first opportunity I had, I tried to take a different line over the rough stuff to pass by some hard tail riders.

It was a short climb though and I passed one but couldn't make the second one stick so I fell back in line again. The pace was fast and I was feeling it but wasn't quite pegged, then we hit a short climb where slipped down a rut into some sand and missed a shift. Recovering from the stall out and trying not to let anyone pass put me in the red zone right away, and one guy still got by before we made our way to the pavement climb, which is the one spot I really felt the extra weight and rear suspension. Plus MTB tires on pavement always feels like it's sucking more energy out of you than it really is. The heat was radiating and everyone was gassing it... my rev limit was pegged!

I was passed by one rider on the pavement but was still able to keep contact with the front train, which was starting to get strung out even more as we went through the punchy, traversing singletrack along the contour of Southridge. Here is where the Tallboy started to really pay off. I couldn't pass...no room... but what I could do through the tight little turns, climbs, drops and rocks was relax and recover much easier than I could have on the Highball, and maintain my momentum. When we finished the first bit of climbing and had a doubletrack traverse to the other side of the hill, I had more pep than the guys I was following so I could power down and pass a few before the last climb to the top. Here it got a little steeper with some pretty tight switchbacks which are tough for a tall guy. The right handers would also tweak my sore knee a little bit, but I was still able to make it through just as fast as the other guys.

The lowered rake angle of the Fox TALAS fork in the short setting was great for these climbs, and then when I crested the top I opened it up to 120mm to rail the fun downhill... for a few seconds until I got held up... so I tried to relax and recover again. The downhill off the top (which is also the first part of the Super D) is legit, with some tight switchbacks, a few drops with good sized granite rocks, and a number of places where you really have to thread the needle or a rock on the uphill side will pull your foot or your derailleur off. A guy behind me was heckling the rider holding us up, yelling at him to pick it up and close the gap back up. He picked up the pace a little bit but we had some work to do once the course opened back up and we passed and put our heads down going up the next climb... aaaand back into the red zone! But then there was another traversing section to rail before a short climb up over the ridge to the flowy backside downhill. Here I opened up the fork and shock again and let 'er rip. Thankfully the two riders in front of me were able to keep a good pace and I think we gained some ground back before the flat slog around the north side of the mountain. There's always a headwind there as you come back so I was hesitant to pass, figuring I'd just end up pulling the other two along with a free ride behind the big guy, but I was able to break away and start making my push towards the front coming in for lap 2.

I really pushed it on the initial flats of the second lap where I knew the Tallboy would excel and made up some ground before hitting the pavement climb again, but I was maxed out and couldn't make any passes before getting into the singletrack again. After that effort I really had to recover and I was only able to make a couple passes through the remainder of the lap. I just kind of fell in line for a while and took in some Clif Shot and a bunch of water. I was feeling the heat for sure, but at least it seemed like everyone else was too. At the start of the third lap the legs were starting to come around again and I was pushing a good pace. As I wound through the bushes of the flats, I was reeling in a rider that looked to be Team Clif Bar rider Menso de Jong. I thought to myself, "Nah I can't be that far up, must be someone else." But before I started up the first sandy climb, it turned out to be Menso. As I went by I asked if he needed anything. He said no and that I was looking strong. That surprised me... I didn't feel strong! My legs were screaming, my low back was tight and in pain, and my sweat tasted like sea water! But I kept pushing and as I climbed I still caught people and was feeling better and better! My third lap felt awesome and as I started my last lap I passed fellow Norcal racer Michael Hosey and my brother said I was in 16th! What?!?! AWESOME!!! But he also said the next guys were about a minute ahead... DOH! Well... power down!

I felt really good on the last lap and rode it all by myself. I tried to keep from looking over my shoulder and just pushing as hard as I could regardless, so the thought of being satisfied with 16th wouldn't creep into my head. But I couldn't help but sneak a peak here and there... and there was nobody coming. There were no rabbits to catch either... they were just too far ahead for me to catch in one lap. But I was STOKED to roll across the line with my best Pro XCT finish of 16th!!

After the XC I began to convert the Tallboy into a Super D machine... a Fox DOSS dropper post installed and a shorter 70mm stem. But I discovered the stack height of the shorter stem was different and I needed another spacer! (First time setting it up this way) Ahhh!! Sooo... when I returned the end caps to Jordi... :-) yeah... I owe him some more beer! The bike was soon ready to go and I was able to get a few turns in on the lower section of the Super D course. It felt totally different... better... but different and would take a little time to get used to. Unfortunately, it was time to head up to the top and get in line to race. All I wanted to do was lie down and eat everything in sight. I really wasn't in the mood to push the limits and take risks, but once my run started I just tried to be smooth and as fast as I could.

I had dumped everything into the XC, physically and emotionally, and I was done. I wasn't feeling it and was just on the brakes too much. I'm bummed about it because it is a really fun course. I just didn't have anything left to give and rolled across in 18th.

Racing was done for Saturday, and even though Super D didn't go that great, I was still VERY happy with the day's results! I woofed down dinner and went back to work transferring parts back to the Highball for Sunday's Short Track.

Easter Sunday, after a short warmup ride first thing with my brother, we got together with my grandparents and headed off to church. A good reminder and refresher about what's really important, and celebrate the sacrifice and gift of salvation we enjoy. After church my bro and sister in law whipped up another awesome brunch... I wanted to eat about 5 times more than I did! But with only two hours until the short track sufferfest I was able to have better judgement and off to the venue I was again!

I was feeling really flat in my warmup and it was really hard to get going. I popped some extra Clif Shot Espresso in the hopes of a good caffeine boost but it just didn't seem to be there. It was going to be tough, but I was going to give it everything and just hope I could avoid being pulled. The course was very short and flat, avoiding the climb and descent that was included the last time I raced here two years ago. I lined up 2nd row behind Todd Wells, Ryan Trebon, and Jeremiah Bishop. I could only hope to keep up with that power!

The gun went off and I fell back slightly, spinning out in the gravel before the first turn, but was able to keep contact with the front group! Well at least the back of it! The pain train was goin'... 15 minutes plus two laps! The first lap was incredibly dusty and as we went through the one tight area of bushes I SMACKED a rock with my rear wheel. Thankfully the dredded "Hiss" never came and I continued on.

I was feeling a lot better than I expected and kept my head down and pain level up. I played it smart and drafted where I could and attacked where I knew I could make the bridge to the next guy. After a few laps we separated into a few groups as the leaders pulled away. But I stayed in it and was surprising myself as the laps just kept ticking by...

With two laps to go I was in a group of three with Kenda/Felt rider Colin Cares and TJ Woodruff. Going into one of the last corners TJ got crossed up and endo'd hard! Thankfully I had a bit of space and was able to get around without getting caught up, but I lost contact with Colin. I ran the last lap solo but crossed the line in 12th!!! I couldn't believe it!!! I think a good part of it was that my niece and nephew were the best cheering section ever... :-)

Can't wait for the final round of the Triple Crown in Santa Ynez...

...and then Sea Otter!

US Cup Triple Crown #1 / Bonelli Pro XCT #2

2013-03-21T14:01:00.001-07:00

I haven't finished an XC race at Bonelli Park since September 2010, and even then I only finished after a mid race chain replacement! In 2011 I dropped the chain a few times and fell to the back and was eventually pulled. And last year I sheered a pedal spindle. I was praying the "Bonelli curse" would be lifted this year, and I was going to do everything I could to avoid problems.

They say you're not suppose to change your bike set up for a race. But I had to... I had to help my odds! My new Shimano drive train came in on Tuesday, and on Wednesday night I mounted up a new 42/30 XTR double crankset and XTR Shadow + rear derailleur to the Highball. I knew I liked the double setup better from having it on my Tallboy the last couple years, and the "clutch" system on the new derailleur was going to help my chronic chain retention issues. On Friday after 6.5 hour drive south, I finally got to test it out on the brake bumps and off camber turns of the Bonelli course. FLAWLESS!!! But I wasn't going to get too excited and jinx myself! (Yes there's still the remnants of a superstitious baseball player in me).

On race day #1 I was out early on the course to watch my brother rock it and take 3rd in the Cat 1 35-39 category, and fellow Norcal racer Neilson Powless blow away his competition on the last lap of his Cat 1 17-18 race. Nice! Good start to the day! Then I got a free massage, and chiro adjustment from a vendor at the venue! This day is just getting better!!! That took the previous day's driving stiffness right out of my back. Then I lost my car keys...

Ok... chill pill... don't get worked up. At least you can still get into the car through the keypad! I looked all around the car and the ground, went back to the massage place, sat there thinking about where on the course they could be... nothing. I was kind of starting to freak out. I called Jen to tell her, as if she could help. My family that was there was helping look too, nothing. I needed to eat, so I did, sitting in the driver's seat on the heating pad to try and keep my back loose. I decided that remaining calm and relaxed was the best thing I could do, and I'll have time to look more after the race. So I kicked back, put my feet up, and had an apricot Clif bar. It came time to start warming up so I got suited up and everything ready, and just when I was about to head out... I FOUND THEM!!! Oh what a relief... other than I felt like an idiot!

Warmup good... tire pressure good (I did more than the squeeze test!)... call up position decent (32 of 60). GO! We sprinted off the line and I was on the inside of the first corner, I held my line and didn't get pinched. Up the curb and to the right... then an opening on my side... that's never there! It's always on the other side! I wasn't quite ready for it and I missed out, and a couple others jumped in. That's fine, we still had the start loop (one short track course loop) to sort out before really getting on course... which really strung us out after we all had to fit through the only 'S' turn single file. Everyone stayed upright and we all came back together before tackling the first dusty climb on the course. I had to stay in line for the first part, but passed a couple by the time we got to the top. I didn't really push it over the top because I knew we'd have to brake check in the next singletrack from the traffic anyway, so I saved a little energy. Up and over a few small rocks and into a little downhill I caught right up to the wheel of the US Air Force team rider before the 90 degree, off camber, loose right turn. Watching him I got the feeling he was going to go down in front of me in the corner. I don't know what it was, or if I really saw anything that HE was doing in particular or if I was just staying on my toes no matter who I was following... but he went down. His bike flung right into my path. I went wide left into the weeds and rocks but still had to jump over his back wheel. I made it by and put the hammer down to catch back up on the next climb and hopefully put a little gap on anyone stuck behind that bobble. I caught up to the pack by the top and took my special lines down the rocky descent.

There's really nowhere to pass in the next section of tight turns singletrack so I settled in to recover before hitting the new climb they added this year. We came out of the trees to a loose left turn before heading up, and the rider in front of me slips out and crashes in the turn in front of me, going slow... turning uphill. What is going on!??! I made it by fine though and motored up the climb and a good clip. I was feeling pretty strong up the next couple climbs and was moving up, getting towards the end of the lap when I came to the a downhill with some new poles and rocks to jump over before jamming on the brakes for a roller-drop to a hard left. Oh and the dirt is loose there, it's really dusty from the traffic, and the whole thing is a downhill left turn. I hopped the first one, then pull up for the second and my right foot comes unclipped. My back wheel hits the pole, my seat smacks my... and I'm flailing about trying to stay upright and stay lined up to go over the last rock pile. Here's a pic from my prelap of the spot:

Now picture my right leg sticking out for balance as I hit those rocks... and he saves it!!! The crowd goes wild!!! (I actually did get quite the cheer!). I get to the dirt road at the bottom, give a "Phew!" of disbelief that I saved it and chuckle to myself before getting back on my horse up the next climb and then finishing off the first lap, probably in about 30th position.

Lap two was much less eventful and I used it to recover a bit from the first lap craziness. But I was still moving up and keeping a decent pace. The bike was working perfectly and I had my rabbits to catch. As I got into lap three, I caught Menso de Jong, who is normally way up front. It didn't look like there was anything wrong with his bike, and he was still clean. I was a bit confused, but I sat on his wheel for a bit thinking to myself, "He's pacing it... just follow him and learn." After a little while though it was just too slow and I couldn't help myself, so I passed heading up a steep climb. Turns out he had to dnf because he was sick, bummer. Back to racing my own race... which was going well until I felt like I couldn't digest anything, my back really started to hurt, and was crashing (bonking) a little. On a couple of the climbs I started to feel chilled at the top, which was not good. I had to back off a little and recover. Then I looked back at one point and saw new teammate Ryan Chandler catching me. Oh man, don't get passed by the new guy! ;-) So I pushed a little harder and danced that fine line of bonkage for a lap, or two. Actually I had totally forgotten what lap I was on! Oops!

I was starting to feel a little better though and I was catching people again, so I pushed some more. The back part of the course was starting to clear out of spectators and photographers so I was getting to feel like the race was finishing up. Did I miss the bell??? Was I ON the last lap already?? I asked a group of people, one being a course marshal, as I was going up a climb... "Any clue what lap this is!?" "Last one!!!" They said. "Are you kidding me?!" Crap, I had to motor! But then a few seconds later they hollered back, "No, one more!!" Or at least that's what I thought they said. Great... still confused!! Screw it... just go hard anyway! I was feeling physically better and I popped a double espresso Clif shot for that final jolt to bring it home. Sure enough, I came across the start finish to cheers and the bell ringing for one lap to go. Well now it was certain... I wasn't going to get pulled! Woohoo! I gave it what I could on the last lap and caught a few more riders, but right at the end I was passed by two more and I had no kick left to challenge. I missed out on a top 20 by 8 seconds! But was stoked to have my best Pro XCT finish in 22nd... and to have had a mechanical free XC race at Bonelli! FINALLY!!! And big props to my teammate Ryan with a solid 25th in his first Pro XCT!

I grabbed a little food but kept moving since the Super D race was just a couple hours later. My cooldown was also my Super D course recon since they had cut in a new first descent on the course. It was in the grass but had been worn in a little by the Cat 1 racers earlier in the day. With a couple off camber corners it would definitely be more tricky than the old course, but at least I didn't have to worry about my chain falling off anymore!! I spun around the course easy a few times and was feeling good enough to screw around and have some fun for the camera.

When race time finally came, the legs weren't sore but were definitely feeling the effort from the XC. Overall I was tired and hungry, but was happy I chose to stay in fueling mode with Clif bars and gels instead of the In-n-out one of the other riders at the top said he was regretting. I wonder if he ended up seeing that again...

Soon my start time was up, and on the sixth beep... I was off!!! Trying to just stay smooth, keep the rubber side down, and go hard! I hit all my marks on the top and the first descent, but was a little hard on the brakes and chatter going into the first right hander. Dang, slow... sprint! A few more 'S' turns in the grass and I was on the pavement power section... but there just wasn't much power. I was smooth through the technical areas and fast through the turns, but there just aren't much of them.

This course is all about the climbs and the flats... hence the hardtail. I gave what I had left to the end which was good enough for 10th. Time to recover and rest up for Short Track on Sunday.

I've been really working on keeping a sense of normalcy around these "big" races for this year and staying more relaxed. If possible, keeping a routine and not changing things... making the race just something I do and not a big deal. So on Sunday morning I went for a nice ride on the Tallboy for a couple hours with my brother and that kept the legs loose before heading off to church. We had a nice brunch... breakfast tacos... thanks guys!!! And after the bike was prepped I rolled back out to Bonelli to get warmed up for Short Track.

I took a nice loop around the lake, trying to grab a couple Strava segments while I was at it, which was good motivation to push and worked well to get me ready for the 20 minute suffer fest coming up. I got a great call up, 2nd row, sweet! Right behind Sam Schultz, Zach Valdez and national champ Todd Wells. I tried to tell myself I belonged there... HA! I have historically stunk up the place in short track races... but I was just going to hang on and use it to get faster.

Once we set off, there was nearly a big crash in the first 'S' turn up the curb which I avoided but had to check up for. That put me in the chase group right off the bat. We had caught back up to a few people by the first climb and single-file-track 's' turn, and thankfully nobody went down there in the massive dust cloud. I was in the back third of the pack though as we entered lap two but I was hanging on and making a pass here and there. At this point I'm a little confused which lap it was, but it was still early on... As I came to the dusty 'S' turn again there was carnage (a good handful of riders went down here throughout the race). I could see Zach Valdez picking himself up as I went by. But a lap or two later... there he is... passing me and charging hard! I decided to do everything I possibly could to stay on his wheel. Which is where I stayed for the remainder of the race as we worked our way back up through the field. I pulled a couple times for him, but it was hard enough to stay with him. When he decided to go and sprint it was hard to match... impressive! We hammered lap after lap and I was so focused on staying with him I didn't care how much time had passed or anything else until the bell lap... I was going to actually FINISH a short track race!!! Not get pulled and not crash!!! Zach and I stayed together through the dirt and then back onto the grass. Do I just let him beat since he pulled me nearly the whole way? No, this is racing... so I went.

But I did go early on the grass with two corners left. He had enough time to counter, but he didn't have the energy... understandably. I rolled across the line in 17th. Thanks Zach!

So the Bonelli curse seems to have been lifted... hopefully for good! I'm happy and looking forward to the way this race season is shaping up. And looking forward to fewer issues and mishaps thanks to better equipment! Next race... US Cup Triple Crown #2 / Fontana Pro XCT...

TBF MTB Madness - A Spectacular Training Event

2013-03-05T13:25:00.001-08:00

In the words of Samuel L. Jackson from the movie "Basic"... (Now picture him saying it, with his usual inflection...) "What we have here, is a FANTASTIC opportunity for a SPECTACULAR training EVENT!"

I've been approaching these early season TBF races as "train-through" races anyway, keeping the big picture in mind (being fast later in the year when it matters more to me), but this past week I made it really hard on myself... mostly intentionally.

First off... I finished 7th, and I'm in no way making excuses and I especially don't want to discount the effort of the guys who beat me. They are super fast and are training hard right now as well. But I'll tell you why I'm pretty darn happy with 7th.

Saturday I had a great day on the Tallboy, getting in about 4 hours of pedal time and it included a good training/coaching ride with one of my clients. We had some beautiful sunny weather and riding in just shorts and a jersey in early March is a gift. That ride had put my tally for the week at 17 hours of riding. That may not seem like a lot to some, but that's already close to a weekly high this year and with one day to go. So I started formulating my agenda for race day... and didn't really stop eating.

I decided since the weather was warmer that I would ride to the race in the morning and get in a nice long warmup. Just as I was suiting up, Jen called and asked if I could grab four bundles of twist ties to bring because they were running out at registration. Clint to the rescue!!! Can do... so I loaded up jersey pockets with twist ties, race fuel, various extra layers and my phone to stream some Pandora tunes as I cruised over. About 45 minutes later I arrived and offloaded the twist ties to save the day (In my head). At this point was my first "crossroads" so to speak... do I eat again? I didn't really feel hungry, kind of, but it was only about forty minutes to race time. I elected to get a little bit more coffee, keep sipping some electrolyte and just start warming up more intensely In hind site, I think I should have eaten at least half of the Clif bar that I had with me because once I started trying to go hard my heart rate just wasn't rising. An indication to me that the I wasn't still fully recovered and the food I was eating was still going to recovery and not fueling. But race time was here, I popped a chocolate Clif Shot (like chocolate frosting Mmmm!), and went to the line.

Now enter agenda item #2... line up at the back... way back. With some big Pro XCT races coming up, I'd be lining up with 60+ other dudes (100 for Sea Otter) and towards the back most likely. So I wanted to make this start as challenging as I could and teach myself how to be comfortable working through traffic at the start. So I went to the back and hung out with the expert women, single speeders, and guys as fit as I can only hope to be in 25 years. When the ten second countdown came I looked down at my Garmin which showed my HR at 68... "uh oh, this is gonna hurt." GO!!! But I hadn't... tick-tock... Ok now here we go!

See me? Yeah... not there in the front!

But this is exactly what I was going for. After about 30 yards we were moving pretty good and there was a nice dust cloud working, not quite as blinding and lung clogging as the big races but a good simulation nonetheless. And the road was filled with riders. I found someone who was moving forward on the right and made my first real acceleration to follow. Soon my momentum was exceeding his (I love sprinting on the Highball!), I saw a lane to the left and went for it, shooting to the center and still passing... and now back to the right. The 90 degree corner was coming up so I looked for a lane to overtake a big chunk of guys. Nothing to the inside except a picnic table and no clear lane to swerve to the outside. I'd have to sit in behind all the brakers and try to overtake on acceleration coming out of the corner. The crystal ball in my head suggested that the swarm would swing wide and I would cut hard through the corner and sprint from the inside. It unfolded exactly as planned and I bit off another big chunk of traffic, but I was still way behind. I took the outside line through the next left hander and kept passing until the first choke point between some big rocks. Guys, you can't go three wide into that... brakes!!! I should have taken the jump to the right. Ok, through the rocks and out of the saddle again. I take the outside line on another left, trying to maintain more speed than the rest of the conga, and almost wash out on the gravel before getting onto the pavement. I sprint up the little rise on the pavement, "Go get 'em Clint!!" I hear as I weave through. Still on pavement, I have to fall in line, hard right, then another choke point between some rocks and posts. I see an opening nobody else is taking and I go for it sprinting by... BRAKES!!! JUMP!! Bang! My left foot gets ripped out of the pedal by the rock. That opening wasn't as big as I though it was (uh... yeah... maybe that's why nobody else was taking it?!?!). "That didn't sound good!" Says someone behind me. But everything still worked and I was pretty sure I still had all my toenails. Now into some singletrack... still way behind but this is what I wanted. I have to fall in line as the trees are too close to pass in the grass. There was a bit of pavement coming up so I knew a good sprint was coming. I sit up, relax, and take a few deep breaths... turn... turn... down the bank... GO! I sprint by a few out of the saddle, and then get down as aero as I can, weaving in and out of the draft as I pass before having to hit the brakes behind others as we funnel back into the trail. Nowhere to pass here so I take a few more deep breaths to recover. I look down, my HR is only in the 150's... what the!? I felt like I was putting in a 175+ effort. We make the turn around and the trail widens... "On your left!" And I pass in the weeds... getting back up to speed. Did I mention how much I love how the Highball sprints (especially paired with the ENVE carbon wheels)? Traffic is starting to thin out now as I'm getting closer to the front. A few hundred more yards of trail and we're on the cobble stone levy. A final flat stretch of about 300 yards before really getting into the course and I can see the leaders at the other end already. I go "aero" again and do my best NASCAR "Sling Shot" pass (minus about 799 1/2 horsepower) and TT to the other side. 160... geez. I'd picked off most of them by this point but I think I was still in about 10th or so as I started up the first climb of the course.

Agenda item #3... stay in the big ring. It's not totally out of the question on the flattish terrain of GB, but still hard in some spots with a 42 tooth. I had a few reasons for this. I had been working with my front derailleur and some pliers to get it in a more optimal condition than it was left after knotting up the chain two weeks ago, but I still didn't trust it. Another reason was to be a motivator to keep pushing really hard and the last was to really work on engaging all the leg muscles, use a slow cadence from time to time, and pedal efficiently. I made a few passes up the climb and was sustaining a heart rate around 167 which isn't terrible for me but I felt like it should have been in the mid 170's. I caught a rider as I got up to the top, and did a bit of a supercross style block pass on the sharp left hander before hammering down the hill. I gassed myself on the schwoopy trails out to the "Beek's Bight" parking lot crossing where I could see a couple riders together, one looked like Jim Hewitt and the other was a Santa Cruz / X-Fusion team rider I didn't know. At least now I could see the guys at the front from time to time. But they were still about 10 seconds up and I hadn't seen the front group yet, probably another 10-20 seconds up. And so I chased...

I charged hard the rest of the first lap but it just didn't seem like I was making up any ground. I expended quite a lot of energy in all that early passing and sprinting, and the guys at the front were really charging as well. At the beginning of lap two, in a clearing, I could see the front group of about 5 riders staying close together in a string. That's rare in MTB racing... it must have been fun attacking each other and trying to pop guys off the back. I continued up the climb for the second time in the big ring and kept giving it everything I had. I was gaining on Jim and starting to hope that maybe the guys at the front would start to fatigue and I could pick them off later. I was hitting all my marks and maintaining some consistent power. Then as we were making our way out towards Doton's Point (the course turn around), I was just a couple seconds back from Jim and starting to think about where I could make the pass. I stood to hammer up a quick rise and BAM! "OOUUGGH!!" I almost went over the bars and took the stem to the gut when my chain skipped and came off the outside of the cranks. AAAHHHH!!!! I dismounted and just as I'm getting the chain put back on, Neilson Powless cruises on by. "Nice work!" I holler to him. He started a minute after us. Awesome. So yeah I just got shown up because he had passed everyone I had and then some. Chain's back on... ego swallowed... and I'm off again. A few easy pedal strokes to confirm everything's working correctly before charging hard and hopefully I could catch Neilson and tag along to the front. He was already about 10 seconds up as I made it around Doton's Point but I didn't seem to be losing any ground for the rest of the lap. But I certainly didn't gain any ground either and we were getting into some lapped traffic now. Some I hit at good times and others I had to wait for... the usual story. But everyone was courteous and passing was clean.

After the main climb and downhill from the "bench hill" on the third lap, I caught a rider just as we hit a little rock garden climb. He took the normal center line and so I went left, standing up to power over and make the pass, BAM! "OOUUGGH!!!" Stem to gut again... chain was off. Ouch. I put it back on and passed the guy at the top of the next rise as he pulled over to let me by... thanks! Ok so there was no catching Neilson, or the front guys, unless they fatigued. So I just kept a strong, sustainable pace in the hopes that my last lap would have some productivity.

Catching lapped riders helps keep the motivation up, as there's always someone up ahead to target. And everyone out there is really courteous and just happy to be on a bike. I caught one women as we came to one of the big rock walls half way through the course. She took the safe route around as I popped up and over the big face and made the pass... catching a little air as I went. "AWESOME!" She shouted. It wasn't much, but that little bit of encouragement was uplifting as I was starting to battle some serious fatigue.

As I came through the start/finish to begin my 4th lap, I ditched my empty bottle... throwing it across the finish chute in the general direction of where Jen was in the timing area in the hopes I could find it again later. I heard someone say "Nice throw!" so I don't think I hit anyone :-). I snatched a bottle from the neutral feed zone and took the last of the gel I had with me. But I was already starting to get that empty feeling like it wasn't going to be enough. Not "hungry" but definitely not fueled. I was already having a hard time keeping my heart rate in the 150's and that just got more difficult as the final lap continued. I still made the main climb in the big ring. I still had agenda item #4 to complete: Have a strong last lap and give everything I have. I couldn't see any of the leaders anymore, but I kept pushing. Winding through the trees, hitting my marks, right, left... stay on top of it, pedal, breathe, breathe... 'S' turn ahead... I glance down to look at my HR at the wrong time (144...)... left... OFF LINE! $#!^!! TREE! Miss the bars! Lean! OLAY!!! Whoa! Close one! Only grazed the shoulder... that would have been all bad! Focus... finish... stay smooth... That little mental lapse woke me up for sure! And I started having fun again, jumping and banking off of the trail. Fun is fast! Out to Doton's Point for the final time I could see Ron Shevock. I was getting hungry, totally bonking, but that was more motivation to keep it up and finish. Only 10 minutes left.... push. I caught Ron and we had a nice little conversation about how much this sucked, how much we hurt, and how much Neilson crushed our souls... until I went by and gave the last five minutes of the course everything I had. I came across the line in 2:02:40, 6 minutes back from the Pro winner Cody Kaiser. But that time was faster than the winner's time two weeks ago on the same course, and I was three hours and nearly 50 miles into the day's riding so I was pretty happy with that. And that chocolate brownie Clif bar back at the car tasted SO good!

After some chatting and congratulating with other racers... and as it started to sprinkle (I guess it is still March!), I set off for another two hour coaching ride with another client. The sun eventually came out again and we had some fun on the local trails (with a little pump track action thrown in) before ending up at home where there was food that needed to get in my belly! Five hours on the day, 75 MTB miles with a race in the middle. I was satisfied to say the least with my "spectacular training event," even though I had bitten off more than I could chew to finish on the podium.

2013 - Off to the Races!

2013-02-20T15:11:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to everyone! (Can you still say that in mid-February???) I had a fun off-season, getting in some fun rides and a couple all day epics. But most of my time was spent recuperating (mentally and physically) and relaxing with family and friends. It was much needed...

I had the chance to try some new things...

Scuba...

Cruising...

and Rattlesnake Tequila (no picture of that!!)... among many other things. Also got to do some of my usual stuff but in new places...

Hike to the top of the highest mountain wherever we are...

And just enjoy life on a tropical beach...

But now it's back to work... both the full time day job and the training. And since I can't move to Arizona for the winter like the "real" pro's, I'm turning pedals in whatever Norcal weather has to offer.

Day or night...

I've already hit up three races at our local hammer-fest venue, Granite Bay. I always make sure to race these events put on by TBF Racing because they're a great motivator and test of fitness. After a 3 or 4 hour ride on Saturday, it's good to have guys that have just come off of cyclocross season pushing me on a cold, early Sunday morning.

The first was the MTB Kickstart in late January. I'd only been training two weeks so I was not going to kid myself of how well I'd do, but I was going to give it everything I had.

After a good start I was in the front group going up the first climb, but I watched Jared Kessler, Billy Damon, Ron Shevock and Cody Kaiser ride away pretty early on.

Even though I was on my Highball with a 3x10 drivetrain... I had one gear, and it was sorta fast. No pop, no burst, no real "race" pace. But it was a good solid threshold workout and I was as strong on the last lap as I was on the first. And in reality, that's what I was shooting for. And then I went for a nice 2 hour ride after the race... base training :-).

The second race was on super bowl Sunday, and would have one more lap than the previous race. I was a little fatigued from a solid 4 hour road ride the day before but I felt surprisingly good after a long warmup. I was able to stay with the lead group a bit longer but eventually Billy and Ron broke away. Cody and I were riding together when we got caught by 16 year old Neilson Powless who had started a minute behind us. This kid is blazing fast and is one to watch out for. He had a GoPro on his bars for the race... you can see where he passed us at about the 4:40 mark... and then just rode away (he ended up having the fastest overall time by a couple minutes too!).
Neilson's Handlebar Video
Cody ended up having mechanical problems so I was sitting in 3rd by myself but still charging into the last lap and feeling pretty good. As I started the 4th lap, I heard someone yell "Go Clint! Ron's not far ahead!" "No way!" I thought... I haven't seen him since the first lap! But that's the nature of the Granite Bay course, you can be quite close to people for a majority of the lap and not know it because it's so twisty (fun!) and wooded.

When I popped out at Doton's Point (the farthest part of the course) I saw Ron for a brief moment and he was only about 10 seconds up. That gave me a little burst of motivation and I kept the pace up and eventually caught him a mile or so later in the twisty tree section of the course. When I passed, he made a comment about being totally "done" but I didn't believe him. I made sure to crank it up with whatever gas I had left to make the pass stick and pull enough of a gap that he couldn't draft up to me when we hit the final open stretch. Success! And I rolled across the line in 2nd place! I was quite happy with that result and felt I earned my beer that afternoon as I unfortunately watched the 49ers loose the big game. Oh well...

The third race was just this last weekend and would again be four laps of fun, but with eight mile laps instead of 6.5. I was looking forward to it and we had great weather. No leg warmers needed!!! (I'm cold blooded)

Beautiful sunrise over Folsom Lake

Unfortunately the start was about all the racing I got in. Only about 5 minutes in, as I was making a move to the front, I dropped my chain and on the next pedal rotation it got caught up in my cranks, locked, and tried to turn itself into a corkscrew. I got it back on the rings with a quick adjustment of the front derailleur but the it was skipping all over the place. I started messing with the barrel adjustment on the cable with no luck. After about a mile of fiddling and dropping positions I pulled off to see what the real problem was. The chain was all bent and twisted up, barely making it through the rear derailleur bends. I decided my day was done because it would just end up ruining some other part of my bike if I kept going. So I headed back to the start. It's just the way it goes some days, plus I was still pretty happy with the ride I had the day before on my Tallboy :-)

As I made my way back to the venue, I came across a downed rider just as the EMT was getting there. He was in pretty bad shape and they thought he had a broken femur after hitting a tree. I was able to help out while the EMT put a splint on and we got him on the backboard as the fire department got there for transport. I followed up with a friend of his yesterday and I'm happy to report that amazingly he has no broken bones. Very good news!

Merry Christmas!

2012-12-24T16:24:00.001-08:00

Just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas!

We've found a use for some spare parts, medals, and such that were just sitting in the garage to make our Christmas tree decorations a little more unique...

I hope you've had the opportunity to get a ride in or two in between enjoying family and food. Today I finally got to ride in the sun and dry conditions!

And don't forget to have fun and "screw up" a family photo or two! :-)

Hoping Santa's sleigh has a bike rack...

God bless...

Clint

A Little Something Different - TBF MTB 50 Miler Team Relay

2012-10-25T08:40:00.000-07:00

So a week prior to the TBF 50 Miler, Jen and I were hiking with our friends Peter and Allyson. Peter and I were out front and as we were talking we thought it would be fun to do the race as a 4 person team with the girls. We knew Allyson would be up for it, but how would we convince Jen? Her awesome staff would be able to handle the timing while she does one lap so that wouldn't be the problem. She has only ever done one race, a triathlon about three years ago, and she hasn't ridden her mountain bike in nearly two years since before she broke her foot.

Me: "Hey Jen! Are you in for something fun?"
Jen: "No!"
Dang... too smart for us guys...
Peter: "Allyson's doing it too!"
Allyson: "I am?"
Jen: "No!"
Peter: "We're all doing it together and it'll be fun! Plus there's drink's and food afterward!"
Jen: "Does this involve bikes? What are we doing?"
Me: "Each doing one lap of the MTB 50 course (insert puppy-dog smile face). It's only 12.5 miles."
...long pause...
Jen: "I'll have to check with Bill and Mark..."
Me: "Sweet! That's not 'no'!"

I don't think we tricked her... we're not that smart. But some serious peer pressure and puppy dog eyes were employed :-). She worried and stressed herself out about it all week but eventually just left it up to me to make sure her bike was ready to go and I would tell her when to fuel and with what so she didn't have to worry about that too.

Race morning came and we were out there way before Sunrise setting up. It was a bit colder than we would have liked, but then again it is the end of October! We were rewarded however with a beautiful sunrise over Folsom Lake.

Allyson would lead us off for the first lap and she did fantastic on her Santa Cruz Juliana. She laid down a lap time of 1 hour and 12 minutes before handing it off to Jen for lap two.

I set off to intersect Jen at various parts of the course to make sure she was doing ok and to take some photos. But I'll leave the recap to her, in her words...

Yep... Clint's summary of how I was talked (bamboozled?!) into doing the MTB 50 Mile race is actually pretty accurate! (I'm always on my guard when Clint and Peter have been plotting.) It's been almost two years since I've even ridden my mountain bike, and I've barely had time to ride my road bike; I don't even have a "base" fitness level at this point. (See babe, I read your posts about training and "base" fitness!) I spend most of my weekends being with athletes, not being an athlete.

I coordinate all aspects of registration and timing for TBF; I oversee a fantastic team of ~12 ladies who get our athletes signed in, and help gather split/finish times. I absolutely love what I do, and I love the team I work with. So to be honest, I was struggling to leave my "happy place" in the timing tent, and put myself out there to compete as a bona fide participant!

But peer pressure prevailed, and after getting the race started with my timing team... I found myself in bike shorts and a jersey, freezing cold, eating a Hammer Gel, and waiting for Allyson to come across the line for the tag.

She came tearing around the corner, we did an air-high-five, and after failing to get clipped in quickly (so much for race-pace), I was off!

Thankfully I had very little traffic because the 4-person teams had started last. This helped me get comfortable with my bike, and remember which levers switched which gears. :-P

I know Clint can recall every line, every berm and and every rock he comes across during a race... but to be honest, I was just trying to survive! Clint went out to different points on the course to take pictures, and make sure I was still alive. I tried to pretend like I could actually ride my bicycle, and not spend toooo much time walking.

The race leaders lapped me around mile 7, and I was so paranoid about holding up someone who actually knew what he was doing, that I pulled over early and often to let guys pass. I also figured it was good karma for all the times my hubby passes people out on the course. :-)

When I'm outside my comfort zone, I compensate with wisecracks and jokes, so I worked my way through the miles by yelling things at my TBF road-safety friends. Quips included "are you freakin' kidding me, I'm only at mile 3?!", "I can't believe we use our perfectly good income to pay for you to do this sort of nonsense!" (when I saw Clint), and "I have a new way to diagnose insanity... anyone who does this race as a solo rider." But in all honesty, I re-gained so much admiration for everyone who is willing to go out, and be in a situation where they stretch themselves to do their best. TBF emphasizes helping people live an active lifestyle, and being out on the course made me enjoy my normal support role in whole new way.

I finally got through the technical sections, across the levy, and to the fire road climb to the top of the water tower hill. I definitely walked up part of that hill, and I was really starting to get tired. But I pushed on for the greater good of "Team Kicking & Screaming" and after coming back from the turnaround I was dumped onto the pavement. My one true moment of "racing" (as opposed to "surviving") came at this point. There was a guy on a flat-pedal bike (I'm sure Clint could tell you the manufacturer/model for said bike, as well as every type of component it had... but I don't have a clue!). We were on a straightaway and I knew I was getting close to the finish line, so I put my hands on the handlebar aero-style, put my head down, shifted up a couple gears, and passed him. Yep, my one moment of glory. :-)

A few more turns, and I FINALLY came around the last corner to see my timing staff cheering for me, and Clint waiting for the tag with the world's biggest smile on his face. I was too tired to fist-bump, so after an exclamation of "great job buddy!"... he was gone. It had taken me 1:35 to do my lap. (Spoiler alert: As I had predicted, Clint's lap time was less than half of my lap time. Yes, less than half. I'm going to chalk it up to the fact that he has a carbon bike and I don't. :-P Yep. That was definitely it!)

It was fun to compete with my close friends, and my best friend... but I wouldn't exactly say I'm hooked! (Sorry babe!) There's room for only one professional athlete in our family, and I love volunteering and cheering so much that I think I'll stick with that calling.

So on that note... racer-Jen out... and I'll see you at the finish line with cowbell in hand.

:-)

When she polished off her lap and handed it to me, I set off in a dead sprint on the 1/4 mile of DG before hitting the trail. I needed to warm up... even with coffee and a Tropical Hammer Gel (also caffeinated) I couldn't get my heart rate above 68 as I sat in the relay tag box spinning backwards! I hadn't ridden the Granite Bay trails in a while, but they were still buffed and really, really fast. I was feeling surprisingly strong and the Highball is always a perfect choice for those trails. The course took us in the counter-clockwise direction which is reverse from normal so the corners don't quite have the dirt pushed up in the right spots, requiring just a bit more attention. However the nice thing is that there aren't braking bumps this direction.

After a little course extension over to the Oak Point camping area for no purpose other than to get more mileage I finally hit the fun stuff that snakes through the trees on sandy hard pack I was sprinting out of the corners and having a blast but remembering to stay relaxed and just keep the flow. As I came out of the woods to skirt around the "bench hill" I popped up off a little rock mound to clear the few feet of rocks that lie after it, but slightly miss-timed the boost and flew nose heavy until I landed back on the smooth trail. It wasn't quite a nose-wheelie-endo-save but it was closer than I would like for just cruising at Granite Bay! Just a reminder that I still needed to focus. I pumped the corners on the little descent down to the road crossing and made my way over the sand to Doton's Point. There I'd get back into the trees and started to catch some more people. I rode all of the granite rock patches and rutted climbs on this section of the trail without incident and kept on truckin' back through Beeks Bight parking lot and looping towards the bench hill again. On the last rock feature before the short climb up to the bench, I hit the top rock to jump the whole thing (a trick I learned from my DH skilled buddy Jared Kessler) and in the air noticed I was flying a bit farther than I'd planned on and slightly off line for the left hander coming up. So I had to land with the bike already in a left-lean and back pedal a quarter turn to get the right pedal down quickly to make the turn onto the double-wide planks (something you don't want to miss!). No problem... except that backwards pedal while landing caused my chain to come off. As I rolled on I manipulated it with the derailleur to get it back on just in time to start the climb up the hill, passing two more riders. On the ridge I caught another rider as I got to the most difficult rocky patch to climb in this direction and I had to take a different line than normal. I didn't quite make it and had to dab, oh well. I made the pass shortly after and hammered down the descent, finishing it off with a two wheel drift into the final 'S' turn, banking my rear wheel off the base of the tree in the center and catching the tail of the banking on the exit... FUN! After that the course took some traversing singletrack, road and fire road transfers to the south and then up the water tower hill... which always hurts. After the descent from the tower the course went out and back on the fire road and on my way out I saw another Folsom Bike racer Christopher Holmes coming in the opposite direction (can't miss him with that lime green Niner Air 9!). I was just about to razz him and holler "Don't let me catch you Chris!!!" But as he got closer I saw it in his eyes... Oh he know's what's up... :-). I made the U-turn with about two miles to go and kept up my nice steady effort until I made the turn onto the open parking lot where I could see that I was closing on Chris up ahead. He entered the last singletrack about 50 yards up and I couldn't help myself, he looked like he was tired (this was the end of his 4th lap!) and needed the extra motivation to finish strong... "Chris don't let me catch you!!!" I could see that he threw down some extra effort after that but I still closed right up to him with two corners to go. We rounded the BBQ party area to cheers and after the 90 degree left into the finish shoot we both sprinted to the line but there just wasn't enough real estate left for me to pass.

Way to finish strong Chris!!! That was fun! I was shooting for a lap time between 45 and 50 minutes and I pulled the fastest lap of the day in 46:35.

I handed my "baton" to Peter (actually handed him my spare tube because I only remembered one 29er tube!) and he took off for the final lap aboard my ENVE equipped Tallboy (not bad for a loaner bike eh?).

He turned in a good lap at 55 minutes and had a blast on the bike, commenting that it just pop's up over things effortlessly... yep!

I had a blast just racing for fun and supporting my teammates. And I'm SO proud of Jen for getting out there and doing her best.

We won the four person coed relay category too! We were the only coed team but so what?! Woohoo!!!

Huge thanks to TBF for a super fun event, very well marked course, ordering up some good weather, and for the three kegs of beer to choose from (Racer 5 IPA mmm mmm good!), bbq and awards afterwards! Hard to beat that!

Tahoe Fat Tire Festival - Sierra Cup XC Series Finals and Coaching Clinics

2012-09-30T15:31:00.000-07:00

Last weekend Squaw Valley opened up its slopes to host the reincarnation of the Tahoe Fat Tire Festival. This event has been dormant since 1999 (back when I was 260lbs... before I was even riding bikes) and I think was long overdue for the return. There was a big lineup of events... a five event MTB stage race starting with Short Track on Thursday, Hill Climb on Friday, XC Saturday morning and DH in the afternoon, then a Super D to wrap everything up on Sunday. I was in Las Vegas for Interbike all week so I wasn't able to make it up for the weekday events, but I was certainly on the line for the Saturday morning XC race. This final race in the Sierra Cup XC Series would cap off a long list of events that began way back in May, and I was leading the overall points.

So, kind of a side note here but I'm oddly excited about an idea I had to do something productive with all this time I spend driving to races. I'm learning Spanish! I figured it would be a good use of my time instead of scanning for radio stations in the middle of nowhere. So after a two hour drive up the hill to Squaw, entiendo y hablo un poco de espanol. :-) Yeah... I'll keep working on it... back to the bikes.

As I headed out for my warm up and to check out the course a bit, I stopped to talk to race promoter Kevin Joell and get an idea of what lap times might be. The course would consist of one massive climb up the main service road covering over 1100ft vertical gain and topping out at over 7400ft before turning down some pretty rugged and loose singletrack. We were slated to do 4 laps, but Kevin decided to make a change so that our first lap climb was just about to the half way mark. I hadn't ridden nearly all week due to travel so I wasn't going to argue. I set out to warm up on the shortened first lap course to help me decide which bike I would want to race. After about 100yds in the granny going up the climb and seeing it get steeper even after the half way turn-off, I was certainly leaning towards the Highball. Making my way down the second half of the downhill, my choice was confirmed as there weren't many places I would need to be pedaling over very rough terrain while seated. As usual, the WTB Nano's would be the tire choice but this time mounted up to the WTB Stryker wheelset.

We lined up and joked a bit about this being one of the few races we wouldn't be starting in the big ring. Finally the "3-2-1-GO!" was given and we were off in less than dramatic fashion. "What... nobody's sprinting?!"

We got to the business of climbing right away and I put my head down and went to work leading the group and watching my heart rate.

A younger racer went by with some youthful spunk... we've got to do this four times bud, but I'll hang here off your wheel anyways. We crested the rise just before the lap one cut-off and Michael Hosey went by, but we both ended up being stuck behind the leader on the downhill for a while until there was a clearing. Michael and I stayed together on the downhill, though I hung back just a bit for the dust to clear. For lap two I was planning to slowly close back up to him on the climb, ride together for a bit and then maybe attack on the upper part of the climb if it felt right. But when I was almost caught back up, he pulled off to the side and was stretching his leg and looking like he was in a bit of pain. "Cramp?" I asked. "No." Hmmm... I kept chuggin' along wondering what it was and expecting him to come back any time. Turns out he had to DNF with a pinched nerve he's been dealing with. No Bueno (see... Spanish!). I looked over my shoulder and that same climber from before was coming on strong so I just kept a good pace and he caught me about half way up the hill. I hadn't yet seen how steep the upper section was so I wasn't quite ready to put out a ton of effort. He asked me to stick with him, "Nah I'm pacing it..." I just let him go but kept him in sight and I had already figured out I could close the gap on him quickly once we turned downhill. By the time we reached the top he had about 50yds on me, but it only took about an 1/8th mile of rocky, loose singletrack before I caught him and he let me by on a steep section that he was walking. The upper part of the downhill was pretty awesome with some nice banked turns and plenty of rocks and little ledges. Also tossed in the mix were a couple steep pitches you really had to make sure to set up correctly and then just let 'er roll. The Highball was rockin' it and I was having a blast!

This trip down the lower portion of the downhill I got to really rip since I didn't have any traffic except for a few junior riders who were very courteous in letting me pass. So as I started up the climb on lap three I think I already had a big gap to 2nd. I got dusted out by a few resort service trucks on the climb but it was otherwise uneventful and I kept a strong pace and made sure to keep sipping the Hammer fuels that keep me going. I was rewarded on the downhill as the trail had been buffed out by all the other racers so it was even faster and more fun. I had a fast, clean run nearly all the way down to the bottom when I slid into a left hand switchback like previous laps and on the shady exit... PING! PING! Double rim strike! DOH!!! A rock had been moved into the trail by other racers that wasn't there before. I wasn't looking for it and the shade hid it from my vision. I didn't hear anything for a couple feet so I thought I had gotten lucky, but then it came... that cyclical "PSSHS, PSHSHH, PSSHSHHSH" of air rushing out of the tire as it rolls. Dang. I stop to figure out which tire it was, the front. Thankfully it wasn't both! I swished the tire around hoping the Stan's would seal it up, but I couldn't remember the last time I'd ridden this bike and there probably wasn't enough in there to do the job. Heck I didn't even wash the bikes the night before! I sprayed them off in the morning before I left and let them air dry on the back of the car on the drive up! That's what I get for traveling or working all week and not having any time to do the little things. Air wasn't running out too fast so I decided I'd rather try and make it down to the bottom and fix it there instead of on the rocky trail.

You can see the flat front tire in this picture. The last two off camber corners were a bit tricky...

I made it down to the start finish line and then set out to put on a "how to fix a flat" clinic. It just took a couple minutes and a good shot of CO2 donated from a spectator and I was on my way again with 2nd place still not in sight. But with a bit of a break for my legs, I pushed the lap four climb hard to try and get some lost time back. I actually ended up having a bit of a battle with some guys going up the climb though... but they were in dually pickup trucks! Two passed me about 1/3 of the way up but then they got to a narrow section and had to stop behind some racers. When I got there, the second truck was stalled and couldn't get started so I had to skirt by between it and the cliff edge to the right. When I got to the next corner the first truck was pulled off to the side and I passed by him again, but just to get dusted out by another truck coming down the hill. A couple more switchbacks and here they came again, passing by on the left giving me a nice dose of diesel exhaust and dust. But then they had to go slowly behind some other racers that I was catching as well, and I passed by the trucks for one final time on the left before finally reaching the top to start my final descent of the day. I just kept it smooth and protected my equipment to ensure the win.

I came across the line in just over two hours but I somehow still managed to win by over five minutes. With this win I also took the eight race series victory to become the USA Cycling Northern California and Nevada Regional Champion. Woohoo!!!

But my day at Squaw wasn't done just yet. I would have the privilege of conducting two MTB skills clinics later in the day and to be a part of the festival.

Clinic description from the Fat Tire Festival website.

About fifteen riders showed up for each my clinics where we broke down the different fundamentals of riding into drills. I bet they didn't think they'd be doing MTB skills drills in a parking lot, but I've found it's best to instruct, at least initially, in a non-threatening and controlled environment where they can focus on what they're feeling on the bike. We also talked about bike set up, preferences, and how to attack certain trail features throughout the clinics. And finally we capped it off with a little gem of trail I had found and I guided them down a downhill switchback, over a rollable bolder and through a sandy rock garden. Everyone seemed to enjoy the class and I really enjoyed sharing the experience and knowledge that comes with riding a bike way too much. It's always great to see someone (or 30 people!) progress in confidence and skill in just a couple hours time and how someone's face lights up when they get the "feeling" of proper technique.

2012 USA Cycling MTB Marathon National Championships

2012-09-28T15:03:00.000-07:00

Two years ago I don't think I knew what a "Marathon" mountain bike race was. Then I saw a post race interview with JHK after he won the 2010 Marathon Nat's and he looked more worked than I've ever seen him, with salt stains on his face and saying something like taking a few days, maybe a week off to recover. Must be pretty tough. Then last year Marathon Nat's were moved closer, to Bend, OR, and I put it on my calendar to race but it didn't work out. Well the race was still in Bend this year and I was able to make the trip up there with my buddy Ron Shevock who is crazy and would race it on a single speed.

I hammer out some pretty long training rides and have done some tough, long races like SoNoMas but I've never done an "official" Marathon MTB race. USA Cycling defines the category as any MTB race between 37 and 62 miles. So actually I guess the Sea Otter two lap course, at 40 miles counts and the 50 mile races I've done at Granite Bay would too. But those don't quite seem to fit the category and weren't ever designated as "Marathon" events. Regardless, I just like riding, and racing, my bike for a long time so I was up for it.

Ron and I set off to the North on Thursday morning to try and get up there in time to pre-ride the second half of the course before dark. I had never ridden in Bend, or Oregon for that matter, so I had done some research trying to figure out which bike I'd want to race. It came down to a choice between helmet cam videos which showed pretty smooth looking dirt and not a lot of rocks and the advice of 2011 champ Adam Craig advising the full suspension 29er is best because it is bumpy pedaling. I chose to go with Craig's advise and brought the Tallboy equipped with some fast rolling ENVE 29xc wheels and WTB Nano tires. And I just put on a sweet new Thomson seatpost with the WTB Silverado Carbon to lighten up the bike just a bit more. As Jen always puts it, "That's grams man!" :-) After about 8 hours of driving we pulled into the Wanoga Sno Park lot and geared up for our first pre-ride.

The course would start out on a service road that seemed to go on forever...

With Mt. Bachelor in view...

But then we got to the good stuff quickly when we diverted and rode the 2nd half of the course...

After a few hours we arrived back at the car. The analysis of the course could be summed up in a few words: Dusty (really, really dusty!), sandy, bumpy, and fun. I was really happy I had brought the Tallboy. And then I was even happier because we found a sushi place for dinner...

Friday morning we headed up the hill again and rode the first half of the course. As soon as I hit the pedals I was feeling a LOT better than I did on Thursday's ride. So I was trying hard not to overdo it, but this part of the course was even more fun so it was hard. It was not as dusty or loose and it wound about in the trees and had some really fun features and downhills.

Ron just before aid station 1 at mile 10.

Railing some turns in the tight trees...

Climbing...

Cleaning one of the bypass obstacle lines near the top of the climb...

Ron fell off... can you see him?

Catching a little air on the sweet descent...

Ron totally spun out on the way back down...

So the analysis for this first half of the course was that it was just super fun no matter what bike you were on. Just fantastic trails! My Highball would have been OK here, but I definitely wasn't held back by the Tallboy. There were still quite a few spots where we were climbing up sections with braking bumps and it was nice to have the squish.

Ron had sliced a sidewall on his rear tire so we found a shop to mount up some new tread and then we cleaned up and prepped the bikes for race day. Oh and in since we both felt so good for Friday's ride, it must have been the sushi, so we ate there again that night. If it ain't broke...

And then we got lucky... rain! While I was in my sushi rice induced comatose sleep, Ron was awakened by thunder during the night and gave me the good news once I became vertical. Our hope of precipitation was confirmed when we went outside to a damp parking lot and the unmistakable smell of wet dirt after a fresh rain. Sweet! When we got out to the race venue I could see that the dirt was nicely tattered with raindrop spots. This was going to help out so much with the dust. I got suited up and loaded up my pockets with Hammer Gel, Perpetuem Solids, and mixed a couple water bottles with HEED. Fueling was going to be so important, well it always is, but especially for such a long race. Jen's aunt, Judy, had drive down from Idaho to watch and help out with my feeds so I gave her the instructions on what I wanted at which spot. And to prove I've learned at least one thing this year, here is a photo of me doing more than a "squeeze test" tire pressure check before I roll off on my warm-up!

I warmed up for 20 minutes or so and still felt flat. It was hard to get the heart rate up to and over threshold. Dang. It just wasn't going to be a day where I had that "extra" pop. Oh well... commence diesel mode!

We got started and the pace was fast but not a sprint. Then it picked up a bit as we curved through some sand and up the first climb and a lead group broke away. We got a little strung out in the middle of the pack as we sped down the first open road descent before turning right onto that long service road. The lead pack was maybe a hundred yards up or so and I grouped up with a few other riders and we worked together for a bit, and then I just ended up pulling the rest of the way back up to that lead group. Maybe it was a waste of energy but I wanted to make sure we got back up there. The road kept at a "false flat" incline for a while and when we got to the next rolling climbs I expected the pace to pick back up again for the leaders but they held back. It was a nice break and we all stayed together until we made a right turn at about mile 4 and up a loose and sandy road and then they took off. As I mentioned before, I didn't have that gear, so I had to just watch them go as I kept my pace. It was going to be a long, long race so I wasn't going to panic. After this gradual climb the course lost elevation quickly and then I made the turn up the "sandy climb of death."

This pitch is a 20+ % grade for about 100 yards. We skipped this in our pre-riding to save energy so I hadn't seen it. There was some pretty deep sand but the Nano's floated nicely and their continuous center line tread kept me straight. When it got steep there was a firm line on the right that everyone was taking and I caught right up to some guys but there wasn't room to go around without making a risky pass in the sand. So I sat in and waited until we crested, saving my energy to make the pass before we hit the switchback turn into the singletrack. I wanted to pass everyone I could before getting to the singletrack and made it around a group of three, giving me a nice clear view of the trail for a while. This was "Vista Butte" trail which would gradually climb while generally following the hillside contour. By the top I had caught another small group of three and we headed down a fast downhill. One rider made a pass and got away and I was getting pretty held up by the two that were left. I had no choice but to just sit in and relax until we made the turn to the Ridge Loop trail at about mile 8. I recognized one of the riders as another CA rider Alex Wild and since I asked nicely, he let me by so I could try to overtake the other rider as well. I wasn't able to get that done in a safe place, but he was motoring ok and we soon caught some other guys before the last descent down to the first aid station.

Photo Credit: Lasala Images

Judy was right there for my first bottle exchange and it went off without a hitch. I continued my "diesel mode" pace as we wound about through the trees of the Swede ridge trails. We were about an hour into the race now and I was starting to feel pretty decent. As I slalomed through the trees I decided to back off just a bit after tagging one with my shoulder. I just grazed it but I didn't want to take any unnecessary risks and end my day so early. Even after toning down my excitement, I would catch up to people on the steady climbs up the ridge line and I made a few more passes while trying not to expend too much energy with about 40 miles to go. I made use of a couple of the course splits and that ladder at the top of the climb to gain more ground before the big descent. Finally at about mile 21 the real fun began. Right away I was held up but he let me by and I was able to open it up and rail some sweet DH for a bit before catching some more guys. But this was a group of three and nobody was letting anyone else by. We were going at a decent pace but with the dust we were a little spread out so nobody was really pushing the issue. It was still really fun and I tried not to be frustrated with the pace. Once we bottomed out the trail turned south towards the second aid station on some flat but fun, twisty trail with Mt. Bachelor in view.

It was on this trail though that I began to feel a bit off. I'm not quite sure what happened exactly but I was just loosing energy and getting a bit of a headache. I figured I wasn't taking in enough water. It was right at about two hours, which normally isn't a problem for me, but I tanked the last of the HEED I had with me and when I came in to the second aid station Judy was there for another bottle hand off. I was focused on the one bottle I'd told her to give me there and I grabbed it just fine, but after I passed I realized that she was also holding out a second bottle for me with her other hand if I wanted it. I should have stopped to grab it... but I kept my eyes up and powered up the short climb and drank as much as I could before needing both hands on the bars for the fast dirt road descent. This part of the course was treacherous. It was technically easy, and just a service road on a gradual decline but you could pedal it and speeds were quite fast. Combining the speed with loose sand, mental fatigue and the occasional patch of loose, sharp rocks or sticks made it a section not to take lightly. It would be very easy to flat on one of those rocks, or get off line in the sand and go down while trying to drink. I slid off line at one point in a corner and had to take it wide and was heading right for some loose rocks which I successfully hopped over while the water bottle dangled from my mouth. Adding to the task list for this seemingly harmless stretch, was that there was a lot of time that I knew I could make up if I could pedal hard and keep the speed up above 20mph. I was able to pass a couple before turning down the aforementioned "sandy climb of death" which was now the "sandy DH of smiles." Not much could be said about this part other than WEEEEEE!!!! It was fun to just let the sand take me where it wanted, up the bank on the left and back down and around the corner until it ended way too quickly. I was now on the service road transfer section between the two loops and what were fast and sandy descents five miles into the race were now pretty sucky climbs about 30 miles in. And I still wasn't recovered from my near bonk. Thankfully they were short climbs and then it was a very gradual descent on sand down to aid station 3 at mile 32.3. My plan was to finish my bottle by then and hope they had just plain water to hand out there. This station wasn't accessible for Judy so I just had to take whatever the neutral support was offering. I was stoked they didn't just have Gatorade and grabbed a bottle of water before heading into the Dinah-mo-hum trail singletrack.

I had dialed back my pace to digest everything I had taken in and after a couple miles of the rolling terrain I was starting to feel a bit better. I climbed up some switchbacks and over a ridge line trail with lava rock patches, being sure to ride straight over the top and not in between to protect the sidewalls of the tires. I got to a little DH section of switchbacks which helped get my "spunk" back as well at about mile 35. I slid into a left hander and popped out the other side... standing... pedal pedal SMACK!!!... My left pedal hit a hidden rock in the silt... (begin slow motion)... the bike's rear end picks up and swings right and I start a "helicopter" which is immediately stopped when my seat slams into a tree on the left... THUD... UMPH!!! The handlebars and stem slam into my pelvis, the left shifter digs into my quad, and I'm over the bars and dive face first into the loose dirt...

...silence... the dust clears. I lie there a second and think, "That was spectacularly bad... and I don't feel any pain. OK." Still expecting some part of my body to signal to my brain that it doesn't work, I look back at my bike and see the seat completely twisted to the left. Hmmm... wonder what else is broken, it would be a long walk back from here. I untangle myself from the bike, get up and pull everything to the side of the trail. I inspect myself, nothing is torn, nothing is bloody. Just a little bit of pain starting to set in where the bars hit my leg and pelvis, but everything is operational. Looking at the bike, everything looks ok except for the seat. I bust out my mini tool and get the seatpost turned back... oh... hmmm... yeah that's still not right. The seat post was bent left about an inch and a half and the seat was tilted left due to a broken rail. Everything was still tight though so I figured I could go on. The handle bars were also twisted to the right but not too bad. I take a few swigs of water, a shot of Hammer Gel and a deep breath. Here we go... just a couple miles more of trail before I was dumped out onto a washboardy service road which would take me back towards the start finish area for aid station 4. By the time I got there I was out of water again, I had been racing for three hours, partially bonked, recovered, crashed badly and ridden about five miles in the not-so-ideal body position of slightly off to the left and the edge of the saddle sticking up my... Just about every part of me was saying "STOP!!!" I was back at the venue, I had been through a lot already and nobody would fault me for throwing in the towel. Then I saw Judy there with my next bottle. I could still pedal, the bike still worked, only an hour left, SUCK IT UP!! I ditched my two bottles and took on one more for the final loop and decided I hadn't given it my best yet and I would regret it if I didn't continue. I took it easy up the first climb and then set off on the first descent to catch the five or six guys that passed me while I was picking up the pieces from my crash. The trail was rolling, windy singletrack that wasn't too tight so I could keep pedaling with constant power. I closed on one guy really quickly as we approached a course split. I was going to go right and I called it out, but he was pulling over for me and said "Damn, I could hear you coming!" I'm not sure what he meant by that. Was I breathing that hard? I had just found a good rhythm and I dropped him quickly. The course transitioned from an open meadow into the trees another good climb where I caught two more riders that were fading fast as well. I got by before a gradual downhill where I was able to maintain some good speed while following another rider. Finally we got onto the Tiddlywinks downhill and after making a couple more passes I opened it up for the berms and jumps. I was putting a good gap on when I leaned it over into a left hand berm by my chain had dropped off the inside of the cranks. Ahh!! I was a bit hurried trying to put it back on, which actually made the stop longer and a couple guys passed me back. I finally got it back on and passed one guy back before cresting the final climb on Tiddlywinks. The last DH is really fun and all natural terrain with the opportunity to launch off of some good sized boulders. Which of course I did, because fun is smooth, and fun is fast. I was right on the wheel of a Yeti rider who was tackling the trail at a decent clip and it wasn't worth it to try and pass him. So we just shredded the long descent together and by the bottom my triceps and back were feeling it for sure.

We hit the bottom after over 48 miles and nearly three hours and forty minutes of racing and made the turn up the final climb on "Funner" trail. It would definitely have been funner to ride downhill, especially in this state of fatigue. But the end was near and I knew I could do it.

Photo Credit: Lasala Images

The climbing was fairly technical and rocky in bits which made it hurt even more, but I was able to ride everything and even still caught one or two more guys before I broke out of the trees and into the headwind on the final meadow. I was trying just to keep pushing as hard as I could and not look at the mileage on my Garmin but it was tough. I knew the course was about 54 miles and I was so close! The course wound into another patch of trees and I made my way around a sweeping corner to find some cheering spectators... it had to be close. Sure enough, one more corner and I popped out onto the pavement of Wanoga Sno Park. The Yeti rider was about 200 yards up so I knew I had no chance to catch him, and there was nobody in sight behind me so I cruised in to the finish, crossing the line for 16th place in four hours and six minutes.

Photo Credit: Lasala Images

I didn't get my goal time of under four hours, but then again I didn't have a perfect race. I gave Judy a big, stinky, dirty hug and a huge "thank you" for being my support for the day. And after a few minutes of zoning out and chugging water I was able to pose and crack a smile. Happy to be done.

And here's what I had to sit on for the last 20 miles of the race...

Ron rolled in at 4 hours and 33 minutes for 7th place in the single speed category. Impressive considering he was running way too hard of a gear and really suffering out there. We both enjoyed some well deserved post race beverage...

And I want to give some HUGE props to fellow Folsom Bike rider (and shop mechanic) Billy Damon who won the 30-34 category and called it the hardest thing he's ever done!

So after the race we rolled down to Bend to celebrate with the champ. Some good brews, Elk burgers and sweet potato fries at Deschutes Brewery did the trick!

Sunday morning Ron and I rolled south at dawn and headed home... but with a little "must do" trail detour. It was a couple hours round trip out of our way, but the "Dread and Terror" section of the Umpqua River Trail was totally worth it. Even on a bent seat and post!

This is how single speeders "shift"...

Here we are starting out at Lemolo Lake.

This trail was super fun and reminded me a lot of 2nd Divide Trail in Downieville. Pretty technical and slow going on the edge of the river, but the views in the clearings were awesome.

Some dirty bikes ready for the final drive back home...

CA greeted us with a clear day and a great view of Mt. Shasta for our return home.

8/25/12 - Bidwell Bump All Mountain - Rubber Side Up

2012-08-30T09:50:00.000-07:00

Well this was a day of firsts, unfortunately more bad than good, and "first place" wasn't one of them either.

Lets start with the good. This would be my first time attending this race, and first time seeing Chico in the daylight, and first time riding there. I always love riding in new places and this course was suppose to be very rough and technical. So I was looking forward to it and there would be some good competition with Chico locals Tim Olsen and Aaron Timmel as well as Mark Weir. But that's kind of where the "good" firsts stop. So now the full story...

I arrived nice and early and got checked in, suited up, and set off for my warm up. I would be racing "Orange" (Santa Cruz Tallboy LTc) since this course was suppose to be very rough, and it was an "All Mountain" race after all with the Super D later in the day (thank you for having both races on the same day!!!). I was really looking forward to racing this bike because it's just a ton of fun to ride. I proceeded up the first part of the course to warm up, which is a gradual climb up the North Rim Trail. This isn't so much a trail but more a wide swath of lava rock making for non-stop rough pedaling. It's relentless, but the bike was feeling awesome and just eating it up. I got just about to the top of the climb and it was about 20 minutes before the start so I decided to turn around and head back down. I pedaled a little ways and then had to coast over some rough, and when I tried to spin again there was no resistance like the chain was off. "Thats weird, I have a chain guide..." I looked down... the chain guide was BROKEN! "WHAT THE?!?! Uhhhh... OK..." I stood there in awe for a little bit trying to figure out what had happened and how. The bolt that attaches the top guide to the slider had pulled through the plastic backing... long story short it couldn't hold the chain on anymore. I unscrewed the remainder of that piece, pocketed it, and set off down the hill again to hopefully get there in time to fix it or switch bikes to "Red" (Santa Cruz Tallboy c). The only problem was that the trail was so rough that without a chain guide or derailleur, the chain kept coming off and getting lodged between the chain wheel and the chainguide plate. And when I say lodged, I mean really stuck! Where the cranks wouldn't turn anymore and I'd have to use a tool to pry enough of the chain out from in between the two pieces so that I could grab it and yank it out fully, hopefully not damaging the chain in the process! This happened four or five times before I finally made it down. By the time I got to the car I had only six minutes before the start of the race. I decided there wasn't enough time to fix Orange so I would just switch bikes. I only had one chain between the two bikes for reasons I don't want to get into, so that slowed me down. But I got that done, and was transferring the race number and the GPS over to Red... and then I heard the race start. Dang. I put Orange on the rack and locked it up and took off to the other side of the park and rolled across the start line three minutes late. The first time I've ever been late to a start.

So I was playing catch up. At least the North Rim Trail was wide so passing the whole field wouldn't be too difficult. As I motored up the climb I started to take inventory of what I had forgotten in the process of switching bikes. I hadn't washed this bike since the Annadel race the week before, plus a 50 mile ride on it during the week. The chain was dry, and I had no idea how much air was in the tires. All I knew was there was not enough air for these rough trails. Sure, it made the rough climb a bit smoother but once I got any speed up I was really having to be careful. I was even getting rim strikes on some of the square edged rocks on the climb! Hmmm... what else did I forget... Oh great! I forgot to take the spare tube off the frame of Orange and at least put it in my pocket... DOH! I had a CO2 can but that was it. So I had my super light XC set up which was already undesirable and now I was going to really have to work to protect the WTB Nano's with from the sharp rocks if I wanted to finish the race. Great. But it was all I had so I was giving it my best. I past by a steady stream of riders suffering up the volcanic formation, each of them searching desperately for a smooth line and at least a brief reprieve from the jostling. That made it easy for me to predict where they were going to go as I approached, but it also meant that I rarely got to take the smooth line. Oh well, the Tallboy c still soaked it up well. After about 20 minutes I had finally made it to the top and up to some of the faster Cat 1 riders, so that was a good sign that I was making up ground.

I turned down "B Trail" which is a hillside trail of pretty fun singletrack with switchbacks winding through bushes and trees down to the creek basin. There are rocks here too, but the trail did manage to have some smooth spots and a bit of flow. All of the corners were blind however as the foliage encroached on the trail and I had no idea what obstacles were coming up. There were a few pucker moments as I slid my hips back behind the saddle or pin-balled off some rocks but I was still having fun with it and just trying to be smooth and relaxed. I caught and passed one rider and was beginning to pull away when I entered an 'S' turn with a slight bit of banking. I spring off the first right hand bend and went into the left, shooting for an inside out drift into the little berm but my front tire folded over and I slid out. Instantly I was down on the left side... knee, hip, lower back, and shoulder impacts with a not so graceful reverse somersault in the bushes. "Alrighty then! That was out of nowhere!" were my thoughts but down to a more condensed, trail-side version of "WTF?!?!" I dusted myself off and pulled the bike out of the way, beat the brake lever back down where it belonged and began using my CO2 to fill up the tires so this didn't happen again. And to hopefully give a bit more protection from the rocks. After a couple minutes and four or five riders passed I set off again.

I was essentially done with B Trail and soon made the turn onto a rocky (are you surprised?) fire road. This road had a slight descent to it so I kept the power down and passed a few riders back right away. Then the road just... ended... at a big, deep creek. It was maybe about 30 feet wide, I'm not sure. There were some people sitting there, I guess course marshals, and I asked "Am I suppose to cross here??" "Yeah, just go straight across." I couldn't even see a trail on the other side, but I shouldered the bike and waded in the crotch-high, COLD (refreshing?), water and climbed over the fallen tree on the other bank to discover the trail on the other side. This next section was the second main climb of the course heading up a steep fire road for about a mile and a half. I put it in "diesel mode" and powered on up without any issue and made a few more passes before turning down the next singletrack. This next part of the course was pretty fun and had a lot of flow. It was a traverse on rolling terrain and didn't have the constant smattering of rocks but clumps here and there to jump over or power through. The fun eventually ended at a hike-a-bike up a really loose trail. This was some serious hiking at times requiring a hand down on the rocks to actually climb, or crawl, up them with the bike on my back. I'm not sure how long it lasted, but it was too long and I was happy when it was over! Rolling back down the trail it was more of the gradual descent and fun singletrack which got more and more rocky as I went down. I couldn't see anyone else ahead or behind so I was just trying to be smooth and make it to the end. The last few features of the trail are some pretty fun rock walls to navigate, which I handled just fine and then the trail suddenly spat me out onto a road. All I saw was a chalk arrow on the ground... so I went that way... which was the right choice and around the next corner was the finish. 1hr and 19min was my time, about 9 minutes back from the winner, Tim Olson. Actually I'm pretty satisfied with that considering my late start, not knowing the trails, crash and trial-side maintenance. That put me 4th in the Pro All Mountain standings... not bad!

I had a few hours before the Super D race which would wrap up the All Mountain stages so I grabbed some fruit, a Hammer Bar, and tanked a bunch of water... it was getting HOT! I confirmed with the race organizer that I didn't need to run the same equipment for the Super D so I started trying to fix the chainguide on the Tallboy LTc. After about a half hour and some strategically placed Gorilla Tape I had it working again! Sweet! I knew it was going to be faster, safer (can those terms go together?), and much more fun, to ride Orange on the Super D. I rode it around for a half hour or so and confirmed that my hillbilly fix was good enough to get me down the hill once more.

The Super D start couldn't come soon enough... it was HOT! And there was no wind and really no shade at the top staging area either. We would start with 1 minute gaps... 10 seconds to go... 5... I tried to track stand and clip in, lost my balance, oops! 2... 1... GO! Pedal Pedal Pedal!!! Left foot still not clipped in... cross the ditch... water bar jump! Woohoo! Ok now the left foot's finally clipped in! A few more sweeping turns to drift and I was heading into the singletrack again.

More pedaling... all out! I'm feeling good and REALLY happy to be riding Orange... it's just eating up the trail! I come to an intersection that I recognize from the XC race where we turned right. There are some guys standing there who are just looking at me and not signalling or doing anything. I'm glad someone told me in advance that I'm suppose to go straight here, but I was still unsure. I went by, and they weren't yelling at me that I was going the wrong way, so I charged ahead. Still feeling fast but smooth, I came around a knoll and could see on the other side the next rider ahead that I was catching. He was maybe 15 seconds ahead as I approached a "G-out" turn. There were multiple lines going into the dip so I stayed left on the high line and dragged the brakes as I began to turn right, looking at the rock face on the other side of the dip which I would have to power up and I couldn't see a clean line. But I had to release the brakes to keep momentum so I just was going to aim for the only line I saw. Still turning I released the brakes and as I got to the bottom of the dip, my front wheel hit a rock that moved, or slipped over one, and then hit something solid. SUPERMAN!!! I went head first into the rocks on the other side, but I kept my head up and my elbows and forearms took the main hit. Followed by my left thigh and knee. Lying prone on the ground, I hear a thud and look over to my right to watch my bike cartwheel out of sight down below. "Wow... Ow...." I pause for a second to allow any pain to materialize that would tell me I shouldn't move... nothing... good. So I push myself up. Everything works... check! The left thigh and left arm are aching pretty good as I stagger off the trail to retrieve the bike. After pulling it back up onto the trail, a quick look over and it survived without hardly a scratch! Sweet! Time to ride!

I come to two more of these "G-out" features but I approach a little slower and get through just fine. There's some pretty gnarly stuff on this trail like the "toilet bowl" which is almost a rock wall on the left side that you have to hit with enough momentum to carry you around or you'll fall off. I hadn't seen it before and I didn't have clear line of sight to it on the approach so I walked it. After the crash I just decided that riding this trail at my race pace wasn't smart without knowing it. My left arm was aching pretty badly but I could still shift and brake fine so I didn't think much of it. I just cruised the rest of the course and had a good time on Orange.

I finished the Super D in 6th for the Pro All Mountain category but that was just 16th overall. There's some fast Cat 1 locals which just proves trail knowledge is superior to everything! I wound up 5th for the Pro All Mountain and considering everything that happened... I'm pretty happy with my times.

After I got to the bottom I rolled up to Mark Weir who didn't actually ask "How'd it go?" because he already knew the answer by looking at me all covered in dirt and blood. I just replied to his silent expression with "Ow!" He took one look at my elbow and said, "Yeah that's gonna need some work... you go ahead and ride down to the park and I'll check with the guys at the finish here to see about the race medic." He seemed to be moving with a sense of urgency so I rolled down to the park where the main venue was set up and asked some staff there if they had any medical staff. Everyone who looked at my elbow seemed to respond the same way, with a startled retraction of body language, scrunched up face and an "Ooooo!" I couldn't really see it, just that there seemed to be a flap of skin.

I won't just post the picture here, but here's a link to the photo showing the fresh wound. So if you get grossed out you don't have to look: Fresh Wound

So with everyone's responses and Mark asking me if I needed to sit down a few times, I decided it was a good idea to not do my usual "clean it up and put some super glue on it" fix and actually go to a doctor. I headed down to the Immediate Care Clinic in downtown Chico and walked on up to the front counter. The lady asked me a number of questions for a few minutes before finally asking me what I was there for and I said "Well... (looking at my elbow) I have this big gash on my elbow that probably needs some work... looks pretty deep." She gave me a surprised look... "Are you bleeding?!" "Yep." "Oh... most people normally make a big deal out of that! We'll get you back here right away!" About 30 seconds later my name was called and I was taken back where nurse Pat cleaned me up.

Clean up pic 1
Clean up pic 2
Clean up pic 3

Then Dr. David came in and went to work. Starting off with the Novocain... nice. I was laid out prone with my left arm out on a shelf, and he was sitting on a chair like he was working at a desk. He started off with more cleaning... this time with a firm foam pad.... and then he moved onto a brush. It still wasn't getting it all because it went so deep so he meticulously began cutting out pieces of rock, dirt, leaves, and twigs. He was having to dig so far down in there and kept commenting about how I really shoved SO much debris into my arm! At one point he came across a vein that was nipped and "leaking" a bit so he clamped it and pulled it out so he could tie it off. I looked over and saw a the vein sticking out of my arm and about bent over backwards as I watched him tie it off. That was cool! Unfortunately my phone was on the other side of the room so I couldn't take any pictures or video.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention this was my first time getting stitches... officially.

The Dr. kept digging and cutting until he went down to the elbow bone where he began to get concerned. He could still see debris down there but he was worried that it might have gotten into the joint capsule which would mean Orthopedic surgery. Basically he was saying it was more than he could do there and he told me to go to the hospital. So they wrapped me up and off I went. Though I didn't go to the Hospital just a few blocks away in Chico... I decided that if I was going to need Ortho surgery I wanted to be closer to home. It wasn't hurting too badly so I figured I could withstand the 2hr drive back down to the Sacramento area. About 15 minutes into the drive the Novocain wore off and I was regretting that decision. I continued on with clinched teeth and such a tight grip on the wheel with my right hand that I was surprised I didn't leave finger imprints. I finally ended up at the UC Davis Med Center ER, and I don't think I yelled at traffic or stop lights too much.

I walked in the ER door in a pain haze, trying to keep it together. The security guard asked if I needed a doctor... I nodded... and he motioned me on through into the check in room. I wasn't there long before being moved to one of the trauma rooms where I put on a hospital gown that actually had full coverage! Not! I was trying to keep a good attitude and joked with the nurses a bit as my way of coping. But I think that downplayed to them the level of pain that I was in, so I waited....

Over the intercom... "Attention, we have a 911 pediatric arriving via air in 10 minutes." Aww man. I hate to hear that. Kids don't belong in the hospital. I knew that the ER resources might be diverted to that but I didn't mind. All I had was just an elbow booboo. But man this hurts like hell! Jen had arrived not long after that and was keeping me in good company. But after a while she could tell that it was all I could do to keep it together so she wrangled the nurse who procured some pain meds... nice! Much better! Wife of the year again!

After a while they took xrays and confirmed there were no breaks and no metal contaminants. Then the Orthopedic surgeon came in and did the test to see if the joint capsule had been punctured. This was the worst! He injected 35ml of saline into my elbow joint... slowly... the pressure and pain just kept increasing as I went into some serious mind over matter deep breathing. Jen about passed out. When it was done I looked over and she was white as a ghost! I offered her the crackers I had on my other side but she declined :-). The good news was that the saline he injected didn't leak out anywhere so I didn't need any further joint surgery. Awesome.

A plastic surgeon came down to check out my wound. He was part of a team that was reattaching some guy's finger in the OR and had heard about the work I needed. It was complicated and interesting to him so he wanted to work on me instead. He took a bunch of pictures of it and went back up to consult with his team before coming back down to begin the lace-up. He went to work, using some crazy cutting needles and different types of thread, first trying internal stitching and then moving to closing up the big cut. He was impressed with his work, and Jen said it looked a lot better too. I'll take it!

Stitched up pic

We finally made it home at 3am after being up for about 23 hours. And we just about slept all day Sunday. I ended up with quite the story after going to a race "just for fun" that didn't really matter. But it keeps life interesting I guess! I'm off any "moving" bike for a little while via Dr.'s orders so hopefully it doesn't set me back too much and I can still finish out the Sierra Cup Series and race Marathon Nationals. But we'll see...

8/18/2012 Annadel XC Race Report

2012-08-19T19:38:00.004-07:00

The wind blew... all... night... ugh. Gusting, tree limbs banging and creaking, gates clapping... I hate wind. We cut the race commute down and were staying with our friends Peter and Allyson in Fairfield (a.k.a. the wind tunnel!) for the weekend. Peter was also racing so we all packed into the car at 5:45am to head over to Santa Rosa. And it rained on us for a bit of the drive too... in August! What the heck?

It was nice to get there early, get our race packet (I got Jen's lucky #4!! Sweet!) and take our time putting all the timing chips on the bike and jersey, AND still have time to warm up for about 45 minutes and talk to friends on the start line.

It was cool to see two of my Santa Cruz Enduro/DH teammates, Ryan Condrashoff and Marshall Eames, out for an XC day of pain... I mean fun! Billy Damon, fresh off his 5th place in the Downieville All Mountain rolled up as well as Michael Hosey, Brian Astell, and lots of fast locals from NorCal Bike Sport and other bay area teams. I'd be racing on the Tallboy c (a.k.a. "Red") on WTB Nano's (a very popular choice looking around the start line).

9am finally came and we set off behind the Bike Monkey truck from downtown Santa Rosa. 650+ mountain bikers took to Sonoma Ave at 25+mph hoping to have a clear shot to the dirt at the end of the road 2 miles away. The first few intersections were blocked off by the police... sweet. We were in a tight pack circulating around behind the truck. The truck gunned it a bit... and the few remaining single speeders fell to the back. Then we came up on a shopping center and there were just too many parking lot exits and intersections for the police to block, and about 10 cars had pulled out from the parking lot into the left turn lane going in our direction. I was on the left already hugging the yellow and I was heading straight for the back of them. The lane was open to the right and that's where the truck went, and the peloton followed but I was squeezed off... it was open so I went left. I could see the police in the intersection holding traffic but then that left turn arrow turned green and he was waving those cars on! What are you doing!?! I waved at him to hold the traffic but I guess he didn't see me and was still waving them on. The timing was right so I ducked in after a car made the left turn and fell back into the peloton. It all worked out, and nothing was really that close to being bad, but it definitely wasn't where I wanted to be! As I pulled back into the group, the guys were all laughing and collectively saying "phew!" after getting through that. A motorcycle cop rolled up along the left and said "You were suppose to go do the right!" I don't remember what I said in response, something like "I had nowhere to go and you guys were suppose to hold traffic!" Whatever... I just wanted to get to the dirt. We finally came to the end of Sonoma Ave as the pace picked up to 29mph. There was an officer on foot in the intersection holding traffic and he started walking to the left, which is where we needed to go. We were all shooting for a 10ft wide gap in the fence at the other side of the road. He stopped walking and we split around him. I wonder what he was thinking as we swarmed around him?

Soon we were climbing on the dirt double-track in Howarth Park. I was sitting in about 20th and some of the guys were attacking it and pulling away a little. I knew I don't have that gear, so I kept my pace and as the climbs got longer, I picked 'em off. We wound around the water towers and down to the lake and then across the levy into Spring Lake park and across the Start/Finish line I was off the back of the lead group by about 50 yards and as they made the gradual left turn I could see each rider and counted 1, 2, 3, 4, aw, dang, crap, shoot, ugh, sigh, whatever... so if you counted, I'm in 12th. But being just 15 minutes into the 2hr race I wasn't too worried and I knew there was a lot of trail ahead that suits me.

We climbed a bit more and I caught and passed up to 9th after entering Annadel State (actually now Sonoma County) Park and turned down Cobblestone trail which is full of proper rocks, roots and tight turns. I caught right back up to the group and was riding behind my friend and Cat 1 road racer Keith Hillier. There wasn't a good spot and we went around a left hand sweeper and into a good sized rock garden. He pogo'd and stalled in a slow-mo endo which quickly got accelerated when my handlebar rammed his back tire and punted him over and off the trail. At least he landed in the weeds and not the rocks. "Keith, you OK??" "Yeah." And he was getting up so I kept going to catch back up and finish off Cobblestone, passing by Jen playing with our new DSLR camera at the bottom.

8th and on the flat road of Channel Dr. about 40yds back of a 3 man group. Once we got onto some traversing singletrack I caught right up to them and we were pushing a decent pace. Since there was no place to pass I dropped back a bit to let the dust clear so I wouldn't hit anything in the wrong spot. Just as I did that, one of the NorCal Bike Sport riders flipped over endo off to the left... phew I'm glad I backed off when I did! Ok, no more dudes going OTB in my path please?!?! We popped out of that singletrack and headed up the fire road climb which I know is a long slug... just my cup o' tea. I set in at my diesel pace and caught up to Billy Damon and another NorCal rider. We passed by Ben Portilla (Team Honey Stinger) whom I know from the Sierra Cup Series and our chase group of three see-sawed until we hit some more singletrack. I took a little break and sat in behind Billy as we cruised down some flowy but rocky goodness. I sat on his wheel and knew that he would pick a good line and then we broke out onto some more fire road and Billy and I dropped the NorCal rider. When the slope turned upwards I jumped in front of Billy and we entered the Burma trail climb in the woods. I set my sights on the next two, Michael Hosey and yet another NorCal rider but I could occasionally see one guy a bit off the front, maybe about 20 seconds ahead of them.

As I approached the two-some I could see that Hosey was sitting up a bit in second position seemingly biding time. I figured if I were to pass by he'd jump right on my wheel. Since I caught those two in a good spot on the climb, I just went right around on the left and kept my pace. Sure enough, Hosey sucked right up to my wheel and the other guy stuck right to his. I was feeling the burn for sure, but at least I could hear them breathing hard too! I pulled them all the way up to the top of the Lawndale DH where Hosey sprinted around to get in front. I'm not surprised since he's from the area and probably knows the trails very well. Trail knowledge is so key... as he starts to pull away. I kept the gap close though but the dust in the shadows was making the trail at that speed pretty treacherous. So I was fine with hanging back a bit. It wasn't long before we caught the leader and were being held up a bit. Hosey was able to get by but there wasn't a spot for me so I sat in third as we eventually broke out of the woods and into the shrubs. I came up on a blind right hander and saw that the 2nd place rider, Colin Daw, had slid off the trail. Probably because he had gone into that corner as fast as I was... TOO FAST! $#!^!!! BRAKE!!! I two wheel drifted into the weeds and saved it... nice. Colin was still mounting up and I tried to get on my pedals quickly to get by but he got going in time and stayed in front. Oh well. We didn't have much left on the DH anyway. I took the last few squirts from my bottle before getting to the bottom in anticipation of the Camelbak bottle hand off.

Sweet! They're handing off the nice Podium Chill bottles! Damn... half full! :-( I hadn't planned on that. Now I had to ration but I REALLY wanted to chug!

Colin and I set off on the road traverse over to Schultz trail with Hosey about 20 seconds ahead. I entered Schultz in the 2nd spot but couldn't see Hosey yet. There was a bit of a traverse over to the real climbing still and Colin went by on the flowing singletrack. But once we got to the rocky climbing of Schultz we caught Hosey who was getting bucked around on his hard tail and I was happily seated and keeping the power down on the Tallboy. I caught up to Colin at the top and as we climbed the Pig Flat fire road he asked me if I had any water to spare. I gave it some thought and wanted to be nice, but I really didn't. I only had about two good squirts left in my bottle as well and was already feeling like I was swimming in the ocean when I would get tastes of all the saltiness that was pouring out of my skin. "No, sorry, I'm about out too." "Ok" He said, "I guess that'll make us want to finish faster." Yep. So I passed by at the top of the climb and we charged into, I think it's Marsh Trail, which is a sweet rolling singletrack trail with plenty of challenging obstacles and turns. This trail reminds me a lot of the terrain I'm used to riding at home so I was feeling pretty good. Unfortunately we were catching handfuls of short course riders that had merged back in with our course so it was really hard for me to break away. Any time I'd get a little gap, I'd catch someone and have to wait for them to pull over and Colin was right back on me again. Was this coming down to a sprint finish?

We came out of the singletrack and on to the final doubletrack and rocky road downhill to the finish which is about a mile and a half. I was leading and I could hear Colin right there. From watching him on the course, it seemed he had the better legs but maybe I had the technical edge. So I decided to put that to the test and charged the downhill. I was taking some risks for sure, charging around some off camber turns and drifting, jumping and hopping through the rocks. I seemed to be pulling away just a bit so I kept charging. After I exited one tricky 'S' turn I glanced back and saw some dust and Colin going slowly... he had just slid off the trail. Now was my chance so I went for it. With about a 10 second gap I fought the leg burn and did my best not to blow it by hitting some stupid rock wrong and flatting. Thoughts of Georgia Gould's last two World Cup races where that happened flowed through my head. I did not want that to happen so I checked up just a bit in a few spots. But when the trail flattened out a bit more I looked back and could see Colin charging HARD! Get low, aero... push it... it doesn't burn... be efficient... Would this course freaking END already!!?!?!? AAAHHHH IT HURTS!!!! He's catching up!!!!

I recognized the last couple turns though and knew I was close and as I came around the final turn I looked back and knew he wasn't close enough and I didn't have to sprint... thank God! I sat up and gave it the good ol' fist pump as I crossed the line in 1st after 2hrs in 3min. Yeah!!!

The race promoter, Bike Monkey, always has a great set up for post race and Annadel was no different. We feasted on grub from "Awful Falafel" and of course Lagunitas brews. I of course couldn't resist visiting the Samagse Massage tent for that same awesome post race treatment that I had received earlier this year after SoNoMas. And I bought Jen a massage too :-).

So it wasn't long before I was hungry again so we made our way to downtown Santa Rosa with the "Fastest 29er" prize I had won last year, consisting of a bunch of gift cards/certificates to area pubs & restaurants. The four of had a nice "progressive" dinner starting off with some more brews at "Toad in the Hole" pub.

Then we moved on to "El Coqui" which is a Puerto Rican restaurant. I had never had Puerto Rican cuisine before, and to be honest I didn't expect much more than something similar to Mexican food (this would also qualify as Peter's "something new" food of the day which he has to do when they hang out with us). This has worked out well so far (aside from the Lemon Pizza incident...) and even when they came with us to Thailand. Wow was that good! El Coqui didn't let any of us down and that's a big understatement. We each had one of their Kenematini's (I think that's what they're called), which is a Puerto Rican martini of rum soaked fruit (like lychee) mixed with Guava juice (or Mango in Jen's version) and some other good stuff. Delicious, and that was just the start! Many of the menu items featured Plantains of different forms, and none of us had ever had Plantain. We got a fried green plantain and garlic appetizer which was stuffed with Chicharron (fried pork, like bacon)... so good. Peter and I each got Camarones (Garlic and olive oil sauteed prawns) which came with some sweet plantains, some fried green plantain slices, and Puerto Rican prepared red beans with potatos, pork and garlic. SO GOOD!!! The girls split a pork stuffed sweet plantain dish which was also very good (I of course ate what they didn't finish). If you're ever in Santa Rosa I, we, highly recommend this place.

So a big thanks to Bike Monkey for not only always having well run events with great courses, but for securing great sponsors who contribute fantastic podium prizes.

2012 Downieville Classic All Mountain Report

2012-08-14T21:38:00.000-07:00

This year I wanted to really kill it at Downieville. Santa Cruz even came up with THE perfect bike for the race... the Tallboy LTc, which of course I had to have. High demand for it made delivery pretty last minute and I got it only two weeks before the race, on a day I was going out of town. Thankfully I have an awesome friend in Asa Salas who always seems to come to my rescue. She turned what was a cardboard box in my living room into a beautiful new bike so that I could take it on this maiden Downieville voyage when I got home...

So as you can see, it pedals well... REALLY well. I was truly amazed. But what I was really looking for after feeling a little beat up in last year's race on my "regular" Tallboy, was improved downhill performance. And OH MY did this bike have it! It is an absolute monster truck on the downhills and eats everything! I was having SO much fun! And dropper seatposts are awesome!! (took me a while to remember I had one)

Sidenote: Yeah, the bikes being named the same thing is a little confusing, especially to Jen when trying to tell her why I was getting this bike. "Why are you getting the SAME bike?" "No, they're not the same... this one says 'LT' so it's different." So Santa Cruz if you're listening... it might increase sales and make it easier for guys to pitch it to their wives if you start to name bikes a little more uniquely :-). For now... I just refer to the "regular" Tallboy as 'Red' (red graphics) and the LT as 'Orange' (orange graphics). Now back to the show...

Two things I learned on my preride though was a) I still really don't like wearing hydration backpacks and b) the 36 tooth 1x10 setup that came with the bike wasn't fast enough and I was topping out the gears on the downhills. The solution to the first problem involved some velcro, electrical tape, and robbing a bottle cage from my road bike to create a conveniently mounted bottle cage on the top tube... BRILLIANT! Works like a charm! And the solution to problem #2 involved cannibalizing 'Red' for it's double chainrings and shifter. It made for a bit of a cluttered handlebar with the seatpost button, 2 shifters, 2 brake levers, and a garmin, but it was the ticket.

I was able to get up and ride the course a couple more times and was feeling pretty confident on my new steed in a short time. I even felt comfortable on the infamous "waterfall" section of the downhill which I've never had the confidence to ride previously.

Race morning... I was a big pack of nerves! So it was really, really nice that Jen was able to get the day off from working the TBF Tri-4-Fun and come join me for her first D'ville Classic.

The nice send-off before I warm up and she heads up to the top of the climb for a bottle handoff .

Since I was racing the two day "All Mountain" I would have to weigh the bike before each day's race to make sure I didn't switch any parts. The XL framed, 5+ inch travel, 29 inch wheeled race steed came in to just 27lbs... nice! My choice of tires for the race would be a WTB Bronson 29 2.2 Race up front and a WTB Wolverine 29 2.2 Race in the rear. I went with this setup because of the high volume in both and the fact that they still grip really well when the psi is pumped way up (necessary for the Downieville rocks and speed).

I warmed up for a while but my legs just felt a little flat. I lined up on the front row next to many big names (Decker, Craig, Moeschler, Taberlay, Riffle, etc. etc...) hoping that my legs would get opened up quickly on the climb before all these guys would get away. And with a silent 5 second countdown... GO!!! We were off on the 8 mile, 3000ft climb to the top which never gets any easier. Everyone stayed calm on the first section of pavement and there weren't any breakaways, but the pace certainly picked up just before we made the turn to the dirt. I settled in farther back than I was hoping for, maybe about 20th. But after a few minutes on the dirt I started to gain some ground back and pass a few guys. I settled in the steady climb and was lucky enough to have two songs stuck in my head: "Whistle" by Flo Rida and, of course, "Call Me Maybe." I guess they were on the radio during the drive up. But there was no way I was able to whistle or sing along... I was pegged with my heart rate hovering about 175 and it would stay that way for the 37 minutes it would take me to get to "the turn" with 2400 feet of the climbing complete. This is my usual spot to take on some Hammer Gel and recover for a couple pedal strokes, but my heart rate only would get down to 167 before getting back on it and to stay with Kenny Burt who had just passed me and to keep Jason Moeschler in sight. One more steep climb and I'd pass Kenny back before we begin the traverse over to the top at Packer Saddle (still climbing, just gradual). This is always where I hope to make up some ground and stay as hard on the pedals as I was when it was steep. I kept on it and did make a few passes but it's hard to break away on your own and I ended up pulling three or four riders up to the last climb before the top where they passed... and I was hurting. I could tell that I was getting pretty dehydrated and my bottle was empty. But thankfully Jen was there at the top for the liquid replacement. I crested the top in 13th place at about 54 minutes, which I was disappointed with... I know I could do closer to 50, but the legs just weren't there.

I entered Sunrise trail behind Moeschler and Duncan Riffle, and hoped I'd be able to stick with them. But I was surprised that Riffle was actually holding me up... must be the bike... or he's just really gassed from the climb. But Moeschler was getting away and I just couldn't find a good place to make a pass stick on Riffle. So I sat in and recovered a bit, but Kenny Burt caught us right before the end of Sunrise and we all started the traverse over to the "Baby Heads" together. My legs were burning and I was really wishing that I had grabbed an extra water bottle at the top because I had sucked down maybe 3/4 of the 2nd bottle by the time we made it to Baby Heads... oh well. All downhill (sorta) from here!

I entered Baby Heads (named because of the big, smooth rocks that cover this trail) behind Burt and I was hoping to stay on his wheel. I knew my good lines through here, but he's a great descender. We made a couple passes before the trail got really rough and I was again surprised I was able to stick with him. Even feeling like I could be going faster... must be the bike. We passed Billy Damon who was having a great ride and then went splashing through Pauley Creek. And to the cheers and encouragement from familiar faces Obie Miller and Chris Schulze spending the day on their moto's instead of pedaling... I powered up the loose climb after the creek that many have to hike. I led Kenny around a Marin factory team rider and before getting into the techy stuff on Pauley Creek Trail Kenny wanted by so I let him go. Again I set out to stay right on his wheel. We were absolutely ripping it and it was awesome.

Although it was SO dusty I couldn't see squat. I was watching Kenny's movements closely and mimicking his actions to absorb and work the trail, but the trail was getting rougher and I was feeling the need to back off a bit in order to save my equipment. Just as I was backing off, leaned over in a right hander, SMACK!!! PSSHHSHSHSHHH!!!! I had hit a root (I think) pretty hard but it just happened to have a sharp nub or something which punctured the front tire... "NOOOOO!!!! DAMMIT!!" Stan's sealant was shooting everywhere and the tire was flat almost instantly. It was a huge gash... two actually and a chunk of tread was torn off. I busted out the CO2 in an attempt to get it to seal up tubeless again but that was a lost cause... the Stan's just went everywhere! So I busted out my tube to throw in the tire but ran into two problems: 1) Since I'd never had a flat with the new ENVE carbon wheels, I didn't realize the standard valve stem didn't hardly stick through the deep dish rim which caused problem 2) the new CO2 head I'd just bought didn't fit on there enough to inflate the tube!!! Aaahhhhh!!!!! And I wasn't carrying an old fashioned pump. My day was done so I set off carrying the bike down the trail and tried to stay out of the way. After about 15 minutes of hiking I came across another rider who was pumping up his tire and just finishing up. "Can I borrow your pump?" I humbly asked. "Yeah... but you'll have to carry it down." That was an easy choice, he handed me his pump just as I was getting my tube in and he set off. Thank you!!! Hopefully you got it back from the race announcer! I pumped up the tire with the tube visible through the puncture holes and prayed it would hold up for the rest of the downhill.

Once I finally got going again I was right in the mix with the middle or back of the expert field and maybe the front end of the sport riders. Man was this frustrating. I'd never experienced mid pack riding at Downieville before but that stinks! These guys are working hard, so kudos for them pushing their limits, but can I just get by?? But after a while I just accepted it and figured I'd benefit from "saving" myself for the DH on Sunday. On 1st Divide trail I was stuck behind a group of three and since it's on the side of a cliff, there was no getting by. I started whistling and singing the two songs that were stuck in my head, and I even asked what songs those guys had stuck in their heads (happens to everyone right?) and offered to sing them. I didn't get a response... they were probably thinking to themselves "Would this jerk shut up?!" I finally got by before the lower, faster section of the trail...

I finally rolled across the line in 2hrs 36min... and extremely bummed.

I kept telling myself that it's just the nature of racing here at Downieville and you HAVE to have good luck in order to do well. Just regular luck means you break something or flat but you can still fix it and finish. Bad luck is when you have to DNF. So I tried to be thankful. Turns out Kenny flatted a little ways down the trail too so I was bummed for him as well. I think we were going to get up close to the top five.

So then I set out after some things that make me feel better...

And then we were headed back home to get ready for Sunday... the DH for me and TBF for Jen. I patched up the tire and refilled with sealant and 'Orange' was ready to rip it again.

I would be the 10th rider to set off on the DH course so I wasn't going to have much traffic or dust. But since I knew I was out of contention for the All Mountain I really just wanted to make sure I didn't hold up Moeschler and Craig who were starting behind me. I knew based on previous years times that it was inevitable that they would pass.

I had a clean and smooth run on Sunrise and the Butcher fire road and plunged into the upper Butcher singletrack. But not long into it I hear "Clint!! Buddy!!" Jason had already caught me and thankfully there was a good place to pull over so I did right away and he blew by. Amazing. I got back on it hard to try to stay with him and learn but he passed me too fast. I was able to keep him in sight for a while but he was gone by the waterfall. I rode my line clean through it though and finished up Butcher trail with one of my cleanest runs ever. But towards the bottom switchbacks I could feel my back tire getting squishy. Not again... Was it just in my head? Nope. After I crossed the bridge and set off up the climb to 3rd divide I looked down and it was getting really soft. I was able to make it to the top of the climb however but with the 40mph singletrack of 3rd divide ahead I needed to fill it up. So out the CO2 came again and as I was hooking it up Adam Craig came powering by. Well at least I didn't hold him up either. I finally got it full and set off to tear down the hill some more. Again I had one of my best runs on 3rd divide, hitting lines I'd never done before and really blazing it. A couple times I had some "Oh $#!^" moments and almost flew off the trail but was able to save it and keep it smooth. I had a smooth run on the upper section of 1st Divide trail and kept up a good pace on the flats. But speaking of flats, the rear tire was going down again about half way down the lower, faster part of 1st Divide but there was no way I was stopping again! I made it to the pavement without too many rim strikes and finished my DH run with my best time ever of 48:27... even with two stops. Not too shabby and it was good enough for 19th fastest in the DH with a pretty stacked field. But based on my prior day's poor XC result my All Mountain result was just 40th overall for the Pro men. Oh well. But at least I got to have a BLAST racing a sweet new bike... and just being at the Downieville Classic is always fun. Next year...

2012 MTB XC and Super D National Championships: Trials and Lessons Learned

2012-07-31T15:57:00.001-07:00

I figured it's time for a post about this year's Nationals... which for me was a flop. I'd really been looking forward to going back to Sun Valley after having such a good time last year, and especially considering how well I'd been doing this year. In the months and weeks leading up to July, I'd been racking up the wins, tons of hours on the bike, and was generally feeling great. But once July came around it seemed to go downhill for me, physically but also mentally. I cracked under self imposed pressure.

I'll start with the physical. So for the most part, I race all season long and let the fitness come and go in little bits as my life dictates, and I never really "peak" or taper intentionally. I treat almost every race the same and go as hard as I can and accept my result at my current level of fitness. And my body is really used to, and operates best, on the energizer bunny training method. So when I decided to "taper" about 10 days out it felt really, really weird.

I had been without my Highball for about three weeks for some repairs and had been riding the Tallboy exclusively. But I finally got it back in the last week of June for the final Prairie City Race Series race (which I won the Pro/Open 12 week series).

Another hard ride on Thursday followed by an easy commute on Friday. Then I took Saturday completely off, which I hadn't done in a long time. But I noticed that my left leg had a little bit of pain behind the knee as I spun cycles in the pool (couldn't help myself). So I figured the day off was good. What I didn't know was that I had gotten too use to the Tallboy which had a seat height about 1cm lower than the Highball. A factor that I never had a problem with since I always had both bikes to switch back and forth. On Sunday I went up to Auburn for a hill repeat ride that mimicked the Nationals course pretty closely with a 700ft, 16% avg grade climb that I set out to ride 6 times. I was feeling fine so I didn't really warm up much, using climb 1 as the warm up. On the 4th trip up I was noticing that pain behind the left knee again but I rode through it. It was worse on the 5th trip and I considered hanging it up for the day, but decided that I was here for 6 laps so I was going to do 6! But it was hurting pretty badly by the time I was done. I figured it was just one of those aches and I'd ice and rest for the remainder of the day and it'd be fine. Wrong. I had basically hyper extended my knee and through really hard pedaling and pulling back and up on the pedals, pulled or partially torn my lower hamstring muscle. Or tendon... whatever... something down there wasn't right.

Ok now about the mental, I'll start on that since it's hard to have one without the other. I had found out that Jen now wasn't able to come with me to Sun Valley. I had really been wanting to share that place with her and have her along on the trip. She just makes my life and every experience so much better. And besides I think I'm faster at races when she's there because I basically race back to her and get it over with as quickly as possible :-). She couldn't come because of her (our) commitment to running the registration and timing for TBF racing which had a big triathlon weekend on the same dates as Nationals and nobody was able to cover for her. So that was a bit of a hit for me because I was looking forward to her coming, but it was in no way her fault.

I was also getting a lot of words of encouragement and support from friends, family and the local cycling community. Telling me to go get it and to kill it for NorCal at Nationals. Don't get me wrong, it's SO awesome and incredibly humbling to have so much support from so many people. But I let it build on the pressure I was already putting on myself for this race. Now I felt that if I didn't do well I would be letting everyone else down, not just myself. How's that for setting myself up for failure?

Monday I could hardly walk without a limp, and stairs really hurt. I was considering not making the trip to Idaho and was getting really emotionally down about it. I didn't ride and decided to see what Tuesday would bring. Tuesday I rode in the morning, for a half hour and it hurt. I still didn't want to give up, so I decided I was going to make the trip anyway since I had 4 more days until the race. And besides... my new ENVE XC29 Carbon wheels had just come! So sweet!

The lack of riding was really feeling weird to me and I was really worried about my eating, or that I was over eating because I wasn't riding. I was getting too focused on what I couldn't do because of the injury and putting myself in a weird mental state. I should have been viewing this time off the bike as rest my body needs and bonus extra time with Jen before I left for 5 days.

The 10 1/2 hour drive seemed to be ok on my leg and it felt decent when I got there, but I generally felt like crap because I was mindlessly snacking the whole trip to pass the time (Northern Nevada is pretty boring to drive through!). But I set out for a pre-ride and the first trip up the climb made the leg hurt right away. I did one lap of the pro course, which was the same as last year. A 600ft vertical climb up a super steep fire road with a really fun descent with a ton of switchbacks. And then I set out for a lap of the Amateur course which was new this year with an hour long 3000ft or so climb with some really fun descending off the back of the mountain before coming back down the last DH of the pro course.

I rode for 2 1/2 hours and had a lot of fun including a "pinball" interpretation off of a couple of trees :-). I'm good! Nobody saw that!

And it was my first ride on the new ENVE wheels... and I have to say they are SO awesome and stiff. Adding even more quickness to the Highball.

On Thursday I busted out the Tallboy for some Super D runs. Also the same course as last year, on which I took 8th. I was really looking forward to killing this race too and I had that course DIALED! It was a little more blown out and looser than last year and made for some sketchy moments. I felt fast but... the first 4 minutes of climbing hurt the leg pretty badly.

Friday I had to take completely off. The leg was swollen up and it was still iffy that I could race at all. I did a lot of napping and watching baseball (Go Giants!!!)... and worrying about what I was eating. I was really thankful to have the internet and be able to chat with Jen and email and check Facebook to still feel connected. And in discussing my injury with friends I finally busted out the tape measure and that's when I first discovered the saddle height discrepancy between the two bikes. So I made the adjustments.

Saturday... race day. I went out for a morning spin to see if it was even going to happen today. I stopped by the Spidertech booth and got the hammie taped up. That combined with the new height adjustments I felt good enough to give the race a shot. Now just waiting for that 4pm start time...

I went out and warmed up, but it was 90 degrees out so I wasn't too worried about not being warm that's for sure. But I got in about a half hour and the leg was aching pretty badly... I could hardly walk. But it was time to line up, so here we go!

I started right about in the middle of the pack of 60 or so and as we finished the start loop and turned up the climb for the first time I had fallen back a few spots. So I stood up and hammered on the climb where I could, gaining some back. And since standing up didn't hurt the leg I would do as much as I could.

Unfortunately the climb is so steep and so loose that it's just not possible on most of it. I finally made it to the top, took a chug of water, a couple deep breaths and tried to hammer the DH. I made a couple passes on the switchbacks taking the hard lines, but it turned out that unclipping my left foot under pressure and planting also hurt the leg. Damn.

All in all though I was feeling pretty decent and was starting to pick guys off pretty early in the race so I was going for it. On the second trip up the climb I passed another handful of guys and had a good descent until I got held up by a group at the bottom. Here's where it got a little weird. I started to feel a headache coming on, so I figured I was getting a little hungry since it was about that time anyway. So after crossing the line to start lap 3 I took a gulp of Hammer Gel and a big chug of water. Then I poured it on to pass that group of three before the river rock garden. But my body didn't like everything I was doing to it apparently, and by the base of the climb I wasn't feeling right and I couldn't put down any power. Those guys passed me back and I just put it in an easy gear to try and recover... there was still a lot of time left.

But as I climbed I just watched my heart rate fall down to the 140's, and 130's on a climb where I was putting out an effort I should at least be in the 160's but 170's more likely. The headache was back and strong, my vision was starting to get a little "bleached," and I was feeling like I wasn't getting any air. I had felt like this twice before, many years ago and got two ambulance rides out of the deal. So I decided it was time to stop. Not to mention my leg was hurting so badly it was aching all the way up through my glute into my back and hips. Half way up the climb, I pulled off and laid down with my head downhill and waited for EMS. It wasn't long before they came, with oxygen, which helped a lot. I kept sipping my HEED/water mix too and in about a half hour of resting there watching guys suffer up the climb and look longingly at my oxygen mask, I was ready to head back down the hill.

It was incredibly embarrassing to roll past all the spectators with a bike that was completely intact and a body that wasn't bloodied. That was until I got to the flat area and could only pedal with one leg and had to dangle my left... then they could see what was wrong. Or at least one of the things that was wrong. So... 2012 XC Nationals... Bonk... DNF. I hate DNF's and I had just done it in my biggest race of the year.

I still had a chance though for the Super D... not. I couldn't even bend my leg enough to pedal back to my condo. What was weird was that after I showered up and ate dinner, the leg felt fine! That was really annoying and was not making my decision to race the next morning any easier. So at 9pm I took out the Tallboy and went for a quick pedal to see what was going on and sure enough, two hard pedal strokes in the leg was hurting quite badly again. I needed to make the "big boy" call right then, and the correct call was to not enter the Super D. It just wasn't going to be worth the additional damage it was going to cause. And knowing myself and how much I love to race... and how I would be still tempted to race once morning came around, I packed up and decided to drive home through the night and "race" back to Jen so I could help her out at the Sunday TBF race. I was happy I made that choice, and I was happy to be home.

I had put so much into the prep for this race, or so I had told myself, and I felt like a failure. But in reality all my "prep" is just me riding and racing because I enjoy it... it's just what I do. And I put too much emphasis on this race and too much pressure on myself which took the fun out of it and made it way too complicated and stressful. So I think I've learned my mental lesson... and to pay more attention to bike fit!

Not every race (or ride!) is going to go as planned, and I'm allowed to have a bad race. Time to move on...

6/2-3 - Doubleheader Race Weekend Part 2 - Sierra Cup Series #4 - Peavine Challenge

2012-06-15T15:48:00.003-07:00

Well the epic racing weekend was off to a good start with a win at SoNoMas on Saturday (check out part 1 here if you missed it) and I was feeling fairly decent Saturday night. But after the drive up to Reno the next morning, my lower back was pretty darn tight. All the driving probably didn't help with that. The legs definitely weren't "fresh" but didn't seem to be too flat. I did notice it was much harder to get my heart rate up when I was trying to warm up, which was to be expected. I would be running the same set-up as the day before: Highball with Nano TCS tires. The sealant did a good job on the front tire so thankfully I didn't need to change it out. With the trip up to altitude however, my rear brake was a little off causing the bike to sing to me like a bad American Idol audition... and not a funny one either! After some fiddling I was able to get the caliper to a spot where it wasn't really causing resistance but would let out an occasional squeal. Good enough.

The Peavine course consists of one big mountain loop starting at about 5200ft elevation going up to a little over 6000ft in about 6 miles. After my warm up I didn't feel like I had a ton of "pop" and wasn't sure if I could really hammer the climb on both laps. I figured I'd be sitting in for at least lap 1.

When the whistle blew I was off and in the lead right away. Am I finally getting good at starts??? I doubt it, I just love how well the Highball sprints so it's fun. I started up the first climb and wanted to set a strong pace to feel out my competition and keep anyone who didn't belong up front from getting in the way. Pretty soon it was just three of us off the front. I led up over the first crest and bam... a face full of headwind! Those two guys found their "happy place" tucked right in my massive slipstream (sure... sit in behind the tall guy!) so I backed off the pace just a bit until the crest. But I felt stupid for not letting someone else lead when I should probably be conserving. Especially when #2 passed me after the short drop to the fire road climb and said "Good job" like he wasn't even working hard. All I knew was that right then he was pulling away and my legs were burning! Then the other guy passed me but I was able to stay on his wheel for a bit but it still hurt. So I backed off and decided to just keep them in sight for now. But their pace was soon dialed back when the climbing got steep and my diesel motor was still chuggin' along at a low rate, barely getting to 160bpm. I stayed on the wheel of 2nd place and we were about 20-30 seconds back from the leader, but near the top of the climb I passed for 2nd figuring I would descend faster. I dropped into the "bobsled" section which is a fun half-pipe shaped canyon the course rips down in a slalom. But I didn't have the energy to charge it and soon I was being asked to pull over, which I did. Then I wanted to see if he'd hit the same stupid sharp rock I've hit the last two years to give me flats... he missed it. But he's a local so he probably knew it was there too. I missed it as well and continued down the hill at a smooth pace, just conserving energy and not getting worried about my position. I could still see them both in the open sections and could make up time on the few short climbs that interrupt the super fast and flowy descent. The legs felt like they were coming back... nice!

At the bottom I was only about 20 seconds back, and we started climbing again. A friend watching yelled "Alright Clint they're right there... time to RACE!" Exactly... and it was on! But there was still about 35 minutes of climbing to go, so I was planning on just catching up at a smooth and steady closing rate and making the pass closer to the top. We went over that first crest again but I didn't get close enough to get into their draft. Oh well, still a lot of course left. Up the fire road we went and I caught 2nd place pretty quickly as he was fading back. I set my sights on the leader, about 10 seconds ahead who was making his way up the first of the steeper sections, which is about 1/3 of the way up the total climb. I was closing fast and had a decision to make... do I pass now or sit and wait to pass closer to the top like I had planned? I wasn't sure what the best move was, but what I did know was that I was feeling good right then and he looked like he was suffering. So feeling like I had a good chance to make the pass stick, I poured it on, passed in the weeds and did my best to pull a good gap and break his spirits so he wouldn't try to hang on. I figured if he caught back up, I'd still have a chance to pull a gap again at the top. But he never caught back up and my gap was growing... nice! Now I just needed to protect my equipment, be smooth and bring it home. But near the top, still climbing, I shift down and CRUNCH! A nasty sound comes from my gears so I stop pedaling immediately. For whatever reason, the chain had gotten thrown over the rear cassette and wedged between the spokes! Ahhh!!! Stay calm... don't get mad. I dismount, inspect... then yank! It comes out with no damage, thankfully I had stopped pedaling quickly and it was only half way wrapped around. Quickly I'm back to charging up the last bit of the climb with 2nd place in sight but still quite a ways back.

Down the bobsled I go... remember that rock... missed it! Nice. Ok... deep breath... smooth is fast. I was most definitely faster the 2nd time down but I was really having to be "twinkle toes" over the rocks because while I put more air pressure in the tires after learning from my mistake at SoNoMas, it still wasn't enough. I had forgotten how fast I end up going here over the sharp rocks. That made this time down more nerve racking than fun. I heard a couple rim strikes but thankfully no loss of air. And since I was rocking the pedals so much dancing around the rocks, my chain came off about three times. Thankfully I've learned how to pull it back on by working the front derailleur so I didn't have to stop. But it requires me to look down at it and when I do, of course that's when I rim strike a rock. I was so nervous about flatting and I was really working to stay light on the bike. I was literally yelling "STOP!!! NO!!" at every rim strike. Yes... I was yelling at rocks, rather than slowing down. Thankfully I made it through the worst of the rocks without incident but I was so mad at myself for running too low of pressure the second day in row... stupid.

I turned down the last canyon traverse and fighting the blast of headwind and the rapidly increasing temparatures, I finished strong and came in for the win with a time of 1 hour 59 minutes for the 25 mile course with 4500ft of climbing.

Stoked to have finished under 2 hours which was a little goal I had in the back of my head, and even more stoked to have pulled off a second win on the weekend!

And the podium is always made sweeter with a bottle of wine... NICE!!!

6/2-3 - Doubleheader Race Weekend Part 1 - SoNoMas

2012-06-14T16:12:00.000-07:00

What has turned out to be one of my favorite races each year, SoNoMas, was moved up in the calendar from its usual spot in August probably due to additional punishment racers (and staff) get from mid-summer heat that time of year. When I saw it on the schedule however I was really bummed because the race on the next day is part of the Sierra Cup Series which I'm committed to this year. Considering SoNoMas, the monster trek around Lake Sonoma, is one of the toughest races all year and more of a Marathon XC event I really didn't think it would be smart to try and do both races that weekend. But with strong races each of the 3 weeks prior, and not only riding 30 miles to work Wednesday morning but riding 22 miles out to the local Prairie City Race and then managing a win, Jen looked at me with surprise and said "You're not racing SoNoMas?!?!" I told her how insane it sounded with the XC race in Reno the next day, but rested up Thursday just in case with an easy recovery spin. On Friday's lunch ride I had some pep in the pedals, and Jen was still encouraging me, so I signed up for the 35 mile & 7k feet of climbing race the next morning. I blame her :-) Each year I have flatted at this race, and last year the luck was even worse. Battling for 3rd with 4 miles to go, my rear derailleur cable broke. I was trying to single speed as much as I could and made it maybe a 1/2 mile before the chain blew up. So I ran/coasted the last 3 or so miles to finish 9th. I was looking for redemption... and a little better luck.

This year I would be racing my Highball because I'd been racing the last few weeks on it and was really comfortable. And last year, on the Tallboy, I remember thinking that it wasn't too rough overall and that I wished I had the hard tail for those steep climbs. I arrived at 7am and quickly realized I forgot socks! DOH! Luckily my buddy Brian Butler was there with his race rig... an old panel van filled with... well... everything from the garage. So I asked, and of course, I had a selection to choose from. Nice. I then moved on to the snails pace reg line and resolved myself to "it is what it is" and tried not to get worked up about the quickly approaching 8am start. My fault... should have left earlier (than 4:30! ugh). Fast forward... 7:52... time to start the warmup. I "pinch test" my WTB Nano tires, a little soft but I've been running them like that lately so I figured I was ok, and I was feeling rushed even though trying not to. Everyone's already lined up so I just spin a couple minutes and then join in. I'll just have to use the 10 minute road-race start as my "warm up."

This race usually contains some fast Cat 1 and/or Pro roadies, as well as some notable MTB strongmen. This year was no different. Once we started up the road climb, the pace was pushed and I just tried not to totally blow up since this was my "warm up." So I hung on to the back of the lead group and planned to get to the front, or close to it, on the last pitch before we hit the dirt. So my warmup finally ended and I hit the dirt in maybe 6th or so, and began ripping down the first fun filled singletrack trail of switchbacks, loose rocks and root drops. At least it was fun until I was held up by the first roadie with a handling vs. fitness imbalance. After a couple steep sections of roller coaster I was finally able to make the pass and set my sights ahead. I soon caught up to Jim Hewitt and passed him as well, but he's very experienced and good at pacing so I was concerned that I might be going too hard too early. But I pressed on, feeling like I'd been held up too much and too much time was lost to the leaders. Before long, at about mile 5, I caught up to Aren Timmel and Michael Hosey on a climb with a convenient place to pass so I went on by. But as I passed, I asked Aren "Anyone else up ahead?" Figuring there were at least a couple, but to my surprise he said "Nope." Still wanting rabbits to chase and knowing it's a long race to be leading this early I said "Just tell me there are..." and I kept the power down. Michael jumped on my wheel and we stayed together for the next couple miles, pulling a decent gap. As we made it to the short road transition, I discussed with Michael the potentially frustrating sight ahead of us. That being the short course riders we had now caught. This year was the first year they offered the short course, a 10 mile shorter route which started at the same time. I caught up to a group of three just before the turn off the pavement, but was only able to pass two before the third made his way to the dirt pile that goes up and over the curb and guard rail. I hollered "Riders back! Go go go!" to try to, um, encourage him on what could be a challenging obstacle to clear for even a seasoned rider if you don't hit it right. I swung out wide to give him room, he made it most of the way up before having to put a foot down, then I was right up on him. Thankfully he had heard me and was moving off to the left, but my attention was more on him than what I was about to run into as I charged up... DING-DING! No, not a doorbell, that's my rims bottoming out on the square edged curb because I was slightly off line. Can you see the concern in my face?

"Oh no..." I thought to myself. I took a second before charging down the loose downhill and didn't hear any air rushing out, but my front seemed a little more squishy.

Quickly back to the task at hand... negotiating slow traffic on a fast downhill with loose jagged rocks. Michael chimed up "I don't like this..." My sentiments exactly. But we charged ahead.

As I took an alternate line around a rider on the brakes, my bike skipping over the rocks, DING! Another rim strike. But this one was followed by the dredded PPSHSSHSHSHHHHH.... I could barely navigate the next off camber turn without the tire rolling off the rim so I had to pull off. Dang. I was really bummed, but trying not to be. I flipped the bike over and gave it a shot of Co2 only to hear it running right out of a hole in the center of the tread from the sharp rock, as well as the bead. I took the wheel off and was shaking the sealant around as passing riders offered their sentiments of "Bummer," "Sorry Bro," "Aww already?!" etc. The tire seemed to seal up and I filled it to what seemed to be a good pressure. Stop time (according to my Garmin) 1min 16 seconds and I was on my way again playing catch up. I passed a handful of riders back fairly quickly, but the trail turned downhill with off camber turns and was putting too much force on the still fragile seal, so it lost pressure again. I was off again, still swishing and pleading with the sealant to hold because I really didn't want to put a tube in. This stop was 1min 20 seconds and I put more air in and tried to give the sealant a little more time to do its job. I rolled through the first aid station on a mission. I knew fairly gradual fire road climb was coming up where I'd have an opportunity to pass a few people back if I could before the next singletrack. I made those passes stick on about five riders before the switchback at the top to enter the narrow trail again. Mark Weir saw me as he turned in and with a shout of encouragement let me by to keep up my pace. I was held up a little by a couple guys before I'd have good passing opportunities but I just tried not to panic. It was still only about mile 10 of a 35 mile race.

At about mile 13 I was behind Will Curtis and Jesse Smith on a winding dirt road when I see a trail diving off to the left and a course marker hanging on a tree branch... as we go by it. On the brakes, I holler at them "This way guys!!!" And I drop in. I spend the next few seconds, while navigating the downhill switchbacks, second guessing myself looking for tire tracks in the dirt. It just felt right though. But since my attention was distracted, I wander up the side of a rut putting extra force on that front tire and it burps air out again. Ahhh!!! The next bit of trail was climbing and traversing so I decided to keep going until I was forced to stop. I made it a couple miles before Will and Jesse had caught back up to me and it was clear the tire was slowing me up so I'd better stop again. A handfull of riders passed again during this 1 minute stop, but I put even more pressure in that front tire praying this would be the last time, and I gave the back tire an extra shot of air too just in case (my head was playing games and I thought the back tire was going down too). Thankfully, this was my last stop. I had 20 miles left and I steadily picked off everyone I had already passed... again. I guess I got my wish of still having rabbits to chase!

With the race being moved up the calendar the trail was a bit different than years past. It wasn't quite as loose on the steep climbs, but the cattle hoof marks were a bit more present. The weeds were also taller which obstructed the view of the trail in the turns and the creek crossings were deeper. Different challenges to overcome on a trail that gives and takes elevation very quickly (steep). I was still feeling good though as the miles ticked off. I was fueling well with Hammer Gel and HEED, only having gone through about 1.5 bottles by the mile 21 Camelback aid station. I ditched my half full (not half empty... see what I did there?) bottle in exchange for one of their cool podium bottles before plunging into one of the deepest creek crossings on the course. I had just passed Aren back and could see Jim up ahead on the climb. When I caught Jim he said Michael was about a minute and a half up so I kept pushing my pace. At about mile 25 or so, I made my way down into another creek gulley to see Michael off the side of the trail in a ditch, his bike backwards and the rear wheel off. It looked like he had crashed badly and I asked if he was ok. With exasperation he told me he was good and to just keep going. So I did. Turns out his rear derailleur hanger had broken and it wasn't a crash.

So I was all alone off the front. Well sort of. I was still catching short course riders here and there. These were the leaders of their race though and most of them, with early notice from me, would pull off and let me pass without much hold up. I'd give a shout of thanks and encouragement as I passed and tried to keep the hammer down, worried that Jim (or someone else) was going to make a late race charge and catch me. My Highball was working so well and I was very happy to be able to stand up and really power up out of the steep gulleys with such efficiency. I passed that 31 mile point where I had to start running last year and was battling with my urge to keep going as hard as I can with the need to make sure I take care of my equipment. Smooth is fast... and it was fast enough to hold on for the win by 6 minutes after 3 hours and 3 minutes. The record time, set by Levi Leipheimer, is 2 hours 57 minutes... so not bad considering my stops and slowed pace with the tire issues.

I returned the now soiled (to say the least) socks to Brian and went into recovery mode to get ready for the next days race. Continuously eating, keeping the feet up, and getting one of the best sports massages I've had from Samagse Mobile Massage who was on site. Awesome! Oh and I'd say that a podium celebration is good recovery as well!

Next up... part 2... Sierra Cup #4 - Peavine Challenge in Reno.

5/26 - Sierra Cup #3 - La Grange Spring Classic

2012-05-28T08:31:00.000-07:00

Round three of the Sierra Cup Series would take me way up North to Weaverville, CA. About 45 minutes west of Redding, near Whiskeytown Lake where I had raced a month earlier at the Shasta Lemurian (Hard and VERY fun). Don't let this spec on the map fool you though, not only is there some of the best MTB riding but the Trinity Valley is absolutely gorgeous!

La Grange, the fall version, was one of my first few races way back in 2006 when I was still a Clydesdale. I remembered that the trails were very fun, despite an endo on a downhill switchback (yep, sucked at those back then too!). And I think my finish time was 2hrs and 13min if I remember correctly. So I had a target time to beat at least.

After the 3 1/2 hour drive up and an adaquate amount of coffee... I swung a leg over the Highball and set out for a warm up and to check out as much of the course as I could. It's a "lollypop" style course where we'd head out about 3 miles on the same trail we'd return after riding the big loop. It's funny how well I remembered the trails after so many years, and they were still great. It wasn't like I remembered where every bump, rock, root, etc. was but more the general stuff like creek crossings and the general topography. Race time came under cloudy skies and I sprinted up the first hill and set into 3rd wheel. Once we got to the plateau, I was able to keep that pace and pulled up into the lead and made sure to hold it long enough to be first into the singletrack. I kept the pace high but Billy Damon, last year's Open Category 30-39 Super D National Champion and shredder from Auburn (so he can climb too), was right on my wheel. At least I could hear him breathing hard... I certainly was! I stayed in the lead and we put a big gap on the rest of the field in short time, railing the twisting trails of the rolling hills and I only slid off the trail once after overcooking a switchback. After crossing a road we turned up, and I mean really up on a steep climb that just seemed to get steeper until finally giving a little break and a bit of fun downhill which landed us on another dirt road for more, and more climbing. Billy pulled up alongside on his Santa Cruz Blur TRc and we chatted a bit on the steady incline. I asked if he was going to put me to shame today but he said "Nah 45 minutes is about all I've got at this pace."  Of course I didn't believe him, but we were about 45 minutes in when the climbing got steep again and I made sure to keep the pace up. He slowly faded back as I climbed the ridge up to the top of the course and was maybe 30 seconds back before most of the climbing was done and out of sight when we'd get into the trees.

The course transitioned to contouring fire road as it began to sprinkle lightly. I came up over a knoll and around a right hand corner when a black bear cub went running across the trail about 30 yards in front of me... WHOA!! Uhh... where's mama bear?!?! I immediately sat up and was looking around for the big beast but didn't see her as I kept rolling and yelling "HEY BEAR!!" loudly hoping to scare them off. As I continued down the trail I was wondering to myself if it was possible to outrun a bear on a mountain bike. They can take shortcuts... hmm. We'll thankfully I didn't have to answer this question, but needless to say this put new meaning to the term "racing scared."  The pull tag the promoter had us pin to our shoulder flapping in the wind was freaking me out too, right next to my ear. It sounded like a bear running through the leaves... must, ride, faster! It wasn't long before I rolled down into a creek crossing which required a dissmount, trapsing through ankle high freezing cold water and running up the steep trail on the other side. Good thing that imaginary bear was chasing me or I might have let it get to me how much I hate having cold wet feet!

The course then gave me something else to focus on though as it got back into singletrack, and I mean single. Hardly cut in wide enough for a tire width in places and riding on the spine of an old mining flume was pretty tricky at race speed, especially when it started sleeting! And then hailing!  What happened to 67 and sunny?!  Weather forcast fail... you never know what you're going to get in the Trinity Valley though. The frozen precipitation only lasted for a few minutes however and turned into a steady light rain as I turned downhill on those tight switchbacks that claimed some of my skin five years ago. I think there's about 10 of them with a few sweepers thrown in the mix that add to the fun, and no crashing this time, guess I've improved a bit. Turns out the rain tacked up the trail PERFECTLY! The Nano's held the dirt like velcro all the way down to the creek trail which resembled the trails I have back home out my front door. Like a giant pump track, twisting around trees with small climbs, descents and tons of flow.  I remembered this trail, but forgot how fun it was! About a mile on this one and it was back onto the stem of the "lollypop" and I was boosting the water bars on the descent back to the finish line where they told me I had set a new course record. 1hr 36min... a bit of an improvement over the last time I was here!

5/19 - Sierra Cup Series #2 - Pine Nut Cracker

2012-05-28T07:30:00.001-07:00

Coming off of a great 1st round of racing for the Sierra Cup Series at the Rockhopper Classic in Vacaville, I had my sights set on round two and another fun course at the Pine Nut Cracker in Gardnerville, NV. But I really had to focus on my recovery during the week, that effort at Rockhopper capping off a 17+ hour week of riding really took it out of me. Thankfully it was perfectly timed with an off week from Wednesday night races at Prairie City, so Jen and I went sailing in SF bay instead... and it was even a race! A very fun and necessary break, both mentally and physically.

Anyways... back to Nevada at 5200ft... In years prior I had always ridden a full suspension on this course because it's pretty gradual climbing and almost constant seated pedaling over moto trails (a.k.a.- lots of small roller bumps). But since it's not very rocky, I decided to give the Highball a shot this year. And I was happy I did. Combined with the fast rolling WTB Nano's... it was a rocket!

I took the lead right from the gun and tried to push through that first 5 minutes of leg burn that always seems to hurt the worst. I guess it's the body saying "Oh not this again..." But I got through it and onto the singletrack and I could hear one person in tow, but I was trying not to look back and just keep the power down. The first half of the loop is a deceptive climb. With all the rollers, small and big, there are lots of false flats where you don't think you're climbing but you are. There's one steep and loose climb which I made up in lap 1 (but not 2&3 due to it getting chewed up by other racers hiking) and a couple other good pitches that sear the lungs, legs, and let you know you're climbing at elevation. But the payoff is a long, gradual downhill with banked turns, rollers to pump and double and bushes to duck under while brake drifting.

I set off down the hill, still in the lead, and decided I was going to try to keep up with the lead moto who rides out front making sure the trail is clear from other users. So at every opportunity I was sprinting and pushing the pace, absolutely railing this trail (pats self on back) and staying on his wheel. Off road motor-pacing?!?!?! YES PLEASE!!! BRAAAP!!!

I swear I was smiling ear to ear, well, if I could. I was totally gassed and going all out. I was getting a bit dusted from the moto and couldn't really see the trail in the faster sections. But since I knew there weren't really many rocks to be had I just listened to his throttle and watched his suspension to know what was coming for me. I was up and out of the saddle hammering but staying loose ready to absorb anything. He would look back every now and then and I could see his eyes widen and he'd hit the throttle, surprised to see me so close (I talked with him after the race) until we hit the open rocky meadow with a gradual climb. Couldn't keep up with him as easily there... but after a few more rollers there was a fast (top gear and pedaling) downhill and I was back on his wheel again to the last steep descent where I decided I could go as fast as he was willing to take those off camber turns too. Again... FUN!! Except he just got to twist the throttle up the last leg burning climbs to complete the lap. Cheater.

I've always told myself that smooth and fun is fast, and that was certainly true here. As I started lap two, my chasers were nowhere in sight. Even as far back as I could see on the dirt road before entering the singletrack again. But I still had my lead moto and I kept my pace as high as I could.

He stayed a little farther ahead of me on this lap but I still was in super shred mode and put in a 36 minute lap time, starting lap 3 at 1hr 16min into the race. Which meant that I had a good chance of finishing in under two hours if I kept the pace up. This was great motivation though and I knew it would be hard. I always believe that someone is going to sneak up and catch me near the end, so it helped to have something to shoot for and help me keep the pace up. Thankfully nobody appeared after a fun 31 miles and I rolled across the line with about 4 minutes to spare before that 2hr mark for the win.

5/12 - Sierra Cup Series #1 - Rockhopper Super D and XC

2012-05-22T11:34:00.002-07:00

A couple Saturdays ago (late post... super busy...) the Rockhopper Classic, in it's second year of revival after a dormant decade, presented a new challenge to racers... Super D. We would start at the top of the radio tower hill at hammer nearly all hillside singletrack dropping about 700ft elevation as fast as we could to the flat finish. I had pre-ridden some of the trails about a month earlier and they were hardly rideable due to damage from cattle hoof holes. So I was concerned about the conditions and bike choice, especially for the XC race later in the day. But the Montecelo Cycling Club who was putting on the race, and numerous volunteers, did an absolutely fantastic job of trail work to smooth out the course to make it more than bearable. Awesome!

The registration process took a little longer than anticipated so I didn't have time to get a full run of the Super D course to check it all out. But on my climb up to the top I popped on course to check out the ramp they built for the "steeze jump" competition and decided that I would be coming into it way to fast and would end up pile-driving my face into the next hill most likely, good to know. Continuing the climb up, backwards on the course, I discovered that while smoothed out, the turns and switchbacks on the steep hillside were loose and flat... a recipe for a washout and tumble down the hill in just about every turn. So while the course really didn't have any technical aspects as far as rocks and obstacles, it was still going to be a challenge to maintain speed. And finally at the top I discovered that the first 50 yards of the course consisted of 4 small bmx style double jumps. Not good for this penguin. I got a couple practice passes on them but it was definitely just going to be a "get through it" section for me and I'll have to make up time somewhere else. I was about the sixth guy to start so I was able to watch a few others on the first couple turns. One guy had already ended up washing out on one of those flat turns, confirming my course analysis. It was my time to start and as I rolled into the start shoot I just wasn't feeling it. Not a whole lot of fire, and as I was already thinking about it, Mark Weir shouted to me "Kill it Clint! But leave something for the XC!" Right... don't blow up the legs with the XC less than 3 hours later. 3-2-1-Go! I clip in and get a couple pedal strokes and gear shifts before having to brake check my speed on the rollers because I suck. But I got through them and back on the pedals... feeling like everyone watching me at the start was probably laughing at me regarding my non-jumping skills. Guess I need to spend some time at the local BMX/Pump Track. Into the first 180 degree turn I felt like I was on the brakes way too much and not pushing it, but I was smooth and clean. That was pretty much the same feeling on every corner as I made my way down the hill. Whether it was a tight switchback (there were a lot of them) or a sweeper... I just felt slow, but smooth (and still upright!).

The Tallboy was handling the hoof-chatter that was still on the trail with ease and the WTB Prowler SL's were digging into the loose dirt perfectly. I put the power down everywhere I could but just still felt off. I came into the "steeze jump" section and took my bypass line with a lot of speed and still had to brake check before the big dip at the bottom and bottomed out my fork. Thus confirming I would have done a good javelin impersonation into the next hill if I'd hit the jump for sure. I finished off the hillside singletrack and hammered the last 1/8th mile or so of flat grassy course before crossing the finish.

I had no idea of my time or placement for about 2hrs after the race due to a timing system snafu, so when asked I just described my run as feeling slow and "eh" and I just went into recovery mode to prep for the XC race a few hours later. Eventually results were posted so I strolled over to find out I was 2nd!!! Just 8 seconds back from Mr. Weir. Needless to say I was pretty happy with that result, but I also felt like knew exactly where I left 8 seconds out on the course... oh well... I got a cool custom pint glass for my efforts!

The XC start was set for 11am but that time came and went with the registration line still with at least 30 people waiting. So the start time was moved back to 11:30, which was fine, except I was getting a little hungry and it was beginning to get hot. The predicted temp for the day was 92 and there wasn't any wind to help. I prepped the Highball and set out on the XC course to make sure it was going to be the right choice and not punish me too much from the rough trail that remained. I wanted to run as low of a tire pressure as possible to help with this and the WTB Nano TCS tires with their strong bead were going to do the trick. I think I ended up with just 22psi in the rear tire and the bike just floated over those small bumps. I was good to go and continued to hydrate and pre-fuel with my Hammer favorites (HEED, Gel and Perpetuem Solids) in anticipation for the high effort in high heat to come.

Eventually I rolled up to the start and lined up with a few other top step contenders I recognized... Kevin Smallman, Cody Kaiser and Alex Wild were just a few but I knew there were some younger racers in the mix as well ready to pounce. There was also an older guy with rainbow stripes on his sleeve (Masters world champ)... always a threat! The gun went off and it was on.

After the first corner I settled into 3rd position and was feeling pretty good. It wasn't very long before we'd get into the steep climbs and I took the lead up the first one, standing up and taking full advantage of the Highball's stiffness and efficiency. I charged the next fast downhill and jumped the paved path and hammered up the next climb. At the top I glanced back and it seemed like I was starting to pull away which didn't make sense... I'm never a fast starter! The first trip down "hamburger hill" and the nasty corner at the bottom (hamburger... as in what your face looks like if you don't respect the steepness and lack of traction) was clean and I popped out of the trees onto a gravel road for about a 1/4 mile. I had a couple seconds on the next group but I knew I was no match on this flat stretch if they worked together so I didn't waste any effort. Kevin Smallman came around and took the lead but I got it back as we made our way up the next climb. This fire road climb steadily steepens to a real nasty pitch at the end on a small stretch of singletrack. Right before that I let two racers by and I had this feeling that was a bad decision because I knew there was a rooted and steep downhill with a couple small drops after this climb. When we turned downhill we navigated the first turn and open section fine with decent speed but the tricky right turn with a small drop was ahead. I tried to ease up a bit to allow room for a fumble up ahead but Alex, who was leading, didn't clear the drop and turn and ran into the next tree. He didn't go down but blocked the trail and the 2nd place rider and myself ran into him. Alex got going quickly and so did I, but in that melee my chain had come off... which I didn't know. So as I attempted to clip back into the pedals there was no resistance and it wasn't happening. There wasn't the time or room to stop there as the rest of the group was right behind me and I continued to rock this downhill bouncing on the seatpost with my feet out to the side as skids feeling like a total goober. I still almost ran into the back of Alex at the bottom but I pulled off at the turn and scoped out the bike. The chain was completely off and outside of the pedals. Trying not to rush and risk breaking something, I calmly took my time to get it back on right and when everything seemed ok I was back on my way but now in about 9th place and a lot of time back. I passed a few before we got out of the steepest climbs and when it opened up I could see a lead group of 4 riders about a minute or more up. So I pushed the pace as hard as I could... trying not to get discouraged because I really wanted to win this race.

By lap 2 I had passed a couple more and was trying to reel in that lead group. I could see Cody, Kevin and Alex there with one other I didn't recognize. I hammered the steep climbs and by the half way mark I had passed Cody who had fallen off the lead pace. I eventually caught the lead 3 on a perfect stretch of trail where I could pass them all at once before heading into some climbing and switchbacks. I was feeling really strong, but as I had figured Kevin was just cruising with that lead group and conserving. He jumped on my wheel as I passed and stayed there all the way up to the top. He is a very good descender so I didn't want to let him by on the long DH for risk of him pulling away. I attacked the downhill and all the nasty switchbacks hard and kept the pressure on him. It was pretty fun though, we were sliding into berms and squealing brakes all the way down and I would stand up and sprint out of every corner. After the race Kevin told me that I was absolutely nailing those switchbacks, which made me really happy because I think I suck at them.

He was still there on my wheel as we began the final lap and I knew I had to pull away on the climbing far enough so that he couldn't catch back up on any downhills. So I hit those steep climbs with everything I had left and attacked all the downhills as well. Riding scared, and really wanting to win. I made it through the final lap clean and only started to cramp at the very end. And 50ft after crossing the line in 1st overall after over 2hrs of pain I was handed a Corona... don't mind if I do!! (Thanks Murphy!). I was so stoked to have won this race. Not only because it starts me off in good standing for the series, but that it was my first race after Jen had broken her foot last year and for some reason it meant something to me. I guess I wanted to replace that painful memory with a positive one with a win... and to go along with the fact she finally was doing well enough to have the metal plate removed from her foot the day before this race!

I'm so happy with the double podium day and am looking forward to throwing down for the rest of the series. Thanks to everyone who made this race and course possible, it was a great event. And thanks for the custom labeled Rockhopper Macchia Zinfandel winner's wine! It was really good... and no I didn't drink it from my Super D pint glass!

April Showers Bring...

2012-04-26T16:14:00.002-07:00

April 25th Prairie City Race: I got 1st, but it was an adventure. I'll let the pictures tell the story...

Lap 1- Thinking we'll sneak in the race before it gets bad.

Lap 2- Ok getting bad, but still some white showing.

Lap 3- Poor bike... one more lap.

Aftermath...

Yummy....

Want some?!?!

I was riding by braille...

I can see!!!

There's a Santa Cruz Tallboy under there somewhere...

Look how white my grips are!!!

Sometimes you just gotta embrace the conditions and have fun!

2012 Sea Otter Classic

2012-04-23T16:02:00.001-07:00

This year would be my first trip back to Sea Otter in two years, and my first time as a Pro. I basically got my start in racing at Sea Otter, and it's kind of funny to look back at my XC results (and categories)...

2006 - Sport Clydesdale Class - 13th
2008 - Expert Clydesdale Class - 1st
2009 - Cat 1 25-29 - 3rd
2010 - Cat 1 25-29 - 1st

Last year I was all set to go race and had been training hard since November, but then the week of the event this happened and I made the very easy choice to skip Sea Otter and take care of Jen. That event changed our lives, but also my whole outlook on racing. Prior to that event, and looking back all the way to the last time I was at Sea Otter in 2010, I was way too focused on racing and was not even fun to be around the days leading up to a race or especially on race day. Jen called it "race mode" and my friend Brian, who I stayed with in 2010, called me "the intimidator," probably because I showed no emotion. Over the course of the last year I've worked to change my attitude, be more approachable, and make racing fun. So Jen and I set off after work Thursday looking forward to a fun weekend with great weather and friends at this year's Otter.

We were so blessed to be staying with our friends Brian and Bri again this year who are such fantastic hosts. Plus, they live right across the street from the track... can't ask for any better accommodations!

Friday - Short Track:

I had left myself plenty of time to get my Highball ready in the morning and the rear brake was giving me a ton of problems. I thought I had it all worked out and turning without really dragging, but when I came back to it and rolled it over to the car it was dragging even worse and sounding horrible. I think it changed once the temps heated up. Brian helped me get it rolling without too much resistance but it just sounded absolutely horrible. The sun was out and cookin' up temps in the mid 80's to 90 by the time our race was set to start at noon. I've never really done well at Short Track, it's just not my thing. I do better at longer races, and 20 minutes plus 3 laps of an 1/8th mile (?) course is, well, not long. 59 guys lined up and we started clean, for the first 100 ft or so. Then we had an off camber right turn with ruts to start a climb. I knew there would be problems here and it would be just pure luck if I got through it clean. I didn't. Someone washed out in front of me and then we were running. The field got strung out immediately and I was way in the back. I caught back up at the top of the climb and then on the traverse across the top I took an alternate line in the grass and over some rocks to make a pass and then took as many deep breaths as possible on the short downhill.

I made the hairpin turn and stood up to hammer back to the line to do it all again. I lost a couple spots on the climb as my rear brake was making tons of racket and the shifting was even jumping around. Just not a good day.

I was actually wishing I had ridden the Tallboy, not because of the issues the Highball was having, but because there was actually some rough pedaling where I would have been faster since we weren't actually on "trails." Since I wasn't having a great race at all and I know I didn't have the umph to really make any passes stick I didn't push overly hard in order to save a bit for the XC the next day. I lasted a little under 10 minutes before getting pulled, to finish 49th of 58. And that's all I have to say about that.

After short track I set off for a pre-ride of the XC course. Yes, in the middle of the day in the heat, the day before a race, and it would take a couple hours. It may not have been wise, but the course had changed quite a bit since I raced here last I felt it was more important to inspect it and recover/rehydrate after than to race blind. I made sure to keep a steady intake of Hammer HEED, Gel, and Perpetuem to not get depleted of anything. With the warm up, short track race, and pre-ride I got in close to 3.5 hours of riding in on Friday and got some pink skin to go with it. In the evening I finally got the brake and shifting issues all figured out and the Highball was dialed for XC.

Saturday - Cross Country:

I woke up with legs that were a little fatigued so I went for a spin first thing. Just a half hour, but it did the trick to help loosen everything back up. After breakfast, some stretching and final bike and fueling prep I went back up to the track and began my warmup. It was getting really hot out on the track. To the point where I was beginning to wonder if I'd be better off staying cool in the shade somewhere rather than riding around in the sun. I decided to keep moving to make sure my legs were ready to go and keep chuggin' fluids. I felt ready as the time approached and I rolled up to staging with 88 other guys.

I wasn't expecting any sort of call-up but after about 30 or so names I heard mine... but I was in the back and couldn't make my way through and then everyone just all rolled up at once while they were still calling names. It was a little weird when that happened, but I ended up with a decent position in the center about 4 rows back and most importantly in the shade! The start position isn't as important at Sea Otter because we start on the Laguna Seca track and it doesn't funnel down right away. After the national anthem and with a cheering crowd the gun went off.

So now we're on the wide open race track; 89 guys on mountain bikes with wide handlebars, powerful and touchy disc brakes, knobby tires, and way too much adrenaline who don't really know how to road race. Sound like a bad idea? Yeah, it was pretty scary. Even though all those knobbies on the pavement created the coolest sound. We'd fan out wide on the straight away and then everyone would close way down in the corner trying to hit the apex, a few tires skid around me as I lean over in the turn making sure not to overlap the wheel in front of me. I'm white knuckled and my arms are stiff trying to hold my position as the guy next to me leans on my elbow. Ok, first corner is done. The hairpin turn starts a little climb for us, but the leaders take the inside pavement which is narrower (the pit road exit) and some guys slide a bit on the dirt to the side but since we start to climb it slows down and mellows out. We crest and head down the front stretch at 30mph with the group completely fanned out because nobody wants to pull. We bunch back up in the right hand 90 degree turn and a BMC rider almost goes down up front. That could have been really bad. But we made it through and the road craziness is over now that we have a steady climb up to where we exit the track through a 12ft (approx.) gap in the concrete wall. At this point is the first choke of the course and I don't know what happened up front but we stopped and everyone was running through here and it was a total cluster. My pedal gets caught up in someone's front wheel, I was able to yank it out without any damage and remount to give chase. Towards the back of the pack now I stand up and hammer the first short climb and pass quite a few guys by the top. I crested the top and kept the cranks turning on the long downhill and take the rutted line on the right side. Guys are coasting on the left and I can't figure out why, but I'm turning the pedals at 44mph and I pass at least 5 guys on that first descent. The course stays on this ridge line fire road for about 2.5 miles with a couple pretty steep but short climbs. The final one is really steep and of course I end up having to dismount and run up because the guys in my way can't get it done. It's really frustrating to be able to ride something easily in my pre-ride but be forced to get off during the race because of traffic.

One more downhill and I know the singletrack is coming so I try go get by as many as possible, passing a couple more on a gravely corner before turning into the fun stuff. As I expected, my progress is impeded on the singletrack and I just know the front is getting stretched out even more. There's nowhere to pass so I just sit in and relax as we cruise the sandy corners and I have a little fun drifting and finding some good flow. We finish the decent and I, along with a couple others, pass the roadblock racer as we start the next switchback climb. We pick up the pace a little bit but I feel like I could go faster. We're on singletrack here and there are a couple places where I could force a pass, but our pace is just fast enough that I don't think I could have made a move quick enough to make it stick. I looked for a couple places and almost washed out on the inside of a corner once as I hit a rut I didn't see trying to cut the corner a bit much. We crest the top of that climb, about 6 miles into the race and begin another ridge line gravel road. I have no idea what place I'm in but I just keep looking ahead and picking off as many as I can. I get to the first "caution" spot which is a blind downhill full of ruts. As I approach I see a cloud of dust and a course marshal waiving us to the right side. When I crest I see a rider getting up from a crash on the left and the guy in front of me takes a line a little more to the center. I stay loose and to the right, cross over a couple ruts, let off the brakes and make the pass. No big deal and I set my sights on the next guy. We get a little bit of singletrack on a gradual descent which culminates in a 50ft "sand dune" drop onto a dirt road which is pretty fun.

I hadn't quite caught up to the next two riders yet which means I have a flat dirt road section where I'm all alone. I take on a dose of Hammer Gel and continue to drink. This valley is pretty hot but I try not to loose any ground to the guys behind me who might be working together to catch back up. Then comes the Trail 82 singletrack climb which is about a mile long and a fairly steep slog. There's shade in the beginning but about 1/4 of the way up it's just a trail in the bushes with dead air and I'm cookin'. I keep the pace but after a little bit I can feel I'm totally overheating and beginning to get chills. I back it off a little and take on as much fluid as I can stomach. I'm still not feeling great and begin to wonder if I'm going to be one convulsing on the side of the trail soon. Normally I handle heat very well but this was such a drastic temperature change from what I'm use to in less than a week (after the race I heard someone say their Garmin recorded 106 degrees here). I finally crested and turn into a slight breeze at the top so I fully unzip the jersey and keep going. I start to feel better and then I get passed so I match the attack and stay on his wheel down to the road crossing as we catch another small group containing fellow Norcal racer Will Curtis. I'm able to pass everyone in this group and make it stick by the top before a short decent. There's an off camber left turn that I made with a drift and my left foot out. I don't get clipped in before a bermed right turn which opens into a good size water bar which of course had a camera man and a crowd saying "Boost IT!!!!" I'm not fully clipped in but the cheers and cowbells made me do it anyways. I hit the jump and tweak out the bike for show, open jersey flapping, and while in the air realize I'm going to land in a rut. Thankfully it wasn't a deep one but my front tire landed with an objectionable "BAARRRPPP!" Thankfully I'm running WTB TCS Nano's and the bead held strong without any air loss. Still not clipped in I drift the next left hander which set me up perfectly to pass a rider on the right side of the next rutted downhill as I let go of the brakes and hit 28mph at the bottom.

Here begins another dirt road section of a little over a mile. I get passed back by that guy from the last downhill but I'm ok with it and sit in his draft for a bit. We climb up to the "Three Sisters" ridge and I'm feeling pretty good as I catch up to Cody Kaiser after the second climb. About then, Barry Wicks comes blowing by (he had been off to the side with a mechanical early on). I tried, and so did Cody, to stay on his wheel but we couldn't. That was humbling, but I keep on giving the best I've got. It's a little under an hour into the race now and my hamstrings and inner thighs begin to cramp on the climbs. Just as I finish off the rest of my bottle, I see Brian stationed perfectly for an exchange. He hands me a nearly full bottle of water and I was SO needing it! Some goes on my head and back and I chug down as much as I can before the next turn. We're descending on road now as I pass Cody, Menso de Jong and another rider at the base before turning up the twisty Goat Trail climb. Rejuvenated by having water again I'm standing on the pedals and hammering. I also have no choice but to stand because if I try to climb seated my hammies will cramp! I make a couple passes and catch up to a group of three or four which included Jim Hewett (winner of last weeks Napa Valley Dirt Classic). I sit in and recover a second before seeing an opportunity to attack on a steep climb. I go for it with a little momentum and Jim's gears slip, causing the rider behind him to check up and swerve into my path. I check up but my wheel is overlapping the other guy's back wheel and I'm loosing my balance... "go go go GO GO!" I holler but he doesn't go quick enough and I have to dismount... dang. I finally get back on and the group comes back together and I take the next climb to pass them all, just before the final decent on the Goat Trail and I'm able to put in a little gap. I'm totally spent though as I hit the false flat but try to hold my gap before hitting the road. The final climb back has a few steep rollers but overall is a steady slog which normally I can hammer pretty hard. Not this time though as the hammies just want to cramp. And from my efforts on the Goat Trail when I stand up the quads didn't really like that either. I glance over my shoulder after a corner and I see Jim coming. I keep the power down as much as I can and pass maybe three more riders before the second to last climb when Jim goes by. I match him up to the crest of that one but couldn't hold it up the last one. We get a little bit of fun singletrack descent as we're almost back to the track and I try to stay smooth and recover for one final finish sprint. I almost blow a corner and slide into a ditch but saved it with inches to spare. Jim is about 4 seconds up as we hit the track but the gap holds and I roll across the line in 38th place.

I finished in 1:24:14 and was 9 minutes and 56 seconds back from the winner Geoff Kabush. I'm really happy with my effort though and feel I gave it everything I had. I was happy to be done and in one piece after a crazy first Sea Otter Pro XC.

By now you might have noticed the new jersey... I'm very excited to now be racing for the new Santa Cruz / Fox Racing Shox team and representing a great group of sponsors. This is a great group of extremely talented riders of "All Mountain" ability and I feel extremely privileged to be welcomed aboard. The jersey is on loan from new teammate Aaron Bradford who unfortunately broke his collar bone in DH practice on Friday.

Best part about finishing a race!

Sunday - Fun Day:

Greeted by dense fog Sunday morning I set off with Brian for a tour of the Fort Ord fun trails that I've never had the chance to ride. We had a blast ripping around for about 90 minutes when he had to get stationed on the course to provide a feed for Brianne who was on her way to winning her Cat 2 XC race. I finished off my ride on the long climb back of the xc course, encouraging all the cat 2's giving it their best and cheering on the riders I knew. That's one of the things I love about Sea Otter is that I'm surrounded by so many people I know and everyone's just stoked to be riding and racing their bikes.

A High Five for Avery Morin grabbing 3rd in the Cat 2 15-18 XC (she's 14!)

Later Jen and I went down to Cannery Row in Monterey for brunch. Where I powered down an omelette, the rest of her crepe, and most of two HUGE mango-coconut-granola pancakes before spending some time in the Monterey Bay Aquarium where she got freaked out by the jellies and giant octopus... but cute penguins made up for it.

Perfect cap to a super fun Sea Otter weekend.

4/15/12 Napa Valley Dirt Classic Race Report

2012-04-19T12:08:00.001-07:00

The Diesel is back...

Pacific Union College in Angwin, CA puts on this race each year, usually the Sunday before Sea Otter which makes for a great bike set-up test and final fitness gauge. It's a super fun course, winding through the trees and steep slopes of Howell Mountain and has the two infamous features; the "whoop-de-doo's" and the painful climb out of the Pope Valley to finish off the race.

The week prior I came down with something, a cold I guess, or just a lot of fatigue. Either way I was not able to ride Wednesday through Friday, trying to get better asap. Conveniently that also coincided with rain storms, cold and hail. So I didn't feel TOO bad. Saturday morning I discovered the bottom bracket on my Highball was seized! I hadn't ridden it in about 2 weeks and hadn't checked it. I took it down to Folsom Bike and while they didn't have an XTR BB in stock, my buddy Eddie was able to clean and re-pack it to get it ready for Sunday. While he was doing that, I was on the Tallboy for most of the morning coaching a new client on MTB skills which is always rejuvenating and helps give me my riding "stoke" back. I really get encouraged to help others who are so motivated and to be able to see real progress. I got in a couple hours of riding at my pace before and after our session, but was out for about 5 total. Legs felt ok after that, but Sunday morning I could tell they were a little fatigued.

So a long warm-up was in order. I mounted up on the Highball with now turning cranks (although they seemed to have a little extra resistance) and a sweet custom fender I made from a 2 liter bottle and started spinning around. After about 45 minutes, there was still a little soreness in the hammies, and my heart rate was decent so I was as ready as I was going to be.

There's always a tough crowd that shows up for this race, and this year was no exception. Jim Hewitt, Kevin Smallman, Cody Kaiser, Michael Hosey, and the usual current and alumni kids of the Whole Athlete development program to name a few on the Pro line. Then there's always the Cat 1 fasties chasing us down like Brian Butler and Krishna Dole that start only a couple minutes back. On the line, I turn to Kevin and say "I despise this start! Ugh" and his reply of, "Yeah I'm not looking forward to this... it's one of the most painful starts in Norcal" I'm in complete agreement with. The gun goes off and we're sprinting up the pavement for about 200yds, a pretty decent incline too, before getting about 5 breathes worth of fairly level singletrack before turning up a gradual incline again. Then after a hairpin it gets steeper until we get to the run-up which is quite slick this year after a week's worth of rain and hail. At this point, being the absolutely horrible starter I am, I'm bringing up the rear of the pros and a lead group is about 10 seconds up I think.

The first couple miles are on some fire roads and grassy double track that have a few power sapping wet spots but overall the course is in decent shape. I get to the "whoop-de-doos" (three gigantic rocky rollers) and charge down the hill of the first one, pedaling in and no brakes, absorbing the rocks to maintain maximum momentum up the first rocky roller. Pre-shift, stand, aim for the rocks which is the place of historically good traction only to find they're super slick and covered in moss! The back tire immediately slips out and I'm running. The crowd that usually gathers there cheers me on and one guy says all the white rocks are slick. Yeah... NOW I know! I make it through the next two rollers, only aiming for the dirt this time and the new WTB Moto 1.9 tires dig in and hook up great. But even after that on the next mile or so of trail the hardpack and rocks are still very slick and even just riding along straight the back tire slips and slides making me think I have a flat. I couldn't wait to get into the singletrack!

Finally the fun stuff. Tight, twisty, leafy and needle loam covered dirt ran beneath my tires as I caught and passed a couple riders. I got stuck behind one guy for quite a while, much longer than I should have but I wasn't feeling super aggressive to put out the effort to force a pass. I should have though, it's a race, but I just didn't have the fire yet. I eventually passed him on a tight turn he couldn't navigate, and being a bit frustrated I finally got some fire and wanted to put the gap on him quickly which I did. After one of the steep climbs I came around a corner to find Will Curtis on the side with some sort of chain problem. Bummer. His Whole Athlete buddy Tony was stopped to help him too.

I caught a couple more guys, the old guys of the pro class who still manage to start faster than me! And passed them just as Tony came blowing by. Crazy kids. I stepped it up and was able to keep up until a short climb where he just left me... impressive. I stayed in "Diesel mode" riding by myself just chuggin' along and enjoying riding my bike. The descent down into the Pope Valley was not too slick thankfully but had some pretty serious ruts to navigate. The Moto's kept great traction and I got through it all clean and began the dreaded climb back out. The first pitch was slick and I didn't have enough momentum so I had to run it. The second one came and I just didn't have the fire to push it and felt running would be just as fast so I dismounted about half way up. I was frustrated because I normally ride that one. The last and longest one came, with great traction and I cleaned it all which I'm very happy about. It was about an hour and fifteen minutes into the race and I was just starting to feel good, and feel like I'm racing. I get back up to the main fire roads and a course marshall says "Almost to the top! Just about 100 ft to go!" Yeah, for that climb! Then there's more to come... about a mile or so of steady fire road that has a deceiving incline to it which you can loose a lot of time on if you don't charging.

I came around a corner and saw a glimpse of a rider that looked like fellow Folsom Bike rider Jared Kessler who's been crushing the early season road races in prep for mid season Super D's and Enduro's. So I keep the diesel chuggin' and I'm about 5 seconds back from him when we hit the airport plateau and pass Kevin Smallman who's pedaling with just his right leg. As I pass I see his left crank arm in his back pocket... dang. Turns out he snapped a BB30 spindle! Crazy. One more small incline and I sprint to catch Jared and hit my highest HR of the year so far (181!) and then sit in behind him. It's a gradual descent down to the track and I knew I couldn't drop him there. I stay right on his wheel, getting roosted with mud and we finally hit the track. One lap of pavement, against a guy who's been learning a lot of road tactics lately and I know is a great sprinter. I have to time my move right. Mid-way through the back stretch I have a run... I know I shouldn't go but I do. I shift and stand up to lay down as much power as I can and we enter the final turn. I protect the inside and glance back, he's still there but a bike length back. He's getting a run in my draft. I stand up again and let finish the corner out on the left of center and glance over my right shoulder expecting him to be there but he went left! Dangit! I'm giving it all I can as he's coming by on the left and that white chalk line finally comes... I throw the bike forward and it's over! That was pretty rad. Sprint finishes never happen in MTB races so I'm excited about the finish regardless of who got it. We were racing for 5th overall and I thought he had me at the line, but the scorekeepers saw it differently and gave me the spot, finishing 4th in Pro and 5th overall (Michael Hosey was up there but racing Single Speed).

I'm a bit frustrated with my lack of motivation at the start and for the first hour. I need to figure out how to get a fire going sooner... or just start doing 50 & 100 milers!

I am happy about my super-awesome custom fender though! I didn't have a spec of mud on my face until I got roosted by Jared.

Now off to the 'Otter...