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Race report by Rich Henthorn
Summary In today's info-driven society, I thought a quick summary might be useful to those that just want the facts and don't necessarily want to read a whole report (aka, excuses) to get them. Keyesville is a recreation area that's about 50 miles east of Bakersfield. It's surprisingly mountainous just east of Bakersfield, with the Kern River Canyon providing a neat drive up from the flats. I arrived on Saturday afternoon with a couple friends to pre-ride the course. I was impressed with the amount of singletrack in the area. There seemed to be little trails leading off in all directions. While riding the course, we all agreed that it was like a roller-coaster, the Space Mountain type where you can't see what's coming next. I was unable to take my eyes off the trail or my hands off the bars very much. A CamelBak is highly recommended. Very fun course. My race started right on time at 8:32. Forty-plus in the sport 30-39 class. I got a decent start and tried just to stay upright while not losing positions. After things thinned-out a bit, my strategy switched to finding people that seemed to know what they were doing so I could follow their lines. This worked pretty well for the first lap until we got to fireroad climb at about mile 5-6. After that, things were a little more predictable. I finished the first lap in 45 minutes, about 5 minutes better than I thought after the pre-ride. I was on my own for most of the 2nd lap. My goal was to try to smooth-out the spots in the course that I rode awkwardly, make wise use of the energy I had left, and reel-in whoever came within the crosshairs. I didn't expect what happened next. I have a suspension seatpost on my hardtail that is of the multiple-pivot, parallelogram type. One of the pivots is near the seat allowing the seat to move backwards and down during it's travel. As I was crossing a creek about 5 feet wide at about mile 9, this pivot broke. I stopped very briefly (about ten seconds) to swear and see what happened. I determined that the seat wasn't going to come off, so I continued. But the seat angle was now free to change at every little bump that I rode over. It took about 5 minutes to get used to it, but it seemed longer. Mentally, I was debating whether I should pull-out or try to get through. I was worried about how I was able to tackle some of the rather steep, tricky descents with the seat moving around. It would have been easy to quit at that point, but I decided that I didn't come all the way down from the Bay Area to DNF after what could be minor setback. Well, I was able to compensate in almost every case. I only dismounted once to run through a tight, rocky section that I screwed-up the first lap anyway. The tricky descents? I rode them just like I did the first lap. Except for the seat, the 2nd lap was uneventful. I caught a couple more riders and finished with a smile. The seat thing probably only cost me a couple positions and I finished the 2nd lap only 5 minutes slower than the first. Admittedly, I was satisfied until I saw that I was 21st. I didn't think I'd finish under 1:40, so I decided to take that from the experience. Plus, it was really an interesting course. The race is well run (it's a stage race with downhill, dual, and a hillclimb) and the people are friendly. The only negatives are minor: A meal does not come with the entry fee and the raffle started at 4pm - no way I was staying that late. Not much to complain about, really. One sad fact I discovered today was that a pro downhill racer crashed in practice on Friday and died of massive chest injuries. Wow. Kind of put things in perspective. I never heard anything about it while at the venue Saturday or Sunday. FYI, TWW's Jeff Hane also raced that day (in my class too). He seemed excited at the finish, but I don't know how he did or whether he finished before or after me.
Race Report by Jeff Hane I got spanked pretty good yesterday. Course was a lot of fun. Some really fun singletrack mixed with some fireroads. The steep climbs were pretty short and there was one longer, incline. Most of the single track was smooth and pretty fast, a couple of steep, bumpy dowhills but nothing real technical. Also one water crossing! Anyway, I somehow got off the lead pack early on, struggled on and worked to hard to move into 5th or 6th on the long climb. Howerever, I got caught by a pack of 4 guys, couldn't hold on them, then got caught by another pack of 4. Only able to get one of them back. I think the race strategy I started using last year will work well I just have to get my body used to riding hard again!
I think I got 13 out of more than 30. Age class was 30-39 so I didn't
get to take advantge of my new, older, wiser age:( I wasn't really
expecting much but figured I could do top 10 pretty easy. Close enough
for now. I am not 100% healthy at the moment and haven't done any hard
riding but I sure both conditions will change:)
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