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FOX CUP #8 |
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Schedule | Race Results | Sponsors | Profiles | Advocacy | Contact |
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TWW FOX CUP SERIES #8 |
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Downieville Classic Mountain Bike Festival!!! |
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Results |
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Class Last First Time Place Overall D Job Isaias 2:24:09 14 68 Q Hillstrom John 2:31:12 13 122 Q Cantelobre Mich 2:36:42 20 159 Y Walden Frank 2:42:43 7 197 D Brookes Kyle 2:42:48 30 198 Q Hane Jeff 2:44:20 32 211 Q Oellerich Paul 2:45:54 35 221 Q Henthorn Rich 2:49:29 42 256 Q Wenski Troy 2:55:08 50 289 J Oellerich Jenny 3:03:00 3 332 P Ranola Lloyd 3:03:05 40 334 X White Keith 3:03:16 22 339 X Gin Mike 3:06:53 23 359 P Cerkel Matt 3:15:38 46 396 Q Schlachter Scott 3:15:39 72 397 I Obendorfer Mo 3:30:02 12 437 J Mangin Valerie 3:52:41 10 484 R Lofland Bob 3:55:37 33 488 M Hughes Eryn 4:12:40 7 505 Q Murrey Erik 2:43:16 Y Machon Chris 3:11:47 Downhill Results: 3 Schlachter Scott 0:49:05 17 of 50 3 Walden Frank 0:49:11 18 of 50 8 Gin Mike 0:53:48 7 of 40 8 Relampagos Nick 1:47:27 30 of 40 |
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Race Reports |
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 Once again this was another classic TWW race weekend. People showed
up at various times and days - big kudos to Frank for getting there early
and reserving the campsites. Hope you got enough dough to cover
them. Anyhow, we had a BIG turnout. Here are some of the players
(that I recall - sorry if I missed you): Eryn "Perky and full of energy in the morn" Hughes Chris "Be careful just how much schmack you talk" Machon Nick "4 flats and a microphone, err broken valve stem" Relampagos Rich "Stealth attack" Henthorn Jeff "Power, you must train by power. yawn" Hane Jason "Man that was a long walk out" Tandeta Lloyd "I would sit down if my leg would bend" Ranola Troy "Is it 'lying' or 'laying' down on the side of the trail" Wenske Meredith "Can always count on for a good quote" Obendorfer Paul "Where's my wife? Hey, Frank's missing too." Oellerich Jenny "The only one who got the 'red wood' comment" Oellerich Franck "Chase the bear" Mangin John "I might try this DH stuff considering Mike's results" Hillstrom Keith "My nipples are sore" White Erik "Tell me again why I did this race?" Murrey Scott "My best race was when I just showed up without warming up" Schlachter Valerie "STOP means SLOW in French" Mangin Alan "Indeed" Sherlock Frank "TWW All Mountain Man Winnah" Walden Mike "32x11" Gin Kyle "Ate his weight in pasta" Brook(e?)s Bob "Hopefully soon I'll get into training mode again" Lofland Matt "MRE" Cerkel Ken "Hit the podium and didn't even race" Jeffery Robert "Trail Maintenance Kit" Ouye Isaias "Nice stomach tattoo" Job Fortunately for most of you I don't remember many quotes - I'm drained and both physically and mentally tired. But I do remember Mo saying "I sucked it all out of him." I'll leave it at that. I arrived Friday after carpooling with Nick and family. Good thing I brought so much food (since Nick said we were on our own this weekend). Yup, without all my food I wouldn't have had a full breakfast (eggs, pancakes, and bacon), dinner (BBQ tri tip, chicken, salad, sausage, watermelon). Dang, the Relampagos family knows how to set up a spread. Funny though, all the food I brought managed to disappear. We went for a "short" pre-ride - shuttle to the top, ride everything on the course except the big climb. Sounds good, go out for a couple of hours nice and easy, no major climbing, learn the course, etc. Took awhile to leave the campsite but trying to organize that many people takes time apparently. Once we got going, well let's just say the trip started ominously - the trailer that had our gear and bikes on it detached from Franck's van - the hitch pin fell out. Fortunately nothing happened to either the vehicle or the trailer (or bikes) but it did delay us even further. A local was nice enough to give us his trailer hitch pin so we could continue on. Got to the top (barely - man, I kept envisioning the van rolling back down the hill and us plummeting over the side) and geared up. We rode the XC course while a couple guys rode the DH course. We would eventually meet back in the downtown area to shuttle back to the camp. "Eventually" being the key word. The course was really cool, super rocky with baby heads all over the place. This definitely was not your CCCX kinda course. So then the fun begins - we finally all meet downtown and try to do the shuttle thing - well, we managed to add 4 kids to the shuttle - that would make 11 for the ride back (at least for a few miles). The kids had gone inner tubing and wanted to go for more. I just wanted something to eat. I tried getting a piece of pizza three times to no avail. Yes we'll wait, no we'll all go, yes we'll wait, no, let's all go. Let's just say I'm scarred for life because of the seating arrangement in the van. Thankfully we didn't get pulled over. Finally, some food, typical jabbering around the camp fire, and then some sleep. On a side note, man, those pit toilets sure were foul. To quote the classic line from Apocalypse Now, "I love the smell of napalm in the morning." Saturday comes and we XC weenies were trying to figure out what to do - but we all wanted something easy, except for Chris who wanted to ride the course sans the big climb again. Ken Jeffery showed up and said he wasn't racing the DH because his surgically repaired shoulder was hurtin' from the pre-ride before. He offered his number plate to everyone but no one was interested - well, except for me. I waffled back and forth since I knew there was going to be some pain the next day on the XC and I really should conserve my energy. But finally I said, "Screw it, I'm going to do it." But then I thought, "on my hardtail SS?!" Then Ken told me to ride his bike. So Nick and Ken made some adjustments, I threw on my pedals, and I was a downhiller. I think after that moment I had to pee like four times in an hour period - first time I've had pre-race jitters in a long time. This would be my first DH - hmm. never ridden the course (except for the day before where the lower half of the XC and DH courses merged), riding a borrowed bike. sounded like a recipe for disaster. Ahh hell, you only live once. Nick and Ken prepped me on the course as we shuttled to the top. Sure, no problem - hearing about the course is just like practicing it. But it did help some except for where Ken told me to dismount - I could've ridden that section. Oh well, still had a great time. The funny thing was at the start line, the starter said to me, "you're 45?!!!" My response, "Uhh, yeah, good genes. and lots of MSG growing up." They seemed okay with it. I took off and let it rip. Well, I coasted the first section and then when I hit a pedaling section I spun like mad - I was in my granny gear. Rookie. Other than a top tube ride of about 30 yards, my ride went well. I caught Nick who had started 19 minutes before me - man, I was flying!!! Oh, I guess I should mention Nick had flatted three times by then but that's just a small detail. I came across the finish line and they announced, "And here's number 171 - Ken Jeffery, our first Sport 45+ racer." I just kept on riding down the street until I was way out of view. Funny thing, a friend of Ken's went up to the announcer and said, "They must have gotten the numbers mixed up because that wasn't Ken." Not sure what happened after that but the ploy was unraveling. Then we went and watched the crazies doing the jump into the river - I think the guy who jumped from the very top of the bridge should've won something - jiminy Christmas that was freakin' crazy. We were talking about my run when someone brought up me potentially hitting the podium. Uhh, hadn't planned on that. I went pretty easy to conserve some energy for Sunday. But then I bumped into a friend who said I was flying when I passed him - he had started 8 minutes ahead of me. Crap, what if I won this dang thing? They posted the results after the river jump contest. Turns out I didn't win - but took 3rd in the 45+ Sport class (out of 19 competitors). I compared my time to where I should've been (35-44 Sport), and took 7th out of 40. Cool. Not too shabby considering the circumstances. But now came the issue of the podium - I wasn't going to take away a podium spot from someone so I told the results folks. They seemed okay with it and hopefully I'll be put in the results under my name in the correct class. Saturday night was more fud, campfire talk, and sleep. Sunday, Sunday, Sunday. wake up bright and early to prep for the race. Ken didn't show up last night with my pedals (still on his bike) so I was a bit concerned. As 8am rolled around with no sign of Ken, my concern grew. Then 8:15am and no Ken. then finally he shows up at 8:30am with my pedals. Dang, I mean, cool, I get to do the XC race. Keith and I were the only fools on TWW to do the race on a single. Keith was even more manly by being fully rigid (his bike that is). I had heard a lot about the climb, but hadn't done it. Yes, it wasn't a whole lot of fun. I walked quite a bit of it knowing that the downhill portion was very demanding also and that I would need some energy. Plus it was a hard climb for a SS and I'm in no climbing shape. Keith and I rode for awhile but then he pulled away. I hadn't seen him for quite some time and thought I wouldn't see him again. But about one mile from the summit I managed to catch up with him and from there until almost the end we rode the course together. Good fun! That dude can descend really well considering he had a rigid fork. I think our time was 1:33 or something like that to the summit. Before the singletrack we caught up to Chris - I could hear Paul Sherwin announcing, "Machon has cracked, he's cracked!!!" and then we took off. He managed to get a second wind and got to the singletrack before us only to be passed again and then we never saw him again. It was great having a teammate to ride with. It certainly helped to keep me motivated and pushing through the pain. Keith led me the entire way. All this time I'm thinking it's going to be cool to finish together and that if it came down to a sprint, I wasn't going to challenge him considering he led me the entire way. He had the taller gear so I don't know if I could've outsprinted him anyhow. Well, the best laid plans literally exploded on me - on the last descent maybe four to five hundred yards before the pavement, my rear tire flatted - CRAP!!! DOUBLE CRAP!!! I stopped, thought about it for about 30 seconds, said the F-word at least five or six times, and then decided it was going to take way too long to repair the flat. I grabbed my bike and ran down the trail and then hit the road. A bunch of people passed me on my run and once I was on the road. I pedaled in on a flat tire sounding like a Harley. Bummer. We had ridden through some seriously rocky terrain and were together for probably 22 of the 28 miles and I miss one stinkin' rock. Sheesh. I ended up losing about 3 minutes or so. But I finished so that was cool. Thanks Keith, you da man! Oh and Nick my rear wheel is still perfect. Good times. Thanks to everyone - there sure are a lot of good people associated with TWW. Looking forward to doing just the DH next year and letting it all hang out (on my bike and after a few practice runs)!!! Mike |
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 Hey all,With the weekend over, I am spending the day recovering before going to work tonight. This was my chance to write it down, and I enjoyed reliving it. Click the link, below. http://www.livejournal.com/users/djmuse/175069.html Thanks everyone for all the hospitality, and warm atmosphere. Frank, I owe you $10. Email me with your address, or when you'll be local to the east bay, please. Also, Nick, I didn't find you back at the campsite - I left some of my stuff in the grab bag (including a handlebar light mount) that I handed you at the start. Is there any chance its still in your possession? Peace, Eryn! |
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Downieville 2005 XC Race reportSkillz: Since I've become a certified road weenie lately (sorry Keith), and I haven't been on a mt.bike more than 3 times in 6 months. So some of us pre-rode the DH portion of the XC course w/ some single track on top thrown in on Saturday With all the mechanicals, stops, etc the day went longer than expected, close to 5 hours including the forever long shuttle. It took me til the end of the day get my MTB skills even close to what they were. but eventually, I got the hang of it again. sort of.. Bike: Dave, I took the heavy bike. The final decision came down to a really crappy sound coming out of my bottom bracket of my NRS. So the 30lbs Titus it was. By my coaches calc's, I'd loose about 2 minutes for an hour of climbing with 5 extra lbs (all else being equal i.e. tire pressure, etc).. that's enough to loose site of some folks.. oh well, I was hoping to make that up on the decent. I sported a 2.3 Weirwolf in front, 2.1 on the rear. Incidentally, by the end of the Race my front fork became totally stiff.. dunno why but the travel was down to about 2 inches with a really weird, stiff feel, on a 5 inch travel fork.. sucked. Time to upgrade to a Fox! Race: *Warm up - 45 min, 2 hard efforts, felt fine. *Start Position.- near the back (what was that?.. like a 45 sec. delay til we got moving from back?) The Climb - good at first; settled in at a 178hr, made my way through the crowd of climbers, chatted w/ Hillstrom for a while, said hi to every TWW'r I could. yes there were lots of us.. hung with Rich for a short while, saw Gin walking the steep parts of the climb on his SS (crazy bastard!), 45 min or so into the climb however, I realized that I didn't eat enough, and started to bonk a bit towards the top. and many of those who I passed ended up passing me right back.. *The Decent - Great at 1st til I joined the cramping club (there were many out there) and cramped heavily at the 1st water crossing. The funny part was Troy was there with me, and both of us cramped simultaneously!! It must be that slight rest after all that climbing really screwing with your legs once you try and pedal again. *Crash!! - at the end of the baby head section, right before the 1st bridge, I take a huge header! Wrong line, dunno.. but went OTB at full speed! Luckily there were 2 motorcycle dudes there to pick me up, my bike and let me chill for a while. These guys were cool, one had anticeptic wipes to help clean me up, one ran to his cooler across the bridge to get me a cool bottle of water and shared some candy that I couldn't pass up. I tore up my arm, hit my hip hard enough to where I couldn't really put power to my right leg, and killed my lower back. My race was basically done.. but the messed up thing about this course is that I still had 15 miles of decending to still deal with! *A long way home!! - I felt like Rasmussen looked during his Saturday Time Trial. The crash ruined all my confidence that I gained the day before , add that to the pain, and my shock malfunction, and I just couldn't wait for the whole thin to end. I had to practially walk up all the uphills, and soft pedal the flats. I got to say hi to lots of folks as they passed, or while they were fixing mechanicals. Towards the end Chris D was on his 3rd flat repair and I was able to let him have a tube (he had been waiting there for 20 minutes for someone to help him out). I saw Jenny and Chris M cruise by so I decided to ride with them (sort of) to the finish. *Stats - HR was 159 average with a 187 max. Pretty low average forme, but that was mainly due to taking it easy on the way home. My time on the clock was 3:09. so minus 5 min for starting in Sport Post Race: *Medic - I went to 1st aid for a bit of cleanup. I had joked with them the day before, telling them to reserve "that middle stretcher for me tomorrow".. .guess where I ended up. After cleaning me up a bit, they ended up sending me to the clinic since I apparently had 'tissue' hanging out of my arm (not the Kleenex kind). Also, my hip is so friggin' screwed I think I'll be limping all week (today my right leg seems longer than my left.. WTF!). So I missed out on much of the festivities as most of my afternoon was spent hanging w/ the 1st aid crew, doctors, and other damaged riders. *Despite my worst MTB crash ever, and the race not going quite as planned, I had a great time. Since we haven't had too many TWW gatherings this big in a while, it was great to catch up with everyone I could, and meet some faces that I've only known names of via the list. See ya'll at Howell. Lloyd |
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"I've always imagined my first three way with two
girls involved, not two guys involved" |
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So we leave our house at 6:30 to meek Mike Gin and Chris Machon in
Suisun and we start caravaning up to Downieville. We get there and
set up camp next to the Mangins. I brought up the big BBQ grille
and immediately start grilling some burgers before our practice run.
Franck was gracious enough to shuttle us up to the top for a practice
run, thanks Franck!
Ken and I practiced the DH course (Butcher, 3rd and 1st) and the others
practiced the XC course. My bike felt really good and I
practiced some of the tougher sections to get some good lines. I
got my rebound set for the course and I didn't touch my bike after that.
That night we had a bonfire at Frank's campsite and hung out.
Saturday comes around and Ken decided his shoulder wasn't gonna race
the DH and Mike took his number. We set up Ken's bike for Mike and
Ken shuttles us up to the top.
I go first and I'm going really good and feeling comfortable with my
run. My bike and confidence is really high as I pass a few riders
which started minutes before me. But the guy I really wanted to
catch was Mr. Specialized kit guy (Spcialized XC jersey and spandex) who
started a minute ahead of me. I see dust ahead of me which tells
me that someone is close in front of me. As soon as I reach the
first bridge, I see him on the Bridge, he started climbing and I follow
him. I don't have the wind to pass him on the climb but I stay on
his wheel so as soon as we crest the top, I call out I need a pass.
He doesn't move over and I know the next down hill on 3rd divide is
fast and tight. There's a section that I practiced where I go
straight off the trail and is a good place to pass. Damn, it
worked! I pass him on this section and I'm stoked! I figured
I made a minute on this guy and a few on the other guys, I'm
in good shape and it motivates me more to ride harder.
Then it happened, a flat out of nowhere! I came to a stop and
take my rear wheel off, 10 seconds later, Specialized Kit guy wheels by
and asks if I'm ok, I said 'yeah, flat'. What I really wanted to
say wouldn't make me a good ambassador to this sport.
After I fixed the flat, it was a nightmare. 2 more pinchflats and
1 broken valve stem. I strolled into the finish line and saw Gigi
and the kids. I told them about the flats and asked where everyone
was. She said in the river, I said, cool, let's go. After
Frank threw me into the river, I forgot about my run and concentrated on
just having fun!
We had a huge turnout at that night's BBQ and tons of food.
Big props to Frank for securing all the sites.
So Mike has a great run on the DH course on a course he has never been
on, on a bike he has never been on, was too large and didn't know
how to shift. And he finished the XC course in a really good time.
Way to start your comeback year!!
Pic's coming soon! (PIC's)
Nick
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It goes without saying that a report for a race of this caliber is going
to be kind of long. Hopefully I entertain you enough for you to read the
entire thing. Additionally, I usually tailor my reports to who I'm writing
them for (TWW, VBella or my family who have no clue about all the bike
lingo) but I took a "one size fits all" approach here. My
apologies if you already know what an AT is or you don't know what a
Clydesdale is (a rider over 200 lbs).lots and lots of love and quotes for the web site, Mo. Downieville Classic Race Report: By the numbers 6:18 a.m.: This is the time that I was rudely woken up as my tent was violently shaken by an unnamed Team Wrong Way member. Camping is so much fun with a group, except when you purposely pack your camel back the night before so you can sleep as late as possible the day of the race. 7:30 a.m.: The time I had originally planned on waking up. I was not a happy camper. No pun intended. I did, however, have the pleasure of finding a large black spider crawling up my leg underneath my pants while preparing my morning oatmeal. Mike Gin, insert the dirty mind comment that I unintentionally yelled out here. 9:35 a.m.: Race start time. It was a mass start and by mass, I mean all 450 racers in all classes were piled into a 100ft long section of a small neighborhood road in tiny Sierra City to start the race. Since all racers of a category were to start together (co-ed style), it was necessary to locate the appropriate starting place on the road by asking individuals in the teeming crowd what their race category was. I found a spot among the chaos just as people stopped telling me they were Beginners and started telling me they were Sport riders. As always, I scoped out the competition. 8 and 3,000: The race started with a muffled "go!" from the announcer at the front of the pack and a clusterf*ck of about 150 Sport riders and Clydesdales trying to get on their bikes at the same time. I was determined to ride steady and strong up the climb-all 3,000 feet and 8 miles of it-and not blow myself up too early. 181: My highest recorded heart rate of the day and 92% of my 196 beats per minute maximum heart rate. The climb actually didn't feel like much of a race to me. My heart rate immediately flew up to 175 and even though I didn't particularly feel like I was hammering, I knew I couldn't sustain that high of a heart rate for the anticipated 2 hours it would take me to do the climb. My AT (in short, the point at which your body can no long effectively supply oxygen to your muscles and the "burn" sets in) is around 170 so I forced myself to slow my cadence down. It was a very strange "race in slow motion" sensation especially because I'm so used to the "nevermind what your heart rate monitor says, just go, go, go!" fury that fills my head at the start of most-albeit shorter-mountain bike races. Pictures of the climb in all its glory (taken by some random) can be found here: http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=117700 1 hour 49 minutes: I reach the top, 11 minutes ahead of my goal time for the climb. I had walked two sections that would have taken extreme efforts to get through and were a little more than I wanted to grapple with at the time. I only put my foot down once out of exhaustion, as opposed to the technical difficult of the climb. When all was said and done, I had climbed 4,413 feet (included the 500 foot climb in the middle of the race, but that comes later). 5,962: I reached the entrance to Pauley Creek and the singletrack filled with baby-head sized rocks, ready for the 5,962 feet of descending that awaited me. Two guys standing by their motocross bikes pointed the way. I smiled at them, proclaimed "Let's rock and roll!" and quickly disappeared out of their sight. Zero: Number of crashes, flats and mechanicals. From the amount of people I know that flatted or crashed during this race, this number is a feat in and of itself. I rode fairly conservative on the downhill, since not crashing was an actual goal of mine for this race. I also found that by the time I hit the downhill, I was on my way to being fatigued. Subsequently, it was easier for me to be on the cautious side than to try and really rip it up. I did, however, experience my first major cramp, ever. I had stopped to dab a tricky section and raised my left foot to clip back into my pedal. My left hamstring seized and I howled in agony. A Clydesdale rider I had traded position with on the climb passed me and offered me a GU in condolence. I thanked him and hopped back on my saddle, determined to see myself to the end of the race. 180: I call it the Half Helicopter and it can likely be given a "save of the day" title. I finally opened it up and picked up speed coming down Third Divide, as most of the major technical portions of the downhill were behind me. I was riding like the wind. Without warning (I think it's called JRA-just riding along) my pedal hit a rock and forced my front tire into the sid of the cliff on my left. Forget the fact that there was a 100ft drop into a river to my right. My bike spun around a full 180 degrees, with me on top of it. My bike came to a stop, completely upright and pointed completely up trail. Both my feet landed solidly flat on the ground, my bike still between my legs. I let out a loud "holy #$%!" and almost peed my chammy. It was pure crazy. 3:30: I caught up to a group of three guys at the end of First Divide, just as we dropped onto the pavement and headed into the streets of Downieville. I threw it in the biggest ring I had and mustered every last bit of drained energy left in me to sprint through town to the line. I finished at the top end of my goal time, between 3 hours 15 minutes and 3 hours 30 minutes. I was pretty happy. And pretty friggin' spent. 12: I came in 12th place, out of 17th. Results are here: http://www.downievilleclassic.com/ I finished 10 minutes behind 11th place but 13 minutes ahead of 13th place. If I had raced beginner category, I would have taken 3rd place and podium-ed. I say this not with regret but with the satisfaction that I feel like I actually belong in the category I raced in, an accomplishment for me since I upgraded to sport from beginner this year. A kazillion: Amount of thanks I have for all the compliments, encouragement and smiles I received from my friends, family and teammates (both Team Wrong Way and Velo Bella) at the race and back at home pertaining to my participation in this race. xoxoxo. A couple more numbers to consider: Elevation Loss/Gain: 4,413' ascent / 5,692' descent. Start Location: elevation 4,194' Sierra City, CA (39º 33.960'N, 120º 38.108'W) Finish Location: elevation 2,895' Downieville, CA (39º 33.643'N, 120º 49.643'W) Time: 3 hours 30 minutes Average heart rate: 162 Max heart rate: 181 1896: Number of calories I burned. I treated myself to In-n-Out and try to fight the feelings of guilt. -MO |
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Team,
OK...so of all the races this year, Downieville is really the only one I
wanted to do well at. Actually, it goes a bit deeper than that....back
in my sport class days, 2years ago, I raced D-ville for the first time.
I had a bad start...bad positioning in the starting pack and not pushing
hard enough up the paved climb prior to hitting the more loose fireroad.
Anyhow, I vowed to get my revenge the next year, only to find out there
would be no race in 2004...doooh!
Enter 2005....revenge shall be mine!
My goal for completing the race was 2hrs 10minutes. My plan was to
lead Kyle up the climb, so he could lead me down the descent. I warmed
up on my trainer at the campsite for about 30 minutes and then headed
over to the race start. I'd be damned if I was gonna get stuck at the
back of the start. They lined up all pros, semi-pros, and experts, both
men and women. I was probably about 10 people back from the front of the
pack.
We get the go ahead to start and we slowly start to roll up the
pavement. As soon as the pack started moving, I made my move to the side
of the road and stepped on the gas. My heart rate climbed quickly to
175bpm and then 182bpm. My legs and lungs burned a little bit,
but I've never been good at race starts, so I settled back down to
175bpm and sat in for my legs to warm up. Within a few minutes, most of
the people I passed began catching back up to me. I was like damn you
legs, warm up already. Just then Kyle came by me, so I decided to suck
his wheel. We rode together through the lower part of the fireroad.
Then as the fireroad started to get steeper and looser, I decided it was
time to make my move. I spun past Kyle and a few others. My legs were
feeling pretty good now.
My strategy for the rest of the climb was to sit in around my LT, about
175bpm, and to surge past people when the trail conditions allowed for
it. Since there is really only one good line on the upper fireroad
my plan worked perfectly. I would sit in a congo line and at
the right moment I would surge by 5-6 people, jumping my HR to about
182-185bpm. Then I would quickly jump back into the next pack ahead of
me, recover at my LT and wait to attack again. I did this all the way up
the climb. I hit packer saddle in 1hr3mins. I wasn't really sure if
that was good or bad, but I figured I passed a lot of people so it must
be decent. As a reference, Romolo Forcino, semi-pro, did it in like 53
minutes. So, I guess that wasn't to bad.
Pushing the pace up to Packer did take it's toll on my legs. Once we hit
the fireroad before hitting Pauley Creek, I could feel that my quads
were pretty worked, not quite at the verge of cramping, but they were
definitely burning. As we accelerated on the this upper fire road, I put
some roadie tactics to work and trade pulls with a guy all the way to
Pauley Creek. This was super cool, cause we managed to reel in about 10
more riders.
Time for the rocks....
On the pre-ride I'd ridden my Ahren's Steel hardtail and just had a
bad time. I pinch flatted twice and broke the pinch bolt on my saddle,
and jammed the bare seatpost right into my stomach...ouch! My
hardtail mojo was not with me this weekend and fortunately my dualie was
also with me. So, at the end of the day, I was decided to ride my Marin
Mount Vision Pro dualie.
I hit Paule Creek with some much speed that I surprised myself how
quickly I ripped through there. I even managed to pass a couple people.
Interestingly enough, once past all the baby head, I turned to my left
only to see Mark Weir fixing his bike. At the moment I was passing buy
he hopped back on his bike and rode behind me for a milli-second. I let
him pass and then he accelerated like a madman and he was gone...damn
that boy is fast!
The rest of the descent was fun, but not very eventful. I rode by myself
most of the time, except for when I passed a few riders. At one point, I
think it was on third divid, I saw one of the WTB riders ahead
of me (I think it was Kirk Desmond) and then I knew I was making good. I
tried to be as smooth as possible to avoid pinch flatting.
Everything was fine and dandy until I hit the lower part of first divide
and whaaaam it happened, I somehow managed to pinch my front 2.4 WTB
mutanoraptor! I heard the pssss and I let out a stream of obscenities. I
tried ridding it and almost when off the trail. I panicked, I grabbed my
bike and ran with it until I could find a wider opening in the trail to
change my flat. I found it, flipped the bike, pulled out the front tire.
My hands were so sweaty, that I couldn't get a grip on the tire. I also
managed to slice my thumb open on one of the nipples and now my hands
were wet with sweat and dripping blood. I yelled out a few more curse
words and then it occured to me that I could use the dirt kinda like
taclum powder to dry out my hands.....this worked perfect. I got the
tire off and pulled out my one tube and one CO2. In a panic, I failed to
used the CO2 properly and was only able to deliver about 10 psi to my
tire...arggHHHH!
I thought this might be good enough, but after trying to ride it and
almost going off the trail again, it was apparent to me that I would
have to do a bit of running. I grabbed my bike and started running down
the trail. As riders began to catch up to me, I was yelling out,
"Do you have any CO2." No luck, finally a guy comes buy with a
pump sticking out of his pack and I'm like, "Dude, dude, let me
borrow your pump." I ran up to him and pulled it out of his pack
while he was still riding. I pumped my tire furiously and managed to get
about 30 psi in. I figured f*ck it, that is good enough. And hopped back
on my bike and peddaled for everthing I was worth.I managed to catch
about 4 of the guys that passed me.
Then to add insult to injury, as I exited first divide onto the bricks,
I managed to wash out my front tire (pressure was too low in my front
tire) and bash my arm and watch on a big rock. I fell over still
clipped in and scrambled to my feet. I was soo frustrated at that point,
that I was almost in tears. I hopped back on my bike, locked out my
shock and peddaled out of the saddle with all my might. I passed a
couple more guys and then I rolled into the finish line at
2hrs24mins....damn. I missed my 2hr and 10min mark. However, had I not
spent 15 minutes trying to fix a flat and running down the trail, I'm
absolutely certain I would have hit my mark, which as it turns out would
have landed me on the podium! Just goes to show you that you can do
all the right things in a race and still succumb to a mechanical that
will cost you the race. Oh well! I had a good climb and a good
descent, minus the flat, I was happy with my performance and I had a
helluva a fun time. Can't wait for next year.
A big shout out to all our sponsors. Major props to Frank Walden
and crew for reserving all the campgrounds on Thursday, and to Nick and
Gigi for Q'ing up an awesome pre-race meal on Saturday nite! We had a
great showing of TWW, VB and Roaring Mouse. Thanks to everybody who
showed up. I had a great time!
Cheers,
Isaias
PS Jenny - I have your 3 place podium medal, t-shirt and new Tifosi
glasses.
PSS Jenny - no more sandbagging, it's time to move up to expert next
year! You got's the skills ta pay the billz!
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Photo of Isaias Job by John Shafer. |
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