Race Report

Race Report by Loren Thomas

Central Coast Mountain Bike Series, Fort Ord
March 28th, 2004

TeamWrongWay was out in force once again for our second Fox XC cup race of the season. After a great race for me at Angel’s Camp, I was sitting in 2nd place in the points. Frank Walden was only 4 points ahead of me so my main goal was to out score the Big Old Clydesdale!

I started the day by rolling out of bed at the last minute and tossing everything except my Sidi shoes in the truck before heading out to pick up Sherlock. Sherlock was ready and waiting outside for me so we had the extra half hour to head back to my place for the shoes.

It was an absolutely fantastic day with mild temperatures and sunny skies along the Monterey coast. We did a quick warm-up and meandered to the starting area. I had a feeling that the competition would be tough after hearing a couple expert racers explain why they decided to race in the Sport class today and seeing all the shaved leg roadies at the start!

I started about 30 guys back and took my time drafting to about twentieth. When I saw Frank making a move towards the front I passed most of the pack on the outside and entered the single track in 8th place.

Frank washed out in a big sandy turn and I temporarily passed him for 6th. I knew I was pushing a little too hard, but I wanted to stay with the lead pack as long as possible. The poison oak plants at every corner didn’t stop us from setting a good pace through the single track. Frank passed me as the lead pack broke in to two groups. By lap two, Frank was a good 1000ft ahead of my pack. I was downing Clif Shot every lap, but by the fourth lap, no amount of shot would give me the energy to maintain the pace. My legs burned on the slightest incline and I went into survival mode.

Just so everyone understands how slow I was going, Rich Henthorn passed me! I really need to work on my endurance because getting passed by Rich just isn’t cool.

Anyway, all excuses aside (and I have a several good ones), I got my butt kicked and a good dose of reality finishing 14th out of 23 racers. The big guy finished 1st (way to impress the cute chick he brought with him)!

Look out you Sea Otter Sandbaggers, I’ve got some points to make up!

Race Report by Keith White

Not only have I fallen, but I can't get up!

Jees, I don't have a clue what is wrong with me, but my race just sucked. Everything started OK, but went horribly wrong quickly.

There we are lined up, I'm ready to go, I feel OK, but worry about not having trained for 5 days when I'm out off shape anyway. So, off we go with a whimper. Scott's in front of me spinning like a hampster(on his single speed) up the road. I have to laugh. I don't feel like I'm working too hard and want to pace myself since I don't know the course at all. I enter the single track about 2/3 back in the pack. Just ahead are Franck, and Paul. Rich and Jeff are another 15 riders up or so. Fine, I have most people in my sights and a long way to go.

About 100 yards into the single track there's a small patch of sand. The dude right be hind Franck and 2 ahead of me crashes. Now mind you this is a straight, flat stretch. We are all riding wheel to wheel. So, in a nice chain reaction the guy in front of me crashes into him, I manage to react quickly and not hit the guy ahead of me, but the guy behind me seems to do an endo right into the back of me. And a few more behind him crash too. So, after we straighten out we get back on it.

I can still see Franck and Paul about 50 yards up so not that bad. Then, minor little uphill turn and two guys are down. Sheesh I thought this was sport class. Now F&P are almost out of sight. I start to push and stand on some climbs and my stomach starts to react. Hmm, this is not right. Way too much acid, I should have known better than to eat that protein bar(always stick to Clif products...this was some whacky brand my girlfriend gave me since I didn't get any bananas or bagels the night before). I slow down to try to recover and just seem to be in bad shape. So, I slow and let people go by. I try to maintain some pace, but just don't have whatever I need to push harder.

About lap 3 I start to feel better, but not like I can push what I'm used to. So I decide to try and enjoy the rest. Lap 4 was at least enjoyable, but I feel like Bob and Scott are catching me and I would like to see if I can still finish ahead of them. Soon Alan comes by(after a broken chain on lap 1) and passes me like I'm standing still.

I cruze to the finish and enjoy the post ride camaraderie. Great team, but I suck. I'll try to make it up to you guys in the future.

Keith

Race Report by Isaias Job

Better late than never.....

Man ooooh man, I suffered like a dawg at this race. I took the entire last weekend off the bike and went to Reno for a weekend of debauchery with my old college pals....and my fitness took a direct hit. On the trip home from the race, I was chatting with my friend Jason and he said to me, you have to remember you are an expert now, you can't get away with sh*t like that anymore.

Any who, I woke up feeling pretty rested from the TWW GGG course build the previous day, but I could tell my legs were not feeling right. We arrived at Fort Ord and I set up our cool TWW booth, got registered and headed out for a pre-ride, right after the sport class took off. Lot's and Lot's of TWW showed up, awesome! I even saw Jeff Hane, whom I've not seen since CX season.

The first obvious difference in the course was the fact that the already minimal climbing was reduced even further. I think they billed the original race as having 500ft/lap. Jerry's HAC4 altimeter/cyclocomputer reported only 250ft/lap. Needless to say I knew the course would be even faster than before. My legs twinged just at that point as if to remind me...umm hello, weren't not ready for this kind of high speed abuse!

And there off, I jump off the line and I can tell already that I'm in more pain than usual. My heart rate pings right into my anaerobic zone with no problem. We had no sooner entered the single track than I realized that I was just not feeling good today. I began slowing down to let my heart rate come down a bit and kept on. I just felt that I didn't have the motivation\desire nor the power to push my legs at the usual blistering expert pace.

I actually considered DNFing about 10minutes into the race, but decided that I would just continue to ride the course as it was such a nice day and I'm always up for going out to riding my mountain bike, plus I'd already paid and made the trip out to Fort Ord.

As I was riding along, I would try to pick up the pace only to find that I still wasn't feeling right. After about the 2nd lap, I just got kinda pissed off 'cause people kept passing me and so as a rider would come buy, I would suck their wheel as long as I could and then back off. That was pretty much the entire race.

In the final lap, a single speeder passed me and that really pissed me off! So I hopped on his wheel and eventually passed him. This set the pace for the last lap and I gave it all I could until I crossed the finish line. I rolled through the finish and over to a group off TWWers and just collapased. I think the heat and the previous weekend's debauchery really took a nasty toll on me.

So for as crappy as I felt, I managed not to come in last place! Unf*cking believable! Although, I've never quite suffered so horribly....we'll maybe once and that was at the Santa Theresa race in the 100degree weather! In the end I came in 8/12, but a whopping 15minutes behind the wining time. Just as a reference, I've usually ONLY been about 12 minutes off the leader.

After a little water and some chit chatting it was time to pack up all the gear and head over to the C-otter course for one lap. The original plan was two do 2 laps, but I knew deep in my heart I'd be lucky to finish one lap.

Better luck next time,

Isaias

Race Report by Frank Walden

CCCX#3 Race Report.

After being out sick for a week and not training like normal I wasn’t sure what to expect at this race. I was feeling pretty good after warming up and with the usual pre-race jabber going on I was in good spirits so I knew I would have fun regardless. They lined up the 25-34 Sports in front of us and then set us off as a group…great now all these freaks to pass! I decided that I wanted to be in the front so I sprinted down the pavement weaving in and out of the pack and before I knew it I was out in front of the whole group….well not so great, I didn’t pre-ride the new course so I had no idea what to expect so I backed off a little and couple ducked in front of me at the singletrack entrance. All is going well as we hammer along until I washed out in one of the sandy corners..Bam! down on my butt before I knew what was going on. By time I got up and going about 10 people had passed me including two in my class. I set out to catch the lead group again and caught back up in a few minutes. I battled back and forth with the two guys in my class most of the first three laps until I was able to make a pass stick and enter the downhill section in front. That is where I was able to open up a 100’ gap and was able to hang on to that till the end. I finished 1st in the Clydesdales and in the top 10 overall. Big thanks to McCrimmon and the rest of you for cheering us all on and to Ingrid for taking some great photos of everyone. We ended the day by going for a 2 ½ hour road bike ride around the backroads of Fort Ord. All in all a pretty great day!

Frank

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