Howell Mountain Challenge Race Reports

Howell Mountain Challenge

Race Report by Lloyd Ranola

Ok, one more email.. as I haven't even taken a nap from the HMC.

HMC:

Category: Sport 30-34
Place: 10th or 11th (1st Expert 30-34!!!)

What fun, hot, but really fun day with a good TWW showing. Actually Excellent TWW showing!!!!

So I started by entering the dirt around 20th of all the sport kids up to age 34. Not much position changing for me as the race was pretty steady the whole way. Chris Down passed me early on, as so did Issias. John Street was gone before I even started.

Everything on the course was great...but much slippery'er than during the NVDC. My front wheel washed many times, and I fell once on that hard-left-turn-with-that-nasty-drop-off-if-you-don't-make-it-left-turn. But luckily I fell to the inside.

The sport guys from 2 min back caught me around the whoops: B-Ham, Allan (YAHHOOOO!!) Sherlock, etc.

When lap 1 was done I realized by seatpost was slipping so I stopped, borrowed and allen wrench from a dude who was working on his bike (don't tell the NORBA official), and went on.. a nice 30 second breather....

My 2nd lap went smoother, but I was tired. Then I found Chris Down.. we pulled the same routine as NVDC... he passed me in the beginning... I passed him at the end! But I learned a trick from the roadie races... rest up behind the rider.. then pass em so fast that it looks like your blowing 'em away!!! (sorry chris)

I ending the race dicing it out with 2 or 3 others for a very close finish (hey, if you're not near the podium.. ya gotta have some fun!)

Apparently, they had me numbered in the Expert Cat... and of course since i only did 2 laps.. I won!!!! by a huge gap!!! (I should have taken that prelim sheeet) :-)

Once that was fixed, it seemed I got around 10th where I was supposed to be with the Sport class 30-34.

Later!
Lloyd

p.s. sorry guys I forgot my camera!!!

Race Report by Isaias Job

So here's my story...

5am...the alarm goes off, I get up and stumble to the coffee maker and get that going. I pull my camelbak bladder out of the fride, as well as my recovery drink and load those into my race bag. After an "e-caps" sanctioned breakfast, soy protein shake sweetend with a shot of hammer gel and a bagel, I pack up the car and head out. Jeez time flies when your half asleep. I'm on the road by 600am sharp.

My plan was to arrive in Angwin early enough to pre-ride the course, I missed the NVDC so I wanted to get a taste for the terrain. I arrive at PUC college, there is only like 5 cars outside, at 800am sharp, sign my waiver and purchase my one day race license. Then I head out to the car and gear up for the pre-ride. The course was really fun, but I was a little worried about the loose single track, which I suck at, and the fact that there was no sustained climbs, which I'm good at. I pre-rode the whoopie-doos a couple time, man those are awesome! Anyhow, I finished my pre-ride in an 1:20minutes, a very leisurely pace. So, I head back to the car to get ready for the race.

The time is now 945 and now the parking lot is full and people are warming up around the race track. At the car, I put on a dry jersey, get my camelbak ready, and adjust my front derailleur (i discovered that it wouldn't go into the granny ring on the pre-ride). Just then I see Jenny pull up on her bike, it's now 950, and she's like we just got her. I assure her there's plenty of time till the 1030 race start.

So by now, I'm starting to get the race jitters, especially since this is only my 2nd sport class race. I found the TWW crew and line up with: Allan, Chris Down, Chris ?, Lloyd and I can see Peter and John Street from where we're I'm lined up. The pro's go off and our group, 3 age cat's 19-24, 25-29, 30-35, inches closer to the start. The jitter's get worse and I start chatting nervously with those around me, by this time I am completely cooled down from my pre-ride and I'm thinking, oooh this is start is gonna hurt.

And there off, I'm not a fast starter so I don't bother to sprint off the line. I'm probably one of the last 5 in our group. So we climb up the road to the first single track and bottle necks gallore, then we reach the first little climb and it gets worse, people are spinning out like crazy. I carefully manouever my way pass 5 or 6 people, being careful not to get pushed of the climb. Eventually, I catch up with Chris and Llyod in the singeltrack and pass them on a climb. At this point I really feel like crap, my legs are fatigued already, probably due in part to the pre-ride and in part to completely cooling down. I begin to think to myself, gosh is this what sport class is all about, maybe I'm not ready for this, what the hell am I doing out here anyway, am I even gonna be able to finish one lap let alone 2 laps and on and on.

I push on, at this stage, the heat and the exertion is starting to get to me, I can feel my whole body tingling and that scares the crap out of me, I focus on my breathing and pop a couple endurolytes and slam some hammer gel. I push on. I battle it out with a few people on the trails and even get stuck behind and expert woman who wouldn't move out of the way. I was sooo frustrated by her not moving over after repeated request that I contemplated running her off the road, but finally on the downhill single track I saw an opening and took it. Things are kinda of a blur, then next thing I remember is the whoopie-dos and all I can think is my god we're almost at the end of the first lap. Since I had pre-riden the course I followed my pre-planned lines and I nailed all 3 of the whoopie-dos...sweet, people were cheering me on!

On to the second lap, thanks to all the riding I do, I'm beginning to recover and am actually starting to feel pretty good. I start catching more and more people and battlinig out positions with a couple more. I eventually catch up to John Street and I start thinking to myself, holy crap, either John's feeling as bad as I was or I'm nearing the front of the pack. I pass John on a steep little climb and he shouts some encouraging words and that John Hillstrom is right ahead. I pass another woman rider on the loose climb, when I get to the top my heart rate is through the roof, but I keep peddaling. Then I run into Jason Tandeta, an expert racer friend, I shout some encouraging words as he looks as bad as I feel. Then I make a turn to the right to climb what was about the longest fireroad climb in the race. I eventually, catch up to another friend of mine who is a cyclo-cross racer. I greet him and I say let's go. At this point I'm thinking, I'm definitely near the front of the pack as this guy is way fast. So we battle it out on the climbs and then I take him on the descents, then he catches up on the climbs, then on one of the last single track descents I'm pushing really hard, up to the limit of my ability, in order to drop my friend Joe. So fast in fact that I ended up getting sucked into one of the big ruts on the exposed, dowhill singletracks. Next thing you know I'm flying over the bars, I quickly get up and jump on the bike, my buddy has caught me and yells are you ok, but by then I'm already on the bike banging away at the peddals to keep my lead.

The next thing I remember, is hitting the whoopie dos again and I think to myself, oh my good I'm actually gonna finish the race semi-descently. I nail the first 2 whoopties and pass a couple people and once again the crowd is cheering, but on the third whooptie, I had to take a bad line to try and pass somebody and had to jump off near the top. I quickly pushed the bike to the top and hopped on. I saw Jeff Hane cheering people on and soon I caught up with Patrick. I shouted we're almost to the finish and took off. Next, we hit a pretty flat section to the finish and I drop into the best road postion that I could muster on my mountain bike and hammer away in my biggest gears. By reducing the wind resistance against me I was actually able to catch another couple people. At this point we are near the end by the airport and I now the end is near. I start pushing with all that I have left, working a delicate balance between speed and cramping. The next thing I know my buddy joe comes wizzing by me, bastard I cry out and jump on his wheel. We make the final descent to the grass area near the finish and I reach down and lock out the fork and try and go into the big chaing ring, but it wont go, so I just use the middle ring and my smalled rear cog and hammer it out, not quite enough power to catch my friend joe. The race is over I'm glad, but I'm competely overheated and nateaus. I head over to get some food and water and then to the nearest water spigot. The only water spigot I can find is below knee lever, so I strip of my gloves, helmet, camelpak and proceed to get on my hands and knees to cool down. As I'm drenching myself at the tap I am coughing and gagging like a bad hang over. Soon, I am feeling much cooler, but still nateaus. I head over to the car and grab my endurx drink and then head over to chat with the rest of the crew.

Turns out I took 5th place, only top 3 get medals at the HMC, but good enough to get some wrong way points. Man, talk about a come from behind victory! Ok, so maybe racing sport isn't that bad, but I'll definitely be putting in some road miles in from now on. My buddy joe that beat me in the sprint finish ended up taking 2nd place in the 30-35 category, man if I was only one year older I would have been on the podium ;-)

The results were a little screwed up, due to the timing system, so we'll have to wait for the final word, but so far congrats to the following:

1. Jenny Impey - 1st place
2. Allan Scherlock - 1st place
3. Paul Ollerich - 5th place
4. Others? - We'll have to wait for the final results.

One last comment, e-caps\hammer gel rocks! This is the first product I've used that has actually prevented me from cramping. Trust me, I've tried many products with no success.

Cheers,

Isaias

Race Report by Bob Lofland

Bad day, I decided to erase the report. I had not been out in a while so it was good to see familiar faces. I need to do some more riding.

Found a guy selling some parts, bought a wheel set and some cranks. Good deal.

As far as the race. If not for bad days, there would be no good days. This one makes me better appreciate the others.

Now go read Isaias’s race report. He should be careful, or he may be racing Expert soon. Then the pain will be on.

Race Report by Dave Longinotti

Congratulations Paul, John, Brent, et all, it looked like everybody, BUT ME, had a pretty good showing.. (not sure why Haneous was spectatING at the top of the first whoop, but I sort of didn't want to ask.

I Shudda gone to Northstar the week before but I had to move my 23yr old OUT of LINDA's house on Saturday. Then I spent last week 2 time zones away, so prspects for Sunday weren't looking that good. 50+ sport started along with 3 other groups, 35-39,40-44,45-49, and 50+. Some of the riders didn't look right for the ages. There was guy in my group who looked awful damn youthfull to be 50, and Gerry Post, whose is a friend of Paul from Antioch and I can't believe that Silver Haired Sonuvabitch is only 49. Anyway in a group of at least 40 riders trying for the WHOLE SHOT seemed pointless so I watche the crowd and about 6 TWW jerseys fade up the hill as i struggled to get going.

After the little meadow on that short road climb sort of like Skyline, people were actually stalling out so i started picking up a few places. After the airstrip there was some gridlock in the first single track, eventually it sorted out. In the first section of serious Right/left single track and went off the trail tried to split two trees and washed out my front and stopping. One guy from my age group went by, he looked really serious and I tried to recover.

I was staying behind he Ok, when I tried to get creative and go on the left side of tree when the trail went right. BANG, HISS. I had busted the valve stem on my front tube off flush at the jam nut. At least one more guy in my age group came by. Since there were only 6 in my group I was at least in 4th place at the point of the fix screw up and possibly in SECOND. (I didn't pay that much attention after I got into fixing the tire.)_ The other 5 finishes were all within 10 minutes of each other and 12 minutes behind the winning expert. (Ron Lemos) So up that point at least I was at least competitive. And I gotta say that when the Sport Winner is with 2 minutes of the Expert winner on the same course and the same age group, something reeks a little bit.

AFter a lightning fast 12 minutes tube changes and back in action battling with hordes of beginners. Things deteriorated fast as I had to jump off and every few minutes when somebody stalled out. Then the cramping started.

The delay fixing the flat and battling all the beginners I was starting to cramp before the end of the first lap. I probably should have bagged it at the that point but I tried to make thru the lap two, but I was having stop and clear cramps.

By the time I got in the awards were starting. Another note, I SHOULD have used full KNOBBIES front and rear. There was a little bit of loss, dust filled ditch track, (a la the high sierra's) wheere narrow tires just DON"T WORK.

I've heard NVDC has a longer climb. WHERE DO THEY PUT IT> It appears that the HMC course climbs from the bottom of the property to the top. What am I missing??

Official Results Here

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