NVDC Race Reports

I placed 9th with a time of 1.55.49 in the Sport 30-34. The course was awesome! Some great whoopty-whoops and descents, technical in areas, some killer climbs and great rolling singletrack. Good stuff! I will definitely be there for the next one.

-- David Ambrose

Thanks to everyone who came out to the NVDC yesterday. TWW really had a good showing with 3 podium finishes!!!. As Chris Down pointed out: “TWW must be a good 3-5% of this entire crowd” I think that we definitely had the biggest team showing. Let’s see if I get the names right (already know I’m gonna miss some of you completely… so I apologize ahead of time): Jenny, Paul, Chris, Jeff (to sick to ride, but was our #1 cheerleader) Hane, Kathleen (3rd place) Meyer, Brenton, Kirsten (Tinker Groupie) McDaniel, Dave, John (2nd place) Hillstrom, John (broken chain) Street, Allen (3rd place) Sherlock, Rich Hethorn, David (only one to bring a camera and photographer(gf) Ambrose, and me… oh, and special guest Tinker.

My race goes as follows: Sport Class 30-34. We were grouped with multiple categories depending on age. I got to start the race with David, Chris, Chris’ roommate Eug, Hillstrom and Street. The start was fast, and I settled in sooner than later being a long race and I’m always paranoid of not having legs on that last climb. Unfortunatly I let a whole bunch of peeps go by. After the first climb, I “hid” behind Chris’ wheel just for kicks, not too far up was Street and David A. It was fire roads galore for a while, then of course the best damn single track in Nor Cal this year!!!

Jeff Haneous did a great job of being at key places in the race like the whoops to help cheer on TWW riders.

With the Sport 35-39 group behind us… I knew a couple dudes who were gonna make it passed me. Allen who enthusiastically past me by, and B-Ham whom I must had rode with for 15-20 min on that single track till I had to let him go. Poor Street was seen by me and others fixing his chain multiple times that day… but later he still managed to cross the finish line!

Other than seeing many riders I know pass me, everything seemed to go smooth til the beginning of the rutty decent where I ran smack dab into one of the Expert Women after she crashed, and I did a face plant on her front wheel. After quickly getting my composure back, unlocking my bike from hers, it was down, down, down ‘til the climb home. Luckily for me I saved just enough energy to climb the majority of it all, and pick off some of the riders I let go early on. Jeff was there at the end of the climb to ensure that there was only “one last hump” by the airport til the finish, so from that point on it was time to hammer while being on the verge of cramping the whole time. Good stuff.

My finish: 12th out of 30, time 01:58:46 (for me, I’m pleased as I beat my time from last year by 5 or 6 minutes)

Later!
Lloyd

NVDC was soooo much fun!

My first time on those trails, and what a treat. A great contrast to the open mud-slicks of SOC, but I coulda done without the massive climb at the end. The start of the race went smoothly. David A rocketed out've there and I never saw him again. I settled into a groove, not really knowing how much reserve I’d really need at the end. I passed up Lloyd a few minutes in… at the moment I passed him, I started to have passers-remorse. I knew that Lloyd had ridden this track a number of times, and there was a good reason he was riding a reasonable pace. But, like a dog with a bowl of food, I kept pushing my pace. Sure enough, a few minutes later, he pushed passed with the greatest of ease. I stayed within eye-shot all the way through the narrow woodsy-windeez. Then the climbs started…. Heaven help me, I never thought they’d end. The whoop-de-doooz were awesome, but oh, those climbs. I shoulda saved a bit more, as I experience my first ever calf cramp at 1:42. My right leg FROZE at the bottom of my rotation. I probably looked like a cowboy, trying to whip his three-legged horse’ ass into gear as I groped for a Clif Shot. A minute later I was pedaling, again. Whew.

All in all, it was an absolute blast! The riding was tops, the haystacks were amazing (especially for 3 bucks!), and when Tinker walked up for the group photo… well that just pushed it over the edge. Now, if I coulda only broken the 2 hour mark (14 seconds off!)!!!!! 30-34 Sport, 14th at 02:00:14.

Ooh yeah,

chris

Firstly, I need to set the record straight… I think I told a couple people I rode a 1:40 at NVDC while it was actually a 1:50… I must have thought I was an expert and looked at their time or something. If only I were that fast!

Secondly, yeah, I'm going to upgrade to expert for any more races (at Angwin at least)… the sandbagging charge might actually be sticking at this point with a few podiums in Angwin under my belt. Having said that, I'm no "expert" racer in general - I think the 1:50 would have put me in 11th in expert at NVDC and my 46th place at the Sea Otter in sport isn't exactly crushing the field.

So yeah, NVDC, was, as always, a great race. I started with the 3 sport classes from 28 to 40, and managed to get to the dirt in 7th place or so after a good sprint up the hill closely following and then being followed by John Street. I went completely anaerobic for the first 10 minutes all the way out across the reservoir trying to solidify my position (and mostly to drop Street). I passed at least a couple more people so figured I was about 5th in that sport group by the time I got to the twisties.

The twisties were fun but slow, spending virtually the entire time behind trains of people going well below "race pace"… about 1/2 way through, I heard the familiar voice of Street egging me on… I guess my roadie sprint at the beginning didn't "put him away for good". He dogged me for a bit but then disappeared due to a crash (I think). When I looked back, there were at least 6 people behind me that weren't him. But 2 minutes later, there's Street again. I think this pattern repeated 2 more times, and I figured once we got out of the twisties, I was in for a good race against my "nemesis." Alas, when we hit the first climb after a fireroad, his chain broke (1st of 3 times) and the rest of your saw him throughout the race fixing and refixing it. I'm pretty sure he and I would have pushed each other to first and second if he hadn't had a mechanical (or we both would have crashed and DNF'ed).

A funny moment of the twisty part was some guy yelling and spazzing about how people should get out of the way in a very obnoxious and loud way and how this was a race, etc. Street replied he should chill out - that we're out to have fun. The guy replied that he was in front of Street and Street should shut up (I could here all this from 2 people forward). Street replied "not for long" and preceded to immediately pass and drop the dude completely.

The surprising part of the race for me was that the rutty downhills in the back which are usually super fast and fun, scared the crap out of me this time. It was a disturbing combination of loose and extremely rutty. Or maybe I'm just getting old. I was chasing a guy (who ultimately got 3rd) who was super fast on the downhills, and all I could think the whole time was "not more downhill" because I knew that I was going to pay for the downhill with a big climb. I eventually caught the guy around the water station after the worst of the climb, and when I told him there was lots of climbing left, his spirits were broken and I passed him for 2nd, where I ultimately ended up. Who says you can't psych out your opponents.

It was great seeing the huge posse of us there and getting Tinker on our team! Nice turnout gang.

John Hillstrom

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