Race Reports

Race Report by Lloyd Ranola

Fun day! great turn out!

My quicky race report:

At the start I decided to pace it slow with Loren and Jerry... but my slow turned out to be slower than I thought. My heart rate kept going up and up, and I kept drifting further back in the pack while trying to keep in down. Well, I was convinced that there is something wrong with my physical fitness... I've been riding this year, and should be faster than this!!??!! I'm getting passed by the next start group way earlier than I'm used to! Tired, I stop to 'relieve' myself and say hi to Frank as he goes flying by. Throught.. I'm spending my whole race saying hi to those I know as they go by!

About 10 miles into the course, I get fed up on one steep climb thinking.. this is way to hard!... I stop.. pull up my front wheel and use my hand to manually rotate the wheel.. and I get about a 1/2 a roatation! My brake has been dragging!!! Well after about 20 min trying to field fix it, including emptying some fluid from the resovoir.. I give up and DNF'd.

ONe thing I noticed during warm up was that i have NO travel in my front brake lever... just ON once I pull the lever. But I didn't even think that it might be dragging. Turns out, as the afternoon went by, the calipers got tighter and tigher. Weird? It was working great the night before. I beld the brakes when I got home, and that seemed to fix the problem (anyone w/ advice on this one would be greatly appreciated)

Lloyd

Race Report by Keith White

If you like heat, yesterday was a good day. As I showed up to the race about 9:15 I could already see the swarms of TWW jerseys floating about. Brothers and sisters of all kinds in the famous jerseys doing the pre-race dance. Registerred and ready to roll in about 1/2 hour even with a distant parking space. A few laps around the race track with Loren and Jerry following a few hot boddies for fun and I'm almost warmed up. One sprint up the start hill and that's all I have time for. The crowds have formed and I've got to fight for a mid-pack place. Standing around I trade quips with Paul, Lloyd and a few others. Rich scores a better starting position(sneaky bastard). Waves of riders take off. Finally we go. From a slow start I enter the singletrack about 1/2 way back. We move along and hit the "new" hike-a-bike section. Clogged like I've never seen and no one is trying to go fast. Oh well, at least everyone is in view. As we start to open it up around the fast fire road, I can see Rich up ahead with Alan closing the gap. I think to myself 'just hang on, don't let them go'. Soon we are bobbing in and out of trees, and I'm stuck behind some slower folks. Then we pop out of the trees onto a fire road and the guys in front are talking about this being the 'whoops'. I don't think they come this early, but what do I know. Then, there they are. 4 or 5 dorks in front of me and I can't let it fly. So I take the only open line and pass them all up the other side. I can't see Rich any more, so I'm a bit pissed. Then we hit the other 2 whoops and I have a decent line so I can just go, but the uphill is still clogged with wieners. After the last one, I see a TWW jersey up ahead. Cools, I'm catching back up again.

Back into the trees and the weave and bob. I'm getting closer to the TWW jersey, and there's another one just up from that...nice. It looks like Rich. Down in the creekbed with the rocks and there's Rich off bike and pushing as I pass, damn that wasn't Rich, it was Lloyd. Hey and away we go. Soon I can see another TWW jersey. That must be Rich. As I get closer, yes it is. More weave and bob and after a few slow rider stucks, I come within 2 people of him. And there I sit.

Soon we break out onto the fire road and I realize I forgot my hammer. Don't know where I left it, but without it I sure can't put it down. I cruze at a moderate pace then Frank comes by and says hello as I just watch him rip away like I'm on a Sunday stroll. Back into the trees and finally to the more tricky downhills. Of course this is where I'm blocked by people who like the slow lane. One dude even crashes taking up the whole trail until he's back on and going in front of me again. ShITE.

Then, there it is. The start of the steep climbs. I ride all the early ones and start up the longest, but soon decide I'm too hot and too toast for the abuse and I join the march to the top. Since I started this March right next to Peter Donohue, I'm pissed that he can just walk away from me. I need to work on my hike training.

After the top of that I get to see this really cute chick spank me. As fun as that should be it was a bit demoralizing. Finally back to the downhill fire road and I almost bite it on one of those loose corners. Front wheel slide, but I manage to hold on. Racing around the flats back to the final climb and down the hike-a-bike. I put a couple of guys away. At the bottom of the hike my front tire goes off the trail and I have a running crash. Only one guy by so not bad. Zip to the finish and it's all over.

12th.

I need more time in the saddle for races this long...

Next one, I'm on the hut!

Keith

Race Report by Jerry Cherra

Sunday, April 25th
Expert 30-34
6th of 17
Time: 1:42:32 - missed the sub 1:40:00 time Mike expected...sorry

It was a beautiful day with warm temperatures, sunny skies, and sweet singletrack...oh yeah...and a pretty epic climb. I just wish I would have remembered to bring my legs. I guess my body has been sapping all its energy healing from Wednesday nights 35 mph crash and fighting a bronchial virus. I loved this race so much last year that I wasn't going to miss it for anything.

I started the race pretty mild. With at least 3 miles or more of fire road until the singletrack I didn't feel any urgency to lead this one out. I stayed in the top 15 through the hike-a-bike section and then started to fade. My legs were already starting to hurt and I couldn't stay with the accelerations. Pretty soon I found myself with a chase group of 5 and I was hoping my legs would settle in a little later in the race and I could start bridging back to the main pack. It wasn't too long after that the lead group gradually disappeared. I stayed in the chase group until we got to the whoop-d-doos. These guys must have been afraid to let go of their brakes or something because I passed everybody after the first one and proceeded to walk away from them after the last. That turned out to be a good thing because it wasn't too long after that we hit the singletrack and I didn't want to get stuck behind people there. The singletrack was awesome. I rode it pretty fluid and smoothly and it was probably the most enjoyable part of the day for my legs. I rode through the rocky river bottom crossing while everybody else carried their bikes through it.

From that point until the big climb I don't recall much. My legs were really starting to blow apart and I was extremely focused on getting to the finish. Then came the climb...OUCH. Somewhere toward the end of it I really wanted to just fall over and throw up. My legs were not having fun and I don't think they appreciated that I was being stubborn about staying in the middle ring. Looking back I probably should have dropped into the small ring so as to not tear myself apart so much. I did, however, enjoy riding past people pushing their bikes up the hill. I was so relieved when I finally got the final fire road descent. I cruised into the finishing area and was very happy the pain was over.

All in all it was a very fun race and worth the suffering. Lesson learned though...either let your body heal or expect to suffer. It does give me new found respect for guys like Tyler Hamilton and Pettachi riding in last year's Tour with their injuries. Not only did they survive they performed and won stages...amazing.

Thanks for reading

Jerry

Race Report by Julie Brown

This race is about five miles too long if you ask me!

I was pretty nervous about racing since I've never been and you're not allowed to pre-ride. Plus I was already pretty worn out from moving the day before. But it was such an incredible day, I had to race. Unpacking had to wait.

I always love arriving at a race and seeing all the TWW jerseys, watching the other racers cringe in fear..okay that part's just in my head, but what the hey.

I finally got a good start. Busted out in front of my group and started chasing two young chicks sandbagging in Beginners. Passed one after a bit and ended up chasing and being chased by the other one the entire race. This course is deceptively tough. First you get lulled into a long flat fireroad trek, then some nice singletrack and then it gets interesting. I just loved the whoop-de-woos...man they were just kick- a$$ fun! I took the first one too slow and had to peddle pretty hard to get up the next one, but just let it go down the next two, whooping and hollering because it was so fun. The fans seemed to like that and hollered back in appreciation. That was cool.

The singletrack is just sweet. Smooth, fast, twisty, turny and narrow. I was just having so much fun, I knew something had to be wrong. This race had a reputation for being tough and I just wasn't seeing it. Where's the pain?

Oh, there was pain. Lots of pain. The steeps started coming fast and furious...some long, some short, a lot rideable, unfortunately some not. Then there was the hike-a-bike from hell! If you like long, hot, nasty, steep drugery, this is the course for you. Definitely the longest hike-a-bike I've ever experienced. I would try hopping on the bike from time to time but it just ended up being easier to walk. Slowly. I was feeling it in the legs from all the box hauling up and down stairs the day before. Not riding all week, then moving is not conducive to a fast race.

Finally trudged through the worst of it and we came up on some rutted descents. On one of the worst sections a bug (hopefully not a bee) flew into my helmet and was distracting to say the least. I decided to jump off the bike and not attempt one nasty section with a possibly unfriendly bug flying around in my helmet, which was probably smart since a lot of people were plowing over their handlebars into the dirt around me.

The last 10 miles were mainly uneventful, though the F-bombs were starting to get dropped pretty frequently, so I decided it was time to eat something. That helped and I was able to stop all the damn swearing. Unfortunately my gears were acting up and I decided to only shift in my front three rings and not shift in the back because it sounded and felt like it was going to blow up at any minute. It was a long, ploddy ride to the finish until I hit the grass and I tried to catch a guy in front of me, only to run out of room and almost lose it on the last curb. Now that would have been embarassing.

Ended up getting a second place finish, which was cool. Apparently the woman who beat me by 16 minutes had raced at La Ruta, so that made me feel a little less like a poser. Being beaten by that much time is just embarrasing. And to be honest, I never saw her take off at the start...she must have blinded me with her speed.

All in all, it was a great race. The course was excellent, fun, challenging and very well marked. And showers afterwards! What a great day.

Race Report by Craig Kapfer

Also don't forget that Lloyd and I beat all of you back to the finish! ;) Both of us DNFed due to mechanicals...Too bad as I was having a good day.

Quick race report: This was my first MTB race and only 2nd bike race ever having done one crit back in January. I was a bit nervous to start but that quickly subsided once the race started.

At the start I took it easy and stayed toward the back of the group as I didn't know what to expect, but after the hike a bike managed to stay with Andy (a friend from work) through the fireroad. We were passing almost everyone in our start group it seemed.

On the first (mild) sustained climb i had some chainsuck and couldn't get back on the trail due to the stream of traffic until maybe 20-30 had passed. After getting back on my bike I quickly passed most that had just passed by through the airport then the whoops, passing a bunch of clydes a few women from the preceding group and then into the singletrack.

As I came into the rocky river bottom crossing singletrack section I was feeling pretty good and loving the course when my derailleur hanger snapped (not sure why--may have hit a rock). It took a long time to find anyone with a wrench or wiresnips to remove the derailleur but finally someone who wasn't racing had one and off it came.

I contemplated singlespeeding the rest of the way, but couldn't quite get my chain tension right and was worried that the climb out might be too tough. So I managed to walk/coast back to the first hike-a-bike yelling encouragement to some of the early finishers and coasted in from there to the cheers of the crowd. Feeling a bit sheepish about that and running out of steam I got off my bike just before the finish line and walked off the course, so I'm sure some folks were wondering what was going on.

There is probably a picture or two of me out there jumping some of those bumps near the finish with no chain and no derailleur. Can't wait to see that...Singlespeed? How about Zerospeed!

Still, fun day! Great course, although I didn't have to deal with the hike-a-bike from hell....

Craig
Beginner 30-34, DNF

Race Report by Franck Mangin

The action started on Saturday for me, while practicing track stands at the campground. Jam the front wheel, can't unclip fast enough, smack hand hard on a rock... ouch.

Nice bruise on the left hand, quite painful when going downhill or using the front brake... that's a real bummer because I was really looking forward to that race. At that point I am not sure I'll take the start, I am concerned I'll crash trying to take it easy on that hand. Lesson #1, don't practice track stands on a rocky trail the day before the best race of the season... or if you do at least wear your gloves - duh!

Sunday morning the hand is feeling better, and as soon as we pull in the parking lot I know there is no way I am going to pass on this. Registration goes smoothly, I even remembered to bring my spanking new $50 NORBA license... only to find out sport racers could use a daily license despite what the web site said. But no complaints, the organization is great and Michael did even ask a few girl scouts to look after the kids while we race - awesome!

Big TWW showing as usual - I say a few hi's and start warming up on the road. I ride the course up to the top of the hike a bike with Valerie; I don't like the hike a bike, I can be pretty clumsy with a bike on my shoulder and I'm thinking it would suck losing 20 places in the first 10mnn.

Back at the line, I locate Alan & Keith and we all line up for the start. I am in about the 3rd row as we start off the line and uncharacteristically (is that a word?) I'm feeling fast, moving up the pack to enter the single track in the first top ten. Never done so good at the start, right there I know I'll be on the podium today. 3mn later Alan passes me at the top of the hike a bike, my calves hurt, I can't breathe, reality settles in... ok, I'll catch them all on the last climb, that was the plan anyway.

I try to hang on on the flat fireroad... I really need to work on this, I suck at fast flat fireroad. Takes me 5mn to remember that there is a reason everybody but me in riding in packs, it's called drafting - duh. Keith flies by in a hurry, I finally grab someones wheel and manage to recover sommewhat.

I pass back Keith & a few riders on the first little steep climb, and soon we're on the woopde doos. A bit more fire road and here comes the single track. This is definitely awesome riding, I am having a blast. Surprised once more at how slow some riders are on technical singletrack after just blowing by me on the fire road - or maybe we caught up with slower riders from the previous groups. I pick up quite a few places when the opportunity arises, and the rest of the time I'm just having a blast.

That is until the rider in front of me skids his bike to a stop across the trail on a sharp right turn at the end of a short descent. I slam on the brakes, burry the front wheel in a hole and highside... wham, land right on the same spot on my left hand. That hurts pretty bad, and even though I don't know it yet my race has ended right there - technical downhills with only 2 fingers on the bars is not an option as I'll find out later.

For now I just hop back on the bike, and start cranking to make up the lost time. I make a few good passing moves and soon I catch up with Keith one rider up ahead. That's when I feel something rubbing on my knee in a turn. Quick look down, and I find 2 inches of linkage bolt sticking out... hmm, better take care of this *now* -)

Get the tools out, wham the damn bolt back in, screw, screw, screw, screw, hmmm, think, think more, ouch, bolt must have snapped -( Ok, I guess there are good days and there are bad days, and this has got to be a bad day. I'm not sure where the bolt has broken, so I will have to take it easy. I use a velcro strap to hold the thing in place and go back on the trail to just ride along the rest of the course.

At least I did get to help a cramping rider, and I did ride up the whole final climb - that part of the plan did work out -)

And even better, Valérie gets her first podium! On her 35+ pounds bike, no less! Just amazing, I wouldn't like to be one of the girls when we get her a decent bike and she starts training more than once a week...

Great day overall despite the mishaps, the kids loved the swimming pool afterwards and the volunteers rocked!

Race Report by Loren Thomas

Napa Valley Dirt Classic – April 25th, 2004

Loren Thomas
Sport Men 30-34
1:47:29 6th of 40

After such a good race at Sea Otter, I had high hopes for NVDC. Jerry and I drove up race morning with plenty of time to register and warm-up. I decided to use the easy start strategy since I knew this course would be way tougher than Sea Otter. I let most of the field pass before the first short single track, but I wasn’t too worried since I knew we had a long way to go. Jerry and Lloyd decided to try out my strategy and let me lead the pace. I drafted everywhere I could, hopping behind faster riders as they passed. Soon we were moving along at a great pace down the fireroad. Being almost blind to the trail in front of me, I got too far on the inside of a small off-camber jog in the road and slid the front wheel nearly a foot before the WTB Epic Wolf saved me. Sure am glad I ran them. They seemed to be the perfect tire for this course. Floated through all the woop-dee’s. No line was a bad line on the Yeti.

My tire selection and the FOX shocks front and rear were making me invincible so I tried to ride between two big boulders in a switch-back and fell over. No problem, got back up before anyone noticed! Got a compliment from a rider who had sprinted past me at the end of a climb as I dove to the inside of an off-camber downhill turn in to the single track to pass him back (thanks to that front tire again). Loved the gnarly downhill. Had to pull a stop (from high speed) in the middle of the really loose rutted one to avoid the guy who had just crashed at the bottom.

It had been two years since I raced NVDC last, so the climbs at the end had faded from my memory. All I knew is that it usually made me cramp every muscle in my legs. I rode all but the last part of one of the hills. Man those things just kept coming. I thought they would never end! I started asking the water stations how much further, but they were no help. Finally I caught up to a rider who told me that we were near the end. That gave me the confidence to push just a little harder up the last long climb. After dropping down that first hike-a-bike, I looked around and only saw the one guy behind me (not in my class) and no one to catch up to, but I pushed hard the rest of the way. Good thing, because while I was hammering, the 7th place guy was gaining on me with Jerry Brown ready to pass him. I crossed the line only 5 seconds ahead of 7th place. No cramps, no crashes, great race!

P.S. I finished 7th overall out of all the Sport Men. Those 30-34 year olds are tough competition!

Race Report by David Ambrose

The Napa Valley Dirt Classic in a favorite race of mine. It's such a tough course and a challenge just to finish.

Although I beat my time from last year by about 5 minutes, I don't feel I could have raced as well as my potential. Right from the start I felt burnt out and by the time we were up the pavement and to the singletrack I was spent. I just had no energy the entire race. I quickly fell back to what I believed to be the very back of the pack.

As I sped down the initial fireroads at about 2 miles per hour I was able to spy the silhouette of the number 5 on the bib of the next racer ahead of me as the sun shined down on it. Hey... he's in my category! Okay... push... gotta push. Finally after a minute of chasing I caught his wheel and I drafted off of him until we approached the next racer up.. also in our category. I pass and catch the next wheel while the first guy starts to fall back again. Gradually making my way back up in the ranks I do this maybe 2 more times. Okay... I'm not gong to DFL. Sweet.

After a while I catch up with a small pack of riders and grab the tail end of the draft and we start to motate - and I get a little energy back as we make our way to the big whoopty-do's. I love those things! So much fun! Our pack of about 8 riders all take the whoops one and two at a time. At the top of the third the guy in front of me skitters just enough to make me brake and lose my line as I swerve over a big rock in order to not plow into the back of him... and off the bike I go to sprint the last 10 feet. No biggie... it was actually a good opportunity to pass him and a couple others. But that didn't last long as at the bottom of each whoop, my rear shock bottomed out, allowing my rear tire to rub the seat tube, skidding the tire and killing my momentum each time, forcing me to hammer my way back up each whoop. At the top of the third, since I was already dismounted, I stopped for maybe 30 seconds checking things out and determining that the shock just needs a little more air (and of course I had no shock pump on me). Well... the 30 seconds hurts but it's not going to be enough to make any real difference, the way I was feeling. Back on the bike and off we go.

At this point, considering my huge lack of energy I'm honestly surprised to still be making progress and moving forward, catching several of the riders I had to let go when I checked out the shock. Unfortunately, most of the people I'm riding with and passing are not in my category.

When we finally made it to the slow, twisty singletrack (my favorite part of the course) things really start to move forward. Over the next few miles of switchbacks I pass several more people, keeping an eye out behind me for "Tattoo" (a guy with an arm sleeve tattoo that had been tailing me since the start.. the first guy I drafted behind and passed). I was trying to keep a good distance between us, and this type of singletrack is something I'm pretty good at and so the distance spreads. On one of the winding climbs, another guy grabs my wheel and I pull him to the top of the singletrack. As we hop onto the next fireroad he spins up beside me and compliments me on the strong climbing. I was stoked... being complimented by another expert racer, especially on my climbing abilities, was great encouragement and I felt myself pushing just a little bit harder after that. We switched around and he pulled me up the next few fireroad rollers.

And then we hit the Wall. Ugh. Sustained climbing is my weak point. A very bad weak point to have in XC racing and something I've been focusing on improving. But this climb just kills me. I ride maybe a third of it and then I just can't push any more. My energy is completely gone, totally sapped. It's odd, because my legs weren't sore at all, and there was absolutely no sign of cramps. I just had no energy. At about this time I start remembering that huge carne asada bbq dinner the night before and the chicken salad sandwich for breakfast. Uuuugggghhh.... NOT the ideal meals to lead up to a race. What was I thinking? Oh yeah... I was thinking how good it all tasted at the time. But I'm sure that's why I was so low on energy throughout the entire race.

I guess I must have started drooling or something. With my mouth wide open, staggering up the hill, a suicidal butterfly decides to kamikaze right down my throat. *Urp!* I thought I was going to puke right there on the trail. Those friggin' wings were plastered to the inside of my throat for the next 10 minutes as I coughed and hacked and gulped water down in an attempt to clear it away. Yuck! That was nasty. Never swallow a whole butterfly. Mmkay? I definitely do not recommend it.

Trudging up and up I give up all desire to excel. At this point I just want to get to the finish line. The climb seems endless. Tattoo is walking slightly faster and gaining on me. After a bit he catches me and I look at him and say, "You finally caught me! I've been running from you the entire race." to which he replies, "I know.. I've been been chasing you this whole time!", and grins. Up he goes, on past me. About a minute passes and another guy from my category walks past. And then another. Wtf? I didn't know there were that many people behind me! If I did, maybe I wouldn't have given up so easily? Nah... doubtful. I was hurtin'.

At long last I made it to the top, Tattoo and the others were barely in sight. I stop for a quick douse of water at the water station and continue on. I'm toasted. All energy is long gone. I can't even get myself to big ring the fireroad flats and so I just take it easy, spinning my way to the finish- fully believing I finished DFL.

When the results were posted, I was 14 of 17 with a time of 1:52. Whoa... Go me... Go me.... Go me... (doing a little monkey dance) not DFL, not DFL, not DFL... :) Woohoo! Does not being DFL count as meeting a race goal?

Seriously though, that's one of my favorite races. It just kicks so much butt and is so well organized. The course is incredibly fun despite the climb from hell. The singletrack is so so sweet. I just love that slow, twis ty, winding, tight, weaving in and out of trees kind of singletrack. Excellent. Oh yeah!

Gotta love it. Sweet trails, hellish climbs and all. Fun times.

--

David Ambrose

Race Report by Frank Walden

NVDC Race report

I went up on Saturday and went on a nice 2-1/2 road ride around St Helena. After the Sea Otter I was pretty thrashed so I went on easy rides all week. Spent the night at Napa State Park, pretty nice place to stay.

Got to the venue Sunday AM to see all the racers pouring in. It looks like it going to be a great day. I started my warm-up on the trainer after the rider meeting. I knew I needed to be ready to hammer from the start. I get line up to see all the familiar faces from previous races. At the start I jumped toward the front with two in front of me. I passed one right before the entrance to the dirt and settled in behind the other guy.

On to the fire road I couldn’t stand following anymore so I went out and passed him only to have him glued to my rear wheel all through the flats. I was going good into the first whoops, no brakes and flying. At the second or third one I saw Paul and followed him up the right side, only to run into the back of him. Crap, dismount and run over the top only to get passed by Mr. Drafter. I ended up about 5 people back all the way through the singletrack. At the switchback where everyone was walking I went off to the side and ran past a few and got right behind him. It took me another 10 min or so to get a good place to pass him. Along the way I saw Rich, Allen, Bob, and a few others that I knew. Got to the climb from hell and did the hike ride thing to the last water station. I was getting really overheated and not feeling so hot at this point so I dumped several cups over my head and down my back.

Refreshed I settled in for the last section riding as hard as my tired legs would go. Saw a couple more TWW’ers on the way in. Finished 1st in the Clydesdales with a time of 1:52:41.

Great race, good friends, awesome time!

Frank

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