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It seems that this weekend I found the end of the rainbow, and with it a pot of gold.
Medals that is!
To be more specific, I placed first in XC on Saturday and first in DH on Sunday! My joy was compounded when my wife Allison did the same thing, first in XC and DH!!!
Podium shots:
I hope everyone thinks it is strange to see a guy in full DH gear on the top of the XC podium. It was actually pretty funny, after the XC race we suited up and jumped a shuttle to get our first practice run on the DH course. When we got to the bottom we rode directly to where they were handing out awards! I had just enough time to swap from my practice jersey to my The Path Bike Shop jersey and jump up on the top step! I would not have this photo had we stopped to look more closely at the DH course!
And of course, the DH podium shot.
I will go to more detail in a minute, but I was very surprised when I found out I won DH!
On to the wordy portion:
There has been a lot of rain here in Socal lately and it has dampened our training in more ways than one! On Saturday morning my competition was surprised to hear that I had not pedalled a bike since the previous Sunday. With lots of people sick at work, I was also afraid that I was coming down with a cold. Sure, I had fresh legs, but I was really unsure as to whether the rest of me was ready to perform. I puposefully delayed my warmup and helped a friend of mine with her suspension tuning. I was really stoked to see her out at the races, she hasn't ridden the bike I helped her build very much. After a short warmup I headed over to the staging area and was happy to see that there was more competition out for this race.
I thought this was a great shot of me and my competition.
At the start of the race my strategy was simply to stay on the wheel of the guy that beat me at the last race. I was committed to go when he went, and recover as often as I could. He threw a few tempo changes at me right away, at first it seemed he was going to just sit in a larger group and then he sprinted past 15 or so riders and then back to a slower pace on the single track. I don't know what happened to him, but on the first short steep climb he suddenly swerved to the left into a ditch and went over the bars! There went my entire race strategy! I was now out in front, unsure if I wanted to be there at all. I was glad on the first long climb to have one of the competition pull up next to me and then pass me. I followed him to the top and onto the single track. He looked to be a very strong rider and was churning along in the middle ring on some steep single track, which matched up well with me since I sometimes have gear envy. If you don't know already, I run 1x9 with a 32T in the front. This forces me to take a slower cadence and can make it hard to match bursts of speed from the little XC guys on the climbs. Anyway, I was riding behind him and it seemed he was starting to struggle, he dropped to the granny ring and SNAP, CRACKLE, POP. His drivetrain wasn't going to let him stay with me anymore. I immediately passed him, sorry to see him struggle with a mechanical. I glanced back and noticed that another guy in my class was tailing me pretty closely. It just so happened that he was the guy that got 3rd at the last race. I think he was hoping to beat me this time. He passed me on the last section of climbing before the long single track descent which allowed me to see how he was getting along and also see how he descends. I was happy to see that he was not faster than me descending. On the next climb I passed him and didn't see him again. For the rest of the first lap I kept a good pace, not wanting to burn up or go too slowly. I figured I had a commanding lead at this point and anyone that wanted to challenge me was going to have to hurt themselves to catch me, leaving me with better cards to play. Lap two and my very worthy adversary who had crashed on the first lap caught me on the first big climb. I was genuinely happy to see him and told him so, "I was hoping you would come back!" He said he got dizzy causing his fall. I was very happy to note that he was having a harder time conversing than I, he had dug really deep to catch me. I happily let him take the lead on the single track. I stayed inches off his wheel the entire rest of the climb. I wanted him to hear that I wasn't breathing as hard as he. He didn't gap me on the single track descent either. I passed him before the next climb. I led out on the hardest climb on lap two, he pulled up next to me on the left at least twice but could not pass and his breathing was fast and short. Each time he pulled up I pushed a little to keep him from passing. I wanted to gap him on the fast descent while he was gassed from the climb to nail his coffin shut. I did gap him, unfortunately near the bottom of the descent a very young racer was blocking the trail with his parental chase unit close behind. I begged to pass, but lost too much time and was caught before I could safely pass. At this point I gave up on playing strategy. I was going to have to win on brute force. On the final sustained climb I did not challenge him when he made a move to pass. Jumping onto his wheel I easily held his pace for the climb. I jokingly chatted with him some about how much he payed the kid and his father to hold me up. He said 10 bucks, I said I would gladly have doubled that to have not let him around after I went by! We both laughed. Near the top of the last climb we were coming up on a slower rider. I decided to make a move. When he went to the left on a smooth portion of the road, I went right through the rough stuff and stood on the pedals with authority. I easily beat him to the single track only to have yet another slower rider 2 turns ahead of me. I decided to play it safe. I also jokingly asked how much he paid this guy! I knew my time would come soon on the flats. When I dropped the sketchy spot onto the flats he was right behind me. I smiled as I shifted through all my gears to my 11T cog. I spun up 32-11 and tucked down as aero as I could. I pushed hard and was nearly spun out, a much higher cadence than I normally ride. I looked back and was really happy to see that he had nothing for me, and with each pedal stroke of my massive diesel style motor he was falling farther back. I kept the pressure on. There was only one spot that could allow him to come back between here and the finish line. We both knew it. One last rocky steep up. After the race he said that he could see me when I got to it. His last chance flew out the window when he saw me race to the top without dabbing or dismounting. I wound up beating my time from the last race by 4 minutes (new personal best 1hr 23min). What a race!!!!
As you might guess I was spent from the effort. I ran back to cheer for Allison and then we both prepared for a DH practice run. We wound up with a total of three practice runs Saturday and after a great Italian dinner crashed at Casa de Denmother. I didn't sleep well, we hit the sack at 10, air matress was flat by 2, I did a lot of tossing and turning, up way too early, ate and hit the road back to Fontucky. We expected rain, I will break the suspense now by saying I was disappointed that it never showed up. I got two and a half practice runs in and then it was time to relax and wait. The course was very good, but definitely favored those with excellent turning skills. A group I don't think I fit into. The soil was too perfect, not muddy and not dry. There were no rocks to speak of. I really didn't think I could win, there wasn't enough on the course to separate the good from the not so good (interesting to note that second place told me he felt the same way, citing that as the reason I won).
I line up at the top. Joke with the guys and wish everyone good luck. Roll into the start gate. I make some small talk with Donny, and we agree that it is a great day to be racing. He counts down to 1 and I take off. I shifted up twice before the first turn, nailed my line, hit the brakes too hard before the next turn, made up for it some on the straight, 2 wheel slide into the next turn, slam throught the next, someone heckled me about my makeshift fender, I hit the brakes too hard coming into the next turn but negotiated my exit speed with some full power pedal strokes. I scrubbed a tad too much speed on the rocky left, and hoped that I was making up for that on the off camber straight, off a little ledge right turn, another right...
I scrub a bunch of speed through the S turns, too much speed, but I am getting tired. I straight line through a G out corner hard left, over some rocks, right and drop to the access road. I stand to pedal hard but am in too low of a gear, I lose my right pedal and instantly start clicking gears while regaining my pedal. I stand again and my legs protest. I am feeling the effects of XC the day before! I pedal hard but feel slow, sit back down, so out of breath, hop the cement culvert to straighten a turn, up the hill into the last rock garden...
Now this is where I could make big mistakes. I know at this time that I am having an OK run, but I don't feel really fast. I have made mistakes in this rock garden before. It isn't all that hard of a spot, but at speed things can happen. I am going for it. I don't want to have an excuse unless I wreck hard.
... I am so tired that I can hardly get more than two pedal strokes before I hit the first rock, I don't prejump, man this feels slow, I try to pump the downside, nail the line through the rocks, quick right, left, down a rock face, right, split the big rocks, no need to air it out and lose time, hear Denmother cheering. I have nothing left. I stand to pedal and my legs scream. I can't breath fast enough or deep enough. I see Adrian ahead of me on the wall, WTF is he doing? I think that he must have crashed and hurt himself and is limping home. All this distracts me, I am not standing, I am sitting, Adrian turns and sees me and screams at me GOGOGO. I stand, nope I sit back down, almost home, I stand and get some good hard pedal strokes before the right, left, did I just touch the brakes, what a moron, left over the hip, down, pedal you idiot, soak up the last bump and cross the line.
That was my DH run. It was a clean run, no real bobbles, too much braking, not enough pedalling. I figured I would be on the podium but not the top. I was very surprised when I was first.
I would like to thank my wife Allison, my sponsors and my friends. I had a great weekend of racing. Next up, training rides and round 3!!!!
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This weekend was awesome! Steph and Dan came up and spent the weekend with us to join in on some training rides and watch the NFL playoffs.
Saturday was our day to suffer and we did so with enthusiasm! Our route took us up and down the Santa Ana Mountains, roughly following the end of Vision Quest, with a couple of extra climbs thrown in at the beginning and the end. All told, the route was nearly 41 miles with 9000+ feet of climbing. The ride started off pretty well. Climbing up ITT went pretty quickly. On our way up to the Upper Holy Jim trailhead (also our peak elevation), Pain Divide delivered a Mann sized dose of suffering. Upper Holy Jim was in good shape and we saw some S.H.A.R.E. peeps doing trail work. Bombing down Holy Jim is always fun, though there was a lot of traffic, and I managed to flat my rear tire. Before heading up the bottom of Trabuco we chatted with some people and picked up another rider, Craig a.k.a. “Tapeworm”. Dude is wicked fast on his SS (same frame as mine, just no gears). We hiked up West Horse Thief, rode across Main Divide to Trabuco and then bombed down that trail. Much to my despair, I managed to bend/break my saddle rails on the way down. We paused at the Holy Jim parking lot long enough for me to try to adjust my saddle angle enough to climb. Then my front tire went flat while JRA on the dirt road (WTF!). I was in the back of the group and got left behind, so I pushed hard to catch up. The sun was going down and I didn’t want to hold up the group. I caught up at the last water crossing and then we continued the climb. My effort to catch up hurt me and I cramped on the way up. I really need to figure out this whole cramping issue, I have tried everything to try to get rid of it but it keeps rearing its nasty head. Main Divide never looks as welcoming as it does at the end of a horrible suffer fest ride! We descended ITT back to the truck and hauled butt home to make dinner. What a day!
The original plan for Sunday morning was to do a shuttle run, but we slept in too long for that. Instead we hit up the closest ride spot to our house (Santa Rosa Plateau) for a short ride before watching the Chargers lose. It was another beautiful day and I had a blast riding with Allison, Steph, and Dan.
Really a Mann couldn’t ask for a better weekend. I spent my time on my bike with my wife and great friends. Life is pretty good!
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SRC kicked off their 2008 Shimano Winter Series at Fontana this weekend.
I have been doing lots of training rides and hoped that there would be significant positive results in my XC race on Saturday. It was a beautiful day to go racing. The course was incredible. There was the perfect amount of moisure in the dirt for traction, and no mud on the course. There were a few small re-routes, but nothing significant. I did some warm up riding and then went to line up. At first I was pretty disappointed in the turnout. There were only 4 guys in my class, and I was much bigger than my competition outweighing the biggest rider by 15lbs or so. Once we started racing though, I quickly found that we were fairly evenly matched. One of the guys fell off pace very quickly, but three of us stayed very close for nearly the entire first lap. At the end of the first lap it was down to just two of us. On the second lap he put the hammer down and I held on for the first climb. A single speeder wound up between us on the descent and helped him pull a gap. On the second climb he pulled a bit more of a gap, then he must have had a better time passing some riders, as on the third and final climb I felt that the gap was no longer something that I could overcome. No matter, I put my head down on the flat section and pedalled as hard as I could. I caught some other riders on the flat and passed them, but never came within sight of first place again. I got beat by 30 seconds. My time was 1hr 27mins which was a 3 minute improvement from the last race. I was very happy with second place and I feel that I rode well.
Sunday was a tad different. Honest to goodness 60 mph gusts with sustained winds in the 45mph region. DH was going to be hard. I had practiced a bit on Saturday (2.5 runs), and a bit on Sunday morning (2.5 runs). I did some spectating as I hiked up the course. Lots of the Pro and Semi Pro riders were having a hard time with the wind and I knew it would be rough. In my race run I started out well, made some good turns up on the top of the course, then nearly lost it in "The Saddle". Nearly one year ago I had been practicing for a Winter Series Race and came through "The Saddle" and was blown off course by a gust of wind sustaining a concussion. Needless to say I was nervous! I was a tad shaky on the next few turns through the rocks, the wind was blowing hard! On a right hand sweeping turn, just as I was about to exit the turn I raised up to start the next left and the wind slammed into me bringing nearly to a trackstand. I was forced to pedal hard to keep moving downhill! I stayed smooth through the next few turns and then onto dirt road (uphill) to cross the asphalt road. I gave it all I had hoping that I could make time, crossed the asphalt, hopped over the cement culvert to straighten the corner, through the rocks and into "The Wall". The wind was horrible! I was pedaling as hard as I could and it felt so slow! I had to downshift to keep moving! By the time I got to the last chicane and down the the finish I was absolutely wiped out. I have never pedalled that hard to go that slow before! As it turned out my fitness served me well though and I got second place!
Hopefully a great start like this bodes well for my season. Next weekend we will be doing long training rides again. After that, we will be back at Fontana for round 2!!!
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Well this weekend we got our share of training in the rain. Saturday we climbed up Indian Truck Trail to Main Divide in the rain. I wanted to do more mileage and climbing but the wife not down. I caved in. Today we pre-rode the XC course for next weekend's SRC Winter Series race. It was really nice out there, traction was perfect. We had planned on riding two laps. Once again though, the ride got cut short. Towards the end of the lap the sky opened up on us. The rain was no joke, it was coming down HARD.
I am anxious about next weekend's race. First off, I am curious as to how I stack up against the other sport class XC riders. I have been training hard, I am down to 185lbs, but the times from last year were really fast. I am still a lot bigger and heavier than the average XC racer, at my size I just can't match their power to weight ratio. Second I am really nervous about racing DH. I want to go all out, but at this point getting hurt would negate all this training I have been doing for Vision Quest. I can be fast, Fontana definitely favors those with fitness. Lots of anxiety. With al the races we have on our calendar this year though, I am also very excited to get it kicked off. Geez, just typing this has me amped. I don't know if I can go to sleep now!
Okay, enough of this. Some pics from the weekend...
Getting ready for the ride.
Just the two of us...
Main Divide cold and wet.
My bike seems to like Pain Divide, my legs and lungs... not so much.
And from Southridge... before the skies opened up on us.
After the skies opened...
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