What do I do when I am not racing?

I ride, ride, ride!

After debating several trip options for the long weekend, the wife and I decided to stay home and maximize our mileage for Memorial Day weekend. (We also needed to minimize expenditure, all this racing costs $$$!)

Saturday we hit the road.  We did 54 miles and 3700 feet of climbing.  Starting in Murrieta we rode out through Temecula, south through Rainbow, down 395 past Fallbrook and 76 to West Lilac.  We rode West Lilac to Lilac, descended Couser Canyon, climbed Rice Canyon, and finally came back through Rainbow and Temecula.  The route was very nice and we didn't encounter much traffic.  I felt like I had plenty of gas left in the tank, but we had two more days to go!

Sunday Allison decided she wanted to do some laps on the 12 hrs of Temecula course at Vail Lake.  She is racing it solo and is trying to be well prepared.  We rode three laps totaling 32 miles and 4900 feet of climbing.  It was a great day!  We both felt we could have done more laps but were afraid that we wouldn't have anything left for Monday so we called it quits.

Starting out with a small group (on the last lap it was just the two of us)

I wouldn't want to be a girl competing with her...

What a great day to be out riding!

Monday we met up with an incredible local endurance racer who happens to work at the best bike shop in Socal (The Path) for an epic day in the San Bernardino Mtns.  We rode from the Loch Leven up to Angelus Oaks then down SART to MIddle Control, down that to Glass Rd., up Glass Rd. back to SART, down SART to Middle Control, back up to Angelus Oaks and then down (a new to us) SART to 38.  The loop was quite epic with freezing conditions and a nearly disastrous front tire failure on my bike.  We wound up with 38 miles and 5400 feet of climbing.

Heading out at the beginning of a long day...

Front tire came off at speed... very scary!

My steed...

I was playing trail paparazzi too...

Luke, Brian, Allison

Climbing back out on Middle Control...

Awesome trails!

Scenery (it was sunny for a short time...)

So the three day grand  total was 124 miles and 14000 feet of climbing and 14.75 hrs. of pedaling.  Not too shabby if you ask me.  I am tired.  Time to go back to work!

Hope everyone else had a great holiday as well!

So the wife and I decided to hit up the Santa Ynez Valley National and see how many points we could collect before the finals in Brianhead which we plan on attending.

One thing that I feel I must bitch about is the fact that Team Big Bear feels that the Sport Women are second class citizens. They get started BEHIND the BEGINNER men and then have to pass the entire lot of them! This is totally bogus. My wife spends her entire race trying to pass Beginner Men, Sport Single Speed Men, Clydesdale Men, as well as the slower Sport Men. I think that Sport Women should be started after Sport Men and before Beginner Men.   Please make it so!

Your first question will be, “What is SuicideD?” But to answer that question you will have to read further!

This past weekend we raced at the Idyllwild Spring Challenge. This race could easily boast that they have the best race course. It is certainly the best XC course I have ever ridden. Lots of technical single track, lots of climbing, great fast descents… this course has it all AND it has altitude!

I have not raced XC in a while and had been pretty focused on DH, so I was unsure as to how I might do. I was really looking forward to the SuperD as I just got my fork back from White Brothers and it really works nice now.

photo by DMC

Saturday morning I warmed up a bit before the race and then lined up. I marked the guys I figured would be the eventual winners and committed to doing what I could to hang onto them. We took off and the course quickly funneled down to single track. I was near the front and was really looking forward to seeing what I could do.

photo by DMC

As soon as we started up the Keen Camp climb I hit some bumps and my chain dropped! I had been in the middle ring and wasn’t even shifting at the time! I had to stop and put my chain back on, which put me behind a huge group of people and way back from the leaders. Once I was rolling again I decided to try and go as hard as I could to try to close the gap to the leaders. I started passing people almost immediately and continued to make passes for the rest of the climb and into the meadow.

I continued to push hard up May Valley Rd. but due to my position in “no man’s land” was unsure as to whether my efforts were paying off. I never saw anyone in my class that I know of.

This leads me to a bit of a rant. If I am going to put a mark on my calf to identify me on the course, everyone should have to! I saw way too many riders without numbers and didn’t know if I was losing or gaining spots during the race. Very frustrating!

On the Buena Vista single track I passed a pro female rider and then almost immediately crashed. I was very upset with that. I eventually passed her back, and then turned on the speed to make sure I didn’t trade spots with her any more.

On the Lower Southridge climb I was really hurting bad. I couldn’t seem to recover at all and was messing up lots of tech stuff that I know I can make. I fell off trail and into the bushes at least once, and did quite a bit of jogging next to my bike. :(

Once we hit May Valley Rd. again and dropped into the Snakeskin single track I was doing pretty well and tried hard to push my pace. I didn’t run into much traffic and only had to pull aside for a couple of pro riders that were coming through. I did cramp slightly in my right quad on the Cahuilla Cutoff trail, but managed to work through it.

photo by DMC

I crashed once more on Rage Through the Sage trying to let a pro rider pass me in a spot that was less than ideal. I was pretty pissed, but I didn’t want to hold him up and he was very anxious to pass. He wound up second in pro, and he said he was sorry that I crashed but that he was trying to chase down the leader.

I finished in 4th place, ten minutes or so behind the leaders. It was a very fun course, and although I didn’t have a great race I did have fun. I also decided that I would really crank it up on Sunday in the SuperD, little did I know!

We showed up Sunday morning to find out that the remainder of the races were cancelled. At first I was pretty upset, but then decided that since we were there and expected to race that we should just hold our own race! And the SuicideD was born! So off we went, a little group of 3 racers (and our 3 female spectators), to climb up the hill and race down the ISC SuperD course on our own terms. Along the way we picked up another contestant (although it seems he wasn’t taking it as seriously as us). We really had a blast racing each other down the course. I couldn’t imagine a better SuperD course.

The competitors...

Dan

Michael

Me

Here is how the race went down:

I was last off the start. I accidentally left my bike in the granny gear from the climb up. I hammered really hard and caught up to the leaders; Dan out in front of Michael. I tagged onto the back of their train and we were FLYING. Michael put a good pass on Dan, putting him out front. Then all of a sudden on a right hand turn there was a BIG mud hole. Michael hopped it, Dan tried but stuffed his front wheel and very nearly crashed. I was RIGHT BEHIND him and almost crashed into him as I zoomed by. I was able to close the gap some to Michael before the single track (I had hit my brakes to help miss hitting Dan). Onto the single track Michael was ripping down the trail and I was right behind him. We were seriously moving! We ripped down Hombre Uno, I tried to make a pass on the inside of a big boulder but didn't have the right gear. We hit the short fire road stretch before Exfoliator and Michael was too strong for me to pass him. Going down Exfoliator i was only a few feet behind Michael and we were RAILING the corners! It was super fast and before I knew it we were pedaling onto Coyote Run. I was running out of time to make my pass and knew I had to make something work. I tried taking the inside line around a left hander and Michael shut the door on me (AWESOME RACING!). Finally I was able to stick a move on him and I was in the LEAD!!!! I saw Allison on the side of the road, and it looked like she was marking the entrance to the final single track so I turned. Flew through a rock garden and then through a big stream crossing. A sign pointed right but I went left and quickly figured out we went the wrong way! Michael took first and we all had a good laugh about it.

The Podium

Afterward we (Allison, Steph, Dan and I) drove by Vail Lake and put in some more mileage and climbing. It was a great weekend and I look forward to racing the Idyllwild Spring Challenge next year!