3rd place, Sport 45-49



We arrived in Weaverville around 4 PM on Friday and checked in at Granny's House, a B&B a couple blocks from the main drag. They even allow pets! It's a Queen Ann style Victorian, approximately 100 years old with period furnishings. Bonnie and Will, the proprietors, were warm and welcoming. One of their dogs was more of a puppy than my dog was willing to handle at times.



I checked out the lower loop and finished just before dark. It had been raining sporadically all week, making the course slippery in sections. I'm glad I changed the rear from a semi-slick (Rubena Acris) to a knobby (Rubena Charybdis), as I barely got traction on steeper climbs.



Around 5 AM Saturday morning, it started raining buckets for two hours. While the course wouldn't have much standing water, traction would be a premium.



It was sunny at the start, 40°F, with a 15 MPH wind from the north. After warmup, I finally settled on a sleeveless base layer, long sleeve wool jersey, skull cap, knee warmers, long finger gloves, and thick wool socks. That worked well as I never overheated and was only slightly chilled on the ridge line and descents.



I only recognized two riders in my bracket, one of whom I've yet to beat. As usual, both got away at the start. I passed one of them after two miles of fire road, just before the single track. It wasn't too much of a conga line, and I was able to pass when necessary. I caught up to the current national Expert 60-64 champion, replete in stars and stripes. He started almost a minute late and still won. We passed another rider and he was soon out of sight as we transitioned onto a fire road.



As I was descending the switchbacks prior to the stream crossing, a spectator was helping a racer down the hill. I found out later that she impacted with the end of her bars, causing abdominal swelling. Luckily, she was near the road and was evacuated to Redding. I also went down a few times. The first time, the rear tire came out from under me and I did a baseball slide in the mud. The second time was scarier, as I went down head first in a large puddle and just stopped short of a stump.



It was slow going as the mud was almost as sticky as home. It added another 5 pounds of rotating weight, plus coupled with the tire suction made for a difficult ride. After my first fall, I missed the left turn onto single track. I continued up the fire road and didn't see any wrong way signs. I finally turned around at an unmarked intersection, backtracked, and found the course. Turns out I wasn't the only lost soul on that section. It probably cost me 15 minutes, but I didn't lose my overall placing.



I thought the Bigfoot Classic was a long race (2:29). This one went on forever (40 min. longer), probably because it was a single loop and I'd never seen the course before. I was ok with two bottles of Accelerade and Hammer Gel, feeling more tired than hungry. I finally made it off the mountain and thought the last 5 miles of rollers would never end. I rolled though the finish after 3 hours and 9 minutes. The pro winner, Tim Olson, finished in 1 hr. and 51 min. Ouch.



One bottle of Endurox, a hot shower, a bowl of chili, and a hot dog later, I didn't feel too bad. My thighs burned when climbing stairs, but I wasn't a zombie either. We stuck around for the race awards and raffle, but didn't wait for the NorCal series awards.



I met all of my goals this year. Top 5 at CCCX MTB Series, qualified for Nationals, won a race (twice), top 5 in NorCal Series (1st), top 5 in CA State Championships (3rd).



Do I feel ready for expert next year? No, but I didn't feel ready for sport at the beginning of this season either. I just knew I needed to pace myself as I raced 18 times between February and October. I really want to be fast for Sea Otter next year, so I need to figure out this peaking thing, lose some weight, get stronger and faster, etc. Even lacking a formal training plan, my riding continued to improve all season.

Spectrum ride background



This ride has started at 9 AM every Saturday for the past 15+ years, come rain of shine, at the intersection of Hollenbeck and Homestead in Mountain View, CA. That's where the old Spectrum bike store used to be, and if you are an old timer, you still have your Spectrum store jersey with you!



Basically, Spectrum is an open ride and anyone can participate. It is quite a fast ride, so you have to be fit to participate. It's a great way to gauge your progress short of racing as the field consists of local pros, Cat 1/2/3s and other local talent. Many riders jump on and leave after a variable amount of minutes, proud of having been part of the pack. Others, though, are pretty annoyed at slower bikers, and people don't mince words with their disapproval, especially at newcomers.



My report



I hooked up with Jeff, and Tom, riders I met through mtbr.com at Peets in Los Altos. After coffee, Jeff told me my rear tire was showing casing as we were waiting on Foothill. I didn't realize that I had damaged the tire that much yesterday when I locked up the rear to avoid a head on with a pickup while descending a single lane road. SOB held his line and didn't give me any room. I had over 3k miles on that Michelin Pro2 Race so it wasn't a total loss.



Like clockwork, we joined them at 9:20 AM. I was worried about the rear tire on Old Page Mill, but it survived that section so I focused on my pace. Everything went great until we reached Alpine Rd. A couple dozen riders got away at the stop sign and I witnessed a slow mo rear ender. A Tibco rider bumped another bike and slowly went down. Both bikes and riders are OK.



Since I lost the leaders, I time trialed the route, took the short cut on Mountain Home Rd. and caught the group on Canada Rd. They took the return on Canada easier than my previous Spectrum attempt and I stayed with them the rest of the way. I even took a few pulls up front to show the SJBC colors.



Check out this motionbased data:



http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/episode/view.mb?episodePk.pkValue=796253



This rider did the entire ride from the Sunnyvale start in under 2:30 moving.



I'm still getting faster, which should serve me well at the CA XC State Championships on October 20. If I can keep up with them the entire ride, I'll be ready for my Expert upgrade next year.

I missed Dirt Demo as I was racing in Arcata, CA the previous weekend. So, I rushed through my work and arrived in LV Thursday morning. It was easy enough to get a cheap flight down, but cheap lodging close to the Sands Convention Center is another issue altogether. After much web surfing, I made a reservation at Motel 6 for Thursday and Friday night, for $120. I know they're dumps, but it was the cheapest bed I found on Tuesday. It's near the airport, but far away from the show. It was a safety bed. I kept surfing and found the Blair House Suites. It was only $47.36 more than M6, and within walking distance. It turns out other attendees had the same idea, as I saw many bleary eyed folks at the complimentary breakfast bar.



Upon arrival, I called and found out I could check in early. I caught a $6 shuttle from the airport, and one stop at the Wynn later, I'm in. Two full size beds, full kitchen, a little dated, but clean, everything worked and it was reasonably quiet.



My Interbike goals:

Find out about grassroots sponsorship opportunities

Check out cool stuff

Look at booth bait

Watch the Pro Crit

Find free or cheap stuff I could actually use

Party



I met all of my goals. Many manufacturers have grassroots programs and most were receptive to my proposal. The coolest thing I saw was the new Race Face Next MTB Crank set. Hollow carbon arms, Deus style chain rings, 754 grams with BB. I was also impressed by the Scott Spark and Rocky Mountain MTBs. Rocky's top of the line road bike shares the same frame as BH Bicycles Global Concept. I'm also lusting after the Fuji SL-1 as I'm currently happily riding a Team SL. Fuji's Outland RC is on my short list as well due to the FSR linkage. As a married privateer, you can't beat Fuji's combination of price and performance.



Ryders eyewear hooked me up with a pair of Sprint Photocromics and I got a pair of tall crew Sock Guy Transformers socks. Rolled down Autobots, up for Decepticons. I also picked up two pairs of toe warmers and one set of booties thanks to Gator.



WTF is up with Specialized only allowing retailers into their booths? At least the one of the Specialized gatekeepers was easy to look at and she was even an employee that could answer product questions. I guess Trek is never coming back.



I caught half of the industry cup and the entire pro crit. Specialized's industry cup ringer, Mario Cipollini, went down on the bell lap. While the industry cup crashed a lot at turn 1, the pro's went down at least 5 times on the final turn. It follows the lane marking paint through the apex, I guess it's slippery at 30 mph. My buddy David McCook (Kelly Benefit Strategies) came in third.



The start of the pro race featured the Umbrella Girls escorting riders introduced by the announcer up to the line. After 20+ guys were called up, the rest of the field was getting antsy. During a pause in the introductions, one rider nudged forward, then the rest bum rushed the line. The announcer then called two more guys to the line who had to work their way through the field holding their bikes overhead. Turns out Dave started the bum rush in question.



On Friday night before hitting the clubs, we ran into Greg Lemond as we were leaving the Venetian. He talked up Dave and congratulated him (his team rides Lemond bikes) as well as Lance Larrabee from TRP and yours truly.



I drove back with Lance and Dave on Saturday. All of us had decent hangovers, in a truck with high pitched metal to metal squeaks, for 9 hours. At least I got the shotgun bucket, vs. Dave's cooler + pillow made up seat between us.