Single Track Attack!

This was a new race this year and the original plan didn’t have me racing it but we didn’t have anything going on and it was a beautiful day so why not, right?

I had heard from someone (not sure who but I would like to find them and correct them) that the trail is pretty flat. That coupled with the fact that the race was going to be 98% single track my plan was to hammer hard from the get-go and stick with the lead group. That may have been a good idea if 1) the trail was flat and 2) I understood the course layout. Each lap had nearly 1100 feet of climbing. That is NOT flat. Also, I was so disoriented on the course. I never knew where I was, what lap I was on or how much longer I had. What screwed me up the most was the prologue. I thought the prologue was the short part that sent us down the gravel road, up the power line climb, and then back down to the end of the gravel road. Nope, the prologue was essentially a half a lap. So, as we come through to climb the power line trail again I thought we were starting lap 2 but in reality we were only starting lap 1. I didn’t figure that out until I came through on lap 2 (which to me was lap 3) on the power line climb.
Up to this point I was feeling strong. Jamison and I were riding along with a small group putting in attacks when we could. I managed to sneak by Jamison when he had to clip out on a rocky switchback. I was pulling the group for a good part of lap 1 and as we’re about halfway through the lap I hear what sounded like a gunshot go off right behind me. I turned around and saw Jamison on the ground. It sounded like he snapped something on his bike. I later found out that he only blew a tire and he was able to seal it and get back on and ride.

At the start of lap 2 on the power line climb I thought I had killed my race. I got my hand off from Ann McBurney (thank you very much) and couldn’t believe that I had 1 more full lap to do and I was already starting to bonk! I think I had gone out too fast for a race that had 1100 feet of climbing per lap. I took a Hammer Gel and tried to ride as hard as I could. I think I rode that last lap looking backwards because I was just waiting for the riders to start passing me. I guess I was still moving along pretty good because I think only 2 riders got by on that last lap.

I wound up taking 3rd in my bracket and 17th OA. Next time on a new race I need better trail recon info.

Photos courtesy of Dana Schoppe Photography

Natl Pics

Here are a few more pictures from Nationals thanks to Carmen Scherman of WannaBee Racing. Thanks Carmen - great pictures!

National DNF

The race. I’ve been training solely for this race for nearly a year and it had now arrived. It was everything that I thought a national championship race would be. Countless vendor tents, huge racer turnout and spectators were scattered all over the course. How could you not get pumped up for a race like this?

View of the race from our deck seats

I’ll have to say after my pre-ride I was a little nervous about the course. I had never done so much climbing and technical riding in a race before. Also, my legs felt pretty sore that night after the pre-ride. I wasn’t sure I was going to have the legs to compete at level I wanted to.

Warming up for the race was a bit difficult. So much was going on it was hard to stay focused. And to be honest everywhere you ride out there are hills! All I wanted was to find a flat stretch of road to spin on. That didn’t exist so I warmed up the best I could on the hilly roads trying hard to not waste too much energy. I managed to warm-up for 40 minutes before it was first call to start lining up. It was great to see so many MN riders out there – most of which were from WannaBee Racing. I think half of the riders in my age class were MN riders.

Pre-race fist bump from my biggest fan

As the younger age classes were sent off I kept reminding myself – don’t go out too fast. The first 3 miles was a double track climb and there would be plenty of opportunity to pass. At the gun I jumped out to the front and within the first half mile myself and another rider had a good 30 meter gap on everyone. I started to think that maybe I was going out a little too fast but when I glanced down at my heart rate monitor it was below where I wanted it to be so I stepped on the gas a little more. This other rider and I pushed each other pretty hard the entire climb pushing the gap so far that we lost sight of the rest of the group and before we hit mile one we were already passing riders from the class in front that started two minutes ahead of us. Passing riders at this point was easy as we had double track to deal with and there was plenty of room but as we rode into the final mile of climbing and hit the rocky single track we both had to pull up and wait for opportunities to pass.

As soon as we hit the summit and started the decent we both made a move and I managed to gain the lead. Shortly after that on a short punchy climb I took a look back and noticed that I had dropped the other rider and I didn’t see him the rest of the race (I found out later that he had DNF’d too). I was still passing a lot riders from the early classes and feeling great.

I nailed the technical down hills and the steep drops. I was pacing myself great up the backside climbs still picking off riders. And then, on the front side slalom decent right before the start of the shorter lap 2 I was pushing myself to gain more ground when I tried to pass a rider on the inside of a left turn switchback. I was probably going too fast coupled with the sharp turn and bumpy terrain that my tire blew off the rim.

It happened right in front of a large crowd of people. First thing out of my mount was – “You’ve got to be kidding me!” There was this one guy there who told me collect myself and fix the thing and get back in the race. I’ll tell you it is so hard to compose yourself to fix a technical like that in front of all those people. Someone actually asked if they could help me but a race official stepped in and said, “No, he has to fix it himself.” I was able to fit the tire back on the rim after fumbling with it for what seemed like an eternity (in reality it was probably five minutes) and then grabbed my Air Chuck to inflate the tire. For the life of me I couldn’t get the damn thing to work. Someone from the crowd tossed me their Big Air to try and inflate it and even after I used the entire can the tire wouldn’t seal and I had to settle for a DNF. Hindsight, I should have carried a tube even though I was running tubeless. It’s a national championship race. I should have been prepared.

It took me about an hour of isolation to get over what had just happened. I kept thinking to myself, “How could this have happened? Why at this race? Why now?” But when I walked back up to the lodge deck where my family and relatives were sitting I realized that this trip was more than just about a race. We had an amazing vacation together! It was our first family cross-country road trip and one I won’t ever forget.

The Fam in Rocky Mountain National Park

Relaxing with a ice cold one

I may race this weekend up in Elk River to get back on the horse. We’ll see how the family plans play out.

Pre-Rode

Say hello to my little friend – my little chain ring friend! Yes, that’s right my granny gear and I had quite the day today getting to know eachother. This course has so much climbing it’s ridiculous! And it’s not just climbing on double track or even single track for that matter it’s climbing through endless rock gardens.
The start literally sends you straight up the mountain. Not switch backing up – straight up! Imagine starting out at the bottom of Afton and climbing straight to the top only you’re at 8200 feet above sea level. And that’s just the first half mile. You continue climbing for another 2.5 miles until you finally come to some single track. The single track doesn’t give you any sort of reprieve either – there is some of the hardest climbing ahead. One mile of single track climbing through rock gardens is what you have to finish off the first four miles of climbing. That last mile of climbing through the rock gardens was one of the most difficult sections I’ve ever ridden. I was locked in granny just trying to keep momentum. It will be interesting to see how that section plays out at race pace.
The downhill hills were a blast! Although I think I would have been better off riding them on a 40 lbs downhill bike. The trails aren’t anything like in the Midwest – nothing is smooth rocks and logs line every trail.
There is one section close to the final decent that is probably the most technical bit of single track that I have ever ridden. It’s a technical drop that makes Quick Release at Kato look like a stair step. I was so far back off my seat that my rear was nearly hitting the tire and I still felt like I was going to flip. Hopefully, there won’t be too much traffic when I approach that during the race.
Race tomorrow at 3:00 – can’t wait!

Pre-Ride

Today is the big day where I go and check out the course, pickup my race packet and go for a pre-ride. .The course, when you look at it online, looks wicked -

- 8.71 miles/lap: Cat 2 does 2 laps
- 1579 feet of vertical climbing/lap
- The first 4 miles are essentially all up hill. How do you start a race by climbing nearly 1000 feet?

The weather has been beautiful and it looks like it's going to continue into tomorrow. Can't ask for a better day for a race. I just hope the legs have some snap to 'em. I haven't done much biking out here yet. Mostly hanging low and seeing the sights with the fam. Yesterday was an all day adventure to Rocky Mountain National Park. We were able to get within 15 feet of some elk up in the Arctic Tundra (12,200 elevation) which was pretty amazing. The drive up was a bit sketchy though - winding mountain roads with no guard rail and straight drops down. No one was really talking while we were making that drive. It's a beautiful park though. Definitely worth it! I'll post some pics of our trip tonight

WORS - Firecracker

I love this race! The course is blistering fast and trails are so much fun to ride. The WORS races are quite a bit different from anything we ride in the MNSCS. They’re flat and fast and they don’t have much in the way of technical riding, which is why year’s new section dubbed “Dr Jekyl and Mr Hyde” came as such surprise. The section came right at the end of your lap and sent you down some tightly banked switch-backs and into an open field of jagged boulders about 30 meters long which then ended climbing a slight hill that required you to navigate a sharp turn while still riding on the rocks. You needed just the right amount of momentum to make it through. If at any point you felt yourself loosing balance or speed you better clip out fast because falling on the jagged rocks was going to hurt bad. First and last time through I made it as far as the last technical climb before having to clip-out. The second time however, had a bit more traffic and rider having problems turned right into me as I was passing and knocked me right to the ground clipped in and all. I banged my knee and hand up on the rocks. I managed to get up and cyclocross it through. Good times. The rest of the race went great! This was by far my best race of the year as everything seemed to come together. The only thing that made me nervous from the start was that our age class (19-34) was the last class to go. There was going to be a lot of traffic to pass. I managed to start at a good pace and was sitting about 15-20 deep for the first quarter mile. I was feeling really good and decided to step on the gas once we shot into the open. I was able to work myself up to fifth and was feeling really good about my position. I still felt like I was holding back but yet I had my sights on the leader. As we got into the single track though two of the riders in front of me decide to pull back as the lead riders were pulling away. I’m fighting for position and trying to find an opportunity to pass right as we enter a sandy whoopdedoo that I wasn’t expecting and wound up going OTB. I managed to hope back on the bike pretty quick but as I’m trying to pedal notice that my chain is stuck. After a few back and forths on the pedals the chain re-engaged and I was off again. That slight screw-up though pretty much blew my chances at catching the leaders.

I felt great the entire race and I only felt fatigue setting in about the last quarter of the last lap. The legs started to cramp up. Nothing too bad and nothing that couldn’t be fixed by picking a higher gear and spinning. I was able to hammer hard in the open sections getting up to and holding 24 MPH. I was flying and passing a lot of riders. I don’t think anyone passed me the entire race, which does great things for the psyche I might add. I also realized that I rode most of the race in the big ring. I didn’t even shift out of it on hills which allowed me to keep a good pace.
The results posted that I managed to roll in 2nd place in my age class and 13th overall. Not too bad for another “training race”. I’m hoping I can peak even better in two weeks for Nationals.

Kato

I was quite excited to for this race as it was essentially my first series race of the year due to the DNF at Afton. I wasn’t expecting great things because it was a C priority race and I was training right up to race day. No tapper period, no peaking, just another training ride.

My plan was to start slow and work into the race. I think I was about mid-pack up the first climb which I right where I wanted to be. The group was climbing slow and I felt really good almost too good and I started to wonder if I should have gone out faster. I decided to stick to the plan and it worked out pretty well.

Each lap got faster as I picked off riders throughout the race. I actually felt great the entire race too. The only time I felt bad was on the last climb of the last lap. I tried to stand up and hammer to catch a few riders in front of me but as I did both legs cramped – quads, hammies and calves all tightened up. I decided to sit down and spin it out and hold my position the rest of the race.

Overall, I’m quite pleased with the results. Early on in the race I think there could have been a few places where I could have attacked more but who knows if that would have affected me later on. Regardless, I’ve got one full race under my belt and I’m happy to have it out of the way. Sunday is the WORS Firecracker race in Eau Claire which is one of my favorite races. It’s a flat fast course with lots of single track. I’m still right in the middle of my hardest training while trying to peak for Nationals so I’ll take this race for what it is - another training ride.

Photos courtesy of Dana Schoppe Photography