8/25/12 - Bidwell Bump All Mountain - Rubber Side Up

Well this was a day of firsts, unfortunately more bad than good, and "first place" wasn't one of them either.

Lets start with the good.  This would be my first time attending this race, and first time seeing Chico in the daylight, and first time riding there.  I always love riding in new places and this course was suppose to be very rough and technical.  So I was looking forward to it and there would be some good competition with Chico locals Tim Olsen and Aaron Timmel as well as Mark Weir.  But that's kind of where the "good" firsts stop.  So now the full story...

I arrived nice and early and got checked in, suited up, and set off for my warm up.  I would be racing "Orange" (Santa Cruz Tallboy LTc) since this course was suppose to be very rough, and it was an "All Mountain" race after all with the Super D later in the day (thank you for having both races on the same day!!!).  I was really looking forward to racing this bike because it's just a ton of fun to ride.  I proceeded up the first part of the course to warm up, which is a gradual climb up the North Rim Trail.  This isn't so much a trail but more a wide swath of lava rock making for non-stop rough pedaling.  It's relentless, but the bike was feeling awesome and just eating it up.  I got just about to the top of the climb and it was about 20 minutes before the start so I decided to turn around and head back down.  I pedaled a little ways and then had to coast over some rough, and when I tried to spin again there was no resistance like the chain was off.  "Thats weird, I have a chain guide..."  I looked down... the chain guide was BROKEN!  "WHAT THE?!?! Uhhhh... OK..."  I stood there in awe for a little bit trying to figure out what had happened and how.  The bolt that attaches the top guide to the slider had pulled through the plastic backing... long story short it couldn't hold the chain on anymore.  I unscrewed the remainder of that piece, pocketed it, and set off down the hill again to hopefully get there in time to fix it or switch bikes to "Red" (Santa Cruz Tallboy c).  The only problem was that the trail was so rough that without a chain guide or derailleur, the chain kept coming off and getting lodged between the chain wheel and the chainguide plate.  And when I say lodged, I mean really stuck!  Where the cranks wouldn't turn anymore and I'd have to use a tool to pry enough of the chain out from in between the two pieces so that I could grab it and yank it out fully, hopefully not damaging the chain in the process!  This happened four or five times before I finally made it down.  By the time I got to the car I had only six minutes before the start of the race.  I decided there wasn't enough time to fix Orange so I would just switch bikes.  I only had one chain between the two bikes for reasons I don't want to get into, so that slowed me down.  But I got that done, and was transferring the race number and the GPS over to Red... and then I heard the race start.  Dang.  I put Orange on the rack and locked it up and took off to the other side of the park and rolled across the start line three minutes late.  The first time I've ever been late to a start.

So I was playing catch up.  At least the North Rim Trail was wide so passing the whole field wouldn't be too difficult.  As I motored up the climb I started to take inventory of what I had forgotten in the process of switching bikes.  I hadn't washed this bike since the Annadel race the week before, plus a 50 mile ride on it during the week.  The chain was dry, and I had no idea how much air was in the tires.  All I knew was there was not enough air for these rough trails.  Sure, it made the rough climb a bit smoother but once I got any speed up I was really having to be careful.  I was even getting rim strikes on some of the square edged rocks on the climb!  Hmmm... what else did I forget... Oh great! I forgot to take the spare tube off the frame of Orange and at least put it in my pocket... DOH!  I had a CO2 can but that was it.  So I had my super light XC set up which was already undesirable and now I was going to really have to work to protect the WTB Nano's with from the sharp rocks if I wanted to finish the race.  Great.  But it was all I had so I was giving it my best.  I past by a steady stream of riders suffering up the volcanic formation, each of them searching desperately for a smooth line and at least a brief reprieve from the jostling.  That made it easy for me to predict where they were going to go as I approached, but it also meant that I rarely got to take the smooth line.  Oh well, the Tallboy c still soaked it up well.  After about 20 minutes I had finally made it to the top and up to some of the faster Cat 1 riders, so that was a good sign that I was making up ground.

I turned down "B Trail" which is a hillside trail of pretty fun singletrack with switchbacks winding through bushes and trees down to the creek basin.  There are rocks here too, but the trail did manage to have some smooth spots and a bit of flow.  All of the corners were blind however as the foliage encroached on the trail and I had no idea what obstacles were coming up.  There were a few pucker moments as I slid my hips back behind the saddle or pin-balled off some rocks but I was still having fun with it and just trying to be smooth and relaxed.  I caught and passed one rider and was beginning to pull away when I entered an 'S' turn with a slight bit of banking.  I spring off the first right hand bend and went into the left, shooting for an inside out drift into the little berm but my front tire folded over and I slid out.  Instantly I was down on the left side... knee, hip, lower back, and shoulder impacts with a not so graceful reverse somersault in the bushes. "Alrighty then!  That was out of nowhere!" were my thoughts but down to a more condensed, trail-side version of "WTF?!?!"  I dusted myself off and pulled the bike out of the way, beat the brake lever back down where it belonged and began using my CO2 to fill up the tires so this didn't happen again.  And to hopefully give a bit more protection from the rocks.  After a couple minutes and four or five riders passed I set off again.

I was essentially done with B Trail and soon made the turn onto a rocky (are you surprised?) fire road.  This road had a slight descent to it so I kept the power down and passed a few riders back right away.  Then the road just... ended... at a big, deep creek.  It was maybe about 30 feet wide, I'm not sure.  There were some people sitting there, I guess course marshals, and I asked "Am I suppose to cross here??" "Yeah, just go straight across."  I couldn't even see a trail on the other side, but I shouldered the bike and waded in the crotch-high, COLD (refreshing?), water and climbed over the fallen tree on the other bank to discover the trail on the other side.  This next section was the second main climb of the course heading up a steep fire road for about a mile and a half.  I put it in "diesel mode" and powered on up without any issue and made a few more passes before turning down the next singletrack.  This next part of the course was pretty fun and had a lot of flow.  It was a traverse on rolling terrain and didn't have the constant smattering of rocks but clumps here and there to jump over or power through.  The fun eventually ended at a hike-a-bike up a really loose trail.  This was some serious hiking at times requiring a hand down on the rocks to actually climb, or crawl, up them with the bike on my back.  I'm not sure how long it lasted, but it was too long and I was happy when it was over!  Rolling back down the trail it was more of the gradual descent and fun singletrack which got more and more rocky as I went down.  I couldn't see anyone else ahead or behind so I was just trying to be smooth and make it to the end.  The last few features of the trail are some pretty fun rock walls to navigate, which I handled just fine and then the trail suddenly spat me out onto a road.  All I saw was a chalk arrow on the ground... so I went that way... which was the right choice and around the next corner was the finish.  1hr and 19min was my time, about 9 minutes back from the winner, Tim Olson.  Actually I'm pretty satisfied with that considering my late start, not knowing the trails, crash and trial-side maintenance.  That put me 4th in the Pro All Mountain standings... not bad!

I had a few hours before the Super D race which would wrap up the All Mountain stages so I grabbed some fruit, a Hammer Bar, and tanked a bunch of water... it was getting HOT!  I confirmed with the race organizer that I didn't need to run the same equipment for the Super D so I started trying to fix the chainguide on the Tallboy LTc.  After about a half hour and some strategically placed Gorilla Tape I had it working again!  Sweet!  I knew it was going to be faster, safer (can those terms go together?), and much more fun, to ride Orange on the Super D.  I rode it around for a half hour or so and confirmed that my hillbilly fix was good enough to get me down the hill once more.

The Super D start couldn't come soon enough... it was HOT!  And there was no wind and really no shade at the top staging area either.  We would start with 1 minute gaps... 10 seconds to go... 5... I tried to track stand and clip in, lost my balance, oops!  2... 1... GO!  Pedal Pedal Pedal!!! Left foot still not clipped in... cross the ditch... water bar jump!  Woohoo!  Ok now the left foot's finally clipped in!  A few more sweeping turns to drift and I was heading into the singletrack again.

More pedaling... all out!  I'm feeling good and REALLY happy to be riding Orange... it's just eating up the trail!  I come to an intersection that I recognize from the XC race where we turned right.  There are some guys standing there who are just looking at me and not signalling or doing anything.  I'm glad someone told me in advance that I'm suppose to go straight here, but I was still unsure.  I went by, and they weren't yelling at me that I was going the wrong way, so I charged ahead.  Still feeling fast but smooth, I came around a knoll and could see on the other side the next rider ahead that I was catching.  He was maybe 15 seconds ahead as I approached a "G-out" turn.  There were multiple lines going into the dip so I stayed left on the high line and dragged the brakes as I began to turn right, looking at the rock face on the other side of the dip which I would have to power up and I couldn't see a clean line.  But I had to release the brakes to keep momentum so I just was going to aim for the only line I saw.  Still turning I released the brakes and as I got to the bottom of the dip, my front wheel hit a rock that moved, or slipped over one, and then hit something solid.  SUPERMAN!!! I went head first into the rocks on the other side, but I kept my head up and my elbows and forearms took the main hit.  Followed by my left thigh and knee.  Lying prone on the ground, I hear a thud and look over to my right to watch my bike cartwheel out of sight down below.  "Wow... Ow...."  I pause for a second to allow any pain to materialize that would tell me I shouldn't move... nothing... good.  So I push myself up.  Everything works... check!  The left thigh and left arm are aching pretty good as I stagger off the trail to retrieve the bike.  After pulling it back up onto the trail, a quick look over and it survived without hardly a scratch!  Sweet!  Time to ride!

I come to two more of these "G-out" features but I approach a little slower and get through just fine.  There's some pretty gnarly stuff on this trail like the "toilet bowl" which is almost a rock wall on the left side that you have to hit with enough momentum to carry you around or you'll fall off.  I hadn't seen it before and I didn't have clear line of sight to it on the approach so I walked it.  After the crash I just decided that riding this trail at my race pace wasn't smart without knowing it.  My left arm was aching pretty badly but I could still shift and brake fine so I didn't think much of it.  I just cruised the rest of the course and had a good time on Orange.

I finished the Super D in 6th for the Pro All Mountain category but that was just 16th overall.  There's some fast Cat 1 locals which just proves trail knowledge is superior to everything!  I wound up 5th for the Pro All Mountain and considering everything that happened... I'm pretty happy with my times.

After I got to the bottom I rolled up to Mark Weir who didn't actually ask "How'd it go?" because he already knew the answer by looking at me all covered in dirt and blood.  I just replied to his silent expression with "Ow!"  He took one look at my elbow and said, "Yeah that's gonna need some work... you go ahead and ride down to the park and I'll check with the guys at the finish here to see about the race medic."  He seemed to be moving with a sense of urgency so I rolled down to the park where the main venue was set up and asked some staff there if they had any medical staff.  Everyone who looked at my elbow seemed to respond the same way, with a startled retraction of body language, scrunched up face and an "Ooooo!"  I couldn't really see it, just that there seemed to be a flap of skin.

I won't just post the picture here, but here's a link to the photo showing the fresh wound.  So if you get grossed out you don't have to look: Fresh Wound

So with everyone's responses and Mark asking me if I needed to sit down a few times, I decided it was a good idea to not do my usual "clean it up and put some super glue on it" fix and actually go to a doctor.  I headed down to the Immediate Care Clinic in downtown Chico and walked on up to the front counter.  The lady asked me a number of questions for a few minutes before finally asking me what I was there for and I said "Well... (looking at my elbow) I have this big gash on my elbow that probably needs some work... looks pretty deep."  She gave me a surprised look... "Are you bleeding?!"  "Yep."  "Oh... most people normally make a big deal out of that! We'll get you back here right away!"  About 30 seconds later my name was called and I was taken back where nurse Pat cleaned me up.

Clean up pic 1
Clean up pic 2
Clean up pic 3

Then Dr. David came in and went to work.  Starting off with the Novocain... nice.  I was laid out prone with my left arm out on a shelf, and he was sitting on a chair like he was working at a desk.  He started off with more cleaning... this time with a firm foam pad.... and then he moved onto a brush.  It still wasn't getting it all because it went so deep so he meticulously began cutting out pieces of rock, dirt, leaves, and twigs.  He was having to dig so far down in there and kept commenting about how I really shoved SO much debris into my arm!  At one point he came across a vein that was nipped and "leaking" a bit so he clamped it and pulled it out so he could tie it off.  I looked over and saw a the vein sticking out of my arm and about bent over backwards as I watched him tie it off.  That was cool!  Unfortunately my phone was on the other side of the room so I couldn't take any pictures or video.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention this was my first time getting stitches... officially.

The Dr. kept digging and cutting until he went down to the elbow bone where he began to get concerned.  He could still see debris down there but he was worried that it might have gotten into the joint capsule which would mean Orthopedic surgery.  Basically he was saying it was more than he could do there and he told me to go to the hospital.  So they wrapped me up and off I went.  Though I didn't go to the Hospital just a few blocks away in Chico... I decided that if I was going to need Ortho surgery I wanted to be closer to home.  It wasn't hurting too badly so I figured I could withstand the 2hr drive back down to the Sacramento area.  About 15 minutes into the drive the Novocain wore off and I was regretting that decision.  I continued on with clinched teeth and such a tight grip on the wheel with my right hand that I was surprised I didn't leave finger imprints.  I finally ended up at the UC Davis Med Center ER, and I don't think I yelled at traffic or stop lights too much.

I walked in the ER door in a pain haze, trying to keep it together.  The security guard asked if I needed a doctor... I nodded... and he motioned me on through into the check in room.  I wasn't there long before being moved to one of the trauma rooms where I put on a hospital gown that actually had full coverage!  Not!  I was trying to keep a good attitude and joked with the nurses a bit as my way of coping.  But I think that downplayed to them the level of pain that I was in, so I waited....

Over the intercom... "Attention, we have a 911 pediatric arriving via air in 10 minutes."  Aww man.  I hate to hear that.  Kids don't belong in the hospital.  I knew that the ER resources might be diverted to that but I didn't mind.  All I had was just an elbow booboo.  But man this hurts like hell!  Jen had arrived not long after that and was keeping me in good company.  But after a while she could tell that it was all I could do to keep it together so she wrangled the nurse who procured some pain meds... nice!  Much better!  Wife of the year again!

After a while they took xrays and confirmed there were no breaks and no metal contaminants.  Then the Orthopedic surgeon came in and did the test to see if the joint capsule had been punctured.  This was the worst!  He injected 35ml of saline into my elbow joint... slowly... the pressure and pain just kept increasing as I went into some serious mind over matter deep breathing.  Jen about passed out.  When it was done I looked over and she was white as a ghost!  I offered her the crackers I had on my other side but she declined :-).  The good news was that the saline he injected didn't leak out anywhere so I didn't need any further joint surgery.  Awesome.

A plastic surgeon came down to check out my wound.  He was part of a team that was reattaching some guy's finger in the OR and had heard about the work I needed.  It was complicated and interesting to him so he wanted to work on me instead.  He took a bunch of pictures of it and went back up to consult with his team before coming back down to begin the lace-up.  He went to work, using some crazy cutting needles and different types of thread, first trying internal stitching and then moving to closing up the big cut.  He was impressed with his work, and Jen said it looked a lot better too.  I'll take it!

Stitched up pic

We finally made it home at 3am after being up for about 23 hours.  And we just about slept all day Sunday.  I ended up with quite the story after going to a race "just for fun" that didn't really matter.  But it keeps life interesting I guess!  I'm off any "moving" bike for a little while via Dr.'s orders so hopefully it doesn't set me back too much and I can still finish out the Sierra Cup Series and race Marathon Nationals.  But we'll see...

8/18/2012 Annadel XC Race Report

The wind blew... all... night... ugh.  Gusting, tree limbs banging and creaking, gates clapping... I hate wind.  We cut the race commute down and were staying with our friends Peter and Allyson in Fairfield (a.k.a. the wind tunnel!) for the weekend.  Peter was also racing so we all packed into the car at 5:45am to head over to Santa Rosa.  And it rained on us for a bit of the drive too... in August!  What the heck?

It was nice to get there early, get our race packet (I got Jen's lucky #4!! Sweet!) and take our time putting all the timing chips on the bike and jersey, AND still have time to warm up for about 45 minutes and talk to friends on the start line.

It was cool to see two of my Santa Cruz Enduro/DH teammates, Ryan Condrashoff and Marshall Eames, out for an XC day of pain... I mean fun!  Billy Damon, fresh off his 5th place in the Downieville All Mountain rolled up as well as Michael Hosey, Brian Astell, and lots of fast locals from NorCal Bike Sport and other bay area teams.  I'd be racing on the Tallboy c (a.k.a. "Red") on WTB Nano's (a very popular choice looking around the start line).

9am finally came and we set off behind the Bike Monkey truck from downtown Santa Rosa.  650+ mountain bikers took to Sonoma Ave at 25+mph hoping to have a clear shot to the dirt at the end of the road 2 miles away.  The first few intersections were blocked off by the police... sweet.  We were in a tight pack circulating around behind the truck.  The truck gunned it a bit... and the few remaining single speeders fell to the back.  Then we came up on a shopping center and there were just too many parking lot exits and intersections for the police to block, and about 10 cars had pulled out from the parking lot into the left turn lane going in our direction.  I was on the left already hugging the yellow and I was heading straight for the back of them.  The lane was open to the right and that's where the truck went, and the peloton followed but I was squeezed off... it was open so I went left.  I could see the police in the intersection holding traffic but then that left turn arrow turned green and he was waving those cars on!  What are you doing!?!  I waved at him to hold the traffic but I guess he didn't see me and was still waving them on.  The timing was right so I ducked in after a car made the left turn and fell back into the peloton.  It all worked out, and nothing was really that close to being bad, but it definitely wasn't where I wanted to be!  As I pulled back into the group, the guys were all laughing and collectively saying "phew!" after getting through that.  A motorcycle cop rolled up along the left and said "You were suppose to go do the right!"  I don't remember what I said in response, something like "I had nowhere to go and you guys were suppose to hold traffic!"  Whatever... I just wanted to get to the dirt.  We finally came to the end of Sonoma Ave as the pace picked up to 29mph.  There was an officer on foot in the intersection holding traffic and he started walking to the left, which is where we needed to go.  We were all shooting for a 10ft wide gap in the fence at the other side of the road. He stopped walking and we split around him.  I wonder what he was thinking as we swarmed around him?

Soon we were climbing on the dirt double-track in Howarth Park.  I was sitting in about 20th and some of the guys were attacking it and pulling away a little.  I knew I don't have that gear, so I kept my pace and as the climbs got longer, I picked 'em off.  We wound around the water towers and down to the lake and then across the levy into Spring Lake park and across the Start/Finish line I was off the back of the lead group by about 50 yards and as they made the gradual left turn I could see each rider and counted 1, 2, 3, 4, aw, dang, crap, shoot, ugh, sigh, whatever... so if you counted, I'm in 12th.  But being just 15 minutes into the 2hr race I wasn't too worried and I knew there was a lot of trail ahead that suits me.

We climbed a bit more and I caught and passed up to 9th after entering Annadel State (actually now Sonoma County) Park and turned down Cobblestone trail which is full of proper rocks, roots and tight turns.  I caught right back up to the group and was riding behind my friend and Cat 1 road racer Keith Hillier.  There wasn't a good spot and we went around a left hand sweeper and into a good sized rock garden.  He pogo'd and stalled in a slow-mo endo which quickly got accelerated when my handlebar rammed his back tire and punted him over and off the trail.  At least he landed in the weeds and not the rocks.  "Keith, you OK??" "Yeah."  And he was getting up so I kept going to catch back up and finish off Cobblestone, passing by Jen playing with our new DSLR camera at the bottom.

8th and on the flat road of Channel Dr. about 40yds back of a 3 man group.  Once we got onto some traversing singletrack I caught right up to them and we were pushing a decent pace.  Since there was no place to pass I dropped back a bit to let the dust clear so I wouldn't hit anything in the wrong spot.  Just as I did that, one of the NorCal Bike Sport riders flipped over endo off to the left... phew I'm glad I backed off when I did!  Ok, no more dudes going OTB in my path please?!?!  We popped out of that singletrack and headed up the fire road climb which I know is a long slug... just my cup o' tea.  I set in at my diesel pace and caught up to Billy Damon and another NorCal rider.  We passed by Ben Portilla (Team Honey Stinger) whom I know from the Sierra Cup Series and our chase group of three see-sawed until we hit some more singletrack.  I took a little break and sat in behind Billy as we cruised down some flowy but rocky goodness.  I sat on his wheel and knew that he would pick a good line and then we broke out onto some more fire road and Billy and I dropped the NorCal rider.  When the slope turned upwards I jumped in front of Billy and we entered the Burma trail climb in the woods.  I set my sights on the next two, Michael Hosey and yet another NorCal rider but I could occasionally see one guy a bit off the front, maybe about 20 seconds ahead of them.

As I approached the two-some I could see that Hosey was sitting up a bit in second position seemingly biding time.  I figured if I were to pass by he'd jump right on my wheel.  Since I caught those two in a good spot on the climb, I just went right around on the left and kept my pace.  Sure enough, Hosey sucked right up to my wheel and the other guy stuck right to his.  I was feeling the burn for sure, but at least I could hear them breathing hard too!  I pulled them all the way up to the top of the Lawndale DH where Hosey sprinted around to get in front.  I'm not surprised since he's from the area and probably knows the trails very well.  Trail knowledge is so key... as he starts to pull away.  I kept the gap close though but the dust in the shadows was making the trail at that speed pretty treacherous.  So I was fine with hanging back a bit.  It wasn't long before we caught the leader and were being held up a bit.  Hosey was able to get by but there wasn't a spot for me so I sat in third as we eventually broke out of the woods and into the shrubs.  I came up on a blind right hander and saw that the 2nd place rider, Colin Daw, had slid off the trail.  Probably because he had gone into that corner as fast as I was... TOO FAST!  $#!^!!! BRAKE!!!  I two wheel drifted into the weeds and saved it... nice.  Colin was still mounting up and I tried to get on my pedals quickly to get by but he got going in time and stayed in front.  Oh well.  We didn't have much left on the DH anyway.  I took the last few squirts from my bottle before getting to the bottom in anticipation of the Camelbak bottle hand off.

Sweet!  They're handing off the nice Podium Chill bottles!  Damn... half full! :-(  I hadn't planned on that.  Now I had to ration but I REALLY wanted to chug!

Colin and I set off on the road traverse over to Schultz trail with Hosey about 20 seconds ahead.  I entered Schultz in the 2nd spot but couldn't see Hosey yet.  There was a bit of a traverse over to the real climbing still and Colin went by on the flowing singletrack.  But once we got to the rocky climbing of Schultz we caught Hosey who was getting bucked around on his hard tail and I was happily seated and keeping the power down on the Tallboy.  I caught up to Colin at the top and as we climbed the Pig Flat fire road he asked me if I had any water to spare.  I gave it some thought and wanted to be nice, but I really didn't.  I only had about two good squirts left in my bottle as well and was already feeling like I was swimming in the ocean when I would get tastes of all the saltiness that was pouring out of my skin.  "No, sorry, I'm about out too."  "Ok" He said, "I guess that'll make us want to finish faster."  Yep.  So I passed by at the top of the climb and we charged into, I think it's Marsh Trail, which is a sweet rolling singletrack trail with plenty of challenging obstacles and turns.  This trail reminds me a lot of the terrain I'm used to riding at home so I was feeling pretty good.  Unfortunately we were catching handfuls of short course riders that had merged back in with our course so it was really hard for me to break away.  Any time I'd get a little gap, I'd catch someone and have to wait for them to pull over and Colin was right back on me again.  Was this coming down to a sprint finish?

We came out of the singletrack and on to the final doubletrack and rocky road downhill to the finish which is about a mile and a half.  I was leading and I could hear Colin right there.  From watching him on the course, it seemed he had the better legs but maybe I had the technical edge.  So I decided to put that to the test and charged the downhill.  I was taking some risks for sure, charging around some off camber turns and drifting, jumping and hopping through the rocks.  I seemed to be pulling away just a bit so I kept charging.  After I exited one tricky 'S' turn I glanced back and saw some dust and Colin going slowly... he had just slid off the trail.  Now was my chance so I went for it.  With about a 10 second gap I fought the leg burn and did my best not to blow it by hitting some stupid rock wrong and flatting.  Thoughts of Georgia Gould's last two World Cup races where that happened flowed through my head.  I did not want that to happen so I checked up just a bit in a few spots.  But when the trail flattened out a bit more I looked back and could see Colin charging HARD!  Get low, aero... push it... it doesn't burn... be efficient... Would this course freaking END already!!?!?!?  AAAHHHH IT HURTS!!!!  He's catching up!!!!

I recognized the last couple turns though and knew I was close and as I came around the final turn I looked back and knew he wasn't close enough and I didn't have to sprint... thank God!  I sat up and gave it the good ol' fist pump as I crossed the line in 1st after 2hrs in 3min.  Yeah!!!

The race promoter, Bike Monkey, always has a great set up for post race and Annadel was no different.  We feasted on grub from "Awful Falafel" and of course Lagunitas brews.  I of course couldn't resist visiting the Samagse Massage tent for that same awesome post race treatment that I had received earlier this year after SoNoMas.  And I bought Jen a massage too :-).

So it wasn't long before I was hungry again so we made our way to downtown Santa Rosa with the "Fastest 29er" prize I had won last year, consisting of a bunch of gift cards/certificates to area pubs & restaurants.  The four of had a nice "progressive" dinner starting off with some more brews at "Toad in the Hole" pub.

Then we moved on to "El Coqui" which is a Puerto Rican restaurant.  I had never had Puerto Rican cuisine before, and to be honest I didn't expect much more than something similar to Mexican food (this would also qualify as Peter's "something new" food of the day which he has to do when they hang out with us).  This has worked out well so far (aside from the Lemon Pizza incident...) and even when they came with us to Thailand.  Wow was that good!  El Coqui didn't let any of us down and that's a big understatement.  We each had one of their Kenematini's (I think that's what they're called), which is a Puerto Rican martini of rum soaked fruit (like lychee) mixed with Guava juice (or Mango in Jen's version) and some other good stuff.  Delicious, and that was just the start!  Many of the menu items featured Plantains of different forms, and none of us had ever had Plantain.  We got a fried green plantain and garlic appetizer which was stuffed with Chicharron (fried pork, like bacon)... so good.  Peter and I each got Camarones (Garlic and olive oil sauteed prawns) which came with some sweet plantains, some fried green plantain slices, and Puerto Rican prepared red beans with potatos, pork and garlic.  SO GOOD!!!  The girls split a pork stuffed sweet plantain dish which was also very good (I of course ate what they didn't finish).  If you're ever in Santa Rosa I, we, highly recommend this place.

So a big thanks to Bike Monkey for not only always having well run events with great courses, but for securing great sponsors who contribute fantastic podium prizes.

2012 Downieville Classic All Mountain Report

This year I wanted to really kill it at Downieville.  Santa Cruz even came up with THE perfect bike for the race... the Tallboy LTc, which of course I had to have.  High demand for it made delivery pretty last minute and I got it only two weeks before the race, on a day I was going out of town.  Thankfully I have an awesome friend in Asa Salas who always seems to come to my rescue.  She turned what was a cardboard box in my living room into a beautiful new bike so that I could take it on this maiden Downieville voyage when I got home...

So as you can see, it pedals well... REALLY well.  I was truly amazed.  But what I was really looking for after feeling a little beat up in last year's race on my "regular" Tallboy, was improved downhill performance.  And OH MY did this bike have it!  It is an absolute monster truck on the downhills and eats everything!  I was having SO much fun!  And dropper seatposts are awesome!! (took me a while to remember I had one)

Sidenote: Yeah, the bikes being named the same thing is a little confusing, especially to Jen when trying to tell her why I was getting this bike.  "Why are you getting the SAME bike?" "No, they're not the same... this one says 'LT' so it's different."  So Santa Cruz if you're listening... it might increase sales and make it easier for guys to pitch it to their wives if you start to name bikes a little more uniquely :-).  For now... I just refer to the "regular" Tallboy as 'Red' (red graphics) and the LT as 'Orange' (orange graphics).  Now back to the show...

Two things I learned on my preride though was a) I still really don't like wearing hydration backpacks and b) the 36 tooth 1x10 setup that came with the bike wasn't fast enough and I was topping out the gears on the downhills.  The solution to the first problem involved some velcro, electrical tape, and robbing a bottle cage from my road bike to create a conveniently mounted bottle cage on the top tube... BRILLIANT!  Works like a charm!  And the solution to problem #2 involved cannibalizing 'Red' for it's double chainrings and shifter.  It made for a bit of a cluttered handlebar with the seatpost button, 2 shifters, 2 brake levers, and a garmin, but it was the ticket.

I was able to get up and ride the course a couple more times and was feeling pretty confident on my new steed in a short time.  I even felt comfortable on the infamous "waterfall" section of the downhill which I've never had the confidence to ride previously.  

Race morning... I was a big pack of nerves!  So it was really, really nice that Jen was able to get the day off from working the TBF Tri-4-Fun and come join me for her first D'ville Classic.  

The nice send-off before I warm up and she heads up to the top of the climb for a bottle handoff .

Since I was racing the two day "All Mountain" I would have to weigh the bike before each day's race to make sure I didn't switch any parts.  The XL framed, 5+ inch travel, 29 inch wheeled race steed came in to just 27lbs... nice!  My choice of tires for the race would be a WTB Bronson 29 2.2 Race up front and a WTB Wolverine 29 2.2 Race in the rear.  I went with this setup because of the high volume in both and the fact that they still grip really well when the psi is pumped way up (necessary for the Downieville rocks and speed).  

I warmed up for a while but my legs just felt a little flat.  I lined up on the front row next to many big names (Decker, Craig, Moeschler, Taberlay, Riffle, etc. etc...) hoping that my legs would get opened up quickly on the climb before all these guys would get away.  And with a silent 5 second countdown... GO!!!  We were off on the 8 mile, 3000ft climb to the top which never gets any easier.  Everyone stayed calm on the first section of pavement and there weren't any breakaways, but the pace certainly picked up just before we made the turn to the dirt.  I settled in farther back than I was hoping for, maybe about 20th.  But after a few minutes on the dirt I started to gain some ground back and pass a few guys.  I settled in the steady climb and was lucky enough to have two songs stuck in my head: "Whistle" by Flo Rida and, of course, "Call Me Maybe."  I guess they were on the radio during the drive up.  But there was no way I was able to whistle or sing along... I was pegged with my heart rate hovering about 175 and it would stay that way for the 37 minutes it would take me to get to "the turn" with 2400 feet of the climbing complete.  This is my usual spot to take on some Hammer Gel and recover for a couple pedal strokes, but my heart rate only would get down to 167 before getting back on it and to stay with Kenny Burt who had just passed me and to keep Jason Moeschler in sight.  One more steep climb and I'd pass Kenny back before we begin the traverse over to the top at Packer Saddle (still climbing, just gradual).  This is always where I hope to make up some ground and stay as hard on the pedals as I was when it was steep.  I kept on it and did make a few passes but it's hard to break away on your own and I ended up pulling three or four riders up to the last climb before the top where they passed... and I was hurting.  I could tell that I was getting pretty dehydrated and my bottle was empty.  But thankfully Jen was there at the top for the liquid replacement.  I crested the top in 13th place at about 54 minutes, which I was disappointed with... I know I could do closer to 50, but the legs just weren't there.

I entered Sunrise trail behind Moeschler and Duncan Riffle, and hoped I'd be able to stick with them.  But I was surprised that Riffle was actually holding me up... must be the bike... or he's just really gassed from the climb.  But Moeschler was getting away and I just couldn't find a good place to make a pass stick on Riffle.  So I sat in and recovered a bit, but Kenny Burt caught us right before the end of Sunrise and we all started the traverse over to the "Baby Heads" together.  My legs were burning and I was really wishing that I had grabbed an extra water bottle at the top because I had sucked down maybe 3/4 of the 2nd bottle by the time we made it to Baby Heads... oh well.  All downhill (sorta) from here!

I entered Baby Heads (named because of the big, smooth rocks that cover this trail) behind Burt and I was hoping to stay on his wheel.  I knew my good lines through here, but he's a great descender.  We made a couple passes before the trail got really rough and I was again surprised I was able to stick with him.  Even feeling like I could be going faster... must be the bike.  We passed Billy Damon who was having a great ride and then went splashing through Pauley Creek.  And to the cheers and encouragement from familiar faces Obie Miller and Chris Schulze spending the day on their moto's instead of pedaling... I powered up the loose climb after the creek that many have to hike.  I led Kenny around a Marin factory team rider and before getting into the techy stuff on Pauley Creek Trail Kenny wanted by so I let him go.  Again I set out to stay right on his wheel.  We were absolutely ripping it and it was awesome.  

Although it was SO dusty I couldn't see squat.  I was watching Kenny's movements closely and mimicking his actions to absorb and work the trail, but the trail was getting rougher and I was feeling the need to back off a bit in order to save my equipment.  Just as I was backing off, leaned over in a right hander, SMACK!!! PSSHHSHSHSHHH!!!! I had hit a root (I think) pretty hard but it just happened to have a sharp nub or something which punctured the front tire... "NOOOOO!!!! DAMMIT!!"  Stan's sealant was shooting everywhere and the tire was flat almost instantly.  It was a huge gash... two actually and a chunk of tread was torn off.  I busted out the CO2 in an attempt to get it to seal up tubeless again but that was a lost cause... the Stan's just went everywhere!  So I busted out my tube to throw in the tire but ran into two problems: 1) Since I'd never had a flat with the new ENVE carbon wheels, I didn't realize the standard valve stem didn't hardly stick through the deep dish rim which caused problem 2) the new CO2 head I'd just bought didn't fit on there enough to inflate the tube!!!  Aaahhhhh!!!!!  And I wasn't carrying an old fashioned pump.  My day was done so I set off carrying the bike down the trail and tried to stay out of the way.  After about 15 minutes of hiking I came across another rider who was pumping up his tire and just finishing up.  "Can I borrow your pump?" I humbly asked.  "Yeah... but you'll have to carry it down."  That was an easy choice, he handed me his pump just as I was getting my tube in and he set off.  Thank you!!!  Hopefully you got it back from the race announcer!  I pumped up the tire with the tube visible through the puncture holes and prayed it would hold up for the rest of the downhill.  

Once I finally got going again I was right in the mix with the middle or back of the expert field and maybe the front end of the sport riders.  Man was this frustrating.  I'd never experienced mid pack riding at Downieville before but that stinks!  These guys are working hard, so kudos for them pushing their limits, but can I just get by??  But after a while I just accepted it and figured I'd benefit from "saving" myself for the DH on Sunday.  On 1st Divide trail I was stuck behind a group of three and since it's on the side of a cliff, there was no getting by.  I started whistling and singing the two songs that were stuck in my head, and I even asked what songs those guys had stuck in their heads (happens to everyone right?) and offered to sing them.  I didn't get a response... they were probably thinking to themselves "Would this jerk shut up?!"  I finally got by before the lower, faster section of the trail...

I finally rolled across the line in 2hrs 36min... and extremely bummed.  

I kept telling myself that it's just the nature of racing here at Downieville and you HAVE to have good luck in order to do well.  Just regular luck means you break something or flat but you can still fix it and finish.  Bad luck is when you have to DNF.  So I tried to be thankful.  Turns out Kenny flatted a little ways down the trail too so I was bummed for him as well.  I think we were going to get up close to the top five.

So then I set out after some things that make me feel better...

And then we were headed back home to get ready for Sunday... the DH for me and TBF for Jen.  I patched up the tire and refilled with sealant and 'Orange' was ready to rip it again.

I would be the 10th rider to set off on the DH course so I wasn't going to have much traffic or dust.  But since I knew I was out of contention for the All Mountain I really just wanted to make sure I didn't hold up Moeschler and Craig who were starting behind me.  I knew based on previous years times that it was inevitable that they would pass.  

I had a clean and smooth run on Sunrise and the Butcher fire road and plunged into the upper Butcher singletrack.  But not long into it I hear "Clint!! Buddy!!" Jason had already caught me and thankfully there was a good place to pull over so I did right away and he blew by.  Amazing.  I got back on it hard to try to stay with him and learn but he passed me too fast.  I was able to keep him in sight for a while but he was gone by the waterfall.  I rode my line clean through it though and finished up Butcher trail with one of my cleanest runs ever.  But towards the bottom switchbacks I could feel my back tire getting squishy.  Not again... Was it just in my head?  Nope.  After I crossed the bridge and set off up the climb to 3rd divide I looked down and it was getting really soft.  I was able to make it to the top of the climb however but with the 40mph singletrack of 3rd divide ahead I needed to fill it up.  So out the CO2 came again and as I was hooking it up Adam Craig came powering by.  Well at least I didn't hold him up either.  I finally got it full and set off to tear down the hill some more.  Again I had one of my best runs on 3rd divide, hitting lines I'd never done before and really blazing it.  A couple times I had some "Oh $#!^" moments and almost flew off the trail but was able to save it and keep it smooth.  I had a smooth run on the upper section of 1st Divide trail and kept up a good pace on the flats.  But speaking of flats, the rear tire was going down again about half way down the lower, faster part of 1st Divide but there was no way I was stopping again!  I made it to the pavement without too many rim strikes and finished my DH run with my best time ever of 48:27... even with two stops.  Not too shabby and it was good enough for 19th fastest in the DH with a pretty stacked field.  But based on my prior day's poor XC result my All Mountain result was just 40th overall for the Pro men.  Oh well.  But at least I got to have a BLAST racing a sweet new bike... and just being at the Downieville Classic is always fun.  Next year...

2012 MTB XC and Super D National Championships: Trials and Lessons Learned

I figured it's time for a post about this year's Nationals... which for me was a flop.  I'd really been looking forward to going back to Sun Valley after having such a good time last year, and especially considering how well I'd been doing this year.  In the months and weeks leading up to July, I'd been racking up the wins, tons of hours on the bike, and was generally feeling great.  But once July came around it seemed to go downhill for me, physically but also mentally.  I cracked under self imposed pressure.

I'll start with the physical.  So for the most part, I race all season long and let the fitness come and go in little bits as my life dictates, and I never really "peak" or taper intentionally.  I treat almost every race the same and go as hard as I can and accept my result at my current level of fitness.  And my body is really used to, and operates best, on the energizer bunny training method.  So when I decided to "taper" about 10 days out it felt really, really weird.

I had been without my Highball for about three weeks for some repairs and had been riding the Tallboy exclusively.  But I finally got it back in the last week of June for the final Prairie City Race Series race (which I won the Pro/Open 12 week series).

Another hard ride on Thursday followed by an easy commute on Friday.  Then I took Saturday completely off, which I hadn't done in a long time.  But I noticed that my left leg had a little bit of pain behind the knee as I spun cycles in the pool (couldn't help myself).  So I figured the day off was good.  What I didn't know was that I had gotten too use to the Tallboy which had a seat height about 1cm lower than the Highball.  A factor that I never had a problem with since I always had both bikes to switch back and forth.  On Sunday I went up to Auburn for a hill repeat ride that mimicked the Nationals course pretty closely with a 700ft, 16% avg grade climb that I set out to ride 6 times.  I was feeling fine so I didn't really warm up much, using climb 1 as the warm up.  On the 4th trip up I was noticing that pain behind the left knee again but I rode through it.  It was worse on the 5th trip and I considered hanging it up for the day, but decided that I was here for 6 laps so I was going to do 6!  But it was hurting pretty badly by the time I was done.  I figured it was just one of those aches and I'd ice and rest for the remainder of the day and it'd be fine.  Wrong.  I had basically hyper extended my knee and through really hard pedaling and pulling back and up on the pedals, pulled or partially torn my lower hamstring muscle.  Or tendon... whatever... something down there wasn't right.

Ok now about the mental, I'll start on that since it's hard to have one without the other.  I had found out that Jen now wasn't able to come with me to Sun Valley.  I had really been wanting to share that place with her and have her along on the trip.  She just makes my life and every experience so much better.  And besides I think I'm faster at races when she's there because I basically race back to her and get it over with as quickly as possible :-).  She couldn't come because of her (our) commitment to running the registration and timing for TBF racing which had a big triathlon weekend on the same dates as Nationals and nobody was able to cover for her.  So that was a bit of a hit for me because I was looking forward to her coming, but it was in no way her fault.

I was also getting a lot of words of encouragement and support from friends, family and the local cycling community.  Telling me to go get it and to kill it for NorCal at Nationals.  Don't get me wrong, it's SO awesome and incredibly humbling to have so much support from so many people.  But I let it build on the pressure I was already putting on myself for this race.  Now I felt that if I didn't do well I would be letting everyone else down, not just myself.  How's that for setting myself up for failure?

Monday I could hardly walk without a limp, and stairs really hurt.  I was considering not making the trip to Idaho and was getting really emotionally down about it.  I didn't ride and decided to see what Tuesday would bring.  Tuesday I rode in the morning, for a half hour and it hurt.  I still didn't want to give up, so I decided I was going to make the trip anyway since I had 4 more days until the race.  And besides... my new ENVE XC29 Carbon wheels had just come!  So sweet!

The lack of riding was really feeling weird to me and I was really worried about my eating, or that I was over eating because I wasn't riding.  I was getting too focused on what I couldn't do because of the injury and putting myself in a weird mental state.  I should have been viewing this time off the bike as rest my body needs and bonus extra time with Jen before I left for 5 days.

The 10 1/2 hour drive seemed to be ok on my leg and it felt decent when I got there, but I generally felt like crap because I was mindlessly snacking the whole trip to pass the time (Northern Nevada is pretty boring to drive through!).  But I set out for a pre-ride and the first trip up the climb made the leg hurt right away.  I did one lap of the pro course, which was the same as last year.  A 600ft vertical climb up a super steep fire road with a really fun descent with a ton of switchbacks.  And then I set out for a lap of the Amateur course which was new this year with an hour long 3000ft or so climb with some really fun descending off the back of the mountain before coming back down the last DH of the pro course.

I rode for 2 1/2 hours and had a lot of fun including a "pinball" interpretation off of a couple of trees :-).  I'm good!  Nobody saw that!

And it was my first ride on the new ENVE wheels... and I have to say they are SO awesome and stiff.  Adding even more quickness to the Highball.

On Thursday I busted out the Tallboy for some Super D runs.  Also the same course as last year, on which I took 8th.  I was really looking forward to killing this race too and I had that course DIALED!  It was a little more blown out and looser than last year and made for some sketchy moments.  I felt fast but... the first 4 minutes of climbing hurt the leg pretty badly.

Friday I had to take completely off.  The leg was swollen up and it was still iffy that I could race at all.  I did a lot of napping and watching baseball (Go Giants!!!)... and worrying about what I was eating.  I was really thankful to have the internet and be able to chat with Jen and email and check Facebook to still feel connected.  And in discussing my injury with friends I finally busted out the tape measure and that's when I first discovered the saddle height discrepancy between the two bikes.  So I made the adjustments.

Saturday... race day.  I went out for a morning spin to see if it was even going to happen today.  I stopped by the Spidertech booth and got the hammie taped up.  That combined with the new height adjustments I felt good enough to give the race a shot.  Now just waiting for that 4pm start time...

I went out and warmed up, but it was 90 degrees out so I wasn't too worried about not being warm that's for sure.  But I got in about a half hour and the leg was aching pretty badly... I could hardly walk.  But it was time to line up, so here we go!

I started right about in the middle of the pack of 60 or so and as we finished the start loop and turned up the climb for the first time I had fallen back a few spots.  So I stood up and hammered on the climb where I could, gaining some back.  And since standing up didn't hurt the leg I would do as much as I could.

Unfortunately the climb is so steep and so loose that it's just not possible on most of it.  I finally made it to the top, took a chug of water, a couple deep breaths and tried to hammer the DH.  I made a couple passes on the switchbacks taking the hard lines, but it turned out that unclipping my left foot under pressure and planting also hurt the leg.  Damn.

All in all though I was feeling pretty decent and was starting to pick guys off pretty early in the race so I was going for it.  On the second trip up the climb I passed another handful of guys and had a good descent until I got held up by a group at the bottom.  Here's where it got a little weird.  I started to feel a headache coming on, so I figured I was getting a little hungry since it was about that time anyway.  So after crossing the line to start lap 3 I took a gulp of Hammer Gel and a big chug of water.  Then I poured it on to pass that group of three before the river rock garden.  But my body didn't like everything I was doing to it apparently, and by the base of the climb I wasn't feeling right and I couldn't put down any power.  Those guys passed me back and I just put it in an easy gear to try and recover... there was still a lot of time left.

But as I climbed I just watched my heart rate fall down to the 140's, and 130's on a climb where I was putting out an effort I should at least be in the 160's but 170's more likely.  The headache was back and strong, my vision was starting to get a little "bleached," and I was feeling like I wasn't getting any air.  I had felt like this twice before, many years ago and got two ambulance rides out of the deal.  So I decided it was time to stop.  Not to mention my leg was hurting so badly it was aching all the way up through my glute into my back and hips.  Half way up the climb, I pulled off and laid down with my head downhill and waited for EMS.  It wasn't long before they came, with oxygen, which helped a lot.  I kept sipping my HEED/water mix too and in about a half hour of resting there watching guys suffer up the climb and look longingly at my oxygen mask, I was ready to head back down the hill.

It was incredibly embarrassing to roll past all the spectators with a bike that was completely intact and a body that wasn't bloodied.  That was until I got to the flat area and could only pedal with one leg and had to dangle my left... then they could see what was wrong.  Or at least one of the things that was wrong.  So... 2012 XC Nationals... Bonk... DNF.  I hate DNF's and I had just done it in my biggest race of the year.

I still had a chance though for the Super D... not.  I couldn't even bend my leg enough to pedal back to my condo.  What was weird was that after I showered up and ate dinner, the leg felt fine!  That was really annoying and was not making my decision to race the next morning any easier.  So at 9pm I took out the Tallboy and went for a quick pedal to see what was going on and sure enough, two hard pedal strokes in the leg was hurting quite badly again.  I needed to make the "big boy" call right then, and the correct call was to not enter the Super D.  It just wasn't going to be worth the additional damage it was going to cause.  And knowing myself and how much I love to race... and how I would be still tempted to race once morning came around, I packed up and decided to drive home through the night and "race" back to Jen so I could help her out at the Sunday TBF race.  I was happy I made that choice, and I was happy to be home.

I had put so much into the prep for this race, or so I had told myself, and I felt like a failure.  But in reality all my "prep" is just me riding and racing because I enjoy it... it's just what I do.  And I put too much emphasis on this race and too much pressure on myself which took the fun out of it and made it way too complicated and stressful.  So I think I've learned my mental lesson... and to pay more attention to bike fit!

Not every race (or ride!) is going to go as planned, and I'm allowed to have a bad race.  Time to move on...

6/2-3 - Doubleheader Race Weekend Part 2 - Sierra Cup Series #4 - Peavine Challenge

Well the epic racing weekend was off to a good start with a win at SoNoMas on Saturday (check out part 1 here if you missed it) and I was feeling fairly decent Saturday night.  But after the drive up to Reno the next morning, my lower back was pretty darn tight.  All the driving probably didn't help with that.  The legs definitely weren't "fresh" but didn't seem to be too flat.  I did notice it was much harder to get my heart rate up when I was trying to warm up, which was to be expected.  I would be running the same set-up as the day before: Highball with Nano TCS tires.  The sealant did a good job on the front tire so thankfully I didn't need to change it out.  With the trip up to altitude however, my rear brake was a little off causing the bike to sing to me like a bad American Idol audition... and not a funny one either!  After some fiddling I was able to get the caliper to a spot where it wasn't really causing resistance but would let out an occasional squeal.  Good enough.

The Peavine course consists of one big mountain loop starting at about 5200ft elevation going up to a little over 6000ft in about 6 miles.  After my warm up I didn't feel like I had a ton of "pop" and wasn't sure if I could really hammer the climb on both laps.  I figured I'd be sitting in for at least lap 1.  

When the whistle blew I was off and in the lead right away.  Am I finally getting good at starts??? I doubt it, I just love how well the Highball sprints so it's fun.  I started up the first climb and wanted to set a strong pace to feel out my competition and keep anyone who didn't belong up front from getting in the way.  Pretty soon it was just three of us off the front.  I led up over the first crest and bam... a face full of headwind!  Those two guys found their "happy place" tucked right in my massive slipstream (sure... sit in behind the tall guy!) so I backed off the pace just a bit until the crest.  But I felt stupid for not letting someone else lead when I should probably be conserving.  Especially when #2 passed me after the short drop to the fire road climb and said "Good job" like he wasn't even working hard.  All I knew was that right then he was pulling away and my legs were burning!  Then the other guy passed me but I was able to stay on his wheel for a bit but it still hurt.  So I backed off and decided to just keep them in sight for now.  But their pace was soon dialed back when the climbing got steep and my diesel motor was still chuggin' along at a low rate, barely getting to 160bpm.  I stayed on the wheel of 2nd place and we were about 20-30 seconds back from the leader, but near the top of the climb I passed for 2nd figuring I would descend faster.  I dropped into the "bobsled" section which is a fun half-pipe shaped canyon the course rips down in a slalom.  But I didn't have the energy to charge it and soon I was being asked to pull over, which I did.  Then I wanted to see if he'd hit the same stupid sharp rock I've hit the last two years to give me flats... he missed it.  But he's a local so he probably knew it was there too.  I missed it as well and continued down the hill at a smooth pace, just conserving energy and not getting worried about my position.  I could still see them both in the open sections and could make up time on the few short climbs that interrupt the super fast and flowy descent.  The legs felt like they were coming back... nice!

At the bottom I was only about 20 seconds back, and we started climbing again.  A friend watching yelled "Alright Clint they're right there... time to RACE!"  Exactly... and it was on!  But there was still about 35 minutes of climbing to go, so I was planning on just catching up at a smooth and steady closing rate and making the pass closer to the top.  We went over that first crest again but I didn't get close enough to get into their draft.  Oh well, still a lot of course left.  Up the fire road we went and I caught 2nd place pretty quickly as he was fading back.  I set my sights on the leader, about 10 seconds ahead who was making his way up the first of the steeper sections, which is about 1/3 of the way up the total climb.  I was closing fast and had a decision to make... do I pass now or sit and wait to pass closer to the top like I had planned?  I wasn't sure what the best move was, but what I did know was that I was feeling good right then and he looked like he was suffering.  So feeling like I had a good chance to make the pass stick, I poured it on, passed in the weeds and did my best to pull a good gap and break his spirits so he wouldn't try to hang on.  I figured if he caught back up, I'd still have a chance to pull a gap again at the top.  But he never caught back up and my gap was growing... nice!  Now I just needed to protect my equipment, be smooth and bring it home.  But near the top, still climbing, I shift down and CRUNCH!  A nasty sound comes from my gears so I stop pedaling immediately.  For whatever reason, the chain had gotten thrown over the rear cassette and wedged between the spokes!  Ahhh!!!  Stay calm... don't get mad.  I dismount, inspect... then yank!  It comes out with no damage, thankfully I had stopped pedaling quickly and it was only half way wrapped around.  Quickly I'm back to charging up the last bit of the climb with 2nd place in sight but still quite a ways back.  

Down the bobsled I go... remember that rock... missed it!  Nice.  Ok... deep breath... smooth is fast.  I was most definitely faster the 2nd time down but I was really having to be "twinkle toes" over the rocks because while I put more air pressure in the tires after learning from my mistake at SoNoMas, it still wasn't enough.  I had forgotten how fast I end up going here over the sharp rocks.  That made this time down more nerve racking than fun.  I heard a couple rim strikes but thankfully no loss of air.  And since I was rocking the pedals so much dancing around the rocks, my chain came off about three times.  Thankfully I've learned how to pull it back on by working the front derailleur so I didn't have to stop.  But it requires me to look down at it and when I do, of course that's when I rim strike a rock.  I was so nervous about flatting and I was really working to stay light on the bike.  I was literally yelling "STOP!!! NO!!" at every rim strike.  Yes... I was yelling at rocks, rather than slowing down.  Thankfully I made it through the worst of the rocks without incident but I was so mad at myself for running too low of pressure the second day in row... stupid.  

I turned down the last canyon traverse and fighting the blast of headwind and the rapidly increasing temparatures, I finished strong and came in for the win with a time of 1 hour 59 minutes for the 25 mile course with 4500ft of climbing.

Stoked to have finished under 2 hours which was a little goal I had in the back of my head, and even more stoked to have pulled off a second win on the weekend!

And the podium is always made sweeter with a bottle of wine... NICE!!!

6/2-3 - Doubleheader Race Weekend Part 1 - SoNoMas

What has turned out to be one of my favorite races each year, SoNoMas, was moved up in the calendar from its usual spot in August probably due to additional punishment racers (and staff) get from mid-summer heat that time of year. When I saw it on the schedule however I was really bummed because the race on the next day is part of the Sierra Cup Series which I'm committed to this year. Considering SoNoMas, the monster trek around Lake Sonoma, is one of the toughest races all year and more of a Marathon XC event I really didn't think it would be smart to try and do both races that weekend. But with strong races each of the 3 weeks prior, and not only riding 30 miles to work Wednesday morning but riding 22 miles out to the local Prairie City Race and then managing a win, Jen looked at me with surprise and said "You're not racing SoNoMas?!?!" I told her how insane it sounded with the XC race in Reno the next day, but rested up Thursday just in case with an easy recovery spin. On Friday's lunch ride I had some pep in the pedals, and Jen was still encouraging me, so I signed up for the 35 mile & 7k feet of climbing race the next morning. I blame her :-) Each year I have flatted at this race, and last year the luck was even worse. Battling for 3rd with 4 miles to go, my rear derailleur cable broke. I was trying to single speed as much as I could and made it maybe a 1/2 mile before the chain blew up. So I ran/coasted the last 3 or so miles to finish 9th. I was looking for redemption... and a little better luck.

This year I would be racing my Highball because I'd been racing the last few weeks on it and was really comfortable.  And last year, on the Tallboy, I remember thinking that it wasn't too rough overall and that I wished I had the hard tail for those steep climbs.  I arrived at 7am and quickly realized I forgot socks!  DOH!  Luckily my buddy Brian Butler was there with his race rig... an old panel van filled with... well... everything from the garage.  So I asked, and of course, I had a selection to choose from.  Nice.  I then moved on to the snails pace reg line and resolved myself to "it is what it is" and tried not to get worked up about the quickly approaching 8am start.  My fault... should have left earlier (than 4:30! ugh).  Fast forward... 7:52... time to start the warmup.  I "pinch test" my WTB Nano tires, a little soft but I've been running them like that lately so I figured I was ok, and I was feeling rushed even though trying not to.  Everyone's already lined up so I just spin a couple minutes and then join in.  I'll just have to use the 10 minute road-race start as my "warm up."  

This race usually contains some fast Cat 1 and/or Pro roadies, as well as some notable MTB strongmen.  This year was no different.  Once we started up the road climb, the pace was pushed and I just tried not to totally blow up since this was my "warm up." So I hung on to the back of the lead group and planned to get to the front, or close to it, on the last pitch before we hit the dirt.  So my warmup finally ended and I hit the dirt in maybe 6th or so, and began ripping down the first fun filled singletrack trail of switchbacks, loose rocks and root drops.  At least it was fun until I was held up by the first roadie with a handling vs. fitness imbalance.  After a couple steep sections of roller coaster I was finally able to make the pass and set my sights ahead.  I soon caught up to Jim Hewitt and passed him as well, but he's very experienced and good at pacing so I was concerned that I might be going too hard too early.  But I pressed on, feeling like I'd been held up too much and too much time was lost to the leaders.  Before long, at about mile 5, I caught up to Aren Timmel and Michael Hosey on a climb with a convenient place to pass so I went on by.  But as I passed, I asked Aren "Anyone else up ahead?" Figuring there were at least a couple, but to my surprise he said "Nope."  Still wanting rabbits to chase and knowing it's a long race to be leading this early I said "Just tell me there are..." and I kept the power down.  Michael jumped on my wheel and we stayed together for the next couple miles, pulling a decent gap.  As we made it to the short road transition, I discussed with Michael the potentially frustrating sight ahead of us.  That being the short course riders we had now caught.  This year was the first year they offered the short course, a 10 mile shorter route which started at the same time.  I caught up to a group of three just before the turn off the pavement, but was only able to pass two before the third made his way to the dirt pile that goes up and over the curb and guard rail.  I hollered "Riders back!  Go go go!" to try to, um, encourage him on what could be a challenging obstacle to clear for even a seasoned rider if you don't hit it right.  I swung out wide to give him room, he made it most of the way up before having to put a foot down, then I was right up on him.  Thankfully he had heard me and was moving off to the left, but my attention was more on him than what I was about to run into as I charged up... DING-DING! No, not a doorbell, that's my rims bottoming out on the square edged curb because I was slightly off line.  Can you see the concern in my face?

"Oh no..." I thought to myself.  I took a second before charging down the loose downhill and didn't hear any air rushing out, but my front seemed a little more squishy.  

Quickly back to the task at hand... negotiating slow traffic on a fast downhill with loose jagged rocks.  Michael chimed up "I don't like this..."  My sentiments exactly.  But we charged ahead.

As I took an alternate line around a rider on the brakes, my bike skipping over the rocks, DING! Another rim strike.  But this one was followed by the dredded PPSHSSHSHSHHHHH....  I could barely navigate the next off camber turn without the tire rolling off the rim so I had to pull off.  Dang.  I was really bummed, but trying not to be.  I flipped the bike over and gave it a shot of Co2 only to hear it running right out of a hole in the center of the tread from the sharp rock, as well as the bead.  I took the wheel off and was shaking the sealant around as passing riders offered their sentiments of "Bummer," "Sorry Bro," "Aww already?!" etc.  The tire seemed to seal up and I filled it to what seemed to be a good pressure.  Stop time (according to my Garmin) 1min 16 seconds and I was on my way again playing catch up.  I passed a handful of riders back fairly quickly, but the trail turned downhill with off camber turns and was putting too much force on the still fragile seal, so it lost pressure again.  I was off again, still swishing and pleading with the sealant to hold because I really didn't want to put a tube in. This stop was 1min 20 seconds and I put more air in and tried to give the sealant a little more time to do its job.  I rolled through the first aid station on a mission.  I knew fairly gradual fire road climb was coming up where I'd have an opportunity to pass a few people back if I could before the next singletrack.  I made those passes stick on about five riders before the switchback at the top to enter the narrow trail again.  Mark Weir saw me as he turned in and with a shout of encouragement let me by to keep up my pace.  I was held up a little by a couple guys before I'd have good passing opportunities but I just tried not to panic.  It was still only about mile 10 of a 35 mile race.  

At about mile 13 I was behind Will Curtis and Jesse Smith on a winding dirt road when I see a trail diving off to the left and a course marker hanging on a tree branch... as we go by it.  On the brakes, I holler at them "This way guys!!!"  And I drop in.  I spend the next few seconds, while navigating the downhill switchbacks, second guessing myself looking for tire tracks in the dirt.  It just felt right though.  But since my attention was distracted, I wander up the side of a rut putting extra force on that front tire and it burps air out again.  Ahhh!!!  The next bit of trail was climbing and traversing so I decided to keep going until I was forced to stop.  I made it a couple miles before Will and Jesse had caught back up to me and it was clear the tire was slowing me up so I'd better stop again.  A handfull of riders passed again during this 1 minute stop, but I put even more pressure in that front tire praying this would be the last time, and I gave the back tire an extra shot of air too just in case (my head was playing games and I thought the back tire was going down too).  Thankfully, this was my last stop.  I had 20 miles left and I steadily picked off everyone I had already passed... again.  I guess I got my wish of still having rabbits to chase!  

With the race being moved up the calendar the trail was a bit different than years past.  It wasn't quite as loose on the steep climbs, but the cattle hoof marks were a bit more present.  The weeds were also taller which obstructed the view of the trail in the turns and the creek crossings were deeper.  Different challenges to overcome on a trail that gives and takes elevation very quickly (steep).  I was still feeling good though as the miles ticked off.  I was fueling well with Hammer Gel and HEED, only having gone through about 1.5 bottles by the mile 21 Camelback aid station.  I ditched my half full (not half empty... see what I did there?) bottle in exchange for one of their cool podium bottles before plunging into one of the deepest creek crossings on the course.  I had just passed Aren back and could see Jim up ahead on the climb.  When I caught Jim he said Michael was about a minute and a half up so I kept pushing my pace.  At about mile 25 or so, I made my way down into another creek gulley to see Michael off the side of the trail in a ditch, his bike backwards and the rear wheel off.  It looked like he had crashed badly and I asked if he was ok.  With exasperation he told me he was good and to just keep going.  So I did.  Turns out his rear derailleur hanger had broken and it wasn't a crash.

So I was all alone off the front.  Well sort of.  I was still catching short course riders here and there.  These were the leaders of their race though and most of them, with early notice from me, would pull off and let me pass without much hold up.  I'd give a shout of thanks and encouragement as I passed and tried to keep the hammer down, worried that Jim (or someone else) was going to make a late race charge and catch me.  My Highball was working so well and I was very happy to be able to stand up and really power up out of the steep gulleys with such efficiency.  I passed that 31 mile point where I had to start running last year and was battling with my urge to keep going as hard as I can with the need to make sure I take care of my equipment.  Smooth is fast... and it was fast enough to hold on for the win by 6 minutes after 3 hours and 3 minutes.  The record time, set by Levi Leipheimer, is 2 hours 57 minutes... so not bad considering my stops and slowed pace with the tire issues.

I returned the now soiled (to say the least) socks to Brian and went into recovery mode to get ready for the next days race.  Continuously eating, keeping the feet up, and getting one of the best sports massages I've had from Samagse Mobile Massage who was on site.  Awesome!  Oh and I'd say that a podium celebration is good recovery as well!

Next up... part 2... Sierra Cup #4 - Peavine Challenge in Reno.