Sea Otter Classic Wrap Up

Before we had our son Logan, Jen made a little list of things she'd like to do soon after he was born.  It starts off small and simple, with things like "go for a walk" with no real criteria so that if a long recovery was needed after delivery it could still be something easily checked off so she could feel like she was accomplishing something.  The list also had "go to Sea Otter" on it.  Before he was born, we were trying to keep expectations low but we were really hoping we'd be able to integrate him into our racing and events life early, but Sea Otter still seemed daunting.  Thankfully Jen and Logan recovered well and even though he was only a little over three weeks old by the time the 'Otter rolled around, it would be his fourth MTB race.  So he was ready... was I?  Training for me has been a little "off" with the new addition to the team so I'd be relying more on my base and the two Prairie City Race Series "tune up" races leading up to SOC.  I won both of the PCRS races which felt good but a 5th at the Napa Valley Dirt Classic the week before didn't leave me feeling so great about my fitness.

When we rolled down to Monterey Thursday night, we met up with Marshall who had brought down the rush order kits that Capo got to us in time for the weekend.  After seeing them and trying them on, I wasn't sure how well they were going to go over, but we were sure going to stand out!

Short track was Friday morning and I got a nice long warm up in.  The course was similar to last years but a little longer with a few more features.  The infield section had a tunnel and flyover and then went out onto the track with a few more turns in the sand.  It was actually kind of fun!  Except for that nasty gravel section of course.

I got a decent starting spot on the line, about four rows back and on the inside of the first turn which I thought would be good.  It was not.  I got pinched off there and was very quickly shuffled back.  Then in the next corner, last years big "choke point," I was on the outside and the same thing happened again.  The guys in the middle shot through first before I had room from the outside.  Essentially I was caught in an eddy.  Who knew you had to study up on fluid dynamics before racing short track!?  Anyways, my main goal was to stay out of trouble which I managed to do in the next few corners and I was able to pedal through the gravel pit, sweet (remember, we're into checking easy stuff off the list!).  The infield section had some sharp corners and big dirt mounds to go over and on each one there was a bottleneck as you can see in the aerial video (start at 3:45 for the men's start):

At least I'm easy to spot in the new colors!  I settled into the field after the first lap sorted out and began my moving up.  With the field so strung out I knew I wouldn't get far but I managed to pick off a few and had some fun in between the pain.

I finished 41st out of about 65 guys and set off for my XC course pre-ride.  When I got back to the expo, I found Marshall (he was SO hard to spot!) and found out he'd finished 10th in the Enduro! Sweet!!

The XC start got moved up from 1:30pm to 11am which was nice and meant we might not have as much wind to battle out on the ridge tops.  Sporting our "flo-yellow" I lined up with Ryan and nearly 100 other guys for the start of our 35 mile race.  We started out on the track as normal but I was surprised to find that we pulled off earlier than normal and went out to a road outside the track before finally climbing up to the dirt.  The pace was intense but my legs felt more fatigued than they should have been by that point.  So my strategy early on would be to maximize my passing opportunities on the downhills and techy sections while trying not to blow up on the climbs.  Then just hope my legs would come around later in the race.  I passed a load of guys on the first few big descents and managed to hold my position on the few climbs along the ridge.  We got to the bottom where we normally turn into fun singletrack but instead made a sharper turn down a short double track with a couple off camber rollers.  I had scouted this out in my prelap and my assumption was correct that everyone would be in the clearer high line but the lower line was the place to be and I motored by some more.  Until one guy forgot how to corner and drifted out into me, his inside leg sticking straight out for counter balance, and he almost pushed us both off the edge.  Thankfully I was able to brake and let him cross in front of me and recover before we made it down to the road.  Yes... road, quite a lot of it in the first part of this course.  I topped out my 39 tooth gear and found a drafting partner before it leveled out and we entered the first singletrack climb.  Here we had to stop, literally.  It's the inevitable pro conga line at Sea Otter that always happens and this year I just didn't have the stuff to get in front of it in time.  Oh well.  We moseyed up the climb at a fairly moderate pace but it still seemed tough for my legs.  "When are they going to come around?!" I thought.  When we got towards the top it opened up and I made my way around the few holding us up, but my legs still felt flat.  As Ryan passed me cresting the ridge I felt something in my helmet, then "AAHHHH!!! Something's stinging me!!!"  I didn't know what it was but I hoped it wasn't going to give me a reaction, which I'd had before during a hard ride that left me slightly incapacitated for a bit.  The stinging finally stopped and thankfully I didn't feel any shock coming on so I pressed on, remembering how my brother had joked about our new kits attracting insects.  Ryan had a little gap on me as we rode down the next road (yep) downhill and he was able to pedal away with his bigger 42 tooth gearing.  But a little drafting help came and I caught back up by the time we started climbing again.

I ate, I drank, but the legs were still not coming around and Ryan slowly began to pull away from me.  With our new colors so bright, I always knew where he was even though he was across a canyon.  I came through the start/finish a little over an hour and a significantly slower pace than I'd hoped for.

I was loosing my optimism that the legs would come around in the second lap as it seemed no matter what I did helped.  I just felt like I was running on 'E'.  My heart rate was dropping and so was my positioning.  By the half way point of the lap I was in "just finish" mode and pretty frustrated.  There didn't seem to be anything I could do.  I was even passed on the ridge road by a guy hauling some camera gear back.  Pretty demoralizing!  I got a little boost of energy in the last mile or so, like a horse sprinting back to the barn, and made a couple passes to end up finishing 66th.

Man was I happy to be done.  It'll be one of those races I'll just clear from my mind and move on.  I think I needed more calories the day before and/or before the race because I powered down lunch like it was nothing.  Oh well, at least we looked good!

Then it was back to work, heading out again on course to help out one of my local high school racers with her pre-ride and give her some tips before her first Sea Otter XC.

Riding with Sam and coaching her made me feel better, but nothing beat holding my little guy after a long day.

Tahoe Fat Tire Festival - Sierra Cup XC Series Finals and Coaching Clinics

Last weekend Squaw Valley opened up its slopes to host the reincarnation of the Tahoe Fat Tire Festival. This event has been dormant since 1999 (back when I was 260lbs... before I was even riding bikes) and I think was long overdue for the return. There was a big lineup of events... a five event MTB stage race starting with Short Track on Thursday, Hill Climb on Friday, XC Saturday morning and DH in the afternoon, then a Super D to wrap everything up on Sunday. I was in Las Vegas for Interbike all week so I wasn't able to make it up for the weekday events, but I was certainly on the line for the Saturday morning XC race. This final race in the Sierra Cup XC Series would cap off a long list of events that began way back in May, and I was leading the overall points.

So, kind of a side note here but I'm oddly excited about an idea I had to do something productive with all this time I spend driving to races. I'm learning Spanish! I figured it would be a good use of my time instead of scanning for radio stations in the middle of nowhere. So after a two hour drive up the hill to Squaw, entiendo y hablo un poco de espanol. :-) Yeah... I'll keep working on it... back to the bikes.

 As I headed out for my warm up and to check out the course a bit, I stopped to talk to race promoter Kevin Joell and get an idea of what lap times might be. The course would consist of one massive climb up the main service road covering over 1100ft vertical gain and topping out at over 7400ft before turning down some pretty rugged and loose singletrack. We were slated to do 4 laps, but Kevin decided to make a change so that our first lap climb was just about to the half way mark. I hadn't ridden nearly all week due to travel so I wasn't going to argue. I set out to warm up on the shortened first lap course to help me decide which bike I would want to race. After about 100yds in the granny going up the climb and seeing it get steeper even after the half way turn-off, I was certainly leaning towards the Highball.  Making my way down the second half of the downhill, my choice was confirmed as there weren't many places I would need to be pedaling over very rough terrain while seated.  As usual, the WTB Nano's would be the tire choice but this time mounted up to the WTB Stryker wheelset.

We lined up and joked a bit about this being one of the few races we wouldn't be starting in the big ring.  Finally the "3-2-1-GO!" was given and we were off in less than dramatic fashion.  "What... nobody's sprinting?!"

We got to the business of climbing right away and I put my head down and went to work leading the group and watching my heart rate.

A younger racer went by with some youthful spunk... we've got to do this four times bud, but I'll hang here off your wheel anyways.  We crested the rise just before the lap one cut-off and Michael Hosey went by, but we both ended up being stuck behind the leader on the downhill for a while until there was a clearing.  Michael and I stayed together on the downhill, though I hung back just a bit for the dust to clear.  For lap two I was planning to slowly close back up to him on the climb, ride together for a bit and then maybe attack on the upper part of the climb if it felt right.  But when I was almost caught back up, he pulled off to the side and was stretching his leg and looking like he was in a bit of pain.  "Cramp?" I asked.  "No."  Hmmm... I kept chuggin' along wondering what it was and expecting him to come back any time.  Turns out he had to DNF with a pinched nerve he's been dealing with.  No Bueno (see... Spanish!).  I looked over my shoulder and that same climber from before was coming on strong so I just kept a good pace and he caught me about half way up the hill.  I hadn't yet seen how steep the upper section was so I wasn't quite ready to put out a ton of effort.  He asked me to stick with him, "Nah I'm pacing it..." I just let him go but kept him in sight and I had already figured out I could close the gap on him quickly once we turned downhill.  By the time we reached the top he had about 50yds on me, but it only took about an 1/8th mile of rocky, loose singletrack before I caught him and he let me by on a steep section that he was walking.  The upper part of the downhill was pretty awesome with some nice banked turns and plenty of rocks and little ledges.  Also tossed in the mix were a couple steep pitches you really had to make sure to set up correctly and then just let 'er roll.  The Highball was rockin' it and I was having a blast!

This trip down the lower portion of the downhill I got to really rip since I didn't have any traffic except for a few junior riders who were very courteous in letting me pass.  So as I started up the climb on lap three I think I already had a big gap to 2nd.  I got dusted out by a few resort service trucks on the climb but it was otherwise uneventful and I kept a strong pace and made sure to keep sipping the Hammer fuels that keep me going.  I was rewarded on the downhill as the trail had been buffed out by all the other racers so it was even faster and more fun.  I had a fast, clean run nearly all the way down to the bottom when I slid into a left hand switchback like previous laps and on the shady exit... PING! PING! Double rim strike!  DOH!!!  A rock had been moved into the trail by other racers that wasn't there before.  I wasn't looking for it and the shade hid it from my vision.  I didn't hear anything for a couple feet so I thought I had gotten lucky, but then it came... that cyclical "PSSHS, PSHSHH, PSSHSHHSH" of air rushing out of the tire as it rolls.  Dang.  I stop to figure out which tire it was, the front.  Thankfully it wasn't both!  I swished the tire around hoping the Stan's would seal it up, but I couldn't remember the last time I'd ridden this bike and there probably wasn't enough in there to do the job.  Heck I didn't even wash the bikes the night before!  I sprayed them off in the morning before I left and let them air dry on the back of the car on the drive up!  That's what I get for traveling or working all week and not having any time to do the little things.  Air wasn't running out too fast so I decided I'd rather try and make it down to the bottom and fix it there instead of on the rocky trail.

 You can see the flat front tire in this picture.  The last two off camber corners were a bit tricky...

I made it down to the start finish line and then set out to put on a "how to fix a flat" clinic.  It just took a couple minutes and a good shot of CO2 donated from a spectator and I was on my way again with 2nd place still not in sight.  But with a bit of a break for my legs, I pushed the lap four climb hard to try and get some lost time back.  I actually ended up having a bit of a battle with some guys going up the climb though... but they were in dually pickup trucks!  Two passed me about 1/3 of the way up but then they got to a narrow section and had to stop behind some racers.  When I got there, the second truck was stalled and couldn't get started so I had to skirt by between it and the cliff edge to the right.  When I got to the next corner the first truck was pulled off to the side and I passed by him again, but just to get dusted out by another truck coming down the hill.  A couple more switchbacks and here they came again, passing by on the left giving me a nice dose of diesel exhaust and dust.  But then they had to go slowly behind some other racers that I was catching as well, and I passed by the trucks for one final time on the left before finally reaching the top to start my final descent of the day.  I just kept it smooth and protected my equipment to ensure the win.

I came across the line in just over two hours but I somehow still managed to win by over five minutes.  With this win I also took the eight race series victory to become the USA Cycling Northern California and Nevada Regional Champion.  Woohoo!!!

But my day at Squaw wasn't done just yet.  I would have the privilege of conducting two MTB skills clinics later in the day and to be a part of the festival.

Clinic description from the Fat Tire Festival website.

About fifteen riders showed up for each my clinics where we broke down the different fundamentals of riding into drills.  I bet they didn't think they'd be doing MTB skills drills in a parking lot, but I've found it's best to instruct, at least initially, in a non-threatening and controlled environment where they can focus on what they're feeling on the bike.  We also talked about bike set up, preferences, and how to attack certain trail features throughout the clinics.  And finally we capped it off with a little gem of trail I had found and I guided them down a downhill switchback, over a rollable bolder and through a sandy rock garden.  Everyone seemed to enjoy the class and I really enjoyed sharing the experience and knowledge that comes with riding a bike way too much.  It's always great to see someone (or 30 people!) progress in confidence and skill in just a couple hours time and how someone's face lights up when they get the "feeling" of proper technique.

Puttin' myself out there - Coaching

I've been thinking about this for over a year now and Jen has been really encouraging me also.  I've helped out with a number of skills clinics the last couple years and I have really enjoyed it and I've received great feedback from the "students" regarding my instruction.  I love sharing my passion for cycling and fitness with others who are motivated to improve and willing to get dirty so opening myself up to more people and opportunities to coach is the next step.

Seems like I've been asked quite a bit lately for training and racing advise and if I'd be interested in coaching.  Well I certainly am so here it goes.... finally taking the plunge!

Please check out my coaching page on the site here if you're interested or know someone who might be.