GSC #1 Oconee Heritage Park

On 26-27 March I raced the first Georgia state Championship series race of 2011 at Heritage Park, Farmington GA (20 min south of Athens). The big question on everybody's mind going into the weekend wasn't whether it would be a wet race--that was a given, but whether the trails would turn into complete muck. Saturday was a 4 mile time trial, and conditions were pretty good for the first 30 or so riders. Lucky for me the expert class went first, so I was in that first group. The rain started to come down just before I started, so the roots and turns were getting plenty slick. Not 5 minutes after I finished the heavens opened up, and the trail started to turn into a stream. If that wasn't enough "fun", a deafening thunderclap struck, taking out electrical power, accompanied by dime sized hail. The time trial was on hold, and then eventually stopped for good as the storm continued to rage. It was a fun warm up for the next day's race.

Thunderstorms raged throughout the night, and Sunday morning started with continued heavy downpour. I've never seen a mountain bike race cancelled for weather, but was thinking that this one might be. I got to the park a half hour before race start and found things in full swing--no cancel. I had a terrible time deciding whether to ride my old hardtail bike with a flimsy fork or my newer dual suspension bike that I'm tired of destroying in muddy races--and which had not much brake pad life left. I decided on the old bike--a decision I regretted in the first 5 minutes of the race. The race started with the usual full throttle blitz into the woods, with every inch of ground some degree of muddy slickness. I was just not mentally prepared to start so fast, and neither was my bike as my chain popped off twice in short order and control at high speed over slick roots was tenuous at best. I found myself near the back of the group and the leaders were quickly gone. I really felt like quitting right there, but I didn't. After a while my old racing nemesis/buddy, Joey Stanley rolled by (he started about 2 minutes back in the singlespeed class) and I stayed on his wheel. This gave my a little morale boost, and when we caught John Hoover, another perennial adversary that gave me another boost. I started to get into a groove and eventually dropped my two companions and actually started to pick off other riders. I finished going as hard as I could knowing I was getting faster each lap. I didn't really have any idea of my finish placing and was pretty surprised that I finished 5th. Not a podium finish, but better than a "Did Not Finish"!

Chainbuster 6 hr mtb conyers ga

ChainBuster 6-hr solo mountain bike race, Conyers Intl Horse park, 19 March

Van Mixon and I made the trip to the site of the 1996 Olympic MTB race on Saturday. It was quite warm by the 10 am start, so I was glad to have 10 water bottles at my pit (I ended up using 9 of them). I had never ridden any of the trails at Conyers, so the first 8 mile lap was full of surprises. The course was eclectic with multiple muddy stream crossings followed by steep climbs, sticky mud, newly cut trail (off camber with lots of sticks), sandy sections, rooty sections and grassy hilsides....and about 1 mile of gravel road. That gravel road strung the peleton out right away and got my heat rate sky-high. I managed to make my way through the first lap without crashing, and then set a sustainable effort level while getting more proficient on the technical sections on each lap. Nutrition and hydration are critical in endurance races, and I managed them well, drinking over 1 bottle per 45 minute lap and eating an energy bar every lap. Midway through the race it was evident that many racers were not hydration and feeding enough as more and more were slowly walking hills, cramping, and even vomiting. The race is run such that you do as many laps as you can in 6 hrs. 1 second over 6 hrs and the lap doen't count. My lap times crept up to just over 45 minutes per lap, so there was no way I could complete an 8th lap at 5 hrs 24 minutes into the race--so my race was over at 7 laps! This is quite common at endurance races--in fact racers often quit even earlier because they don't have the physical or emotional ability to continue. I had some great competition and ended up in 3rd place for the 6 hr solo expert category.

North Georgia Adventure Race

North Georgia Adventure Race (NGAR) Summary March 12-13, 2011:  Lots and lots of gear required for adventure racing—kind of a pain, but I’m sure you develop a good system of organizing/packing with experience.  5 of us (3-man team and 2-man team) went in a big Chevy and a big trailer loaded with bikes, canoes, packs and other gear.  Tons of Friday afternoon traffic and a late start meant we got to the Global Retreat Center mountaintop inn on hwy 52 west of Ellijay at about 7:30 pm and very hungry.  Luckily they had a big buffet.  We were given our maps and a briefing at about 8:30 pm and then we plotted the checkpoints and reviewed the notes, warnings and cautions.  I would have liked to have had more time to plan, but we needed to get to sleep—10:30 before we turned in as it was.  Most teams did their planning before dinner.  My buddy Trey decided to wake my room up at 5:40, even though breakfast didn’t even start until 6:30 and the race started at 9 am!  Glad I slept well, if not long.  The race started with running up a steep road where we picked up and then portaged our canoe back downhill to Carter’s Lake.  We then paddled about 7.5 miles to a checkpoint by a dam and back 7.5 miles.  3 guys kayak paddling in a canoe makes for a wobbly ride.  We must have had a very inefficient canoe as many teams beat us even though I calculated our stroke rate at 33% faster.  No big deal as the fastest team was maybe 20 minutes ahead. Some teams skipped the paddling altogether as it only was one checkpoint (out of 25 total).  That just seemed to me to defeat the whole point of an ADVENTURE RACE.  We got our biking stuff on and rode a dirt road route about 15 miles (and 1500 ft up) to a backcountry resort at Mulberry Gap.  I had an individual task on foot to do (in my cycling shoes as our support crew had not yet showed up—blisters!).  Three checkpoints to find, all up steep ridges.  I found two, but couldn’t find the third…blisters starting to form and I hadn’t even done the major trekking part of the race.  Didn’t figure on getting every point in my first AR anyway!  We rolled out again, this time on some serious (and seriously fun) trail.  The weather was just absolutely perfect and the scenery was great.  One of the two-man teammates (we raced together with them since they are friends) was having serious cramping issues which slowed us down—eventually he threw in the towel and the two-man team rode back on a road to the resort.  We made good progress despite some steep terrain…it was a blast.  As it was getting dark (beautiful sunset from a high point known as potato patch) we made the (fateful) decision to ride a jeep trail to a hike-a-bike trail to another jeep trail to the dirt road to the resort.  We knew it probably wouldn’t save any time since the longer route was all just dirt roads, but this was an ADVENTURE RACE.  Well, the 1^st jeep trail was very rough but ok, the hike-a-bike was rough with multiple stream and log crossings but ok.  The 2^nd jeep trail was fine, lots of climbing and descending but ok.  Except it kept going and had offshoots and we kept coming on dead ends.  We started to meet other teams and commiserated on our apparent predicament—we were lost!.  After literally almost 3 hours of this I called a “time out” and came up with a new strategy—head due east until we came to a road or some form of civilization.  It was about 11 pm, and quite cold, and we were long out of food and water…and it would be through rough terrain in the dark (we had headlamps but not the best).  Good news is by my calculations it would only be about 1 mile.  We took lots of rests (pushing bikes through streams, over logs, up 45 degree pitches is tiring) but eventually came onto a rough path toward a light.  Then the barking dogs started.  My teammates insisted on a retreat until I convinced them that it could mean another hour of walking.  The dogs were big, and they were loose, but luckily kept their distance (and no shotgun blasts or N. GA hillbilly Deliverance type of encounters either).  We got on our bikes and skedaddled down the long driveway to the dirt road and were home w/in 15 minutes.  Food-then-sleep (in sleeping bags while sitting in lawn chairs).  A teammate (John) was supposed to do another solo task….well he woke us at about 5 am but kept going on about how cold it was.  We fell back asleep… and so did he!  At about 6 am we all awoke and decided we’d better eat and do our team trekking portion of the race.  We got started just before sunrise and it wasn’t very long before we were sweating.  Beautiful scenery again but now came the thorn filled bushwhacking.  Our solo-leg-skipping teammate made up for his earlier deficit by his superb navigation and by leading the pace jogging much of the time (I was the anchor as opposed to easily leading on the bike legs).  We only skipped one more point way out in the woods, but trekked probably 18 miles in 7.5 hours.  We arrived at the mountain top Retreat Center finish with about 1.5 hours to spare in the 30 hour limit and 5 points shy of 25 possible checkpoints.  The pizza was cold but welcome.  Didn’t even know what place we came in our category (3 man) or overall, but we still felt a great sense of accomplishment. What an ADVENTUROUS way to see North Georgia!

Jeff

Snake Creek

Stony at Stake Creek with Charlie and Van













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Albany Masters RR

Ron, Bill and I raced in the combined 45+/55+ Masters road race in Albany.  There were about 15 starters, including a few teams with 3 racers each.  We were still sitting around for about an hour after our scheduled start time because the race director apparently thought it would result in chaos if the p12 field and cat 3 and masters field were to be passing eachother on opposite sides of the road! The race literally started with a 4-man breakaway!  Team Sfatto and a Florida team sprinted away into the crossing headwind.  I managed to bridge but was dropped when they surged again—going from resting HR to max and holding it is tough…..I’m sure that was why they did it.  We (team Neuro) attempted to get the remaining racers organized to chase, but there was a little active blocking from the one remaining FL team racer and lots of apathy and dragging tongues in the rest of the peloton.  We continued to drive the chase aiming to at least rip the “dead wood” off, which we mostly succeeded in doing.  By the time we got onto the long downwind leg of the course it was the 3 of us Neuros and two McCafe’ racers.  The McCafe’ racers had done almost no work on the front (one of them literally none), so when we sat up the pace slowed considerably.  The next lap we rolled at about 21 mph average, knowing the break was gone for good.  After many unsuccessful attempts, we finally isolated and dropped the primary McCafe’ sandbagger on the short tailwind leg of the course—he claimed to be weak/tired/out of shape as though that would gain some sympathy!  He was tough to drop because he wasn’t all that weak or tired or out of shape.  Ron and Bill then proceeded to keep a good clip going, punching it on the short, shallow hills to try and work over the remaining McCafe’ rider (who was in the 45+ class).  I got to draft on the back, a welcome change from the first lap!  Unfortunately McCafe’ wasn’t showing any signs of weakness.  The plan was to have Ron do a hard surge up the first hill on the 2 mile finish stretch and then I would attack.  My attack didn’t shed our adversary, and Bill countered to keep him working.  I attacked again on the last rise, but McCafe’ was able to stick with me.  About 100 meters from the finish he jumped and easily sprinted away for 4^th place in 45+ (the 4-man break had a 55+).  Bill and I were a photo finish, and Ron rolled in right after us.  Training and competing in 6 hr mountain bike endurance races are not helping my legs with snap for breakaways and sprint finishes! Bill was 2^nd and Ron 3^rd in 55+, while I took 5^th in 45+.  It was frustrating to not make the break and not catch them (if only the McCafe’ guys had worked with us), but it was fun to work together as a team.  

Jeff

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Race Report: Greenville M45+ Win

In 2010 my Greenville Spring Training Series races consisted of my first P/1/2 race on Saturday and then the Masters 45+ race on Sunday.  Needless to say, my legs were pretty trashed come the Sunday race, though I had somewhat of a psychological boost from knowing I was very likely the youngest racer having turned 44 in November (racing age 45 starting Jan 1, 2010).  I was happy with my result, taking 5^th out of a field of more than 45 racers.

This year I opted to spend Saturday Kayaking, watching Lizzi play soccer and driving to Greenville with my parents—in other words no riding.  About 50 riders toed the line, albeit briefly as the chief referee no sooner had said “45+ to the line” when he said “go!”  This put us only a minute or so behind the 35+ who we had in sight almost immediately.  On lap 2 the moto ref neutralized the 35+ field by making them stop off the road—harsh, but effective.  What wasn’t so effective was his deconfliction of a 8-ish rider breakaway group of 35+ that caught us and then proceeded to intermingle allowing four 45+ riders to slip away unnoticed by most of us.  Eventually we convinced the moto ref to allow us to run down the four riders.  Once we caught them it was back to us being held back so that the 35+ break could escape us—complicated.  Amidst all this fun we were passing riders constantly from other racers who sometimes tried to join us. 

With two laps to go in a six lap race we were “groupo compacto” and the fireworks started in earnest.  A few of us started to string things out in a four man rotation at the front.  By one lap to go many riders were off the back, but there still was a peloton of 25-30.  After a particularly hard dig up the hill on the backside of the course, I sensed that the group was ready for a break…so I gave them one:  me breaking away.  I knew it was a crapshoot since I’d have a strong headwind and then crosswind before the finish stretch, but thankfully two guys joined me and we worked well together, putting time on the chasing group (and re-passing the 35+ break!).  As we turned on the crosswind portion one of my mates quit doing pulls and I could tell I was the strongest.  Not really wanting a sprint finish, I attacked and rode the last 1500 meters solo to victory. 

As I rolled out I noticed “Big George” Hincapie chatting with some folks and so I asked “Hey George, I just won the 45+ race, can I get a picture with you?!”  Of course, true to form, he graciously said “yes”.  I relish those photos more than the non-existent podium shot.

Illness report—101 fever.  Looks pretty unlikely I’ll do any racing this weekend.
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