Chainbuster 6 hr mtb race Lawrenceville GA

On 27 Aug I competed in the 4th race in the Chainbuster endurance series. I raced the expert 6 hr solo category. These races get a pretty large turnout, with many folks racing on teams (2-3 riders mixed and same gender). There is also a 9 hr category...and all racers start together! As a consequence the first 15 minutes or so is always a sprint to avoid the clog of riders when the trail turns to singletrack. It does string things out, but seems crazy when you are maxed out in the very beginning of such a long race. I started well and felt great for the first two hours--chasing and being chased by a couple of friends who race against me in the GSC series but were racing different categories at this race. I also was only a couple minutes behind the guy leading my category. Looking at my heartrate monitor for the first time (oops!), I realized that even feeling good, I needed to throttle back or I'd never make it--it had been awhile since I'd done a 6 hr race, and my mindset (and ego) were still in 2-4 hr race duration mode. A combination of it becoming very hot, and getting behind on hydration caused me to start really suffering and thus having to slow even more. Next, my rear tire got very squishy. I made it back to the pits on 10 psi, couldn't find a leak (I run tubeless w/sealant), so pumped it up and went--that worked for about 1.5 laps and then got even worse. After stopping to inflate the tire on the trail, I started to think about putting tube in, but finally the leak really manifested itself as sealant began to spew out. By stopping and facing the leak downward, I got it sealed and rolled on. About 4.5 hours into the race I began to feel a little more energetic, and picked up the pace and finished pretty strong although my arms were very sore (bumpy trail) by then. I finished a pretty far behind first place managing to hold second place with 7 laps (about 61 miles), and well ahead of 3rd place who completed 6 laps.

Fool's Gold 50 and Grant Park Criterium

Fool's Gold is a 50/100 mile mountain bike held in the mountains of N. GA. Aug 20th 2011 was my 3rd consecutive year racing the 50 miler. This year the start/finish venue was moved to the Montaluce Winery NW of Dahlonega. Actually, it wasn't on the winery grounds, but close by in an unfinished subdivision (roads, lot clearings, but no houses) courtesy of the housing bubble bust. This was a much better, more open venue, and it had a pool! Seems that the developer put in a pool for all the (non-existent) homeowners to use....it was very nice for a long post race dip!

The race started at 7:50 (100ers went at about 7:10) with a neutral rollout on paved road through the rolling hills. With something like 250 starters, I made it a point to stay in the top 20 so that when the race was on, and we turned uphill, I wouldn't have to fight my way forward. This worked well, and within the first ten minutes there was a group of about ten of us at the front. Dan Holt, pro roadie on Team Type 1, eased off the front and then things really split up. Tim Smith went solo, and then Eric Smith and me. After about five minutes Eric and I settled in about 30 seconds behind Tim, and Dan went out of sight. We must have established a big gap behind us because I couldn't see anybody even on long straightaways. This fit nicely in my strategy, because this climb was over ten miles of the race and a great place to establish a lead. The descent on Winding Stair road was very rutted and required equal amounts of courage and skill to go fast without crashing. The turn onto singletrack trail was so welcome, especially since the trail was in great shape after much hard work by volunteers. I continued to ride well, moving up into 2nd place on the trail by about the halfway point. But....in mountain bike racing many things can go wrong. On a fast descent I made the error of not shifting into an easier gear as the trail turned and went back up over some big rocks. I then tried to shift down and pedal and things jammed up in my gears. Rather than fight it there, I shouldered my bike and ran 150 feet to the top of the rise and got on and pedaled. We have an expression in bike racing of "no chain"--that means you're so strong it feels effortless. In my case it meant NO CHAIN! It was gone...so I ran back downhill where I found a kid holding up...my chain. His dad helped me to secure a chain link and reassemble it. What luck having them there! It did cost me about 7-8 minutes and several of my competitors cruised by. From then on my race was "full throttle"--I was determined to make up my lost placings or blow up trying. I started passing riders almost immediately, one (Jason Betz) who took my challenge to heart and stayed pretty close behind. This in combination with some great trail bolstered my determination. One goal I had set before the race was to "catch" Mike Brown and Asa Marshall, who started about 40 minutes earlier but were racing the 100. When I caught and passed them (in good spirits and good shape) I really gave it everything, and finally dropped my pursuer. I wasn't sure how many more 50 milers I had in front of me, but when I passed Maria Brown and Debbie Blankenship at the junction 3.5 miles from the finish (there to cheer the husbands and hometown boys on) they said there was only two racers in front of me. I got into road race time trial mode and lo-and-behold I got sight of Tim Smith. I did my best to sneak up on him, and gunned it up the hill as I went by. He appeared to not be able to respond, and as I turned onto a grassy road on the winery property I felt good about keeping him at bay...which was good as I was pretty much spent. At the bottom of one last grunt climb he reappeared a few hundred feet back so I had to sprint up the final climb, and cruised to the finish about 20 seconds ahead of him. Dan Holt finished about 11 minutes ahead of me, so even if I hadn't broken my chain he'd have won. Now if I had a 29er bike.....Results

I brought my road bike on the chance that Sunday I might race the Grant Park criterium in downtown Atlanta. It was almost right on the way home and the Masters race (35+ and 45+ combined) started at 2:15--plenty of time to sleep in and have a relaxing morning and a big breakfast with my Fools Gold companions. So, I rode a few laps in my gym shorts before paying my entry to see how my legs felt...good enough to try! It was a pretty big field (~50 racers) with some very strong crit racers, so my hopes weren't very high. My plan was to stay toward the front and try to go with any moves...until I blew up and got dropped. As things went, I did get into and stay with an 11 rider break, and had enough sprint left to take 7th and 3rd in the 45+ class. Results

Oak Ridge Velo Omnium

Four Neuro teammates raced the Oak Ridge Velo omnium on 6-7 August: Ron Hill in Masters 50+ and Jake Andrews, John Stowe and me in the Cat 1/2. I'll report on the 1/2 race since that is the race I was in. The race took place in Oak Ridge Tn, which is famous (or infamous depending on your view) for pioneering research in the development of nuclear weapons and nuclear energy. The town has an interesting feel, with a mix of high tech facilities and dated 1950s military/government type of houses and neighborhoods.

Saturday's events started at 8 am with a neutral rollout from a pretty lakeside park; it was race on a few miles later as we started up a one mile climb. As usual, there was a flurry of attacks, and a 3-man breakaway formed within the first few miles. Jake attempted to bridge solo, but was swallowed by the surging peloton in a few minutes. With the two biggest teams represented in the break, every attack from the field was quickly chased down. The pattern of surging and recovering was repeated for four laps, with some riders getting dropped on each lap. We responded to most attacks but minimized attacking ourselves with the strategy of not burning too many matches so we would have a strong finish on the last climb. The break shrank to two riders but still had a two minute lead with five miles to go when a lone rider attacked and got about a 30 second gap on the peloton. The Hincapie Green team went to the front with some help from Friend of the Smokies (the two teams in the break) and drilled it, causing the peloton to stretch out and begin to break up. As we absorbed the lone rider mid climb the peloton splintered and a group of about five surged off the front. John and two other riders chased on the descent and were joined by me and another rider as they began the final climbing stretch to the finish. Just ahead of us 30 seconds was the lead group. Even though I was already maxed out, I took a long pull at the front to try lead John out and maybe get him to within striking distance of the lead group ahead. As it turned out the lead group caught the two breakaway riders within a kilometer of the finish--thanks in part to the (misguided) efforts of their own teammates a few miles earlier. John sprinted early and finished ahead of the group he and I were in, but just barely missed catching the lead group. John finished 8th and second cat 2. I was 12th and Jake was a little further back.

It was then time to recover for a few hours before the afternoon time trial. Things weren't looking good an hour prior to start with a huge thunderstorm downpour, but luckily it quit by race time. Jake was the very first to go at 5 pm followed in two minutes by me and a couple minutes after that by John. We all were still felling the effects of 80 miles of racing earlier in the day, and so despite a pretty flat and short course weren't too confident about our results...and the feeling was justified as we pretty much stunk, taking the worst two times and the forth worst time!

Saturday night we had a nice meal and took in the sights in Knoxville. Sunday morning we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast as our criterium race wasn't until 4 pm. We felt good about our chances on a fairly flat, fast course. The goal was to keep John on the cat 2 omnium podium and get Jake on the crit podium. Jake had some bad luck 30 minutes from the start when his rear shifter lever broke! The solution was to pick a gear and tension the derailleur in the position. The two big teams took turns attacking for the first 20 minutes, with two riders eventually getting a small gap on the stick attacking field. I was attempting to cover every attack and was beginning to wonder if I'd survive the race when John did a massive attack that was covered by the two big teams and one other strong rider. They quickly got a gap and things settled down in the peloton....thank goodness! Jake, after stopping once to try a different gear, called it quits...but not until he'd made one last effort to sprint for a cash prime! John did a great job conserving energy and finished 6th and first cat 2. I ended up leading out a chase by the remaining peloton to catch an escapee and had no energy for the field sprint.

Even though we didn't always play our cards perfectly, we worked well as a team, and John finished 7th in the omnium and 2nd for cat 2. Oak Ridge is long way to go to race, but I think it was well worth it.