Race report: SERC #6/GSC #3, Dauset Trails, 26-27 May 2012

This past weekend was the sixth of ten Southeastern Regional Championship (SERC) series races and third of six GA State Championship (GSC) series mountain bike races.  This is my seventh year racing in these series, though I have never raced enough of the races to contest the overall SERC series (8 of 10 races minimum).  I’ve won the GSC series as a Cat 2 (Sport) and placed second/third a few times as a Cat 1 (expert). This year I decided to compete in both the SERC and GSC series.  Looking at different mtb series throughout the country, I think we are pretty lucky in GA to have two great cross country mtb race series to do (as well as the Chainbuster endurance series)—Terri and David Berger of Gone Riding put them on and do a super job.  Dauset was the one race I won in the GSC series in 2011, so I hoped to repeat that in 2012.  There was a time trial (TT) of about 4.5 miles on Saturday, with GSC series points of 5,4,3,2, for first through fourth (and 1 point for anyone that raced it).  Since I am contesting the GSC series and Dauset is close to home, I raced it.  After pre-riding the roughly 4.5 mile course, I decided I’d go hard, but not crazy hard for the TT race—just not worth risking a big crash for a few series points (first place in the regular XC race is 30 points by comparison).  I ended up 2^nd place, just one second behind Rick Pyle—good for four points.

 I showed up Sunday with enough time to pre-ride a tougher part of the course (called Huff-and-Puff) a couple of times.  The TT on Saturday was on portions of the Sunday course (which measured about ten miles each lap).  While I wasn’t too worried about my ability on Huff-and-Puff I did need to “dab” a couple of times, and could see how if I was exhausted it could be a potential crash section.  Nineteen racers lined up in 40+ expert class for the three lap (plus a short “parade” lap) race.  The start was up a gravel road for a couple hundred yards and then into fast downhill singletrack.  Dauset is a good course for passing, but I still wanted to get into the singletrack near (or at!) the front—I’ve found in mtb racing that it is a very good idea to stay with the leaders early if you want to finish well.  I hit the singletrack in third position—I’m not the best sprinter, but not bad.  The guy at the front was a bit slow to be leading the pack, and after I gently suggested that, he graciously moved aside.  As my luck would have it, the guy in second place had a mis-shift and so I was pretty quickly in front.  I went as hard as I could up hill on singletrack to the start/finish for the parade lap.  It looked as though only two guys were close, and I had about 50 feet on them.  So, I continued to go hard and the gap seemed to stick—they would gain on the tight/technical stuff and I would gain on the straighter stuff.  I am continuing to improve my technical riding, but it remains one of my weaker points.  After finishing the first full lap, only one guy (John Martin) was in sight behind me, and he was a couple hundred feet back.  Twenty minutes later I could still catch glimpses of him, and we traded shouts to eachother for fun.  I was passing a fair amount of 19+ and 30+ experts (and even a couple pros), but had no issues passing them—much better situation than encountered in endurance racing.  My goal (besides winning the race!) was to keep my lap times as consistent as possible and pass as many younger riders as possible.  Hopefully this would keep me from getting complacent—and it seemed to work.  It was getting pretty hot (and very humid), so it was great to have the local mtb club (OMBA) hosting a water (drink) station, and my thanks go out to Tina and Ray for handing out cups of water (and my buddy Monte for getting the stuff).  With no energy/hydration problems and no crashes, I had a near perfect race and came across the finish in first place after 2 hrs 10 minutes, 2.5 minutes ahead of John Martin—still a long ways off from the pro winner at 1 hr 59 minutes, but I’ll take it! 

Race report: Skyway Epic—61 mile offroad race, 20 May 2012

I decided to race this one a few weeks ago for two reasons:  it utilized some new (to me) trails in AL, and it was long and probably hard enough to be a good endurance/marathon race without being truly “epic”.  As a new race, and without much apparent marketing, it only drew about 60 pre-registered entrants, and I didn’t recognize most of the names.  One name I did recognize was Brian Toone, a very accomplished Cat 1 roadie and climber extraordinaire.  He has a great blog, and from it, I found that he’d reconnoitered (and killed) the race course. I arrived late afternoon on Saturday to preride at least some of the 15 miles or so of singletrack and to enjoy meeting some new people at the pre-race cookout/campout.  The venue was a nice little fishing lake near the city of Sylacauga AL that abuts National Forest land that the mtb trails are on.  So, I picked up my registration stuff and then went for a ride.  The trail was very buff (smooth) and swoopy.  And not much climbing.  This is fun stuff to ride fast, but not so great for a race IMO because it doesn’t challenge the technical (or lung) skills enough.  Plus, you get going so fast at race pace (I was easily holding 15-16 mph just cruising) that one wrong move or wheel slide and you will hit the forest furniture (trees) hard! So, about 5 miles into my jaunt I heard a “pop…fizz”—there went my tire.  So much for smooth trail.  Well, smooth it was as far as roots and big rocks.  Smooth it wasn’t for Neolithic rock tool sharp “tire slicers” rocks embedded in the dirt.  It was such a big gash that I didn’t even try to put a tube in and ride on.  So, hike-a-bike back to the car…luckily I could cut a couple miles off.  I brought the necessary repair equipment (minus a compressor to inflate tubeless tire, but the lake caretaker had a mini compressor that did the trick).  So off I went a little later (but a little cooler out now) and rode the trails.  Meeting and hanging out with a bunch of the Cyclists of Greater Sylacauga (COGS) was fun.  I slept well right at race “headquarters” and with a 5:30-ish AL sunrise had plenty of time to eat and relax while watching the competition arrive.

The 10 am start was en-mass on a gravel road, around a 120 degree turn across a grass field and into the woods.  I lined up at the front (very easy to do, most folks opted to stage back a ways).  I figured I’d go for the “holeshot” so I could ride that fast trail unobstructed.  At least one other guy (Adam Gaubert) had the same idea and was a bit faster, so I ended up second into the woods.  Adam was plenty fast, so it worked well and we got out of sight of the rest of the racers.  The trail did reveal two cool surprises—a giant (15” diameter) turtle right in the center of the trail (I avoided him) and a 4’ snake….but not just an  snake.  It had a perfectly rat shaped lump (I could make out the head and body lumps) in its middle.  I tried to point this out to Adam, but as he later told me “I thought you were saying something about eating my lunch”.  We turned off the singletrack and onto the forest service road after about 5 miles still with nobody in sight.  We worked well together, trading pulls, for about 15 minutes before a figure appeared from behind.  My strategy was to go as fast as I could, despite the possibility of “overcooking” my legs, to get as much time on Brian Toone as possible.  There was a King of the Mountain (KOM) about 12 miles into the race with a $100 prize.  Well, once I recognized that the figure was Brian and made plan “B” to be to stay as close to him as possible up the 1200 foot climb.  He pulled away as the road got steeper a few miles from the KOM, and I was surprised to see Adam stay pretty close to him—I didn’t expect Adam to climb so strongly based on what he’d shown (fooled) me thus far.  I was giving it everything I had, so I resigned myself to ride hard, but smart, to the top and see if I could catch them along the undulating skyway (hence the race name) and down to the turn-around at about mile 25.  I hit the turnaround about 2 minutes after passing them (separated by a couple hundred yards with Adam leading).  So I did a quick bottle fill and two slurped gel packs and I was off.  I took quite a bit of encouragement from the young girl that said “wow that was fast!” as I was leaving. It was good to see that the next two riders coming down were about 7 minutes behind me—a comfortable margin, even with a flat (more on that later!).  I felt really good on the climb back up to the skyway (really just a rough jeep trail, but very nice views), and expected to see my adversaries at some point soon.  I really was taking risks on the loose, rough downhills, but no flats or crashes.  Still, no sight of Adam or Brian, and the aid station estimates of time splits kept going up!  Finally it was back onto singletrack, and this time for about 10 miles.  Time to chase really hard!  I was moving very fast for 3+ hours into the race, trying to focus hard so that I wouldn’t crash hard.  Finally I saw a bit of dust in the air at a corner—somebody must be close ahead!  Sure enough, I came up on Brian and he immediately let me go by.  As is my custom in this circumstance, I drilled it!  I had full confidence in a 2^nd place finish and visions of 1^st place.  Then…..pop….fizz.  No!!!  Sure enough, flat.  I was so focused and so in denial, that I continued to roll on (much slower) until Brian came up and with a “sorry about that dude” went on by.  I stopped briefly and looked at the hole in the tread and, not thinking clearly, decide I needed to roll on with the flat…couldn’t fix it with a tube.  That, and I thought “just a little farther, I can still be in 3^rd”.  Well, 10 minutes turned into 15 and my legs started to protest.  Riding on a flat, especially on uphills is very hard!  I started to get very dejected as I realized that I might trash the rim as well (I didn’t) and still get caught (remember the 7 minutes at turnaround?)  I had really messed up to not try and fix the flat.  Finally after what I calculate as an extra 20 minutes or so I reached to finish.  Everybody, especially Brian, was amazed to see me ride in on a flat.  So, I ended up 3^rd—it would have been nice to possibly have taken first (Brian was only 3 minutes behind Adam at the finish, so had I not flatted it was a real possibility), but that is part of mountain bike racing.  I’d like to do this race again, but hope that they add several more miles of singletrack—if just to put Brian at a bit more disadvantage! 

Race reports: Dirty Spokes Fort Yargo 9 hr solo/ Tanasi (SERC #5)

Another doubleheader weekend (5/5-5/6/12) with two mountain bike races.  After last weekend’s successes the idea of racing 9 hrs Saturday and then a tough 2+ hr race on Sunday seemed daunting, but possible.  Strangely, I’d be racing the same two venues in opposite order, but in the case of Yargo a longer course in the opposite direction and Tanasi a much shorter course but three laps and no fire roads.  I set up my “pit” at Yargo with some friends.  Fifteen bottles of various drinks (mostly water), lots of sports nutrition, two sweet potatoes and a jelly sandwich.  The idea was to drink a bottle every lap (~50-55 minutes) and half a bottle at the pit where I would also consume most of my food.  Although it adds up to a significant amount of time in the pits (I figure about .5-1 minute every lap), I still have a hard time eating anything but a gel while riding.  My chief rival from the last 9 hr solo, Greg Gibson, was in attendance as were some other threats…but no Andy Johnston; he must have been saving his legs for Tanasi—wimp!  The start was fast—about 2 miles of pavement.  I entered the singletrack in 4^th position, right behind Greg.  I could tell Josh Fix (the guy who dominated the 6 hr solo races in 2011) was going for the fastest lap prize, so I was ok with watching Greg chase hard while I set a fast, but sustainable pace.  I figured I would try to stay reasonably close to his times and then hope he’d fade later….The racing was for the most part smooth—lots of passing, usually folks were very considerate, but one lady racer was anything but considerate, refusing to pull even a little to the side.  With three of us trying to reason with her, and getting nowhere, we finally all had to make risky passes.  She spewed profanity and suffered some bumping of her bike (and I guess ego).  Other than Greg, I really didn’t know where my competition was.  He and I rode together until the middle of lap 6 (about 4 hrs).  He was always quicker in the pits, but I’d catch him on a climb.  After trailing him awhile on lap 6, he pulled aside to let me go.  He’d been going a bit slow up the hills, so I decided to test him and sped up a fair amount.  It worked—he dropped off after about ten minutes.  I figured he’d be pretty close behind, and I asked my friends (who’d finished the six hr race) to check the standings after lap 7.  They said they had not seen him go by, but I figured they had missed him, so I kept a solid pace.  By the start of lap 9 I really wanted to know the standings—they said I was a lap ahead, but I couldn’t believe that!  I still kept my pace up, my immediate goal being to catch (lap) my buddy Trey Woodall who was leading the 50+ masters’ category.  About halfway through the 9^th lap, I passed Andy Applegate.  Now I was wondering if I would even need to do any more laps—my feet and hands were killing me from all of the pounding.  So, as I rolled through the finish line of lap 9, I personally asked to see the standings.  Turns out I had lapped everybody—Andy was my closest contender (Greg had stayed in his pit for two of my laps, thus I didn’t pass him on the course).  So at 7 hrs 37 minutes, and figuring Andy couldn’t do two laps in 1 hr 23 minutes (and he didn’t come through on lap 8 until 7 hrs 46 min, so really two laps in 1 hr 14 minutes), I stopped racing.  It was very nice to win a 9 hr race almost 1.5 hrs short of 9 hrs!  I had plenty of time to eat, shower, and clean up my pit before the award ceremony at 7:15 pm (race started at 10 am).  After the awards ceremony, I ate some more (of course) and set up camp right where I was parked.  It was a bit difficult to sleep with my body still settling down, but at least I didn’t have an overload of caffeine like the last 9 hr race.  Temps were perfect for a night under the brightest full moon of the year.

At 5:45 am I was up again, and time to decide on whether to drive 2 hrs to Ducktown TN to race again.  My stomach was a bit sour, my legs a little wobbly, but I felt up for it anyway!  I arrived at Tanasi with just enough time to set up, register and barely warm up my tired legs.  The race starts with a lot of climbing, so no easing into things!  I was a bit surprised to be second wheel behind my new nemesis, Brian Schworm.  Brian didn’t waste much time in riding away from me and Rick Pile who was right behind me.  I looked at my heart rate, and it explained why he was riding away—it was a good 10-15 beats per minute below where it needed to be.  Rick eventually went around me.  The route was familiar as a small part of the Big Frog 65 route from last weekend—lots of climbing, a fast, rough descent, a couple miles of pavement, then repeat two more times for 33 miles total.  My strength improved a little each lap, and I reeled in a bunch of riders from the classes that started ahead, but I could still tell that the 99 miles of racing on Saturday was affecting me a lot.  It turned out that Rick had missed a turn on the first lap, and didn’t return to that spot so he was disqualified—too bad, because he was racing well.  So, I ended up in second place—certainly better than I had expected.  That should be the last time I ask so much from my body—4 races, two of them long ones, in just over a week.  Results are here:   http://www.dirtyspokes.com/forms/results/12mtb_yargo_solo_9.htm and here:  http://www.goneriding.com/images/pdfs/SERC/results/12serc5y.pdf