Race report: GSC #7, Helen GA, 22 July 2012

The last race of the 2012 Georgia State Championship mountain bike race series took place Sunday on the trails at Unicoi State Park outside Helen Ga.  In my opinion these trails are some of the best in Georgia—technical enough to challenge handling skills, long/steep enough climbs to challenge fitness, and full of fast and swooping descents to make for a whole lot of fun!  It is a really pretty venue, nestled in the mountains, with a cool, clear creek running through it (great for post race soaking).  I altered my plan to drive up Saturday afternoon and pre-ride the course on account of thunderstorms.  Instead, I left home early Sunday morning to make the drive.  Leaving home at 4:45 am made for a stress free drive (no traffic), and I got to the trail with plenty of time to get ready and pre-ride a lap.  Though there were some muddy patches, the trail was in pretty good shape.  I was once again disappointed by the low turn-out in my age category—nine guys.  One guy that was in attendance was Brian Schworm, who had bested me in the four previous races we’ve met.

I slipped a pedal at the start and so wasn’t in the greatest position as we headed across the narrow bridge over the stream.  But, I quickly passed everybody but Brian on the first climb.  Brian was out of sight within five minutes despite my best efforts.  His riding reminds me of Bradley Wiggins (who just won the Tour de France)—very high cadence, stays seated almost all of the time…just motors up the climbs.  Of course you never know who will have a mechanical issue, or physically blow up, or (hopefully not) crash, so I kept the pressure on.  Plus, I didn’t want to be complacent and fall out of second place.  I was pleasantly surprised to pass many younger expert riders (who started either two or four minutes ahead), even on the first of three laps.  By lap three I felt very comfortable with the trail…most of the muddy spots were drying and I had found the best “lines” through the rough stuff.  My buddy Neil was monitoring a stream crossing that was mandatory to dismount and walk across, and as I went by he told me I was only two minutes behind Eric Murphy, the lead of the 30-39 expert group.  Eric has returned to mountain biking this year after a break where he excelled on the road race scene.  I’ve raced against him on the road a few times…he’s really good.  How good?  Well, he won the Ga State Criterium Championship for Cat 1 (the top amateur class) this year.  So, my goal was to catch Eric who started two minutes ahead.  I really turned it on, and passed a few more racers, but never got Eric.  But, my final time was .01 minutes faster than him, so I was pleased anyway.  It was a great race, and Brian Schworm finished 8 minutes ahead of me, also passing every racer except pro Ryan Woodall.  Even so, Brian had a faster time than Ryan by almost two minutes!  Wow—not bad for a 40+ year old racer!  I was over ten minutes ahead of Perry Thomas in third, so there was an almost 20 minute gap between 1^st and 3^rd places on a less than two hour race.  This was the first time in five years of racing in the GSC  series that I clinched the first place overall series title…hopefully I can keep improving for a few more years! 

Race report: Chewacla Challenge, Auburn AL, 14-15 July 2012

I’ve only raced a couple of mtb XC events not promoted by Gone Riding the last several years (but I have done a fair bit of endurance races).  So, when I saw that a new club was promoting a new trail system with a race, and it included a couple of meals, a nice t-shirt and a concert….I decided to give it a try!  Chewacla is a AL state park just off I-85 outside Auburn, AL.  It’s on the grounds of an old CCC camp and has a nice lake, stream and waterfalls.  I didn’t really visit the park much, concentrating on the race and festivities, but it looked like a great place to unwind for a weekend.  The drive to Auburn is quite relaxing—country highways with sparse traffic for the most part (only 10 miles of interstate).  I arrived on Saturday about 4:15 pm for a 5 pm short track race…just enough time to get changed, register and do a couple of warmup laps on the 1-mile flat and very twisty course.  The race was to be 30 minutes plus 2 laps…most laps/first finisher wins.  With a fairly small turnout (maybe 25 men) we were started in two heats males/females older than 19 years, and kids under 19 years old.  As expected, the race was a sprint from the start and really never let up.  I was initially about five riders back but was up into third by two laps.  The field pretty much exploded with such varying abilities, and four of us settled into competition at the front.  That reduced to three by about 20 minutes.  I took the lead at about 22 minutes and was surprised to hear the announcer call “two to go”.  He didn’t ring a bell (as is customary) with one to go, but when I was passed on the finishing straight (the only straight) I knew I would need to pass and attack hard to win.  Luck had it that the guy clipped a pedal and dropped his chain, allowing me to get a small gap which I held to the finish for the win…which ended up being at just less than 30 minutes. 

Central Alabama Mountain Pedalers (CAMP) organized a nice pasta feast with two bands and mtb movies under a large pavilion on top of a bluff in the park.  Being that I wanted to preride the XC course the next morning before the race, and that I wanted to race well rested, I turned in early, camping out near the race staging area at the CCC camp.  Sunrise comes early in AL, and I was on the trail on my pre-ride at 7 am.  I had been told that the trails were very twisty and narrow, and a look at the map backed that up too.  It wasn’t too difficult to ride at a casual pace, for the most part, but I could see how I would need to be concentrating 100% when racing.  There were almost no wide or straight sections save a mile or so of doubletrack jeep road.  I figured that the jeep road would be where I would need to go all-out to build a time gap.  I recognized a few current and former competitors at the start of the XC race, though there were only six of us in 40-49 expert category.  We started two minutes after the combined group of 19-29 and 30-39 yr experts, and the guys allowed me to lead the group into the singletrack.  My goal was to go as hard as I could in the very short sections between turns.  This meant constant accelerate, brake hard, turn, and repeat.  The turns were often 180 degrees and tight, so precise handling was paramount.  I continued to lead the group which dwindled to two guys that stayed very close.  Both of them are formidable bike handlers and one used to be a top notch competitor.  They were still with me when we reached to jeep road that led up a gentle hill to the start/finish, where I applied my pre-determined tactic and got about a ten second gap.  I knew that if I could continue to eke out a few more seconds as we went that I could then get an even bigger gap the next time on the road—I wasn’t very aerobically challenged since I could rarely sustain much effort given the constant turns.  I started to pass the younger experts, so I knew my pace was good.  By the start of the third lap I had passed all of the younger experts and I focused on maintaining a fast but safe pace to the finish.  I managed to keep the pressure on enough to build about a nine minute lead and didn’t crash, taking the overall and age-group win.  CAMP put on a great event…I think I will participate in more Al mtb races in the future.

Race report: GSC #6, Macon GA, 7-8 July 2012

It was great to have a race at my local trail—Arrowhead Park—for the first time since 2008.  The infamous 2009 Mother’s Day tornados destroyed the trails, and despite a lot of work by volunteers not much progress was made until 2011 when a commercial crew was hired to build several miles of new trail.  From there, the Ocmulgee Mountain Bike Assn (OMBA) did a bunch of our own trail building and finishing work.  A recent couple of very sunny/hot weeks in conjunction with a big uptick in riding made for some sandy spots but all in all the hard work paid off, and the trails were ready to go for the race! 

Saturday was a short track race for additional series points.  I really didn’t need the points, but it never hurts to have a pad when in competition for the series championship.  In any case with the course only 1.5 miles from home I felt somewhat obligated to race.  It was probably 95 degrees at the 5 pm start time, and with a 15 minute plus one lap format there would be no easing up to rest/cool off.  The course was simple:  up a paved road for about ½ mile, then down a snaking singletrack we call “Super D” and a short connector through a weedy, short section for a total of just under one mile.  All of the sport and expert classes were started together, with no age differentiation.  Even so, there were probably only 20 or so folks on the start line.  My strategy was to basically go “full gas” the whole race-- hard as I could up the climb, and not crash on the descent….  I made it up the climb and into the singletrack in third position, behind pro Ryan Woodall and his brother Regan.  I was surprised to see my racing Buddy/competitor, John Hightower, close behind on the third lap and that probably played a part in me pushing just a little bit too hard on the descent.  As I accelerated out of a turn, the front wheel washed out and I slammed into the dirt.  It hurt, but I jumped right up and got going.  John passed me on the next climb—I was still reeling from the crash.  Instead of trying to catch going downhill (he’s fearless), I stayed close enough to reel him in on the next climb, follow him on the descent again, and then on the final (whistle) lap I gave it everything I had and passed him close to the top.  I was lucky to lap Mark Poore and enter the singletrack with John behind Mark.  I was pleased to hold John off and take 1^st in 40+ expert (third overall).  It was fun to have Jodi and Lizzi cheering me on at the top of the hill and the finish.

Sunday, I rode to the race again.  It was pretty cool to sleep as late as I wanted and then have a leisurely ride to the venue as my warmup.  Temps were already above 80 degrees at the 9:30 am start, and humid too.  I guess the heat scared a lot of competitors off, because turnout was slim.  At least my class had nine, which was about as many as the other three expert classes combined!  The course was about six miles per lap, plus a short initial lap to add a couple miles.  I decided to get to the front on the initial paved climb (part of the short lap) so I could ride the entire trail at my pace—local knowledge.  This worked well, except that my main rival of the day, Tim Zimmerman, was right on my wheel so I was giving him that advantage too in a way.  I went as hard as I could and after about 20 minutes we’d left the rest of the guys behind.  Tim passed me as I grabbed some water and then slowly pulled away.  It was really great to have Jodi and Lizzi in attendance again, handing me water bottles, giving me time splits and cheering me on.  After two laps Tim had built a lead of over a minute, but I refused to give up, and brought it to just under a minute by the last (forth) full lap.  OMBA was out in force, not only with a neutral water stop, but also a mister to help cool the racers down, and also scattered throughout the trail to help keep the racers safe and cheer them on.  I made a big effort on the last lap to catch Tim, and approaching the last mile I was told that he was only 15 seconds ahead!  I gave everything I had, but ended up coming up to the finish just as Tim rolled through…maybe eight seconds behind.  I was happy with my ability to make my last lap my fastest (and not crash!) and finish the race only five minutes slower than Ryan Woodall, the pro.  Mountain bike races at Arrowhead are back!