Sandy Beach Cyclocross

Sunday, 9 Oct, I stepped back into the cyclocross race scene at Sandy Beach on Lake Tobesofkee. I raced several races a few years ago and enjoyed the scene and suffered from the short (45 minute) intense effort after mostly training and competing in 6 hour mtb races. This year was no different, except that I helped set the course up on Saturday and pre-rode it as well.

Ga Neuro team was well represented with Robert, Trey, and Gabe in the "C" race, Jake and me in the "B" race and me in the masters 45+ race (glutton for punishment). There were also some other Macon-ites including Charlie Putnal , and Keven Roberts and Auston Sholly representing Mercer U. Cyclocross (cx) is a great spectator sport and cheering/heckling is a big part of it. Some races locations are also known for plenty of libations...probably to better keep the spectators (and racers) there, especially in regions with cold and nasty Fall/Winters. Things started out with 45+ race in which I raced Van Mixon's 29-er mtb. A mtb definitely corners a bit better in loose/rough terrain than a cx bike, but loses out in the grass or climbs. The course didn't have much rough/climbing but it had plenty of grass. I slipped to mid-pack pretty quickly, but through the rest of the race picked off riders coming in 5th. I felt pretty good to have beat the other two mtb bikes. I was debating whether to race again, but after watching the "c" race with Gabe taking 2nd, and my buddy Joey Stanley offering his "rocket ship" cx bike for me to race, I went for it. I got a pretty good start, entering the first turn in the top 25%. I didn't want to go too hard and wipe out on Joey's bike, so I didn't take chances while the pack was still together. After about a lap a small group had gotten about 30 seconds on another group of four which included Jake and me. We kept a good pace and passed a couple of riders that fell out of the group ahead. After a couple more laps Jake put in a good effort and the two of us dropped our companions. We picked off a couple more riders and the every present cheering/heckling spectators kept us pressing on. As circumstances would have it, I led most of the last couple of laps (each lap was a bit under 8 minutes), but I hoped that we would catch a glimpse of riders still ahead and Jake could come off my rear wheel and attack them. It was not to be, so I figured I would be sprinting against Jake on the short pavement section to the finish line (good luck Jeff!). So imagine my surprised when 2/3 the way up the last steep switchback climb up to the pavement, I heard a terrible racket and saw Jake pull up along side me and then promptly deposit himself on the ground. Nothing to do but pedal to the finish as Jake picked up his bike and gave chase. I'm not the greatest bike sprinter, but I can outsprint Jake running with his bike! I was pleased to find out that I'd taken 3rd, my first cyclocross podium.

Jackrabbit Trail 6 hr mtb

On 24 Oct I raced the Chainbuster 6 hr solo at Jackrabbit Park near Hayesville, NC. This was my forth endurance race in a month. I did cut back on intensity in my weekday rides lately, but I still had a bit of latent muscle soreness. I've heard and read great things about the trails, the weather looked to be great, and I was looking forward to camping by a lake and then possibly riding some of the annual big 6-gap ride in N. GA the next day with some friends....a biking in the mountains filled weekend.

Two guys that I never beat in 6 hr races were in attendance, so I figured that I'd likely be gunning for 3rd at best....I certainly didn't recognize everybody. Joey Stanley, my longtime racing adversary/buddy graciously loaned me his 2011 Scott Scale Carbon 29er to race, but despite being my first ride on it, I had confidence in having a great race.

The race started at 10 am with the usual mass start. The first 1/2 mile was paved, so it quickly turned into a single file draft which continued for miles on swooping trails. I've often felt the similarity between riding a swoopy mtb trail or a sweeping-switchback-filled road descent and flying the F-16 fighter. The g-forces are obviously much higher in an F-16 and you can swoop going straight up, but the effect is similar. Even non former fighter pilots sense this. From David Muse's blog (he doesn't know me, but I doubt he'd mind) "Yep, flattish trail for a while. I was bound up in traffic but we were fighter-jetting through the woods at incredible speeds. I can't overstate how fun these trails are at race pace, following other fast riders. A hollywood-style fighter jet dogfight is the only worthy analogy. You're just flying, banking hard, climbing and diving and pushing the envelope to hold on to the rider ahead of you. If I ever get to where I can't do it any more, it's the kind of thing I'm going to remember fondly." I raced very well; ate and drank when I should, paced myself, rode efficiently. I knew Josh Fix was way out in front of me (and everybody) and David Sagat passed me on the second lap, but other than that I was passing a lot of riders and in some cases "towing" then on every lap--I guess they thought I was just the right pace because they didn't want to pass. I managed to pass one gal on a husband and wife team on three laps at almost the same spot. One guy I figured was a threat was in a Litespeed BMW kit on a cross (!!) bike. He was just leaving the pits every time I'd roll in. It was not a particularly technical course, but after I followed Shane Schriehart, who was also on a cross bike, bouncing all over the first lap and seeing him crash hard, I couldn't believe anybody could last 6 hrs on a cross bike. Sure enough Litespeed BMW either flatted or crashed (or both) and I passed him for good on my 6th lap. I came in on my 7th lap at 5:17 clock time that gave me 43 minutes to try another lap...or it wouldn't count...so being a realist, I was done. It turns out that James Wiant finished his 7th lap about one minute ahead of me!! This is a frustrating aspect of mtb racing. I always race hard, but over the course of 5 hrs I'm sure I let up/get distracted a little bit--one minute...I think I could have found the energy if I'd known! Forth place for me. Still, I really enjoyed the bike, the course, the scenery and the competitive fun.

12 hours of Dauset 17 Sep

This was the longest cycling only race I've done yet--I've done a 30 hr adventure race. I've raced the solo 6 hr dauset race three times before, so when Van Mixon asked me to race with him in the 12 hr as a two man team, I thought it would be fun to try something different. My concerns were how the go intense efforts followed by sitting around repeated over 12 hrs would affect me, and how well I would race at night. There was a big home town turnout with another two person team, a couple four person teams, and a couple of solo twelve hour racers. The weather was pretty much perfect for the 10 am start and all day/night. Our strategy was for me to lead off with two laps and then alternate two laps each for as long as we could. We felt that our fitness was good enough to go really hard for the ~1.5 hrs two laps would take and then have a good recovery, rather than getting only a little rest alternating every lap. This seemed to work well as we quickly built a lead, and were about 30 minutes up after ten laps at which point we went to alternating laps. It was pretty cool to go as hard as I could every time, knowing that if I did burn out after a lap that Van would be ready to go. I didn't eat quite enough though, because I didn't take into account the hours spent not on the bike. Luckily, the promoters (Gone Riding's Terri and David Berger) had a big pot of spaghetti cooking for the racers and I overcame my calorie deficit as Van was riding--just in time to avoid a serious bonk. My only crash of the day occurred when trailing local Mark Paugh as he jinked around a small tree and I didn't have time to avoid it--that's what I get for following so close! I ended up with 1 1/2 night laps, and it wasn't so bad. One way I could tell when I was coming up on another racer by the sparkles of dust in my helmet light beam. The light forces you to focus entirely on the trail, though the experience of having multiple laps already helped me avoid any more crashes. When it was over we'd done 15 laps total, one lap more than Macon-ites Tim Hargett and Mike Brown in second place. Burgers and beer and a campout followed the award ceremony for many of us.

Black Bear Rampage

On 11 Sep I competed in the Black Bear Rampage, held on the Tanasi trail system and starting at the Ocoee whitewater center near Copperhill Tn.

I hadn't planned on racing this one, but after taking Labor Day weekend off from racing and with fantastic weather forecast, and knowing some of my good racing friends were going, I signed up. This is one of my favorite trail systems to ride/race so win or lose I hoped to have fun on the 40 mile course. Arriving at the parking lot at 7:45 with my good friend Trey Woodall I had plenty of warmup and visiting time...maybe too much with 49 degree temps! We lined up to do a mass start with the pros, but for some reason they (all four of them) were sent off first, followed 2 minutes later by the singlespeeders, and 3 minutes later by we experts. The race started with about 3 miles of rolling-climbing pavement, and we caught the singlespeeders before even turning onto the singletrack. Four of us had split from the pack of about 20 experts by then. I set the pace for the about first 20 minutes of trail before letting two of the guys come around in some rougher descent. Perry Thomas was doing a great job leading over the rocky rough but fast Copper rd section when he suddenly crashed into the trees...ok, but shook up. Erik Carlson then got a little gap on me, but he took a wrong turn...too far to hear me yell and I don't know why the course marshals didn't stop him. That left Travis Fowler and me out front. Travis and I would ride with eachother the whole race, pretty much marking each other while keeping the pace high enough to hold any chasers at bay (at least we hoped). We passed one of the pros and the leading singlespeeder on our way. After completing the last big climb up Boyd gap to the last section of rolling singletrack Travis' support guy offered him a drink bottle, which he declined. I asked "can I have it?" and Travis said "sure"....I think that's really cool that Travis, knowing we'd be battling for 1st, would do that. That's a style that seems very common in mountain bike racing too. After a bear sighting--very appropriate given the race name--we were still nose-to-tail approaching the finish. The course was altered slightly, so we both had to guess where it would be, but coming on to a gravel doubletrack we both guessed it was near and went full sprint side by side. I had just enough punch left in my legs to beat him by about 3 feet for first place in 3hrs 8 minutes. It was my second win in as many races at BBR, so I guess I'll put it on the schedule for next year!

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.