Crosstown Cycling: January 2012

Sunday I joined a group of guys all crazy enough to want to go do the Skyway Trail near Cheaha Mtn. in Talladega Forest. It was a good mix of single speeders and geared guys with a total group of around 10. For just about everyone it was their first time riding the trail and only my second time so we all were in for a long day of not knowing what to expect.

The weather was less than beautiful, thick pea souped fog restricted our views to less than 100 feet at times, but never diminished anyone's reluctance to bomb down the downhill sections at speeds close to 30-35mph. Everyone had a great time and we only had one mechanical on the day and were back on the trail after 10 minutes.

The fog made everything wet and the previous days downpour left the trail soft and loose but we were able to find good lines riding mostly in the run off ruts from the water flow off the mountain. This trail was a lot of climbing and descending with little to no flat areas as we rode the ridge of the mountain most of the day. On our way back about an hour out it began raining, which we were all already soaked from the foggy mist and wet trail, it just added to the demoralization of why we were even out there to begin with, 5 hours on the bike in the cold and wet weather can take a toll on your mental aspect of the sport sometimes. Looking back though I'm pretty sure everyone is glad they did it now.

This trail is definitely a great way to spend a day if you want to get 50+ miles in the saddle with some good climbing that is close by. When the weather is nice, the views from some of the bluffs are amazing and really put all the climbing you do in perspective. Below is my garmin from the ride. I used 52 gear inches, or 32:16 x 26er, for the ride although a 17t would have allowed me to stay seated for most of the climbing and been a little more comfortable for a training ride.

Skyway Epic Trail Ride

Anyone wanting to find out more information about the upcoming race or any group rides there is a facebook group called Skyway Epic you can join or you can go to the website for the race here.

Well Brent went and done did it again. He managed to bring us back to Brookside for one more cross race and this time left everything on the table. ST3 sponsored the race so I had the luxury of helping set up the course on Saturday and much to my dismay today, I was not aware of what beast I was creating during setup yesterday. I did sadistically laugh to myself while setting up some of the muddy sections but I had no idea as to the carnage that would ensue from it.

The course was muddy, twisty, technical, and unmerciful for the most part with a brief smooth flowy section around the baseball fields that provided some relief from the misery, but in its calmness, let on to one of the only good places to attack for anyone trying to make up ground. Saying this course had tons of mud would be an understatement. Most of the muddy sections were not ridable, forcing most people to hike a bike through them, and were extended sections of course, not just 25ft of mud, like 100-150ft of mud at a time. In the end it was faster to run these sections and overall on the day I ended up picking my battles as to which ones I would ride and which ones I would run based off how I was feeling and if anyone was nipping at my wheel or not.

The start came at 12:30 and was decently warm, mid 50’s or so and sunny with little to no wind. I lined up in the second row of riders next to Michael and David and my goal was to be top 5 in the hole shot, or top of the hill turn, because I knew if I was not in the top 3-5 before we got to the first really muddy section then I stood a good chance of losing a lot of time with everyone dismounting and piling up there. So I took off hard and with only Hardwick and Matt ending up in front of me at the top of the hill with I think Alan and James on my wheel. Hardwick put a good 20m-30m on the field before we even got a minute into the race. Matt wasn’t riding slow but wasn’t pushing it either. At the bottom of the first down’n’up around the tree near the stream, Matt bombed way too fast and overshot the turn and I cut under him and took 2^ndattacking up the hill and onto the next section as hard as I could go. From there on I attacked hard, chasing Hardwick and not looking back to see who was behind or how far. I held 2^nd for the first and second lap and then toward the latter part of the 3^rd lap James threw down and attack around the baseball field and I jumped on his wheel. I knew he was a strong rider from his results this year and didn’t mind him getting ahead of me but didn’t want him to get a gap either, so I sucked his wheel for about ½ a lap. I stayed with him until the first mud bog and he ran away from me in the mud, I just couldn’t run as fast as him through that stuff so I knew if it came down to the last lap, I would have to get ahead of him before the mud in order to beat him. But shortly after the bog where he put 10m on me, I remounted and gathered speed to power through the next bog and James didn’t. He dismounted to run it and I rode it cleanly by luck, not losing any speed or my line. This gave me a good 20 yards on James and I hammered to put another 10 or on him before the next bog and as I rounded the s turn I noticed he had got caught up in the tape trying to ride a high line through one of the mud bogs so once again I stood and mashed and gave it everything. My legs were on fire and my lower back was on the verge of cramping but I knew if he saw me attacking hard and gapping him while he was trying to get through the mud that it might just be enough mentally for him to not want to try and attack anymore, at least that’s what I hoped because if he had attacked and caught me he would have easily taken it cause I was cooked.

I rode the rest of the lap out trying to recover and not lose any ground and by the time I reached the baseball fields for the 3^rd time I had put 100 or so yards on James and decided to start going after Hardwick, who at this point was about 250 yards in front of me.

I managed to ride cleanly laps 4 and 5, not gaining any ground on Hardwick nor losing any ground to James. The bell lap came and I laid everything out. I was able to get maybe within 150 yards of Hardwick but just didn’t have the legs to pull it back. I rode in to the finish hard and never gave up to end up 2^nd place on the day. Gotta say I’m really happy to have gotten my first podium in the 3’s and even though a lot of the 3’s I stated out racing at the beginning of the year have moved up, I feel like I have come a long way this season as my first year racing cross and I definitely feel like I am getting stronger every race and learning more with each ride.

Our team, ST3 will be sponsoring the last race of the series in Gadsden on Jan. 29^th and I am looking forward to celebrating the end of the season with the great group of people that make up the bamacross series, both racers and support, and my teammates from Save the TaTas Cycling.

Edit:
Well after looking at the photos it appears that I was wrong on some of my recollection of the race. Apparently Alan was ahead of me threw the mud bogs along the start/ finish area on the first lap. I have no memory of this and don't remember passing him but I guess he was in top 3 on the hole shot and I worked my way back up to him somewhere on the first lap. He was on his new Cannondale Super X today so doesn't surprise me he was out there, plus the fact he has been riding strong in the last couple races and podiumed in the last Bamacross race as well. Sorry Alan for leaving that part out.