Sunday June, 2nd
2012
Oak Mountain State Park
Pelham, AL
This past weekend marked the
18th annual BnG race at OMSP and with 4 races on tap, it provided to
be an excellent weekend to get all the mtb action anyone could want. The weekend started off Friday night with
Beer and Brats at Cahaba Cycles parking lot off hwy 31 in Pelham with registration, packet
pickup, and all the beer and hot dogs you could want.
Also on Friday night was the
first annual Drop, Tuck, and Roll air downhill mtb race on the newest trail to
become part of the
BUMP trail system at OMSP, Lightening. For
those of you who haven’t had the chance to give this a ride yet, you are
seriously lacking in life experiences.
This short, but fast course is a combination of a flow trail with
downhill speed. It has everything from
table tops, to step ups, to box drops, all contained in a 4500 ft hard packed
heavily burmed serpentine course that begins at the top of Boy Scout Camp
Road.
The field for the DTR race was
fairly large at 15 or 16 with all riders given 2 official runs to get their
best time. ST3 Cycling helped out with course marshalling and
for a bunch of roadies and xc mtber’s we were given a great display of a
different type of speed than we are used to.
These guys and girls, looked to be literally gliding down the course
with the occasional brake drag, but always seemed to be sailing through the air
whenever the chance was given. The race
went off great with no injuries and everyone walking away with smiles on their
faces, even from all the spectators. Don’t
discount coming out to watch this race next year even if you aren’t into the
downhill stuff, this race is fast, has big air, and really exciting to
watch. Here is a link to a video by Heath Vaughn.
Saturday came early and I was
at the park by 7am to get my pre-race workout in. A good 75 minutes with some openers and hill
sprints and I felt good to go. Got a
pre-ride in of Jekyll and Hyde and the race course finish before I changed
clothes and went to help out volunteer for BUMP. By the time I got to the South Trail Head
they were well on their way to having the finish and courses set up but I
offered help where I could and by 2pm I was cooked. I’ve really got to hand it to all the great
people who were there all 3 days from way early in the morning until late at
night to get everything set up and broken down.
BUMP can always use help with these events and even if you know nothing
about cycling or are looking to get into it, you won’t be treated
differently. They are a very welcoming
group of people who will treat you like family.
Saturday’s events included a Short
Track XC event and a Super D race, these two events along with Sunday’s XC race
compiled the Ominium for the weekend and are a part of the US Triple Crown Cup Series. The STXC event was a 1+ mile course that was
very spectator friendly that lasted 20 mins for the Cat 1/2 Race and 30 mins
for the Pro Race. It began in the parking
lot with the finish line, looped around the STH then up the steep climb by the
bathrooms, then into the woods for a short loop then back into the parking lot
near the swing sets and onto the finish.
This was the closest to an off
road crit as you will see. Everyone I
talked to about the race said they were full bore the whole time and mostly
anaerobic whenever they were able to take a glance at their heart rate. This was an extremely fun race to watch and
next year I will definitely have to participate because I love to suffer and
from the looks of those who raced, I would say there was a lot of it going on.
The Super D came next Saturday
afternoon and although I was not there to watch it, I heard people who hung out
around blood rock say nothing but great things.
This is another spectator friendly race where riders race a short 20-30
min point to point race in a time trial format.
Spectators who were willing to make the hike to Blood Rock were treated
to rider after rider blasting full steam through the technical rocky section
without any fear. Those that have been
there before know that even walking down this section of the trail can be
dangerous so you can only image the possibility of the carnage that could
ensure from riders blasting through it who weren’t 100% focused and on their
game mentally. Luckily I didn’t hear of
anyone getting hurt there this year but I can tell you personally they don’t
call it Blood Rock for nothing!
Here is a pic of Jacob Tubbs at Blood Rock during the Super D. Photo courtesy of mtbmike.com
Now on to Sunday’s XC
race. Believe it or not this was my first
time racing BnG, last year was sick in the bed and the year before that I had
just moved to Birmingham and was working 50-60hrs/ week at a new job so no
riding much that summer. But this year I
was really excited, coming off a good season of cycle cross and a big base this
winter I came into the spring in good shape.
Being on ST3 has introduced me into the world of road racing and given
me even more fitness with their training rides and races this year as
well. I have only been able to make it
to one mtb race this year about a month ago and was really looking forward to
racing BnG this time around.
Here is a pic of Mick getting started in his first mtb race of the year
Here is Pete taking the hole shot for his race in his new Birmingham Bike Company kit
Here's Holly in her first mtb race
.JPG)
Mick posing for the camera
Race Report
Sunday morning as I was
warming up for the race I felt a calmness come over me and knew all I had to do
now was race. I knew I had put in the
work to accomplish my pre-race goals and knew that it would be a tough race but
somehow knew everything would be okay, almost like the first time you jump off
a high cliff into a lake, your nervous until you do it but that second you
decide to go you feel very relaxed.
I lined up in the Cat 2 30-34
age group this time to race with the geared guys for a change even though I was
sporting my single speed. I haven’t
raced any geared races since I first started racing 5 years ago so I didn’t
know what to expect but I was ready. I
chose to run 55 gear inches (34:16) on my single speed for this race as not to
lose too much time on the top section between the fire road climb and start of
J&H, although I did get passed by 3 guys here I was able to make that space
back up eventually.
Little smack talk before the race is always fun
The race started out hard as
the 30-34 field and 35-39 fields were combined making a field size of about 30
or so. I lined up in the front and knew
that I could possibly lose a lot of time on Lake Trail if I got stuck behind
some of the slower guys so I hit it hard and managed to get 4th
wheel into the woods behind Jacob Tubbs and Jimmy Prentice. I was able hold Jimmy’s wheel until the levy
crossing and then I dropped to 7th or 8th wheel really
fast when everyone shifted into their big rings while I hamster wheeled it at
200 rpm’s. This is where the field began
to spread out but still, I was only 50m behind the leader when we crossed the
road. I managed to hang back around
50-100m behind the lead group of 8 or so until boy scout camp road and then
once again, big ring for them, hamster wheeling for me. By the time I got to the top of the climb I
was in no man’s land with no one in sight in front of me nor behind me so I
settled into a good cadence and began to focus on my pre-race time goals, sub
40 mins to the NTH, that’s all I cared about.
I was able to gain a couple spots back and make it to the NTH in under
38 minutes, awesome. I felt great and
now time for me to launch my attack and put some people in the red.
My second pre-race goal was to
make up as many spots on the climb as possible.
The fire road climb is the only place where I would have an ability to
contest others and push them so I knew if I could make other’s hurt they might
give up on top of the mountain and not chase me. I was able to make up a couple more spots
here and was right on a group of 2 at the top of the climb, don’t know their names
but they ended up 2nd and 3rd in the Cat 2 35-39
group. This climb about did me in, at
the mid way point I grabbed a water from the aid station and dumped all 20 oz
on my head and back. That was all that
kept me going at this point, looking at my garmin I pretty much stayed
anaerobic the whole climb except for once or twice where I dropped to high
Z4.
Once the group of 2 I was
chasing hit the top of the climb and were on the flat, they began to open a gap
on me. I never let up but kept to my
plan as to get to the top of J&H in under 8 mins. I was at the top of the fire road climb in
53ish mins and was happy with that so now began the calculations in my head. If I can get to J&H in 8mins, then to
Peavine Road in another 22 mins, I can be done in sub 1:30. I had a feeling it would take that kind of
time to podium before the race but knowing there were several riders ahead of
me and not knowing what age group they were in, I just put my head down and
hammered.
Going down the fire road on my
way to the BUMP trail, Timo Stark came roaring past me like I was standing
still, great. He was out of sight within
a minute. That was pretty tough on me
mentally because I knew everyone behind him would be carrying that same kind of
speed and I had to get to J&H before too many more people passed me or I
was going to be out of the running for a podium for sure. I managed to get there without losing anymore
spots and eventually caught Timo on the hand built section of J&H and he
was nice enough to pull off to let me by.
As soon as I went by it was no more brakes. I just took my fingers off the brakes and let
the bike go, white knuckles and wide eyes I was movin. I managed to get through J&H safely,
although I was drifting a bunch and almost just gliding over the table tops I
was pushing to catch the group ahead of me.
As I came to the end of J&H I began to see the now 2 guys ahead of
me, still not knowing what age group they were in I gave it all. I cross the road to Mr. Toad’s and Family and
had to be cranking 120 rpms. I was on
the verge of riding out of control but didn’t worry about my lines and just
went where the bike took me. Luckily
that was always in the right direction.
Me working my way through the rocky hand built section of J&H
More of me on J&H
Getting aero on my way to the finish line
As I came out of the woods
onto the pavement the 2 riders I was chasing were only 10m in front of me. I put my head down and spun like there was no
tomorrow. I was able to hold their wheel
for a bit then when we hit the downhill part they began to attack each other
and walk away from me putting 7 seconds on me in the overall time. Good news for me they were both in the age
group above me so this ended up giving me 2nd Place in my group,
behind Jimmy Prentice who threw down a great time beating me by over 3
minutes. Timo was able to grab 3rd
place shortly behind me.
Here is a link to my Strava of the race.
Race results can be found here
Overall I was really happy
with my results and how fun of a race this was to do. BUMP have really done a great job with the trails
systems they have developed over the last several years and the support the
club offers is first class. A big thanks
to all the ST3 Cycling guys who came out to race and support me as well as
everyone who helped make this weekend of racing possible. Definitely created some great memories for
this guy!
.JPG)
A very tired and hungry me after my race
Cat 2 30-34 Podium with Jacob standing in for his teammate Timo in 3rd and Jimmy in 1st