Dead Dog MTB Race- Trussville, AL

AMBS- Trussville, AL October 9, 2011

Did you ever have that feeling where you knew something good was about to happen to you, and then the shit hit the fan.  Well that’s kinda how I felt at today’s race.  I can’t say I’m disappointed in the results, ended up 4^th overall in single speed open, but a horrible start left much to be desired for this race. 

Felt great all week with solid training, rode Friday at Oak Mtn and bike was setting up great with no problems, legs felt really solid, nothing was sore or injured so coming into the weekend I felt like I was going to put up some good numbers for the race.  Saturday did a nice 42 miles on the road bike with Alan, Mick, and Jason and although went a little harder than I wanted for a pre-race day ride, felt solid and couldn’t wait to race. 

The weather was great, overcast in the mid 60’s, perfect for racing.  The call up for single speed came and as I looked around at the guys racing I knew a couple from previous races and knew it would be a fast past to get to the podium but none the less I felt up to the challenge.  5,4,3,2,1, and we’re off.  There was a good 50 yard pavement sprint onto the gravel road and I took 3^rd wheel and settled in until we got another ¼ mile where we entered the woods, well that was the plan at least.  200 yards into the race, BAMM, chain came off.  (Insert whatever expletive here and multiply it by 50) that’s about how I felt.  I pull to the side and get out my allen key, the field goes by.  Fiddle with it and can’t get it back on, 2 minutes later the next field goes by, (expletive times 100).  Keep trying to get my rear wheel aligned, horizontal dropouts are a bitch if your in a hurry, I hear the next field start and they are coming fast up on me.  Get the wheel on and immediately attack, any ss’er knows if you get stuck behind the 2’s you are in for a long race and that was the last thing I wanted to have happen 45 seconds into the race.  Look down at my watch and my chain drop cost me right at 4 minutes.  Great start……Awesome

After several demoralizing minutes of riding 150% out of pure anger I settled down and tried to refocus on my race strategy, which was now not to get DFL in my cat.  I got picked off by two Cat 2 guys and luckily that was all, spend the rest of the lap trying to get back on someone’s wheel but found myself in no man’s land for about 30 minutes.  As I started lap 2 I finally got my body and mental under control and began to make smart attacks/ recoveries.  Started lapping a lot of the slower traffic from the other categories and then came up on a single speeder finally, whew, got the DFL monkey off my back!  Passing him gave me a good boost and I managed to pick off several more on the second lap.  Third lap I laid if all out, legs were starting to suffer and I pushed the last lap average hr above my LT, which I knew was playing Russian Roulette with the cramp monster but was surprised at how well they held up, staying strong and not losing any power after all I had done. 

Kept a good pace until 15 minutes out and set out my attack, my goal was to do a sub 25 minute lap, to get under a 1:20:00 race time, after a 29 min lap 1, 26 lap 2, and was hoping a 25 min lap would put me top 5 at least.  The last part of the race was a technical, extremely rooted/ rocky climb of about 8 minutes, then right back down the other side of the mountain with huge winding switchbacks.  I managed to pass several more people and laid on full throttle the last 5 minutes.  1:21 and change.  Didn’t hit my 25 minute lap but managed to pick off enough people to move into the top 5 and take 4^th.  Overall I wasn’t happy with my lap times but was really impressed with my fitness and body’s ability to redline as much as I did today, I guess I have more matches to burn than I thought.  I guess cyclocross training is paying off more than I thought it would.  Racing next week in Brookside, AL again for Bamacross #2, should be a lot of fun and a lot of suffering.  I saw today that last week’s cx race I managed to place 16th of 29.    

I also found out today that the new trail they cut at Oak Mtn for the 6/9 hr race in November is really not single speed friendly, or at least I was told it will take a good amount of practice to learn the lines.  Awesome, now I get to suffer that much more come November 12^th.

Bamacross #1 Pictures

Bamacross #1 Race: Brookside, AL

Sunday October 2, 2011 I participated in my first ever sanctioned cyclocross race.  It was in Brookside, AL and on a sunny cool morning that was perfect for racing.  The course was fast with crushed gravel being the majority of the course, one set of barriers, and one sand pit that was nasty to say the least.  I raced with the 3’s and being it was my first race, I pulled up to the start at the rear of the field as to not interfere with the actual “racers.”  Well the race started and off I went.  Being at the back it was a slow start as I waited for everyone to get going and then started to hammer.  I passed 4 or 5 people immediately and attacked to get in a good position before the hill that had the possibility for a nice dismount pile up.  Got a couple more spots up and then everyone started to pile up at the hill so I dove to the inside and went up through the bushes to take a line that wasn’t blocked.  Cleared the hill and dropped several more people.  Once I got through that section the field had put a gap on most the slower starters and I was 50 meters back with nothing but open track ahead.  I caught my breath and attacked again over the back section of the course as to not lose too much ground to the field.  I got through the barriers and two downhill sections smoothly and made my way to the sand pit.  I had previously ridden the pit 3 of the 10 times I had attempted it but now it was race time and I had to man up.  I approached it and cranked hard out of the saddle, downshifted to my low gears, gripped the bars tight to hold on for dear life, and plowed into the 8 inches of sand.  Hit a good line and carried momentum about half way then started mashing.  My new tires, Michelin Mud 2’s, really pulled and helped out tremendously getting traction in the sand.  I made it all the way through the pit and actually carried too much speed so as I approached the immediate uphill/ run-up at 90 degrees exiting the pit, I had to go against my instinct and hit the brakes.  Made the turn and grinded to the top of the run-up only to look at my heart rate and notice I was 20 beats above my LT, yeah, so I sat up and gave my cardio a break for 30 seconds or so.  Hit the back section of pavement and on to the baseball field with good speed and legs.  Made my way back to the start/finish sitting about mid-pack.  Fell into a good tempo and began to prepare mentally for that same amount of suffering for 7 more laps, think happy thoughts….  

For the rest of the race I maintained a good pace, cleared all the barriers and made it through the sand pit every time only having to dismount on one run-up because two guys had it blocked dragging ass up the hill.  After the last time through the sand pit, I came out hard with two guys sitting in front of me who I had been chasing all day.  They both dismounted in the sand and were running up the run-up.  I cleared the run-up and immediately attacked as they were remounting.  At this point I was about 800 meters from the finish so I stood up and went hard not looking back to see if they would chase or not.  They did, as I got to the baseball field I had put about 10 meters on them and passed another guy, but the two behind me were working together and we were on pavement.  I went into the grass field and attacked again, legs and lungs were on fire and I was getting light headed, still about 400 meters to go.  I went hard through the field and into the last 180 turn catching one more guy and looking over my shoulder to see I had put about 50 meters on the two chasers.  I went hard into the finish and finished at 1:02:00 for 8 laps.  Didn’t stay around to see how I finished but guessing somewhere around mid pack for a field of 25-30.  Overall great day, learned a lot, now to get ready for Dead Dog Race at Trussville next weekend.

CX Practice Race- Heardmont Park, Birmingham, AL

Saturday, September 17, 2011, I raced in my first ever cx race at Heardmont Park here in Birmingham.  The temperatures were on the brisky side for the pre-race warm-ups so needless to say I didn’t attempt any of the creek crossings until the last warm-up lap before the race started.  I met up with Jason for some pre-race laps where we analyzed the course and tested the lines through the muddy and wet sections.  The course was soft in several sections but was hard packed and smooth for the most part.  It had one hill that followed a creek crossing, which made it easier to run than ride, four creek crossings, and one muddy bog that was close to a 8”-12” deep of mud and 6-8 ft long. 

The race course started out with a 200 yard long pavement sprint that dropped back onto the grass course followed immediately with an s curve.  It then looped back around the baseball fields and was fairly smooth and dry for the next couple minutes, which provided a good area to either attack or recover.  Then came the first creek crossing, which was approached from an off camber turn then a good 12” jump down into the water which started out at about knee high and by the end of the second race was approaching mid thigh high.  Out of the water for a 30 foot hike a bike then back across the creek, not as deep here but still knee high, to an immediate 180 then back across the creek followed by a 20 yard run up the hill before I could remount.  The trail looped back up the hill to a steep switchback off camber s corner with a nice 5x10 ft sand pit right in the middle before the turn just to make things more interesting.  After that it was smooth sailing until the last creek crossing, this was the worst of them.  A good 18” drop straight off the side to the water then thigh high water with a rocky unstable bottom that left my legs looking like something from Terminator.  Out of the water for the last time and 90 degrees to the right for 50 yards before a monster bog that was nothing but a foot deep of silk mud and required enough speed and momentum to carry you all the way though because there was no way to pedal though that stuff without losing all traction.  That put you back out at the start/ finish.  I think I was averaging about 5 minute laps for a course length reference. 

C Race:

For this race Jason Lackey and I battled it out until he unfortunately had a flat in last part of the 2^nd to last lap.  The start was a 200 yard pavement path that dropped into the course and within 50 yards hit an immediate s curve that was damp to begin with but quickly ended up becoming a nice bog that was faster to run than bike by the end of the race.  I realized in pre-riding that getting a good start was vital as the s curve was certain to be a pile up of races on the first lap and didn’t want to get stuck losing time waiting on them.  I started off strong with no one challenging the start and held of Jason until mid 2^nd lap, in which he put a good 150 yards on me while I tried to recover a bit.  In lap 3 I started to get my legs back and began to up the pace pulling him back to 100 yards, then 75 in lap 4, then in lap 5 began to attack knowing that this would be a 6 lap race after the officials gave us a 3 lap count down.  Managed to pull him back to around 50 yards and could now see him exiting the 3^rd creek crossing as I was approaching the 1^st one.  I ran as hard as I could through the creeks and hit a perfect remount, I could start to smell blood and got to the top of the hill to notice that Jason was having mechanical issues.  He remounted and took off as I came up behind him by about 20 yards and then while rounding the next corner, I noticed he was off the bike and stopped.  I slowed to make sure he was okay and he said that he had flatted out.  At this point we were both almost to the end of the 2^nd to last lap and I realized he wasn’t going to be able to fix it and rejoin the race.  I hit the bell lap with no one in sight behind me and sat up the last lap, trying not to do anything stupid and flat out myself or even worse wreck.  I finished strong and got first.  I really hated seeing Jason flat out but I have a feeling he’ll be attacking twice as hard next race to get that win back. 

B Race:

This race was less interesting.  I missed the start by about 2 minutes because I was trying to take in some fluids and wash all the mud off my bike while making sure everything was working the way it should on my bike.  I think I had about 25 minutes to recover and clean my bike before the race started.  I came up to the start from the parking lot seeing everyone already a good 300-400 yards out on the trail so I gave a nod to the starter, said my name, and took off.  This race was the same course, just the creek crossings were deeper now, the bogs were more muddy, and the length was 15 minutes longer for a total of 45 minutes.  I didn’t really attack nor had a strategy for this race other than just doing it for more conditioning than anything.  I think I passed about 6 or 7 people on the first lap, then another 2 or 3 in the next 2 laps, then the legs began to turn to jello and the lungs were on fire so I settled into a good pace to maintain until the bell lap.  Didn’t get passed by anyone but didn’t have the legs to pass anyone either and on the bell lap stood and mashed until there was nothing left finishing I think mid pack a couple minutes back from the winners, haven’t actually seen any results so don’t know for sure.  Overall it was a good day of racing and had a blast, can’t wait for the next one October 2^nd at Brookside Park for the Bamacross series opener.