Archive for the ‘Races’ Category

Lookin Back, Lookin Forward

By dhewes | 02/09/10 | 6:55 AM

I hate to reflect on the past. It is just that-the past. You can’t change it; for better or for worse. This year, at least for me, is worth reflecting on. Being my first year riding for the Crew, I had a lot of expectations for myself and some worries too. Never being on an organized race team before, made me rethink how I look at riding, racing, training and myself.

picture-21I learned a lot about myself this year. I never had a “real” structured training program in the past, so I started with a rough plan in the beginning and it gradually morphed into a decent routine. Definetely room for improvement, but overall not bad. Every year, like everyone else, I try to set achievable goals for myself. What I should do is set unachievable goals, so if I don’t make them, I still achieved my original achievable goals. Makes sense to me. I race the same venues year to year, with some new races thrown in when time allows. Every year my goals are to better my times from the previous years. Once you are in your 40’s, it doesnt get easier. Being 42, I have to face the facts that training will be a little more difficult. This year I really surprised myself with what I was able to accomplish. Not only was I able to better all of my times from last season, but crush them. I rode the singlespeed in all but 1 race. I was a little leary at first, just because last year I rode the geared bike in all but 1 race. So trying to reach my time goals were going to be a challenge. (more…)

2 weeks in August

By benslow | 31/08/10 | 1:14 PM

It’s been a long 2 weeks. I’ve had the pleasure of racing my bike 3 times in 14 days. Not a lot for some folks, but it’s plenty for me. 

 

Last Saturday I raced the first annual XTERRA Illinois Wilds, an off-road triathlon that I helped design and organize. The 3.8 miles of mountain bike trails were super fresh- I mean the last Rogue hoe was put away 3 days before the race. These are just the beginning miles of some super fun trails that Wildlife Prairie State Park will host. PAMBA – Peoria Area Mountain Bike Association and their expert IMBA trained trail builders did fine work. They have very unique land to design with- this being abandoned strip mine area-before it was required to be put back the way it was. So there’s plenty of a rock upheaval, sink holes, and spoil banks to work with, along with some old hardwood forest to slalom in.  A new bridge, built in 1 morning, spanned ‘Orange Creek’. It’s really orange..The iron in intense.  I worked the hoe and clippers on the trails a few hours on my training ‘rest’ days. Volunteering to build trails that you will ride has a lasting personal touch. Every time I ride my sections, I smile. There are trails the likes of Beaver Lake, Cedar Ridge, Z-trail, and Serengeti  (more…)

Rattling 50

By Roger Masse | 26/08/10 | 3:34 PM

My decision to skip NUE race #7 The Fools Gold and transfer my entry to Sue Haywood, so that she could have a hard race to get ready for Shenandoah, turned out to be a good one. After two miserable rainy 100 mile races at Cohutta and Mohican, I really didn’t want to endure another 100 mile mud-fest.  It’s not that I don’t like racing in mud, because I actually do, but replacing bearings, cables and brake pads after every race gets expensive.  As bad luck would have it, horrible conditions for The Fools Gold forced a shortened race. Specifically, the gritty crystalline structure known as fools gold has an unusually abrasive effect on brake pads when muddy racing conditions spread it around. With 14,000 feet of  fast descending, the racers had no brakes after 30 miles or so… In hind sight, no thanks.

I instead joined 29er Crew teammates Chris Beck and Travis Saeler, stayed in town and raced the Mid Atlantic Super Series Rattling Creek MTB Marathon in Weiser State Forest.   Like Sue, I was looking for a long hard effort to prepare for the Shenandoah Mountain 100 early September. Since my 2010 results have been lacking and I was looking for a win, I opted for my geared Superfly and the Masters 45+ division rather than duking it out with what looked to be a pretty competitive Single Speed category.

We stage at the bottom of a hill on a short road section. I line up next to 2009 NUE Masters Series champion John Williams who rides for Bike Line. I also see Mike Laub in the 2nd row on the other side of the road. Since we’re doing a mass-start, other than John and Mike, I have no idea who the 22 other registered Masters racers are.
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Cranky Monkey 3-Fountain Head and a well earned 3rd

By dhewes | 22/08/10 | 6:02 PM

I could get used to this

I could get used to this

This is the final race of the Cranky Monkey series. The races progress from moderate to difficult in the course layout. Fountain Head is an extremely technical and pretty taxing course. There is no room for error here-or getting your bottle out and dropping it 2 times in the exact same spot. It is the only course I know of that ends with a climb. Just the way I like it

The day started off in a bad way. It poured down rain for a good 20 minutes on 495 on the way down. I almost decided to make a u-turn and go home, but I continued on hoping for the best. It had stopped raining by the time I arrived and everything was a go. I had yet to decide wether or not to go geared or mono. I was in 4th in points, so that played a little in my descision too. I chose my Supa-fly ss with a 32/18 setup. Again, this course has plenty of very steep climbs which I love and can make up crucial ground on the geared guys. The race starts with a mile long road prologue-not a good thing when you are the only guy with one gear. Still made it into the singletrack 10th, which is what I expected spinning at 180 rpm. What I still find funny are the comments by some racers that don’t know you or how you lay it down. They assume that riding a SS, they are gonna dust you. I won’t go into details, but lets just say the guys that made the few comments were passed on the first big climb, and never saw them again-WHO RAH! SS UNITE! uh, yeah…

Alex, Don, Ben and myself have become friends and have raced the series for 6 years now. When Alex isnt blowing us away, we work as a team, which is pretty bizarre in a mountain bike race. We ask each other how each of us is doing, were the others are in relation to us, how we are going to attack and what is the strategy. Even to the point that we will sacrifice our pace to keep the other guy in our group close to us until it is time to make a move. That, to me is what its about. In the past, before the super powers of the 29er crew were bestowed upon thee, Don would finish in front of me by about 2-3 minutes.

The final descent to catch Don

The final descent to catch Don

This year, It wasn’t gonna happen. We rode together the entire race. We had put a 5 minute gap on the group in back pretty early on. We chatted on and off for the entire race. It came down to trying to keep from blowing up. It ended up being a very close finish between Don and I. He took 2nd by 6 seconds. Remember that ascent at the end? I wish I had gears then-gasp! Alex of course was first. Don was 1 point ahead of me for the series going into the last race, so I ended up 4th in the series with 88 points, 20 more than last year. I bettered my time by 2:24 from last years race aboard my Paragon, finishing with a 1:30:06 mark. So I made some big imrovements. At the end of the race, my superfly makes alot of new friends. One guy had made the comment about all of the Bontrager jewelry. I really enjoy talking to people about the stuff, but it always amazes me when they ask why? Why the hell not? I mean, 1. It works. 2. I have never broken anything in 15 years and 3. it looks cool. He was at a loss for words when I told him I built it that way. “It didnt come built with all that stuff on it?” I guess he thought I rode it because of the 29er crew. Anyway, here is my Garmin data-Check out the elevation, no that that isnt an EKG, not a flat spot anywhere! Average HR, 177! http://connect.garmin.com/activity/45730862-I LOVE THAT THING!

High Cascades 100 NUE #6 - Devil Grouses and Dust

By Thom | 16/08/10 | 9:41 AM

It’s not really my style to wait a week before writing a race report. Apparently racing hundred-milers on back to back weekends does something to a man’s body and brain — I was burnt. Shoot, I’m still burnt, and I better get un-burnt quick because I’m heading out to Colorado for the Breck Epic in a day and a half. I thought that doing back to back hundreds was something that people do, but after talking to Pro-Pro (not Demi-Pros like me) endurance masters like Jeff Schalk and Cheryl Sornson, I realized that it is really not normal, and definitely not advisable. That said, it went pretty well for about, I don’t know…sixty-five miles, then it went all to hell quick.

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Wisconsin Ch I

By stork | 13/08/10 | 7:12 AM

In the past two weeks I’ve visited the mothership twice. I flew in to race the Wausau 24hr at Nine mile a week ago. I really had a good time with the fast packed trails of WI. Lots of riders were saying it was really technical and rocky but I loved every bit of it! Nothing really out of the ordinary from the usual stuff i see back home in western pa.
Big thanks to Chris, Casey, OD, Drew & Jen (my teammates). And to the other Trek peeps Todd, Scott, Dan & Jesse. They all made me feel welcomed there for 5 laps of FUN!
stork

High Cascade 100

By jmaedke | 12/08/10 | 6:22 PM

I was expecting dust, I was expecting heat, I was expecting about 11,000 feet of climbing, I wasn’t expecting to lose my precious Endurolytes that I so brilliantly devised a method of consuming, I also wasn’t expecting to be attacked by a deranged grouse.  All of this however was included in the High Cascade 100 mountain bike race which took place in Bend, OR last weekend as round six of the NUE Series (National Ultra Endurance).  I’m quick to point out it was part of the NUE  Series because it sounds so dang cool, National Ultra Endurance Series…  100 miles is a long way to ride a mountain bike, especially when 80 of those miles are single track.  The little things become a challenge, like eating, and drinking, and shedding layers, which brings me to the 35 degree start.  Yikes.  We began with a couple miles of neutral heading up the highway toward Mt Bachelor.  It was a quick warm up.  The first loop is a 40 some mile trek around Mt. Bachelor with fantastic single track, lots of rocky techy stuff, but fast.  I felt real good for this section and estimate I was 12- 14th place.  At the end of the first loop I lost my Endurolytes.  This was sort of the beginning of the end. Shortly after that it seemed only fitting I should run out of water and begin cramping.  The second loop was another 40 something miles with a rabid man-eating grouse followed by a steep switchbacked climb from hell that goes on forever.  That was pretty much the end of my “race,” from there on in it was survival mode.  The second loop ends at the start/ finish area where the third and final loop begins, a nice easy 13 miles of nothing but rolling fields of flowers and butterflies and cuddly little bunnies, or at least that is what I nearly had myself convinced of.  Nothing is easy at 90 miles in, nothing.  The downhill for the first six miles of it was great; it was the whole having to climb at the end of a hundred mile race thing that kind of hurt.  The coolest thing about racing a mtb for 100 miles though is, no matter how rotten you may feel during the race you’re going to feel like a million bucks when you cross the finish line.  AND you’re going to feel like a million and one bucks when you get a solar shower, half a barbequed chicken (which closely resembles grouse) and an icy cold Mirror Pond Ale to wash down the glorious Bend, OR dust that you will inevitably be cleaning out of your ears for a week.  As I look back I have to say I’m fairly satisfied with my 24th overall result considering how bad I bonked for most of the second half.  Note for future 100’s: eat lots.  Congrats to Thom P who raced with me briefly then dropped me like a bad habit.  I always enjoy Thom’s post on the Crew blog and felt a little star struck riding with him.  Big thanks to Mike Ripley and crew for all the hard work they put in to an event like this, it was killer.  J

 

Learning to love the trainer

By dhewes | 08/08/10 | 7:15 PM

This will be a shameless plug for these guys, but it works. If you are limited or just want some variation in your workoutin your training and have an indoor trainer, check these guys out at http://www.utahmountainbiking.com/. I know, the trainer is as well liked as poison ivy on your arse, but it can be a valuable tool to add to your arsenal. Whoa! I didnt think it was possible to use arse and a variation of arse twice in the same sentence, how creative. Uh, ok.

They have a fantastic 1 hour video designed around the trainer (yes, I actually look forward to that stupid thing now). It works. I have had it for 2 weeks and definetely had more explosive and sustainable power than before. It works on your power and strength, with intervals as well. I can certainly vouch for it. I noticed and felt a definite improvement on my climbing and sustainable effort today. Mix it in with your training gig that you already have. For 14.00, give it a go, but you will work!   Click here to get a quick sample Biking Power demo.

Cranky Monkey Race #2 and a very sad day, indeed

By dhewes | | 2:22 PM

Finishing the race with Cecil

Fellow racers finish the race for Cecil

On sunday at Schaeffer farm, we lost one of our own. Cecil Funkhauser passed away from heart complications. A special thanks to all of those who came to Cecil’s aid on the trail. He will be missed. Pray for his family and loved one’s. The upside is Cecil died doing what he loved. Just proves how quickly life can change for any of us. If any of you know EX2’s Jim Harman, he runs all of the fantastic EX2 races, keep him in your thoughts as well. He was pretty shaken by what happened as well. The was taken from EX2’s website for those interested. The viewing will be held from 6pm-8pm on Wednesday, August 11th and the funeral is at 11am on Thursday, August 12th at the Mount Castle Turch Funeral Home in Woodbridge, VA. Cecil’s wife, Bobbie, wanted to extend a warm thank you to the EX2 community for the outpouring of support. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made in Cecil’s name to the American Heart Association by calling (800) 242-8721, where an account has been established.

Not to belittle the situation from this morning, but pick the one that pretty much says Dave (me) is a moron (more than one may apply) a) never go into a race blinded, i.e not knowing the course. b) do a 34 mile group ride the day before. c) forget to put on your water bottle cage back on, or d) all of the above. If you picked d, normally you would be correct, but todays race proved that, at least for today, i wasnt a moron, a bit aloof, but not a moron.

Schaeffer farms is a great venue. I had never been there until today, but I was very impressed. Singletrack, some fireroad and a crazy  1/2 mile maze of 7 foot tall corn on either side. As you know, I am a SS guy. I own geared bikes to fit in in with everyone else. I brought both my Ferrous and Paragon to the race and decided to run the Paragon. It was a good choice.

The 40+ group is a collection of very fast geezers. I have been racing with Alex, Ben, Don, Hyder and others for quite some time now. We have built a good friendship because of these EX2 races. We know what each others plans of attack are. We can almost guess where we will finish. So when a few guys show up that you are not familiar with, and line up along side of you at the front, you start to think.

A very fast start indeed

A very fast start indeed

We normally start at a reasonably fast pace, but nothing insane. Today would be different. The 2 two guys who were with us took off. I mean rocketed to the front and just caught everyone by surprise. So we made the descision to follow. I like using my big ring as much as possible, but its rare to use the 44/11 combo, very rare. I used that and the 12 for the first 5 miles! We averaged 17.3 mph for that time. We knew they couldnt sustain that pace, but we knew we couldnt and it would surely cause us to blow up before the last lap. Well, it wasnt us who’s wheels fell off the cart. They hit the first major climb and that was the last time we saw either of them.

That was a HUGE relief. We could now settle in and race our race. Nothing much went on after that except for some place

What's up with that geared thang?

What's up with that geared thang?

swapping here and there and I ended up 4th at 1:38:21 for 20 miles and picked up 30 points to bring the total to 53. Last year I ended up with 69 points and 5th over all, so I am in good shape to surpass that this year with Fountainhead being the last race of the series. Yesterdays ride did not have any affect at all-welll, maybe a tad after mile 18. I was really surprised otherwise. I certainly dont recommend it, but I like to think it gave me some extra super secret power. I felt like I did early in the season. The Paragon was awesome, but I miss the quiet, surreal quality of the SS. Here is my take-geared is like having all of your daughters friends over for a sleep over. SS is just you and your wife watching a good movie.

It was a great day at a great course. Rob was racing 34 and under and was just going off as we were leaving-I am sure he will do well.

Racing update - and injury

By Tommy Rodgers | 29/07/10 | 9:52 AM

dsc_3207

Well, it’s been a great season so far - at least until this past Sunday. I’ve raced the new Superfly HT 5 times, resulting in a 1st (my first Cat 1 XC win!), a 10th (flat repair took WAY too long). a 3rd, another 1st (!) and a DNF this past weekend.

My first win was at Caraway Hills, part of the Southern Classic XC series. 95+ degree weather and a tough, hilly course made it a grueling day in the saddle. I took the lead towards the end of lap 1 and maintained it until the finish. I had to run up the nasty climb named “Stag” the last 2 laps as I just didn’t have the legs to ride up it anymore. That was one of the steepest grades I’ve ever seen as part of a race course!

The next race was at Angler’s Ridge in Danville, VA and was the next in the Southern Classic series. I was sitting in 2nd position with roughly 2 miles left in lap 1 and tore my tubeless XDX rear tire. 42 minutes later, I’m back on the bike and racing again. Passed one rider and finished 10th. Quite the disappointment, but my fault for poor tire choice (was running the 1.75″ rear in rocky conditions).

A few weeks later and it’s time for the NC State Games XC race at Whitewater Park in Charlotte, NC. In this race, all Cat 1 riders were together regardless of age category, making for a different field than usual. I had a great race and pulled off a 3rd place finish despite heavy cramping towards the end (another 95+ degree day)!

Then came the one I’d been waiting for all year - the Summer Sizzler race on my home trail of Owl’s Roost in Greensboro, NC. I got a great start and would have been 1st into the singletrack, if I had realized that the course had been changed right before race time! Two of us took the wrong turn and lost a couple of spots, so I ended up 4th into the woods. At the first bridge, the leader tapped his brakes on the wet wood and went down hard. Now I was in 3rd place. I passed one rider to get to 2nd, sat in for a while, then passed again before the first big hill. I dropped the hammer hard for the rest of the lap and the next, and ended up winning by 3.5 minutes! This was a big, big win for me as it was my home trail and in front of my friends and family.

Fast forward to this past Sunday. The Huck-a-Buck XC in Raleigh, NC. Big field with several pros and very fast Cat 1 riders, again all age groups combined. Very, very hot day an dry and dusty. I had a bad start and crashed early on, losing my chain and about 2 minutes to fix it (darn chainguide!). I then took a wrong turn where the course tape was down and rode an extra mile plus some. Finally back on course, I had an uneventful race from there but was likely pushing it too hard because I crashed 2 more times - the last time off of a bridge and shoulder first into a tree!

Saw the ortho on Monday, x-rays negative (no breaks) but the popping sound I heard upon impact could mean something worse. No shoulder separation, at least. Worst case is a torn rotator cuff or a torn labrum - both bad things. It’s feeling better today (Thursday) but is still very sore when I move it a certain way.

I’ll find out more about the shoulder in a week or so. Hopefully it’s no big deal and I’ll be back in action for the series finale at Dark Mountain in Wilkesboro, NC!