Radford’s Inferno
In these parts your will to win mountain bike races is measured by your willingness to ride Clarks-Radford. From 2N10 (aka Skyline Dr) in Big Bear, Clarks Grade is a twisty sandy road that descends to the sleepy settlement of 7 Oaks, which is mostly cabins and campgrounds. From there, you can travel to all kinds of places, but the most popular options on a bike are to head west to Angelus Oaks or east on 7 Oaks Rd or Converse Rd to Glass Rd, Barton Flats, or to the always fun Santa Ana River Trail. For those who like to suffer, there is another option, and that’s Camp Radford. The mostly abandoned and run-down camp located northeast of 7 Oaks is simply put, the entry way to Hell. Radford Camp Rd is a mostly exposed boney 5 mile road that leads back to 2N10 via Sugarloaf Truck Trail. Essentially, if you do the Clarks-Radford combo from Big Bear, you ride the final third of the loop with the Devil. If the relentless climb, oven-like heat, and gardens of loose stones don’t kill you, the army of gnats will drive you to tears. Just in the first couple miles of Radford Camp Rd, many have been found in the fetal position, but more than rocks and insects, Radford Camp Rd is littered with souls.
Last Saturday, me, Woody and Jeff Stanners raised our fists to the Devil and gave it a go anyway. Sorta. Instead of doing the Clarks-Radford combo from Big Bear, we began at the gateway, heading straight up Radford Camp Rd from the start. No warm-up (it was already warm enough); no opening shredding descent; basically, no fun. Our first pedal stroke was headed up, strangely, in the direction of Hell. I can testify that the experience was infinitely worse by the fact that Woody and I were pedaling… singlespeeds (insert menacing music here). Well, I wouldn’t actually call it pedaling. Stomping, is more like it. We stomped over jagged boulders, we stomped through clouds of gnats, we stomped under the searing sun, and we stomped up. Up, up, up. Meanwhile, Stanners spun. Granted, he had to spin over, through, under, and up the same Hell that we did, but let’s face it, on easy days no one ever says, “I’m gonna go for a stomp.” It’s always, “I’m gonna go for a spin.” Anyway, my point here is this: Stanners is smarter than Woody and me. The gears in his brain turn at a significantly faster rate than the gear (singular) in Woody’s or my brain.
It took roughly an hour to summit, and by that time my back felt like it had been trampled by a herd of wild horses. At the top I was swimming in sweat and couldn’t get warm, even in the summer heat. After re-grouping and gathering our composure, we headed straight to the reason for the ride: a singletrack trailhead at Grandview. Word on the web is that an old singletrack was recently fixed up and that it’s a fun descent from Big Bear to the Camp Radford area. Word on the web is only right about half the time. True, it’s fixed up, but I wouldn’t exactly call it fun. More than half of the trail is on loose hillside and only a few inches wide. I spent almost as much time traversing my way on foot as I did actually riding. It should come as no surprise that Woody, who is known to clear and clean most any obstacle, was able to roll significantly more of the trail than Stanners and me. With the way things have been going as of late, I was just happy to make it back to the car alive. The next day, however, my back was really unhappy. Although not on the same level suffering, and in a completely different circle of Hell, I got a little taste of Trish’s world on Sunday. I was confined to the couch mostly, accompanied by the comfort of a heating pad and this question in my mind: “What in the Hell were you thinking climbing Radford on a singlespeed?”
In these parts Radford Rd is a source of folklore and a place of legend. But climbing it on a singlespeed? Now that’s just divine comedy.
Breck Epic Blog Post #2 on Mountain Bike
My second blog post about the Breck Epic is up over on Mountain Bike. Check it!
Sad news about a fellow 29′er
Not sure what to say other than follow the link below about Michael Patrick.
http://www.efta.com/forum//viewtopic.php?t=444&start=0
Wishing him all the best.
Cross Training
Ok, so maybe road racing doesn’t really count as cross training, but it is very revealing - although it was shown recently (at least one study reported in VeloNews) that the bone density loss seen in road racers does not show up in mountain bike racers. So maybe road racers should cross train on the mountain to keep their bones healthy.
Anyway, when you spend all your time racing on the mountain bike, sometimes you forget certain aspects of your training. This past weekend I learned a great deal from racing in the Exhale criteriums in Wilkesboro,NC just down the street from the trails at Dark Mountain. The races were on the historic North Wilkesboro Speedway, one of the original NASCAR tracks - really more of a circuit race, but still fun. I have pictures, but the uploader is complaining this morning. Read More »
Alterra Race
With school from 7:00 to 3:10, and then HS football from 4-7, it doesn’t leave much time for riding. So I am going to do Alterra this weekend and hope for the best, because the only training I have had for a long time is football. Which is alright as far as general fitness goes, but not the best for cycling. Looking forward to the suffering to come.
Blog Postcards from The Breck Epic
I’m out at the Breck Epic six day mountain bike stage race this week. I’m here because I won the Blogger Grant, which means I’ll be posting over on Mountain Bike every day until the race is over or I succumb to hypoxia and wander in front of a bus. My first post is up over HERE.
Lots of things have been going on. My shop has been swamped which hasn’t allowed to much training time. So I have been riding when I can. My new 29″ Hifi Deluxe came in last week and I was able to put in over 4 hours on it last Thursday.
I spent most of the season on my Superfly SS and I loved every minute of it. I finished up the Georgia XC series last week and finished 5th overall in the state. I was able to podium just 3 times this year but I am hoping to represent even more next season.
Georgia Cyclo-Cross is starting up at the start of October and my bike build starts this week. I placed top 3 overall the last two seasons and in the Cat 3/B category. This year I will be racing the Cat 1/A category so I expect some butt kicking going on.
Cranky Monkey 3-Fountain Head and a well earned 3rd
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
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!
Fully Sussed Rd 4
After a very disappointing National champs, followed by a big off at 24/12. I decided to have a break from racing for a few weeks, and instead of doing the 3rd round of the midlands, headed up to Selkirk to do the Chain reaction enduro.Which was really enjoyable and I was pleased to feel pretty good all the way around.
Weeks before (weather permitting) I had planned on doing this round, to support Maddie and Jay. So having not done a race for a few weeks I wasnt sure of how I would get on or feel for that matter!
Having arrived in plenty of time, after signing on and having a brief chat with a few friends I set off on a practice lap. The course was fantastic with a great mix of singletrack and climbing to sort the boys from the men!! On my practice lap I going pretty steady and the next thing I knew I was pulling myself out of a bush. Conditions were very greasy underfoot and I had been caught out big time!
On the start I lined up next to Chris Rathbourne, who I knew was my main competition. On the whistle I had an appaling start, and hit the first bit of singletrack in about 8/9th place. Once we hit the fire road section, I went really hard to move up the field and I managed to catch the 2 leaders. We soon got caught up with the sport riders, which we rode behind until we could get past.
At about the half way mark, I decided to go for it. Which definetly paid off, because I got a gap. From there I pushed on hard and managed to catch all the elite/expert riders which was nice! I finally finnished nearly 3 minutes up, which I was over the moon with and even more pleased to feel good, with plenty left in the tank!
In summary, a cracking course and was one of the best courses I have ridden for a long time! And that’s saying something beacuse I have raced quite a few events over the past 2 years! Also it was nice to have an event with different cateres aswell!! (roast beef rolls and slabs of homemade sponge…. yum..yum)
Thanks again to my little tribe for all there cheering in the woods
Also to my sponsors
XCracer.com, Accellerade, Exposure lights, Gary Fisher.
Phil Morris riding for XCracer.com
