Dakota 5-0 recap part #2

Rolling out of aid 2, I checked my time as its about the closest to a halfway point as you get. I knew from the previous year, I could just about double the time and add roughly 10 minutes to get a guesstimate of my finish time barring unforeseen events. I rolled in with just under 2 hours on the clock knocking over 15 minutes off my time from last year for the same section. I knew I was rolling well, but this shot another round of adrenaline through me being so far ahead of my time. 2 hours was a distant goal in my head, but I don't know that I ever planned on actually making or possibly even beating it.

Back to the race though as Trevor had put a gap on me. It was time to eat and get back into race mode. I snarfed some shot blocks as quick as possible and tried upping my pace along the relatively flat section of trail we were on. Just after aid 2 there's a high speed downhill into a right hand hairpin. I saw the turn about the same time as I passed it. I was cursing myself as I slammed on the brakes and brought my bike around to get back on the right trail. Getting into chase mode, I kept the pace high as we started to get more into true singletrack again.

With the lack of rain this year, even the singletrack was dusty and loose in many spots. A short bit later, I found myself right back on Trevor's wheel as he'd overcooked a fast downhill corner and lost his gap over me righting himself. I got back around and he was right on my wheel for a nice shot of Deja Vu. I think we rode and walked together for a short bit including a section of extremely rough and rocky downhill where I could feel every hit reverberating through my rigid frame. I remember complaining back to Trevor on how rough it was and how I was wishing for at least a suspension for at that point. Looking back, I think this spot was the biggest turn in the race for me as I could feel the tires and wheels pinging off the rocks a number of times as I tried to keep myself from going over the bars and still keep my speed up as much as possible.

Shortly after or possibly even right at the bottom Trevor came flying around me in what would prove to be a killer winning move. He took off like a scalded cat and I didn't have anything to respond. At that point, I was pretty happy in my position sitting in 4th and was starting to worry that maybe I'd even put a little too much effort into being where I was. I knew there was still a lot of racing left and if I pushed too much, I'd be cramping and done being able to race before I got to the finish line.

Aid station 3 comes flying up on you as you're pointed mostly downhill in this section. I think this is where I flew down a gravel forest service road only to come around a bend at 25+ mph to be faced with a closed service gate and a roughly 2' wide open spot to ride through. I jammed my brakes and rode it out for all I was worth shooting the gap while trying desperately not to load up my chamois. Luck was on my side as I sailed through and into aid #3. I wasn't stopping here either as I had plenty of water loaded up and short distances to cover for the next station.

The hop to aid 4 is another downhill screamer for the most part. There's a multi mile downhill double track that you can rip through. Last year I hit this section with a fair amount of traffic around and was choked up by all the dust and hoping I didn't hit any unforeseen holes. This year I was still mostly on my own and was able to see further ahead and pick my lines. The only downside is I think not having any rabbits in this section left me a little slower than last year.

Now I began to notice something a lot more alarming though. It seemed both tires were getting a fair bit squishier than I like to run. I wasn't sure if I'd burped them on something or worse yet, had flats developing. By the time I rolled out to the gravel road section, I knew there was no avoiding stopping to add some air to my tires. I wasn't too worried as I was rolling with a couple 40g Big Air canisters from Genuine Innovations so I had plenty of quick access inflation on me. I grabbed the inflator from my seatpost while still rolling and hopped off the bike almost before it stopped. I shot air into both front and rear and was back on the bike in about 30 seconds flat.

I wasn't sure what to think about losing air at that point as it should have been sealed up by Stan's as I know I had plenty in each tire. I just kept pedaling and hoping the shot of air would hold me until the end. Aid 4 rolled up and all I needed was a quick top off of a single bottle so I was in and out in under 30 seconds. I'd been so hammered after Aid 4 last year that I just walked over to the climb to Bacon Station and hadn't bothered to hop on my bike. This year, I was determined to make up some time and pushed my bike up to the first lessening of pitch in the hill and hopped on to ride as much of the climb as possible. I'd venture that with fresh legs or gears, I could probably clean most of the climb to Bacon Station. Alas, I had neither at hand so I rode where I could and walked with as much speed as I could muster where I had to.

Soon enough though, I noted my tires were losing the battle with holding air. I kept on riding until I just about fell over as the front tire tried to roll out from under me with too much flex. I was at a walking point so I hustled my way up the hill and knew I'd have to stop as soon as the terrain was ridable again. I was dreading this point as I knew something would have to be done to fix the leaks since my last stop was a mere 20 minutes back and I knew I had a solid hour+ to go in the race with some of the most technical and fastest downhill terrain left to go. I flipped the bike over and started in on locating the leaks. First up was the rear and I found both a tread hole and a sidewall leak. Both were leaking sealant so I grabbed the only option I had beyond a tube to fix a hole. I knew from past experience the tubeless plug kits from Genuine Innovations did a pretty good job of sealing a friend's tire and holding up to race abuse so I grabbed my kit from my seat bag and went to work on the tread leak. After fumbling for what seemed like forever, I finally ripped my gloves off so I could thread the tiny repair strip through the needle and plug the tire.

As soon as that was done, I shot in more air and started the "Stan's Dance". For anyone familiar with tubeless tires, this dance apparently is hidden in our subconscious. Basically you hop around like a fool while violently shaking your wheel and simultaneously praying to the deity of air pressure and promising upon your unborn children that you'll never do anything bad again so long as you live in hopes that the black magic of sealant will grace your tire with its workings. The plugged hole seemed to seal up just fine, but the sidewall cut was still slowly leaking air, albeit slightly slower than before the dance.

Onto the front. I'm still not sure I ever found the leak in the front. I looked for one, but couldn't locate anything definitive. Once again I employed the dance with my new partner and hoped for luck. I couldn't find anymore leakage after the dance so again, I held my breathe hoping it was good enough. Thinking back, I'm pretty sure the rocky section after aid 2 was my downfall. Post race inspection showed me a couple pretty good divots in my rims and given the sidewall and tread cut proximity to each other, I'm pretty sure it was a rock that got me.

By this time a steady stream of riders had passed me and I wasn't sure how long I'd been setting trailside. My info would later show that apparently 6+ minutes is what passes for an eternity when you're without forward motion in a mountain bike race. With some pissed off energy flowing back into my system, I jumped back on the bike and laid into the pedals. I no longer knew where I was in the standings or how many singlespeeders had passed me. I just made a plan to hit every pedal stroke as hard as I could and make up as many spots as possible.

I passed a few riders before even finishing up the last 7 minutes into the Bacon Station. I was handed a near full cup of PBR (seriously guys?) and chugged about half in a single gulp as I never stopped rolling through. I tossed the balance and hit the Dakota Ridge section with a sense of urgency.

Coming into bacon station: 

Rolling out of the Bacon Station, you have about an hour left to ride. It's basically divided into 3 parts. The Dakota Ridge section with all of its rockiness, a little more climbing, and technical singletrack along with the descent off the ridge, then a forest service road climb before you finally top out with about 9 miles left of downhill doubletrack, singletrack, and gravel at wide open speeds.

Rocky descent after Bacon Station

Keepin' it sunny side up

As I hit Dakota Ridge after losing a bunch of spots while fixing the flats, my goal switched to passing back as many people as I could and hopefully claw my way back up in both the overall and singlespeed standings. I passed a couple singlespeeds and a handful of other riders on Dakota Ridge as I blasted my way through the rocky terrain. Putting as much speed into the downhill as I dared, I chased down a few more riders before hitting the bottom and getting ready for the last longer climb of the day. I pre-rode this section on Saturday and also remembered it from last year as a good climb for me. I put my head down and churned my legs forward seeing a couple groups of riders sprinkled in front of me.

The last group of two going up the climb had a geared rider and singlespeeder both. I split the middle and tried to keep my speed up as I went through. The singlespeeder jumped on my wheel right away knowing I'd just put him 1 further position down. He definitely didn't make it easy for me and we stuck together through the top of the climb and onto the first doubletrack downhill section even as I tried to shake him loose in a couple spots. He went by me for a minute and I waited for a good shot to get back around. Nearing the crossing of Tinton road and back to the singletrack, I shot around him on a faster section and kept my cadence as fast as I could spin. I knew I needed to be first into the track given its dustiness and limited opportunities for passing. I didn't look back as we hit Tinton trail as I was determined to put as hard an effort as I could in making sure he'd either lose ground or have to flat outride me to get back by.

I railed the downhill with near reckless abandon and managed to keep myself barely upright in the process. I'd get a peek back every once in a while and I couldn't see my chaser. I had no clue how far back he was though and I was still hopeful I might catch another rider or two in this section so I kept full on the gas. Just before we popped back out on the road I came up on a final rider on a geared bike. He asked if I wanted the pass, but I knew we were about to hit the open road so I stayed behind him. I was hoping I could latch onto him for a draft down the hill knowing he'd most likely be able to outrun me. We both hit the gravel and I was about 10 feet off his wheel as we accelerated to max speed. Unfortunately I was just shy of being able to catch his draft and had to watch him pedal away even as I spun my legs like fan blades.

I focused on getting in my most aero tuck and keeping my hands off the brakes as I dropped like a stone down the gravel road. My speed peaked at just over 40 mph showing I'd at least learned a little more about being aero between this year and last. As I rolled into town, I could feel the energy being sapped from my body as I knew it was about over. I could see the geared rider not too far in front of me, but I lacked the will and energy to put any type of chase in figuring my placing was pretty well secure as I didn't have anyone breathing down my neck. I sat up and pedalled into the finish line happy to be done and completely spent from the effort.

Post race dirt bag:

I dropped my bike and went to start checking results. Initially I thought I had moved back to 5th singlespeed, but as it were, I ended up 6th and less than a minute back from being top 5. I've kicked myself a little for setting up at the end and wondering if I'd have been able to chase the last guy down. I probably could have closed the gap a little more, but I don't think I could've drug all the time back in the short period that I sat up.

54 seconds back finishing in 6th Singlespeed and 30th overall.

I've also done a fair bit of post race what-iffing trying to figure out what would've happened without those flats. Who knows?! I think I had a pretty solid lock on 4th place and probably 20th overall which would have been out of this world for me. In any case, I'm pretty damn satisfied with my performance and it always takes a little luck to finish well. Trevor rode a superb race and took the much deserved win. It was pretty cool to ride with him for as long as I did and then see him take it up another level to chase down the other two riders. Maybe one of these days, I'll have that kind of kick.

Post race beverages with Squirrel:

Photo credits to:

Black Hills Endurance

Patty W

Dakota 5-0 2012 recap part #1

Race data

Race results (6th SS)

Uggh, I'm so behind on doing any race recaps this year, though its not for lack of racing or lack of results. Hopefully I'll get a chance to catch back up on those once I get this beast out of my head. I went into the year with 2 big races on my calendar and a fair amount of smaller/shorter XC racing filling the gaps. Cheq 100 was my first big goal race, which I still need to recap as well and my 2nd shot at Dakota 5-0 was to be my second big race for the year.

I had roughly 2.5 months to get myself recovered, refocused, and ready for Dakota so it wasn't a quick turnaround by any means, but in turn it gave me almost too much time to the point that I really started fretting my self prescribed training plans and goals. It finally got to the point that a couple days before heading off to the race, I just tried to push all thoughts of goals, pacing, splits, etc out of my head and focus on going out to ride sweet trails and push myself hard through the race. Hopefully I'd come out the other side with a better time than last year and from there let the chips fall where they may. Once I made that call, I drew a pretty big sigh of relief and started getting more excited about racing versus just wanting to be done with the race.

Middle of nowhere South Dakota gas stop

Fuller and Squirrel were my compatriots for the 10 hour haul to get out to Spearfish. We opted to do the drive out as an overnight to roll into town early on Friday with plenty of time to get settled in, hang out, get a solid pre-ride, and relax a bit. We rolled the route from Tinton trailhead up to Aid station 1 before turning and bombing the downhill. Unfortunately, Squirrel got off in the loose fluff at the edge of the trail and introduced his wheel to the nearest tree. A taco'ed wheel was the result along with a slightly banged up Squirrel. We rolled the last mile or so pretty slowly as his wheel was still barely ridable. Once that bit of fun was out of the way, we managed to get a new wheel coming from Rasmussen's via some teammates that hadn't left town quite yet. Disaster averted, we found some good eats and a few beers before settling in for the night.

Rushmore Mountain Sports kicked butt with free beer for the racers!

Saturday, we rolled with even more teammates that had showed up (17+ member's flying the Rassy black at Dakota!) for a morning pre-ride. This time we headed up to the Aid 1 parking lot and would our way over to the Bacon Station to give the Dakota virgins a test ride of the most techy section of the course. We rolled down to the last fire road climb and then headed back to the vehicles for a nice short warm-up and shaking out of the legs for the last time before the real fun would begin the next morning. After a smooth time heading through packet pick-up, we spent the afternoon hanging out with friends and getting our final prep done before race rollout.

Lots of Rassy teammates

Bike is ready to roll.

As per my usual, I slept like crap the night before the race. Even with an early bed time, I woke up feeling like I got shorted on sleep from all the tossing, turning, and fretting in my head about the race. No choice now but to get things loaded up and give it a go. I had laid out everything and prepped as much as possible the night before to hopefully avoid missing anything in the morning rush. No issues there as all was good to go and we got to the race start in plenty of time for warmup and some nervous chit chatting before we lined up. Squirrel and I opted for a wave 1 start given that we both were figuring on being in under 5 hours. Since I was hoping to do better this year, I got in place early and ceded myself only a couple rows in from the front versus last year where I'd started around 8 rows back. I was really hoping the roll out would be a bit better for me this year. Last year it had gone off like a track start at 25 mph and I got passed by a ton of people before having to work my butt off on the gravel climb to pass them back.

Sitting about 3rd row in:

Rollout:

At 7:10, Smokey the Bear dropped his arm and we took off following the race director on his quad for the roll out of town. I got my legs moving pretty quickly and was sitting pretty comfortably in the top 25-30 through the rollout. I had on a bigger gear this year opting for my 19t cog which helped, but I think the pace might have been slightly slower as well. All in all, my legs weren't awesome, but they weren't dead either as we wound it up for the real racing to start at the gravel. My plan for the gravel was the same as last year, go hard, but don't blow up and get into the singletrack as far up the leaderboard as possible. I could see the fast guys getting themselves together for attacking the climb and I was still sitting pretty close at that point. As we got into the climb I kept checking my legs and my heart rate to see how both were doing. I had more left in the tank, so I kept jumping on some wheels and marking Trevor Rockwell who has been killing the SS enduro's this year. I just kept thinking that if I could stick close to him, I might be having a pretty good day.

On the meat of the opening climb, there was definitely some wind in play. I made a point to duck in and keep my nose out of it as often as possible and it seemed to help. I'd sit for a minute and then jump to another wheel as the faster guys would come around. We finally got close to the singletrack and I was sitting in a great position so I just opened it up and put a solid dig in to keep or maintain my spot. From the looks of the pictures, I went into the singletrack around 15th or so and was the first SS'er.  I knew from last year that I was able to ride all of the opening singletrack, but could also get some recovery as well as the pack would slow down for some of the more technical spots. Well, I'd blown the recovery portion out of the water as the leaders definitely weren't going to be waiting for anyone. I just had to go with it. I rode fast and hard, but tried to avoid really going over the top. Every time I looked down though, I could see my heart rate was about 10 beats higher than I wanted.

Headed to Tinton trail on Kelly Magelky's wheel:

Throughout the push to Aid #1 we selected down to a group of about 7-10 riders basically in the first chase group after the leaders. There were 3 singlespeeders in the pack with myself, Trevor, and another guy that we didn't know. For the most part, nobody really got dropped or changed positions here as we were all riding pretty close to the same pace. As we got to the aid station, I kept right on cruising after learning my lesson and stopping there the previous year. That had cost me close to 10 spots in the 30 seconds I stopped and I wasn't going to let that happen again. I'd figured on riding straight to Aid #2 with the liquid I was carrying before topping the bottles.

Railing after Big Hill/Aid #1

Still sitting pretty comfortably in the top 20, we motored the section after Big Hill and into some dusty open meadow singletrack. This is where I started having a few issues as it was so dusty that I dropped back from the guys in front of me to hopefully clear my vision a little in case there was something I needed to avoid. Eventually, I got gapped off the back just a little, but another rider came around and offered to give me a pull back to the group on one of the shallow meadow climbs. I stuck like glue to his wheel and slowly we rolled back onto the small group I'd been riding with.

Out in here, the race starts going fuzzy. I put my head down and pedalled. I was still riding tight on Trevor's wheel and one singlespeeder was out in front of us. I felt pretty good, but definitely knew it was time to start backing down the effort in hopes of maintaining my position. The notable portion of section 2 has to be Cardiac Climb. You scream down into a big drainage only to be routed straight back up the hill. I remember walking a good chunk of the climb last year. This year, I definitely rode more of it, but all 3 of us singlespeeders eventually hopped off and started the walking portion. I did try jogging more this year which I'm not sure how much really helped other than it made my calves and legs scream for mercy as I tried pushing on.

On over the top and through to aid station 2 I was still sticking tight to Trevor's wheel. Somewhere in here, I actually passed him and then just put in a steady hard effort all the way into the aid station. I was wondering just how much he had in the tank. I knew I was pushing my limits, but I was hoping maybe I'd be working on him as well.

Leading into aid 2:

Don't look behind you

As we rolled into aid 2, I had my plan off attack for refilling my bottles and getting moving in as little time as possible. What I didn't count on was the only water source being from the water tank that had been towed up. I rode straight past it and to the volunteer table where they only had cups of water/sports drink, but nothing to fill a bottle. I handed a girl my bottle and she ran to go fill it for me, but I lost precious seconds in my mistake as Trevor nailed the stop and got a 20 plus second gap on me. It wasn't the time to panic so I finished up my stop and focused on getting away clean and without losing anymore time.

Pics borrowed from:
Squirrel
Fuller
Blackhills Endurance
Patty W

Mullet Classic race report

Results

Race data- none because I forgot to charge my Garmin... DOH!

Following The Dakota 5-0 race I spent the next week vacationing with my family through the Black Hills. If you've never been there, its an awesome place to experience natures beauty at some of her best. Basically, I did nothing but site see, relax, hang with my ladies, and eat and drink everything in site for the better part of a week. I'd already used up my ride time for the pre-riding and racing so checking out more singeltrack by bike wasn't in the cards. In any case, all this adds up to a great recipe for going from peak racer geek fitness to touring pace rider pretty quick. Having a season that starts in February and goes through October makes for some pretty hard fought battles to keep up fitness towards the end of the season. I was fighting the downhill slide as much as anyone at this point feeling the drag of the long season.

As The Mullet Classic drew closer and registration opened, I had an interesting choice to make. I could sign up for my usual singlespeed class and race for IMBCS points and prizes or I could take on the marathon class and race for pride and $$$. Considering I wasn't eligible for the overall class win in the IMBCS and that I'd been training for and performing well over longer distances this year, I thought the possibility to earn some cash was a better fit for me. Of course, I also tried to push back the fact that I DNF'ed this same race after a scant 3.5 laps last year. I was ready for some redemption though and figured this would be a good opportunity.

Lake Ahquabi isn't what I would call a good singlespeed course in the fact that while it has climbing and descending, its wide open double track with a lot of flat and fast sections. I was having a pretty hard time wrapping my head around what gear to run here given all the variables. The weekend before the race, a few of us met for a pre-ride of the course. I stuck on 34x19 gearing figuring I'd be able to spin it fast enough on the flats and still fall back to a comfortable climbing pace as the laps wore on. After a race pace lap at 30 minutes, I felt pretty good with my choice and decided to stick with it for race day.

I tried resurrecting my training the couple weeks before the race with some longer solid efforts to mimic the time I'd be on the bike. The weather was cooperating perfectly and before I knew it, we were onto race day. As with previous years, this race had the biggest turnout of the year for any of our local MTB races with over 150 in attendance. I'd been watching the pre-registrants in my class all week and knew most of the names and who I should probably try to mark as the faster guys. Same as last year, the race drew a few strong roadies in addition to the usual dirt riders being that this course is much less about technical skill versus what we usually race on. As we lined up, I took a look around and noted only 1 other singlespeed in the marathon class. He was running a massive gear from the looks of it (I later found out it was 36x16). I wondered how long he'd be able to push it.

Bruce let us go at 11:45 to give us a 15 minute head start over the main field who would be headed off in waves starting at high noon. We had a nice pack take off and were pretty bunched up as we came through the opening tree section and headed back to the lake. Only a quarter mile into the race and the other singlespeed guy had already opened a lead and was out of site around the first bend. Not knowing him and seeing the gear he'd be pushing on the hills, I thought he'd eventually tire and come back to us. I marked Jerome who won this class last year and watched him shakily navigate through the first few corners since he's a roadie with some questionable handling skills. I was leading a train of 2 or 3 guys as we got back to the steep climb at the tail of the lake. I hit the climb hard and cleaned it while the guys behind me shifted down to make it up. At the top, I'd opened a small gap so I kept on the gas knowing there was a technical downhill right ahead. At the bottom of the downhill, I couldn't hear or feel anyone chasing me.

Starting the pain train on lap 1:

I put my skills and endurance training into action. I kept the pace high without going into the red zone and focused on riding fast and clean. As lap 1 wound to an end I was still on my own. Having come through the start finish in under 30 minutes for the lap, I was only 10 minutes or less behind some of the category racers that started at noon. I started catching and passing them pretty quickly into lap 2. As I got to the hilly section near the end of the lap I started hitting bigger crowds of riders. I got pretty aggressive in my passing and pushed my way into a couple spots where there really wasn't an opening for me, but being where I was in the race, I couldn't back down and being on a singlespeed as well, I couldn't afford to slow down and wait to get up the hills either.

Coming through the fast downhills of this section I sat back down and suddenly felt my seat pop and collapse under me. My carbon railed seat had finally given up the ghost. I'd heard it make a louder than usual pop earlier on lap 2, but tried not to think about it until this happened. I was only a 1/2 mile or so from the finish which included some climbing, so it wasn't too hard to get back to the finish, but what would I do once I got there? As luck would have it, I spotted Greg Rasmussen and Tom Anderson cheering people on at the start/finish area. I rolled through yelling at Tom that I needed the seat off his bike. I knew he'd just gotten the titanium railed version of the seat I was riding and had his bike on the car. I feel bad that I didn't ask him, but more demanded in the heat of battle. Luckily, he's a great guy and ran to get the needed parts as Greg and I started tearing off my now broken seat. Tom cam back with both post and seat so we just installed that versus switching out the seats. It took a couple shots, but we got the height pretty close and I took off on lap 3 after losing an unknown number of spots.

I was in full chase mode now, but I knew I had a long ways to go as well. I went back to riding fast and clean, but the adrenaline rush was spiking me into the redline as well now. The next couple of laps are pretty much a blur, but I would see racers ahead and work on reeling them in as quickly as possible. I wasn't sure who was in my class at this point, but I wanted as many people behind me as possible. Near the end of lap 4 I passed another racer in my class. He thought he was in 3rd or 4th spot at the time so I knew I was gaining some ground.

At the end of lap 4, my second mishap of the day happened. I came flying down the meadow above the start/finish area into a nasty little dip section that runs you across the corner of the parking lot. As I hit the drop, my left foot came unclipped and I found myself horrifyingly loose on top of the bike coming hard into a compression area. My foot slammed the ground, my body compressed, and my jewels took the brunt of the impact on top of the seat. I managed to stay up on my wheels and kind of surfed to a stop across the pavement. An apparently horrified onlooker came running over and asked what she could do for me. I was gasping for breathe and trying to clear the stars out of my vision when another friend also asked what he could do. There wasn't much left for me to do or say, so I got back on my bike and starting pedaling again. It definitely took the wind out of me, but I wasn't throwing in the towel. In the meantime, the rider behind me had gotten back by and now I was chasing him again.

I caught and passed him again on lap 5 and I also came across Kent Carlson who was cramping pretty hard by the looks of it. At that point I was pretty sure I was in 3rd spot with Jerome and Eric still out in front by an unknown margin. I was cramping by this point too, but I kept pushing on as hard as I could. The hills were really starting to take it out of me though. As I started lap 6 I couldn't see anyone ahead or behind me. I buried it as much as possible this lap thinking I would be done at the end and if I could see someone, I'd try to chase them down. As I cleared the dam for the last time, I still couldn't see anyone so I knew catching up would be pretty much impossible. I backed it down at this point to save myself from the cramps that were now dominating my focus. I rolled to the end of the lap without seeing another person and gratefully was told it was after 3 so my riding time was done. I found out later that Jerome was forced to quit at the end of lap 5 due to a broken chain, so I ended up 2nd behind a super strong Eric Brunt on the other singlespeed who came over from Nebraska to lay the smack down.

All in all, I had a great race and executed my plan very well. Short of the seat and ball issues, it was about a perfect race. I don't think I could have gotten 1st given how strong Eric was riding, but I definitely felt like I had the legs and stamina for where I placed especially given the issues I had.

Photo credit- Steve Fuller

Dakota Five-O Race Report

Race data

Race results

My "A" race for the season this year ended up being the Dakota Five-O. Of course, I think thats a bit of a misnomer in itself as I usually try to treat every race I'm going to pony up cash to participate in as an "A" race. If you're not going to give it your all, why are you on the line? I digress, it was still my most looked forward to race of the year for multiple reasons. A number of friends have headed to the wilds of Spearfish over the previous years and come back to tales of how undeniably awesome this race was. Add in that it would be my biggest race ever in respect to the number of participants, my first big race on the singlespeed, racing against a bunch of friends and you've got a serious recipe for wanting to have a great race.

Iowa peeps representin'

As luck would have it, my wife and girls were able to join me for the trip and turn this into our family vacation as well. We took off Thursday so we could make an overnight trip out of the 12 hour drive so the girls wouldn't get too cooped up in the car. I was planning to get there Friday in time to do a solid pre-ride for part of the course and then go back out on Saturday for a light spin of the legs and a little more recon. For me, it proved to be the perfect plan. Friday, I got dropped off at the Tinton trailhead opting to skip the opening 3ish mile gravel climb that would be part of the start. I've got plenty of gravel experience so climbing 3 miles worth of it wasn't going to gain me anything over driving it. I really wanted to check out this sweet singletrack I'd been hearing so much about.

Race prep had me looking at various elevation charts and distances to time stations, etc. I figured a good warm up would be to ride to the first aid station from the trail head and then downhill it back before meeting my ladies for dinner. I saddled up and hit the dirt to find a mix of dirt, limestone rockiness, short steep climbs, longer power climbs, and rolling terrain through some breathtaking scenery.

Crows Peak backdrop:

I rolled through my pre-ride toward checkpoint 1 with very little descending and a good chunk of climbing. The steeper sections were a good workout, but not overly difficult in this section, but the real treat for me were the extended gradual grades. With my gearing at 34x20, I could power through them at a good cadence and not overtax myself. After topping out at the checkpoint, I was looking forward to the ripping descent that awaited me. I pointed the bike back down the trail and was grinning ear to ear as I flew down the trail in what can best be described as a speed not recommended for having your big race in 2 days... I let it hang pretty far out as I was having so much fun.

Finally I hit the gravel back towards town and was planning to meet the girls somewhere on it. I ripped down one hill, then another, and then another. Sensing I didn't recognize the scenery, I whoaed up and realized in my zeal to fly back into town, I'd headed down 1.5 too many hills and missed my turn. Ooops! I turned back around and grunted my way back to the turnoff where my chariot was awaiting to run us back into town for some dinner.

I felt really good on the pre-ride and was starting to really look forward to having a good race. After all my skimming and researching, I was thinking I'd shoot for a sub 5:30 hour ride time as a good goal for having a solid race. I felt pretty confident I could hit that time and maybe a little better. As Saturday rolled around, I hit packet pick-up and sent out the call for another pre-ride and easy spin that afternoon. Tom and Maria answered the call and we decided to head further up the trail and pre-ride part of the course starting at Aid 1 since I could give them a preview of what was leading up to that part.

We got a pretty nice and easy spin in and turned back just before the big drop into Iron Creek drainage and the subsequent uphill known as "Cardiac Climb". The course was shaping up to have pretty much every type of terrain and track you could imagine. I was really stoked about racing at this point. Tom and I chatted a bit more about the race and he'd been geeking over numbers and reports even more than me. After that, he shared his race goal with me and laughed at mine thinking I was pretty handily going to be able to beat that effort and I should up the anty a bit. I think I stepped it up to something around 5 hours as my goal from that discussion. We killed off the rest of the day and I tried to hit the hay relatively early, but sleep wouldn't come easily. I was excited and nervous about such a big race and being a first timer. I really wasn't sure what to expect from myself, my fitness, or my race plan. Only time would really tell.

Race rig:

Just a gentle reminder it's going to suck at some point (Sometimes "fun" hurts pretty f*ing bad):

The morning rolled in damn chilly with a low 40's start temp forecasted. I got bundled up with a coat for the 3 mile downhill from our hotel to the start since the girls would be sleeping in versus getting up at 6 with me. I kept going through my race plan in my head to keep myself focused on what I needed to do and help forget about the chill in the air. As I lined up for the start I stripped down to just arm warmers in addition to my Rassy kit. I ended up stage about 6 or so rows back from the start and had a good view of all the horsepower sitting on the start line. Finally, Smokey the Bear dropped his arm and we were off for our "neutral" start. I was almost instantly spun out for the neutral roll out at close to 20mph.

Let the pain fun begin!:

I wasn't anticipating such a fast start for sure. I'd done a small warm up, but had been sitting on the line for close to 20 minutes and my legs weren't going to be able to really respond without overstressing them. I spun fast, but watched probably 50+ riders surge away as I struggled with the pace. It wasn't a great omen for the opening neutral mile of the race, but I stuck to it and kept as quick a pace as I could. Just before the neutral section comes to an end is Hill street. It's a 90 degree left into a steep uphill. As luck would have it, being back a bit in the field, I had an open enough line that I could carry a ton of momentum into the hill. Tag that along with singlespeed climbing power and I quickly passed back a good 20+ people inside of a block. Maybe it wasn't going to be such a bad day after all.

I started settling into the pack and could see a big mass of riders moving up ahead stretching for a couple blocks already as we hit the end of the neutral start and opened up the racing. The gravel climb started and it was a bit of a relief for me. My plan was to hit the gravel progressively harder as we climbed and I warmed up and topping out somewhere in the midst of Z4 when we got to the singletrack. I'd already passed a couple teammates at this point and was tailing a few others. I began picking off a number of people as the gravel steepened and I warmed through. A few riders got past me, but for the most part I was gaining positions much faster than I was losing them. I could now see the "fast guys" group had separated and was a solid 1/4 mile up the road with a pack of 20ish guys duking it out. I held my plan and all too quickly I found myself at the end of the gravel and ready for the singletrack attack.

Get all the spots you can:

I tried to sneak a couple more spots as we hit the singletrack figuring the slinky effect would be full on with this many riders. Sure enough, there was a definite drop in pace as everyone filed into the narrow stripe of dirt. I'd dug a good bit into my heart rate and the slow down was actually a good chance to get it back under control for a bit and something I'd halfway counted on happening. I figured a race of this size, entry into the track would be paramount, but I was also hoping I could place myself far enough up to avoid having to actually stop and wait. I ended up right on for placement and I figure I was roughly top 50 into the singletrack at this point.

Having ridden this section of track, I knew we were going to be pretty limited in passing for a bit so I made sure to keep my pace steady and avoid trouble as much as I could. As luck would have it for me, I'd gotten into the track just a couple spots back of local singlespeed stud Kent Carlson. I cued off of him and shortly was on his wheel as the couple riders separating us had bobbles that I could get around. All of a sudden, Kent was on the ground and I was slamming my brakes to avoid him. Luckily we were on a pretty slow paced section of trail and he was able to jump right back up and keep rolling without any riders getting by. A scant 20 yards or so down the trail though and it sounded like shotgun going off as his front tire blew off the rim. I slowed for a few seconds trying to ascertain my options of stopping to help or sticking to my own race. I hollered to see if he had everything and Kent seemed a bit rattled at this point saying he didn't know for sure. I knew he didn't appear to be hurt and hoped he had everything he needed in form of tube, CO2, etc to get him moving again so I decided I needed to keep rolling.

I got back on the gas and tailed it up to the chain of guys we'd been following prior to the crash and blowout. The going was still fast and slow as people of different riding styles and skills were working their way through. We finally got to some double track climbing areas and I put the pedal down hard making my way past 5-10 riders in just a couple sections. I also took advantage of a couple open meadow sections to further my position. Quicker than I was anticipating, Aid station #1 came upon us. I decided to use bottles for this race figuring the aid stations were close enough to make quick stops at each and not have to deal with the excessive low back pain from my camelback. I hopped off the bike and tossed a packet of Accelerade in my half empty bottle before a worker quickly topped it off. I was stopped less than a minute, but close to 10 guys probably passed me like a locomotive in that short period.

Rolling into aid 1:

I hopped back on and grabbed a few shot blocks as I hit the easy section right after the aid station. After Aid 1 the sections start to blur together with a few notable exceptions. The downhills leading up to Cardiac climb were awesome being a mix of open pasture type track and wooded downhills. With suspension on the front, I could let it rip pretty well wide open on the downhills without too much worry. Cardiac Climb itself kicked my butt. I rode the first section or so, but as soon as the grade really pitched up over 10%, I got off to walk. I walked steady, but still pretty slow. I think I could cut a decent amount of time just by picking up my pace to a faster walk or even a slow jog. I will say that the walking was a nice break from the constant turnover of the pedals and I felt pretty secure in the fact that not too many of the SS guys were going to be riding all of the climbs without expending serious amounts of energy.

The section to Aid 2 definitely had more downhill than section 1, but I think it still had just as much climbing including some pretty serious steeps that had me off the bike more than once. I rolled into aid 2 with just over half a bottle gone again and about 2:15 or so off the clock. I remembered Tom had told me most people can double their time to aid 2 and add about 5-10 minutes as a good way to figure out their finishing time. I did the quick math in my head and realized how good of a day I was having on the bike. I still felt pretty strong and even though I didn't know for sure what lay ahead, it shouldn't any worse than what I'd already been through at this point since we had to start back down eventually.

Still grinning at Aid 2:

After aid 2, it was definitely looking better as there was less climbing and more descending. My speed picked up a bit in this section as I was able to let it roll. I also spent less time walking my bike! It was a short hop to Aid 3 and it caught me by surprise how quickly I rolled up to it knocking just over 30 minutes off the clock. Again, I had barely touched my bottle, but opted for one more refill.

I think this is leaving Aid 3:

The next section to Aid 4 was arguably one of the most fun of the whole course as it was dominated by a nearly 2 mile high speed downhill on some fire road. Coming out of Aid 3 was a short climb and I looked back to see a Rassy jersey closing in. I was pretty confused as to who it might be. I'd been having a great day on the bike so either someone else was having an even better day or something was afoot since I hadn't seen another team rider since Kent flatted back at the start of the singletrack. Jed came ripping past me just as we were nearing the top of the climb and getting ready to fly down the doubletrack. I'd later find out he and a train of 8 or so guys had taken a wrong turn and got about 4 bonus miles in. Ouch!

Between Aid 3 and 4?:

The fire road downhill is hard to describe, but it was flat out screaming fast, exhilarating, and scary all at once. I was coasting much faster than I was geared for so I tucked into an aero crouch and I passed a number of guys on this section by letting it all hang out. The dust from the front runners hung in the air making it nearly impossible to see what was coming up in time to prep for it at those speeds. The best you could hope for is to watch someone in front of you and see how smooth they looked and hope for the best. I hit one washout spot and felt the bike go sideways under me for a split second before gathering it back up. That was really the only super scary spot of the run, but it was more than enough to leave me shaky. All too soon though, we had flown through that section and were now into Aid 4.

At Aid 4, I had only taken a few sips off my bottle so I didn't need anything other than to gulp a quick cup of water. I had plenty of water on board to make the final sections considering I had yet to touch my second bottle. Hooray for carrying an extra few pounds through the entire race... Aid 4 is strategically placed at the base of a nasty climb. I didn't even think twice before walking my bike over to the climb and starting up on foot. I knew salvation lay somewhere at the top of this climb though. The fabled bacon station was the next (and last) stop available. I won't lie, a nice cold beer sounded pretty damn good at this point in the ride. I mixed riding and walking in here as there was pretty much nothing but climbing in this section. I got passed by a few people, but overall, I still was holding pretty tight to my overall position figuring I was somewhere in the top 100 or so pretty easily.

As we climbed and climbed, I could start to hear loud music and people hollering about. Pretty soon, it was bacon station time. As I rolled in the festivities were in full swing with all the people partying and carrying on. I wasn't too sure about the bacon handups since I still felt pretty good and didn't want to mess things up. The ice cold PBR was a different story though as I slammed a cup of that tasty nectar. I rolled in less than a minute and soon found myself in the most technical section of the course. The trails turn to rocky technical singletrack here with lots of pitches, drops, and tight sections. I passed a few riders balking at this section with my decent technical skills. Finally, we rolled into some downhill, but I did find myself off the bike at least once in this section as we crawled up a high point with Crow Peak as a spectacular backdrop. I actually stopped here and waited for my phone to come to life so I could snap the picture I posted up top with the peak in the background.

As soon as that was done, it was pretty much business from here on out. The last climb of the day was another forest service road grade that I was able to hit pretty hard. I put some time into the few guys I was riding with at this point and soon found myself alone again. About the time I thought we'd be do for some more climbing, I was rewarded with a sign noting it was all downhill from here. I was pretty stoked at this point knowing I had the opportunity to turn in a great time and gave it all I had left. I attacked the downhills just on the razor edge of safe and kicked it pretty hard on the few short steeps that were left to go. We were back onto the Tinton trail at this point and having ridden it a couple times now, I felt pretty good about opening it up.

A couple guys still got by me, but for the most part I was on my own and flying. Finally, I hit the gravel downhill to town. Having plenty of gravel experience, I put everything I had into tucking low and flying for all I was worth. I caught a geared bike and drafted him to slingshot around. We also had a SUV try to pass us, but I wasn't about to let that happen and suck his dust all the way to town so I swung wide as he was waiting for an opportunity to get by. Of course it helped that we were running over the speed limit at this point as well. I think he got the hint though and backed off to let me and the geared guy feed off each other as we went down. I finally got a bit of a gap just before we hit the pavement and as we climbed the couple small hills back to the finish line, I just powered through them like I was big ringing it putting him a ways behind.

Heading down that finishing shoot with hundreds of people lining the street was something new for me. I just had a pure rush of adrenaline come coursing through my body as I smiled from ear to ear. Having my girls there cheering me on made it so much sweeter as well.

Waiving to my ladies:

Into the finish line:

To say I was riding high as I finished would be completely understated. I was excited beyond belief and knew I'd just had one of my best races ever. All of my equipment performed flawlessly, my ride plan was near perfect, my training was spot on, and it all came together in perfect harmony. I can't say enough for everyone from my family, my riding/training buddies, and all my support from Rasmussen Bike Shop, Ergon International, and Genuine Innovations. I ended up 8th in the singlespeeds and roughly 50th overall. For those that haven't had the chance to do this race, it needs to be on your must do list. I can't say enough good things about how fun the course is, how great the people are, and the overall atmosphere.

24 hours of Seven Oaks race report

Race Data

Results

Actually, its the 12 hours of Seven Oaks race report for me this year. This race got bumped down a bit on my must do list after doing the 4 man 24 hour version the previous two years. The format seems to be losing steam in regards to what type of racing people want to do and attendance has been on a downward slide even in the short time I've been involved. This year was no different even with various changes trying to drum up more racers including moving the date, start time, and more promotion. I decided to race the 2 man 12 hour version of the race thinking it would fit well with my training and fitness. Originally, I'd planned to race with fellow team mate Jason A, but due to some scheduling conflicts, he wasn't going to be able to race. As luck would have it, another team member in the form of Kent C was looking to race and filled the spot perfectly as we'd both be riding rigid singlespeeds.

Race ready Selma under 19lbs

Ready for battle with a backup:

Rassmussen race HQ ready to rock!

 Kent (being that he runs on occasion) was selected to take the opening lap due to the LeMans style start. I think we bypassed the usual gravel road climb this year and instead went the XC route of heading out through the grass field before looping back to the singletrack.

Run like your life depends on it!

Kent and I came in to the race pretty confident that we'd do well, but its always a crapshoot with variables of weather, unknown entrants, and mechanical issues that can spring up. That being said, our plan was to go hard and develop a lead over the first 4 laps since we were trading off each lap. While the two man format proved to be a bit painful towards the end, I actually liked it towards the start of the race. I had time to rest for a few minutes, get my new bottle ready, and I kept a bit of a running tab on my status updates as a way of looking back to see how things went. I can't remember the exact gear I ran for this race, but I'm thinking it was my 34x21 figuring that I'd need as many teeth as I could get by the last couple of laps.

Kent put in a fast 1st lap and had a small gap for us to work with as I hit it hard. As it ended up, we were the only 2 man 12 hour team so while we still wanted to give it a hard effort, it afforded me the opportunity to try out some different race tactics. I've always hit Boone all out every lap during my previous races. It never fails to hit me back equally as hard and by the end of each lap, its a mercy killing to be headed back down and ready to trade off. Just a couple weeks back, the XC race had my fastest lap at 42:53 with the same bike and a shorter course. My first lap for this race returned a 40:59 which is by far the fastest I've ever turned here whether XC or 24 hour racing. The difference was my approach to the course. I basically let it come to me and increased my intensity through the course instead of giving everything I had at the start and trying to survive at the end. I road the opening climb at a steady pace and then held myself in check through most of the lower loop. Once I hit the upper loop, I found I had plenty of strength left and could use that power to propel myself into the hills and clear them with minimal effort. Comparatively speaking, before, I'd be gassed by that point and have to pedal up the hills as I didn't have the strength to build momentum before hitting them. As I cleared lap 1, I felt fantastic.

Kent and I had a secured position so it was all for fun at this point. I decided to run a few more full out race laps just to test my theory that it was indeed faster for me to ride this way. I was rewarded with more fast laps and also a number of completely clean laps where I didn't have to get off the bike or even put a foot down on course. For me, that made me just as happy as the fast lap times. Boone is a technically challenging course and it gets tougher each year as mother nature wreaks havoc on the course. It had been at least a year since I'd been able to turn a completely clean lap.

After 3 laps, Kent talked me into backing it down since he'd been riding for fun at that point. I dialed the wick way back and found out something pretty quickly. At the slower speeds, I was having a harder time getting around the course. It was easier for me to ride at the faster speed with all the climbing. At a slow speed, each grind up a hill was taking more out of my legs than speeding over it. So, for my last 2 laps, I turned the wick back up for some more fun. On lap 5 I took off with my friend Andy who was out having some fun and decided to test his legs out. We were having fun pushing each other and it was nice to have someone push me during a lap. At this point I was definitely feeling the climbs and the general roughness of the course.

After lap 5, I knew I was going to call it with 6 laps. We had tons of time left on the clock, but with nobody else in our class and having lapped the field, I didn't really see a reason to put more strain on my body and race into the night. I still had my A race of the season coming up in 2 weeks so this was meant to be more of a solid shakedown ride versus a true beat down. In a stroke of mad genius, I had Andy call over to the nearest town and see if Godfather's Pizza would deliver us a pie. Sure enough, while I was out on my last lap, they came through and I was sweetly rewarded at the end.

Mmm, spoils of victory!

I thought Kent only went out for 1 more lap than me, but the final count shows he did 8 laps. Crazy! Its awesome to have a race partner that is equal or better than you though and he certainly was every bit of that. I feel pretty lucky I've got a number of team mates that I ride and race with that are such strong riders. On any given day there's a large contingent that have the ability to podium in their categories. I definitely had a great time racing this year in the 12 hour format. The race ended at 10pm so I was even able to pack up and head back home to sleep in my own soft bed for the night. Next up- Dakota 5-0 (my A race for the year!)

Boone XC race report

Race data

I tend to be wordy in my posts. Writing my experiences on the bike down is my way of decompression. I'll try to be a bit more brief on these two races considering they were sandwiched in between two of my bigger events for the year which unfortunately for you, the reader, I'll be delving into full detail for.

The Boone XC race is one of my more interesting races on a yearly basis. Running full tilt on this course for multiple laps in a row is a surefire way to find yourself knee deep in pain. Add in the singlespeed factor for this year and I had no clue what to expect. I knew I'd be lining up against a number of guys I respect for speed and ability and hoped I could hang with them given the limited amount of short course racing I'd done up to this point. We had a pretty small group for the start which made it a bit easier to get a fair spot into the woods after our usual out and back on the grass field below the ski hill. I hit the woods sitting around 10th or a shade better with a few experts leading the charge and a few others from the comp class stacked in as well. The comp guys aren't in my class, but I consider them direct competition as it's the class I'd be racing if I hadn't determined earlier that I wanted to stick to the singlespeed class. I have a feeling next year, we may all be lumped into one group anyway.

We're off:

The first climb into the singletrack is always a soul crusher as you wind up and up twisting until you're about 2/3 to the top of the ski hill before diving back to the bottom again. We started out at a hard but relatively manageable pace in the first part of the course. Watching Kyle (also on SS) snake by a few riders and making his way towards the front, I marked him as much as possible. In my mind (and a few others I'm sure), he's without a doubt one of the fastest guys lap for lap at Boone. I stayed close on his wheel through the first half of the lap before catching an opening when he spun on a root. I tried to take advantage of putting a couple guys between us and opening a gap, but it took a lot out of me in the process. As we hit the line for lap 1 I had maybe a 20-30 second gap on him as I took off for lap two.

Nearing the base of the powerline cut on lap 2 Kyle was holding tight on my wheel as I started slowing down on the flat sections to hopefully conserve some energy and recover from hammering out lap 1. He asked for the pass and I gladly let him go to run my own pace. As soon as he was out of site, it was a done deal and he went on to take the comp class win by a pretty fair margin. I should mention that he also rides singlespeed so in reality, he took both wins. Good thing its not scored that way though! Lap 2 was pretty uneventful other than the constant kick in the nuts that Boone provides free of charge with each race entry. I did find myself walking a few of the steeper hills at this point with my legs screaming for a break.

Rolling:

By the time I rolled into lap 3 I was about ready for this thing to be done with. I did my best to put in a hard effort again, but cramps were starting to close in every time I tried really upping the effort. I was still walking some sections and felt like I was barely trudging along. I guess it was a real welcoming to the rigors of racing with 1 gear. I felt like I must be losing huge amounts of time both to Kyle in front of me and the rest of the pack behind me. I never did get passed though and managed to hang on for 1st singlespeed and what would've been 2nd in the comp class by about 5 minutes back of Kyle.

All told, I was really happy with my gearing selection, race effort, and finishing spot. Given that I hadn't been really focused on XC efforts, it was definitely nice to have a solid race.

Breck-68 race report

Race results

Race data

Having ridden in Breckenridge, Colorado the past 2 years on a recreational basis, I wasn't sure I'd ever want to race there. Coming from an elevation of 1,000 feet going to over 9,500 feet inside of the town and pretty much heading up anywhere else you ride is sure way to make you feel weak in the knees. Add in the challenge of the terrain being more technical than most of what we find in the midwest and you've got the recipe for some really fun riding, but a possible recipe for disaster when you start thinking about a race effort.

Adam and Jason ready to roll out:

An invite from Jason at the last quarter rage to possibly go race the Silver Rush 50 in Leadville and some subsequent follow up found me headed to Colorado. Another friend, Adam, was planning to go and race the Breck-68 that same weekend so we decided to all ride out together. I opted for the 68 over the Silver Rush based on some feedback about the 68 having better trails and more singletrack. Plus, I had ridden a number of the trails at least partially in the past 2 years and felt like I knew the area and terrain well enough that I at least had some idea of what to expect even though this by all counts looked to be the tougher of the two races.

I spent the next month trying to figure out how I was going to survive 68 miles of high elevation singletrack with 9,000' of climbing. I figured my best bet was to go at it with the same mindset that worked for me at Almanzo. Pace out my effort and try to ensure a finish within the alotted time. I knew there wasn't any way for me to truly put down a race type effort at those elevations, so I was much better off making sure I finished as my goal for the race. I've seen what altitude can do to friends when trying to put out a hard effort and it isn't pretty. I poured back over my rides from the past 2 years trying to piece together what gear and supplies I'd need to take with me. One alarming bit of info I figured out was that the longest distance I'd ever ridden out there was about 40 miles in a single day. Granted, we ride at a pretty casual pace, regroup often, and drop back to town for lunch, but still, I was about to double my biggest day.

Mountain High:

My usual gear for day tripping around Breck is a fully stocked 70oz camelback with all sorts of food and gear like first aid kit, emergency blanket, extra clothes, and repair parts. Add in a stocked bike with 2 more bottles and a loaded seat bag and you've got a lot of extra weight to lug around. I knew I had to pare that down to the minimum, but where would I draw the line between minimal gear that would get me through the race and not find me stranded along the trail somewhere. Having the opportunity to use drop bags gave me a little relief on how much I felt I needed to drag along on my back. I still went heavier than I needed to, but I felt safe about my choices. I stuck with a camelback with water, a wide selection of food choices in it, and a few minor odds and ends. I had 2 bottles of Accelerade on the bike, a spare tube, multi-tool, and a trio of the new 20 gram CO2 cartridges from Genuine Innovations. I also had their x-mount with a microflate nano and another cartridge on it. Considering I was rolling tubeless on a brand new set of Specialized Captains, I felt pretty safe when it came to flatting. Beyond that, its hard to really plan on all the things that Colorado trails can throw at a bike. I tried to prep minimally with a few small spare parts and a good multi-tool.

Bastardized Selma (gears and suspension) is ready to roll out:

After driving throught the night, Adam, Jason, and I hit ground zero around 6 in the morning arriving in Silverthorne. After we grabbed a quick bite for breakfast, we dropped some goods at our friend Andy's place and caught the rest of the tour stage for the morning. We finally geared up and hit the trails for a solid pre-ride of our first loop late in the morning. Reading the course notes I'd printed out, we hit a series of steep switchbacks out of Carter Park to start our ride. Nary a minute into our pre-ride and we're already maxing our efforts out hitting the switchbacks and puffing along. Adam was pretty sure we wouldn't have to do this route as they had started with a road climb before hitting the singletrack last year. Luckily he was right as only the guys doing the 100 mile course would have to climb the switchbacks.

Preride stop at Sally Barber Mine:

We rolled the first section of the course up to aid station 1 and rolled back to Breck mid afternoon. Finding ourselves ready for some sustenance, I suggested we hit up Fatty's pizza for a large pie and a pitcher. Feeling revived after our meal, we plotted out another short loop for Friday to recon a little more of the route before we hit packet pick up. We ended up doing a really short pre-ride of 45 or so minutes on Friday, but got a feel for the first small singletrack climb on loop 2 and were pretty comfortable with it.

Over a spectacular homemade lasagna dinner made by Adam's brother's fiancee on Friday evening, he and I plotted out some strategy. He was riding singlespeed and I opted to gear up my Selma for the race. His wave started a few minutes back of mine, but we decided to roll out together and stay together for the race to help pace and push each other. Soon enough, it was time to hit the sack and see if we could get some sleep. With our race not starting until later in the morning, we had the opportunity to sleep in a little and stop to grab some breakfast muffins on the way to the start. True to form, I could only choke down about half a sandwich, some juice, and not much else. I always fight to get a decent breakfast before a morning race start.

Race morning in Carter Park:

Adam and I got our gear together and rolled up to find his brother who was working as neutral race mechanic at Carter Park. We dropped some gear at his tent before doing some minor warm-up and finding our way over to the ice rink where we'd be starting. The initial rollout had us ascending Boreas Pass Road to a short cut off to hit the Barney Ford trail head. Finally we hit the road after watching the first 4 or so waves take off. We rolled about 20 strong with singlespeeders and some age groupers in our wave. Adam and I slotted ourselves near the front as we hit the slow climb. My legs didn't feel too bad right out of the gate, but mostly I was worried about warming them up thoroughly without hammering it too quickly and paying dearly for it hours down the road. As we neared the last push uphill before the turn to the trailhead, Adam was turning over his gear a bit faster than I was ready to spin and pulled out in front by a few riders. Just as we got near the turn, I had one rider in front and a bus pulling up next to me. Not sure what to do, I pushed the pace and passed the rider while shooting the gap between he and the bus so I could make the turn without getting hung up in all the riders we'd rolled past.

Adam hit the track about 4 or so riders in front of me trying to get some room to roll and keep his momentum. As soon as we hit the singletrack, the accordian effect started. We slowed way down and started the game of asking to pass or finding a way to take a line. I was pretty patient to begin with, but after being stopped a time or two on relatively easy terrain, I was ready to get after it a bit myself. Finally, we hit the open area of trail with a wider straight section and I jumped on the wheel of 2 other guys. We rolled past probably 10+ people in a short 1/2 mile or less section before we got back into the tight and twisty sections. As we rolled the next section of short and punchy climbs, traffic was still a bit backed up, but not quite as frustrating as before. I got around a few more riders and let a few others by, but I was riding everything pretty well as we rolled up to Sally Barber mine and our first nice downhill. Adam and gone ahead on this section and we'd planned a rendezvous at Aid 1.

I hit the descent and let it hang out as far as I dared. I love the fire road descents as they feel like they can go on forever. I knew we'd be paying soon enough though as the next section of trail contained a tough climb called Little French. At least having pre-ridden it on Thursday, I knew what was coming. I'd ridden probably 90% on that day and vowed I'd ride less of it for the race as to hopefully avoid cooking myself a scant 10 miles into the race. I rode where it felt good and walked where it felt better. I still passed some people and of course I got passed by some people, but I was sticking to the plan. As we got near the top of Little French, we jumped off on a flume trail that had our first real contour riding of the day as we'd just been going up or down until now. It was a bit of a relief to actually just pedal and ride at this point. It also didn't hurt knowing we had another killer downhill fire road at the end of this trail that would lead us into aid 1.

I watched Adam fly down this hill on our pre-ride and tried to lay off the brakes as much as possible. I found myself descending with a gal who was running pretty close to the same speeds as I. We were both whooping and hollering from the sheer thrill and fun. We were about halfway down when we came up on a dirt bike headed down as well. We were choking on his dust as he'd goose it and jump the water bars and then slow down to go in search of the next obstacle in the road. We were headed down faster than he was and had to wait for a few sections before we could finally sneak past him. I think we caught him a bit off guard as we headed by. Finally we rolled down to the aid station and I spotted Adam.

He was still smiling, but said he thought his day might be done. He'd rounded a corner on the last downhill and smacked into another dirt bike headed up the hill. His bike was essentially ok with a bent seat rail, but his ankle had taken a huge impact and was swelling rapidly. I filled my bottles back up and topped off my camelback. I also learned an important lesson at the same time. Pay close attention to what you use to fill your bottles and bladders if there is more than water available. While I got the water I needed to mix more Accelerade in my bottles, I accidentally filled my camelback with a watered down HEED mixture. I've found HEED to be a near sure fire way to cause me to bloat up and stop being able to race. So, I was down to my 2 bottles to get me to the next aid station where I could dump the mix and refill it with water.

Adam and I rode up to the start of the Colorado Trail section when he pulled to the side. I stopped to see if there was anything I could do. He said he was just going to try to work it out and go slow, but that I should head on. Seeing he was still moving, I decided it was my best bet to go ahead and move at my own pace. I'd ridden this section of the trail the previous year and knew I was in for a long, but not overly technical or hard climb before being rewarded with one of the best descents I've ever ridden. I swear those miles seemed to drag forever having a number of miles already in my legs and trying to grind my way up this long drag. I was passing some of the 100 mile riders in amongst the other 68 riders and also starting seeing the 32 mile guys go flying past on a regular basis. The 100 milers were pretty distinctive in their mud covered kits and hollowed out looks in their eyes. I was a bit envious of the 32 mile riders buzzing by and knowing they'd be done in a short 15 miles.

As we crested the hill and started into the meat of the descent, I found myself in a bit of an unfamiliar spot as I was actually outrunning people going down the hill. I think I descend pretty well, but these aren't my home trails and I'm trying to stay on the cautious side of speed. A few riders gave me the go ahead as we ran through the switchbacked descent and I let go of the brakes and felt the rush of speed take over. All too soon, I found myself at the bottom of the hill and rode into Aid 2 at the Dredgeboat trailhead. I took a pretty long break at this point and sat down long enough to get a quick recharge before I was able to get some fresh water into my camelback, stuff some food into my face, and reload my bottles. I was hoping if I rested long enough, Adam might pop back into view and we could hit the trail together. After 10 or 15 minutes, I knew I needed to roll and I hadn't seen him yet.

I rolled the last section of loop 1 headed back to the start/finish area at Carter Park. I really didn't know what to expect from this section as I didn't think I'd ridden any of it in previous trips. Luckily, this section didn't throw any hard climbs or overly technical sections at us. It still had plenty of climbing with a few short steep sections, but for the most part, it was relatively tame with some gravel and road climbing in a few areas along with some nice sections of singletrack. The clouds rolled in and we started to have some rain spit on me here and there as turned the pedals. It was clearing back up again as I headed into Carter Park for the end of my first loop.

Brutal lap 1:

Stats:

I rolled into the park and looked for Adam's brother to tell him about the accident. I drug out my supply bag and somewhat methodically re-filled my camelback with supplies in prep for the upcoming loop. I took a couple minutes to use the restroom and snap a quick picture of the loop 1 stats for a quick post to facebook letting my family know I was still kicking and getting ready to move out. After another 15 minutes or so, I was just getting ready to roll out when I saw Adam rolling in. He looked to be in pretty good spirits overall, but conceded his day was done for sure. Knowing I was on my own at this point, I quickly rolled back out and into the fray again.

I worked to get some food and water down before the climbing of loop 2 hit. I knew the first singletrack climb wasn't bad, but Indiana jeep road turned out to be a killer hike-a-bike for me as it really got steep, loose, and wet the higher we went. Finally, we topped out of that section and onto Boreas Pass Road a couple miles from the top. For the first time, I could see some riders heading back towards home from the lead pack of guys. I shouted encouragement to Kerkove who was having what looked to be a pretty solid day on the bike. Aid 5/7 was the next place I'd sent a drop bag figuring that since I had to hit it twice, I'd have a good supply to draw from. I think I ended up only grabbing a gel and maybe some shot blocks at this point. I did stop for a few minutes to grab a coke from the volunteers and ease my aching back once more.

The next section would be all new to me with a descent into Como on Goldust trail and then an old railroad grade gravel climb right back up to the top of Boreas Pass once again. I'd heard great things about descending Goldust from Andy and he was spot on. The first few sections were pure ear to ear grins and then we rolled into what appeared to be some type of dry creek bed. We snaked through the trees in a 3-4' deep depression that was about 8' wide for a couple of miles until we hit the most massive rock garden I've seen on a bike. Some of it was ridable, but a lot of it had you off and hefting your bike and self over some pretty large boulders and rocks. This went on for a good half mile or better on and off before slowly becoming less rocky and more ridable. Finally back on the bike, we had some more climbing before the final descent through some tight twisty woods into Como.

A short minute or two stop at this aid station had my bottles filled and a little beta received about the upcoming climb which was pretty much non-stop from Como all the way to the top of the pass. On the plus side, it was shallow at 6% +/- grade the whole way, but that also falls in a somewhat bad area for me as I struggle with longer climbs that are much over 5%. I hit the gas and took off out of town looking across the valley and seeing some rain and thunderclouds on the far side. I hoped they'd stay over there and not pour on me during the climb. I think I lost a fair bit of time on this section of course as I kept grinding away, but always felt like I wasn't pushing my potential ability. My stomach was backing up just a little and of course both my legs and back were aching away this far into the race. I passed a few guys, but I probably had 10+ riders pass me in the final couple of miles going up Boreas Pass road.

Finally, I spied the top of the climb after having a bit of a heavy sprinkle wet me down for the last mile or so. I knew it was basically a downhill back to the start and I was familiar with the terrain as it was all on trails I'd ridden. I cranked up the big ring all the way to the Bankers Tank uphill and turned in. There was just a short bit of climbing before we could rail our way down to the lower trail head which I tackled with abandon. The last bit of technical singletrack was in the form of Aspen Tunnel which had me a little nervous as it has a very loose rock descent followed up by a giant slag pile drop. As luck would have it, enough riders had burned in a trail that the loose rocks were basically a non-issue by this time and they routed us to the side of the slag pile which was rocky, but a bit less dramatic of a drop as going over the nose of the hill.

I knew I was headed home at this point unless I did something stupid to crash myself out in the last mile or two. I kept my speed up, but safe and just enjoyed the flow of the singletrack and woods as I lined my way out to the finish. By the time I finally hit the switchbacks to Carter Park, 9 hours had rolled by and a good chunk of the finishers had cleared out. There was still a pretty good pack of people waiting and cheering though which is always nice to roll in and hear.

Just rolled across the finish line:

That hurt:

Back to smiling:

All told I had clocked off 70 miles and just short of 9,000' of climbing for the day. I finished a little disappointed with 27th out of 30 finishers in my class. I'm not sure how many DNF'ed. I do know that while I was tired, I left a lot of time on the table in the form of rest stop speed (54 minutes off the bike) and overall effort in some of the longer climbing sections. I think I've got an 8 or even sub 8 hour finish in me with just a couple tweaks. The biggest thing will be to race without a camelback. It absolutely killed my low back. Nothing I had in there couldn't be carried some other way and the aid stations are close enough for me that I could go with bottles only. I'm hoping to hit it again next year and see if I can't get a better finish. I'm still not sure I'd ever race the SS out there, but I'm not ruling it out either.

Oofda: