Ups and downs of racing

After my shellacking at the hands of the expert class racers last year, I figured a new plan was in order for racing my mountain bike this year. I didn't see how I'd be able to put in the training time requirements to be as competitive as I wanted for the experts so I made the call to switch up to the singlespeed class which seems to be the mid-range between sports and experts. Then the announcement was made that there would be a new comp class that would be exactly that filler level. Considering I had all ready committed to buying a new frame and setting up for that route, I forged ahead with those plans and built up my Selma. Its a pretty sweet setup for a serious race bike weighing in at a shade over 19lbs in race trim with a few areas targeted for future enlightenment.

I finally got the bike put together this spring and put some good miles on it when I could, but training and prep for the Royal 162 left me putting most of my hours on the CX bike instead. Up to last week I hadn't even had a chance to throw down at any type of race on the dirt. I felt pretty comfortable on the bike and was relatively sure that I was at least as fast as last year, but maybe even a little faster on the SS in most instances. But, you never know for sure until you can line up with your buddies and hang it all out there in a true race situation to see where you're at in the mix.

Squirrel resurrected Quarter Rage early this year and I was definitely down for some high speed hi-jinx. I'd be lying if I didn't say I wasn't a bit nervous for the first dirt race of the year. Sure we're only racing for quarters and a 40 oz of Bud, but you're racing against all your buddies that you train and ride with all the time. Wednesday night rolled around and the weather and trail conditions looked to be near perfect. Squirrel was planning to lay it down with us so he was rolling off first. I took the second slot hoping I wouldn't get overrun by my minute man in the form of Basso. Squirrel took off like a shot and I lined up with nervous energy flowing through me like a high voltage cable.

As soon as I got the word to go I promptly slid out in the first 20' of trail trying to go fast, get clipped in, and negotiate the downhill turn at the start. Luckily I only shed a couple seconds as I righted myself and cranked it up to 11 while swearing at myself for the mistake. I plowed through the first few minutes of Denman's with reckless abandon, overshooting corners, braking badly, and generally screwing up my lines until I finally found the flow I was looking for and started laying down the power in a useful manner. I rode pretty cleanly through the woods with only a few mistakes including a nose wheelie that I managed to ride out and a pretty good scrape of my shoulder against a tree. For the most part I just concentrated on constantly turning the pedals over as fast as I could in every section until I either had to brake or had spun up to the point where any faster would have me going flying into the woods. Finally I hit the connector trail and knew I was close but also in for the most painful part of the ride. I hit the open field and just about spun out of my 32x16 gearing as I headed for the paved trail. Up on the trail, I opened it up again for the .5 mile stretch back to the finish line and managed to hold just over 22mph for that section.

Tied for the win at 18:32 with Basso!

I flew across the line with my eyes crossed from the effort. A quick check of my stats showed my average heart rate in the lower regions of zone 5 for the entire effort. Man it hurt! The best news of the night was that I managed to come in tied for first with Pete Basso at 18:32. We didn't reset his monster record time from last year, but just to even be anywhere close to the same league was a huge deal for me as he's one guy I've always chased and learned from every ride. There's nothing like throwing down with your friends for bragging rights and having so much fun.

That was the up for sure and based on the title, there has to be a downside in here. Well, my next race effort was just that. After Quarter Rage, I hit up the next installment of the IORCA series which happened to be put on by Jesse Bergman at Moorehead Park in Ida Grove. I've been hearing rave reviews of this course the past 2 years and put it on my list of must do races for the year. At almost 3 hours drive, its definitely a haul up there, but the trail system is spectacular with a great mix of hills, descents, and super fun flowy singletrack. As Jason Alread and I headed up to the race, we were greeted with a mix of rainy skies and overcast conditions. My micro-knobbed tires left me a bit concerned because I was pretty certain they weren't going to cancel the race even if the course was a bit muddy.

Once we hit the venue and I was able to get a pre-ride lap in, I felt a lot better. Most of the trail was in soft, but drying condition with only a couple greasy spots that concerned me. I felt pretty decent about my chances going into the race as my legs felt good and the bike was working well for me. We lined up with the SS and Comp class guys grouped together in the second wave after the experts. I knew a number of the guys, but a number of the faces were new to me as locals or those that travelled from the Omaha area. Knowing we had an opening climb in the singletrack, I wanted to get as close to the point as I could after our 1/4 mile run down the gravel road. That would prove to be a tall order with my gearing at 32x18.

The starter let us go and I took a few extra seconds to get my left foot clipped in. Just like that I was in the middle of the pack on the road section. I spun up my gear for all I was worth and hit the grassy section about 7th wheel. Knowing my main competition was sitting in the top 4 or so slots, I did some creative passing. I leapfrogged one rider in the muddy creek crossing at the start of the singletrack climb and then put my moment to use to grab another spot up the climb itself in a wide spot. Just like that I was sitting in a good position as we railed the opening sections. As we hit the open gravel climb, Kyle stuck his nose out into the wind and passed a couple guys to take the lead. Knowing his capacity to suffer and keep the hammer down, I pushed hard and grabbed his wheel taking 2nd position up the climb. He grunted, "How'd you like that?" as we crested the hill and seemed a little surprised to find me right on his wheel when I responded. I was definitely having fun.

We hit the next flowy section and then disaster struck. I stood to climb a small little pitch and BAM!, my chain fell off. WTF? I thought you couldn't have mechanicals on a singlespeed?!? I luckily didn't do any damage to myself and was out of the way quick enough to not delay anyone. A few seconds went by as I spun the chain back on. I jumped in line and in a single revolution the chain popped right back off. I stopped and inspected my chain and rings. Sure enough, I managed to torque the chain ring enough that I'd bent it and it kept popping the chain off.

Day is done:

In reality, its my own fault. I actually bent and snapped the ring. If you look at the picture, you'll note I'm missing a chainring bolt. With the ultralight ring I was running, I was able to torque it out of shape due to that missing bolt. I saw it before the race and had noted it was missing even at Quarter Rage, but had neglected to fix it. Lesson definitely learned the hard way. On the plus side, I spent the rest of the race drinking beers and cheering on my friends as a number of them rode on to podium finishes in their various classes. A down day for me, but fun nonetheless.

A quarter buck of fun

I used to think the best thing in the world for a quarter of a buck was anything housed in those crappy plastic bubbles within the red metal and glass machines that you'd see at the entrance to every grocery and drug store growing up. Of course, now that I think about it, I'm not even sure when the last time I saw one of those was. Then again, even if you could find one, I'm sure the prizes are crappier than I remember and the cost has doubled or tripled as well. Ahh, the memories of childhood. For the mere price of a shiny quarter now, I enjoy something a bit more fulfilling. Quarter Rage has to be one of my favorite times on a bike or just in general. Like minded buddies doing some friendly smack talk, throwing down whatever they've got in their legs, and having a metric shitload of fun at the same time; what more could you ask for?! All for the low low price of 2 bits.

Last week was the first installment for the year. 5:30 being the start time, I showed up a shade before 5 and took and easy run through to get the legs warmed up. The trail was dry, fast, and loose. The singletrack was mostly clear with just a smattering of leaves and walnuts covering spots of the trail as autumn has started to press it's will upon the woods. Looking to better my time from last year of a 23:26, I knew wouldn't be too difficult. I had my sites set on something in the 20:xx range as a pretty decent goal. I started 2nd in line behind Jordan who was breaking in his new Raleigh 29'er from the shop in the best way possible.

I hosed the first section of trail dropping down from the levee as I tried keeping the bike under me rather than diving off into the chain link surrounding the pump station. The first few corners into the singletrack weren't treating me much better as I would hammer the pedals and slam on the brakes rather than flow through the corner. My heart was all ready jumping up in my throat and I knew I'd better find my form quickly. Sure enough, I backed off a tick and the form caught right back up as I hammered through the trail as quickly as possible. I caught Jordan just past the tractor tire and he let me fly past. With open trail in front of me, I just pushed on the pedals for all I was worth. Finally on the paved trail, I tried tucking in as tight as possible while cranking up the watts to the finish. My lungs and legs were burning as I crossed the line barely able to see straight.

My reward? Not only did I better my previous time, but I took down the course record and held on by 2 seconds to take 1st place overall for the night. I've got to say, even with all I've been lucky enough to accomplish on the bike this year, winning this little bragging rights race was one of the highlights for sure. I racked up a finish time of 19:22 according to Squirrel which knocked off the previous time by a scant 3 seconds.

Winning time:

The take:

She was briefly mine:

The second week commenced the online smack talking. Squirrel made up a pretty funny little ditty to encourage a few of the big boys to show up and strut their stuff. Basso answered the call and I pretty much knew things were going to be stepped up. Squirrel pre-rode the course and wasn't quite sure that the record would fall again tonight due to some trail moisture, leaf build-up, and extra walnut bombs throughout. I wasn't quite so optimistic, but I was still going to give it a run. I figured my plan from last week carried me pretty well through so I went for a repeat doing a warm up lap just prior to taking the line. I slowly worked up my speed and was feeling pretty confident as I headed into the last section of Denman's. I hit a hard left turn a little hot with a shade too much front brake and before I could even squeak a 4 letter word out, I was on the ground. The very combination Squirrel had been talking about had bit me square in the arse. Nothing hurt but my pride, I mounted back up, stuck a mental note in the bank and headed back for the start.

Lined up:

As Squirrel said go, I managed to repeat, if not worsen my screwups in the first section. Again, I nearly ran off the trail right at the start and didn't make anything better as I started into the first section of singletrack coming in too hot to the corners, nearly stopping, and then trying to hammer again. I knew tonight would be a push as I didn't feel quite as good as I had last week, but I intended to lay out whatever I had on the trail. I did get the flow going again, but it seemed more labored this week as my ragged breathing pounded in my ears and my heart surged to keep up with the effort I was begging from it. I took the short line through Little Italy this week which should have shaved a good 3-5 seconds from my time. I don't think I was quite as clean through a number of the turns this week, but my straightaway speed didn't seem to be suffering much. In all, I was still riding clean as I came up on Elaine as the first rider to get past. Just a brief second or two and I was by her. I rode the tractor tire again this week trying to get a better line for the follow up log. I caught up and passed a couple more riders along the way as well.

I was just getting a good eyeball on Jacob who was the minute man I was chasing as I entered the firepit section of Denman's. I had a couple bobbles up to this point, but was still keeping it sunny side up. I finally ran out of luck as I came around the big tree with the muddy spot on the inside of the right hand sweeper. I carried good speed into the turn and had a good weight balance, but the traction wasn't there. Both tires scrubbed out sideways trying to find any bit of dry ground available and I swung the bike nearly 180 degrees past the corner putting my inside knee down to the ground as I slid along for the ride. Still clipped in with my left foot, I righted my course pretty quickly and headed back down the trail.

A mere flesh wound:

I ran pretty cleanly through the rest of the trail and hit the pavement return section once again. I didn't have quite the legs under me as I did last week and couldn't spit out the speed I wanted to. Overall though I finished in 19:26 only 4 seconds off my time last week. I think I've got an 18:xx tucked away somewhere with the right trail conditions and a bit better run through on my end. However, Pete proved for all that the big dogs have the skill to show us how it's done running an 18:21!

Hurting at the finish:

Pete enjoying the spoils of victory:

Pics stolen from Courtney. See you out there next week!

Spooky Woods/Quarter Rage #4

What a weekend filled with riding, friends, and racing. Spooky woods was hyped to be the ride not to miss this year. I'm not much on the party ride/bagger scene, but the opportunity to dress in costume and head off through the woods to a big ass party was too tempting to resist. I've gotta say, it's been a while since I've had that much fun on a bike.

I started off at Rassy's a shade before 6 so I could pick up my newly straightened wheel after Tuesday's experience. After hanging around there for a bit, I loaded up my 6er of refreshments and rode them over to the firepit for safe keeping in the cooler. After hanging for just a bit, it was time to head back to my truck and get into costume for the ride leaving at 8.

What was my costume you ask? Well, I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you. Actually, I went as a bike ninja. Take some rear cogs, sew them on a sash and belt, custom fab your own nun-chucks from handlebar ends and bike chain, add a black balaclava, black hooded sweatshirt, black sweatpants, and black gloves gives you bike ninja. Now why did I just type all that out instead of posting a picture you ask?! Well, apparently it's forbidden to take a ninja's picture (that or I couldn't find any pics taken of me in costume).

We rode the long way to the pit and had a quick beer stop after little italy before we got there to let a downed rider brush himself off. Oh ya, that rider was me... Kent was in front of me going through the skinny trees and spun out for a second, leading me to stopping and rolling my ass down the little berm that you go up. No damage done other than laughing my ass off and brushing the dirt off the ninja costume. We finally wound our way to the pit and hung out enjoying some beer and chili. Squirrel surely made some damn good chili! Finally, the rest of the crowd arrived and we sounded off to well over 50 people partying in the middle of the woods on a perfect night.

As soon as we were sure the trail was clear, it was time to Rage. We lined up and headed off. I was 2nd man out just behind Griz. On a new bike with a borrowed light I was in for a treat. I felt pretty good and could actually see compared to last time with my craptacular AA powered headlamp. In all I turned in a time of 22:52 according to Squirrel. I think that time might be suspect and a full minute fast, but I won't argue with the man. In any case it put me in 3rd place for the nights festivities and dropped 5 minutes off my previous night rage time. Sweet!



The rest of the night was filled with mini-bike racing, more beer, and general good time shenanigans. How often do you get to see a guy in drag racing a mini bike?!



Steve kicked my ass while I got my butt handed to me by the bike itself.



I had a ball and can't wait for next year. Thanks to Squirrel, Justin, and all the others who put the effort into putting this thing together! Of course those of you that know me, know it wouldn't be me if that were all the carnage for the night. Nope, true to form, I ate shit hard leaving the party. They'd built a ramp up and over some logs for the mini-bike racing.



I think it was Tom who had the awesome idea that we should ride our big bikes up and over on the way out. Going up was easy. It's always the going down part that just screws me over. I missed the ramp on the back side of the logs which is always a recipe for lawn darting it straight to the ground. This time was no exception. I biffed it straight onto my head and gave everyone around a good chuckle. The bike executed a perfect 3 point landing upside down on the bars and seat. I didn't think I did much damage, but the next day, it was quite apparent.



Enjoy!

A weekend worthy of the title

Finally, a weekend that felt like a weekend. Friday I was jonesing all day to get on my bike and hit the Quarter Rage. Squirrel didn't disappoint with plenty of people showing up and a case of bud light to share in after putting down a good effort. I'm still out of shape, but put in about all I had to bring it home in a shade over 23 minutes. I reset my max heart rate yet again to 199 with an average of 187 for the effort. Not too shabby, I just wish I was a bit faster. I still avoided two obstacles though,the first log after the entrance into Denman's and then the flat cut angled log about halfway through. I did have some fun playing in the mud as I shot straight through most of the puddles and managed to find one that was really deep. I coated my legs from the knees down and I think was the most coated of all the ragers.

Saturday I got up and headed down to our friend's place in Indianola to help take down the swing set. We just put this thing up two months ago and it was time to pull it back down for their move all ready. Bummer, but at least it came apart pretty easily and I was done and home early in the afternoon. That left us some time to do some more cleaning of the house before our friends came into town for the cross race on Sunday. We opted to order in and I ran to Mezzodi's to pick up some great pasta and salads for dinner. Corley had a ball playing with their boys and was worn out and down for the count relatively early.

Sunday rolled around early with another gorgeous morning to ride. I met the guys at Hy-Vee for breakfast, but was running late so I fueled on donuts in lieu of being able to order something. Of course the reason I was running late is the cones in my front hub were loose and allowing over an inch of wobble at the top of the wheel. I got that fixed up, but they're due for some serious TLC with as gritty as the bearings felt. Lou, Pete, and Pig all rolled out from Hy-Vee and we hit the back end of Denman's until we met up with Squirrel about halfway through. Pig and I were just cruising, but I managed to clear all the log overs going in reverse so it was at least a good start. We lost the other 4 and so we headed over to Hillside figuring that was where the others were off to. Nothing doing as Hillside was completely quiet. Once Pig caught back up, we decided to roll up the to the top and start riding figuring they'd show up eventually and we were right.

We ran Hillside about every way from Sunday and got in a decent amount of climbing before the guys were ready to call it a day and head off to morning services. Knowing it is supposed to rain this week, I figured it might be my last chance this week to get out on the trails so I opted for another loop through Denman's. I hit stride on this loop. Another one of those perfect passes. I finally cleared the last two logs I'd been avoiding and just flew through the course with the ground having about perfect traction.

After a quick shower and brief rest, Corley and I took the cross bike and trailer over to watch our friends run and the rest of the riders as well. Corley had a blast cheering on the riders and even got into it with some cowbell ringing!



She spied a butterfly at one point and was completely entranced by it.


After the cat 4 race we took off and headed home. I even managed to take Corley down a small part of the course in the trailer which she thoroughly enjoyed as well. We said goodbye to a few friends and headed home. Of course she fell asleep on the way home and somehow managed to stay asleep through me carrying her into the house and still took a 2 hour nap. We finished out the afternoon and evening just hanging out and even catching a little football. Now that's a weekend!