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Some pictures        
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Nov 10, 2022 19:55
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CX state champs- It's still cold and snowy. After wednesday's shitshow of everyone trying to ride in deep snow I decided to do something nice and borrowed a snowblower and cleared off some of the course I setup. I hit a few rocks but only broke one shear pin.   We used the "old thunder" area, which has a baseball stadium and a softball field and a little steep hill between them where we usually have a runup and a banked downhill turn but the banked turn didn't seem like a smart or safe idea and that also made getting to the runup in a lap more complicated so I left that out too. I figured the snow would slow things down enough to make the lap a reasonable length but they actually wound up a bit short so i guess I should have had the runup in there. Because it was freezing cold (23f on the garmin) and snowy the turnout wasn't super great and the race almost got cancelled but a few people showed up at the last minute including Andrew (the young one who has gone and done some of the pro uscx races this year, there's also a fast masters racer Andrew). But the rest of the 1/2/3 race was just me and Mike and Dan and Shaun. We just did one start with everyone at a leisurely 1pm. At the start I miss my pedal and then try to make up for it going through the deep snow on the inside of the first turn and it turns out it's chunky hard snow and not the nice soft stuff and I come to basically a complete stop, then I'm behind a bunch of people going into a bottleneck up onto a short driveway section and just run around the side of them but then it's uphill and slippery so I keep running and then someone has fallen down in the next turn so I'm still running and oh poo poo I need to get back on my bike. So, finally do that and Andrew's gone and I'm pretty far back and can see a pack with Dan, old Andrew, Mike, Shaun up there. Stuff my bike into another snowbank trying to cut another corner and gently caress this isn't going well. From there on it was better and I worked my way through uh, most of the entire turnout of the race and only fell down once. Catch all the masters racers except Andrew and am getting up to Shaun with like 3 to go. 2 to go I'm there, last lap I get around him on the little uphill driveway when he slips his rear wheel. So I got 2nd in the cat 3 championship but also got last in cat 3 behind Micheal. Went with 23/25psi and think I'll try lower next week. There are hidden rocks and lumpy parts under that snow but I don't recall really hitting anything and it's all pretty slick so all the grip I can get seems like the better choice. I heard Andrew was under 20. Also the choice to wear thin gloves was a huge mistake and my fingers were so cold I considered a quick stop at my car to grab the warmer ones. Wearing the light regular shoes over boots was ok though.  Course worked out pretty good though and we're going to use it for the last wed next week because the golf course was pretty rough to ride on for most people and also it's pretty much taken over by the xc ski crowd now and they don't like tire ruts in their groomed tracks (that are done free mostly by the organizer and sponsors of the cross races). jamal fucked around with this message at 05:31 on Nov 13, 2022 |
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Nov 13, 2022 04:29
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Wed CX9 - it's still cold, it's still snowy, we're still racing bikes Like I mentioned we moved the last wed night to saturday's course instead of having it at the golf course that's currently pretty well groomed for skiing, which made the time I spent setting up fri and sat actually worth it. We also left everything set up so there was very little I needed to do. I added a couple of turns, shoveled a few corners where there was deep crusty snow, opened up the baseball field, and turned on the stadium lights. Oh and chipped a bunch of ice off the little road/driveway section we use and put down some sand to hopefully improve traction there. First practice lap the baseball field was a bit of a shock. We stay on the dirt on the warning track and so make a loop around the far edge. Saturday it was untouched fresh snow when we started and then a main rut formed. But all the snow was soft and you could kind of ride whereever and go off line without issue if you got out of the rut. But after a race and a few days now that soft snow with random ruts going all over the place next to the main rut became hard and crusty. So now getting off the main rut was way slower and in warmup even hard to stay upright and moving in a straight line. I also added an extra kind of sketchy descent down the hill so that we could use the runup, which was just covered in snow and I did no shoveling or sweeping on it of any sort. As much as I like my toasty winter boots I swapped on my regular shoes just before the start so I had some toe spikes. The bigger pointier ones I have would have even been nice. I had no issues at race speed because you hit the steepest bottom part with some momentum but people were struggling and when I rode over and up it after the race to get some whisky I flailed around a bit and slid down the bottom half on my first try. Set tires to 22/24. Would have liked to be lower but there were a few spots where the tire was folding over and I was hitting roots and rocks and stuff. At the start things actually go well for me and I'm 3rd wheel behind Dan and Mike. Mike is not staying on the wheel but it's pretty hard to pass over most of the lap because of how narrow the clear track is and also you kind of need to stay on the ridden in lines through a few parts. We hit the baseball field and I get out of the rut. I don't remember if it was deliberate to try to go around Mike or if I just veered out of it but anyway that was a mistake and Shaun and Garrett and Toby all get by me while I'm struggling in the deep snow. Note to self: stay in the loving rut. I dangle a little but get back up there and we have a group of 4. Toby gets away and is out there chasing Dan. I'm on the back, thinking "I can go faster than this." Get by Shaun when we take two different ruts in the grass. One lap Garrett goes through the tape and the wrong way on the descent when a lapped rider crashes in front of him. Mike and I slow down and let him get going again in front of us. Both the descents are a little scary and you're mostly out of control going down them hoping for the best. One time down the far descent I went way off into the weeds but stayed upright. At some point Garrett gets out of the rut and Mike and I go by. 2 to go I pass Mike on the uphill driveway and start pedaling harder and get a little bit of space. Now it's just a game of don't gently caress up. The best way I could ride the rut around the baseball field was to actually ease up a bit and go slower to stay in better control, which is hard to make yourself do in a race. I make it around clean on the last lap and hold on for 3rd. 2nd overall in the winter series. Won a baguette.    
jamal fucked around with this message at 18:55 on Mar 5, 2023 |
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Nov 17, 2022 18:39
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Copypastaquote:Snelling Road Race - "The Paris-Roubaix of the NCNCA"    https://i.imgur.com/k1CFErw.mp4 TobinHatesYou fucked around with this message at 07:22 on Mar 2, 2023 |
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Mar 2, 2023 07:15
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Great race report!
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Mar 2, 2023 18:09
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BIKE RACING IS BACK (for me) The MTB group decided to make a gravel race this year as the opener. 50 miles, 6k ft. Mostly gravel with some pavement and singletrack mixed in. Part of the course is on private property so you can’t pre-ride those sections, and they’re of course the worst parts. I also rolled the dice on racing with new Terra Speeds with 0 experience riding on them but they turned out alright. March in the Midwest means weather can be whatever and today it delivered with 26f, snow, and 15mph+ winds. Probably a layer too heavy but at least I was able to vent my vest on the climbs. There’s a climb right after the neutral rollout ends and I was feeling pretty good so I went to the front and rode a decent pace. Not sure if the group thought it was doomed but wound up with only 1 other guy, and another bridged up a little bit later. The 3 of us rode for the first 30 miles together, 2 of us on gravel and the other on a hardtail. The first mtb section was definitely my weakest spot, the 40c Terra Speeds did alright but it was pretty rocky and was all on the downhill. I was able to close up the gap after the mtb sections but didn’t want to give them a wheel to draft on the gravel and then lose time and have to catch after some more singletrack. Around 20 miles to go there’s a pretty good climb so I put in an attack and managed to get clear. I knew we had one more singletrack section but I wasn’t sure how long, how technical it would be, or if it was uphill or down so I wanted to have a little time to play with, and be in front in case I got caught. It turned out to be relatively short and the easiest of all so I don’t think I shipped too much time, but I stayed on the gas. Kept looking over my shoulder expecting to see someone or a group barreling down on me but it never came and eventually started to feel like it might stick when I hit the final 3 miles which is pavement. Rolled in around 3h17m and the next guys at 3h29m and 3h31m. Felt pretty good afterward so think I got my fueling dialed. As a sweaty mess I started getting absolutely frozen a few minutes after ending. Definitely could have used some sort of indoor changing situation rather than me stripping down under a towel. Next up is another gravel race tomorrow. Legs feel ok now but who knows how they’ll feel when I line up. Bike racing is good as hell y’all.
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Mar 18, 2023 23:16
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Literally Lewis Hamilton posted:BIKE RACING IS BACK (for me) Was this the kind of thing that you could ride on a gravel bike? Good work, sounds exhausting!
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Mar 18, 2023 23:41
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Literally Lewis Hamilton posted:BIKE RACING IS BACK (for me) Sweet, congratulations!
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Mar 19, 2023 00:20
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VelociBacon posted:Was this the kind of thing that you could ride on a gravel bike? Good work, sounds exhausting! Yeah, it was all rideable on a gravel bike, but a bigger volume tire would have been better. Then again it’d be slower elsewhere so it’s all compromises somewhere along the line. Really happy with the Terra Speeds though.
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Mar 19, 2023 00:30
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Hello folks. I used to be an ultrarunner running competitively in the scene until the beginning of the pandemic, and I have decided to take this year off and just ride, and maybe race my gravel bike (Masi CXGR Expert). I took the winter off mostly other than light workouts due to severe illness (Covid, again). Then I did some short but intense rides and immediately aggravated my MCL. Lol. But yesterday and today I did back to back workouts, and I feel great. I am going to start looking up some gravel races to find one to train for. What might be a good starting distance? I want something to challenge, but not too intimidating. The farthest I have run is 100km and I used to (run) race 50milers with regularity (1-3 per year). I feel like my cardio is around 60-70% of what it was when I ran regularly, and I have gained a bit of weight, but I feel strong and I can still sprint out of the saddle going uphill on municipal gradients no problem. When I was riding road regularly I was always at my lightest, but I was riding about 400kms a week with regular 60-80k workouts. Since switching to the road bike my longest ride had been two hours but I don't have DOMS or feel fatigued other than that awesome feeling of just being tired from a workout (I aggravated my MCL early on but that resolved quickly with ice and rest). I have tons of hills/low mountains and gravel rail trails to train on locally. I don't think I am far off from reaching a decent fitness baseline. I'm 46. tl; dr: I'm a middle-aged former competitive distance runner getting back into cycling, this time gravel, and I am wondering what a good distance for a starting event might be.
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May 1, 2023 01:47
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Finally did some real racing this weekend at the "montana gravel challenge." I work for the organizer so that also meant doing a lot of the course setup but I had a little more help this time and actually got a good amount of sleep every night and was pretty well rested. I also feel good about my weight and fitness right now although there were a couple of less than ideal training weeks recently. Day one was an out and back TT. I bought a set of aeolus pro 51s to use as road wheels on my major jake this winter/spring (along with fenders), and have some 34mm corsa n.exts on them. Also slammed the stem and have a reasonably aero position on there. wore my tightest jersey, a new lazer vento, and tried to stay and low as possible the whole time. Upset Dan and was sitting in the "hot seat" most of the day and then Brian went and upstaged us by riding his road bike with clip on aero bars which must have been a little scary. It's pretty smooth dirt, but still it's dirt and has loose gravel and potholes and poo poo all over. But yeah 2nd in the TT was still pretty sweet and set me up well for the GC competition. Day 2 was the long gravel loop. I swapped wheels/tires and was on the new Pirelli gravel H, which seems good. goes fast. There's a pretty long section of road to get out there and we had a huge group, like 100+ which was taking up a lot of the road. Right before the turn that leads to the gravel section I went up the inside and got on the front and then proceeded to lose all those positions loving with the gopro one of the sponsors had put on my bike. The dirt starts with a pretty solid ~5min climb so the game is to both hang on and be well positioned. I knew Dan would be out for blood after not winning the TT and sure enough he, and Dawson, and a few other guys went' really hard. I got myself in probably the top 10 wheels and up the climb comfortably but my left brake hood had slipped down. On a smoothish straight section I considered trying to tighten it and even got my multi tool open to the 5mm but then was losing spots and gave up. "guess I'm just riding this whole thing in the drops." This put me a little farther back than I wanted to be but I was still in the lead group, just pretty much hanging on the back. We were flying and it was like 25 guys mostly single file. Guys getting dropped, mechanicals and flats left and right, but I'm still back there. "drat this is going to be some good footage (ha no not really i somehow started it on a timelapse mode or something)." This gravel road section along the river is 22mi and we did it in one hour. It's not until like, 30-40min in and we hit a little rise after dropping to the river that I finally feel like I'm in the group instead of chasing it, and had to make a pretty good push to get there after a couple of guys got gapped off and I had to go around. Dan was on it, but I felt like I actually got to kind of chill on the first rolling climb up. There are basically 3 short but steep climbs at the end of this road section and on the 2nd one I came through to the front and pushed it pretty hard. This resulted in me and one other guy off the front for awhile, then the group came back. Last climb, and maybe the longest one, Dan, Dawson, and this jr, Will, from Butte are kind of hogging up the road 3 across and I'm considering making a kind of dick pass to push the pace harder. But then only the 4 of us are there at the top so I guess it was fine. Then the roughest descent out to flat, wide, smooth road to the turn and back across the river and then mostly pavement to the end. 4 come back making for a group of 8, I don't know how many were there originally. Then Brian slides out on a dumb slow corner and Dawson is cranking up the hill and I guess no one wants to wait. I felt bad about that but his two teammates in the group didn't try to get us to slow down so w/e not my problem I guess. Then a bit of pavement over to the finish which is on a rolling dirt climb. Kevin led out Jake and he won, Dan 2nd, Will got me at the line so I was 4th. Pretty good though. This put Dan in the lead for the GC by 2 points with Jake and I tied for 2nd, with a healthy lead on the next guy. Jake's team has the most guys out there and day 3 was a circuit race mostly on pavement on a traditional local race course loop. Same finish line as the day before, which is at the high point of the lap. I'm riding my road bike, which has tubeless GP5ks, but they're only 25mm (all that fits). On the way over to the loop we do a bit of a climb and then descent on dirt, and in the big crowd going fast I got a front puncture. I felt the rock, heard the hissing, but then it stopped and I still had some air in my tire. Got to the pavement, hit it with co2, kept rolling downhill. Get to the bottom, tire is pretty low but Josh, the corner marshall down there, has a floor pump right next to his car. Try filling up the tire again, get it to like 70 psi, give it a spin, see/hear no hissing or sealant, decide to try it. Manage to catch the group again going up the pavement before the turn onto dirt and the finish climb. Guess they weren't going very fast. Ben had gone off the front so none of that team (Jake and Kevin are on it) were doing anything. I'm back in the group pushing the pace a bit, asking who's up the road and seeing that Dan, Jake, and Will are all in this bunch so there's really no point in me doing any work as essentially a solo rider, and chill out a bit after the 2nd lap. we did get close to the break at this point and a few guys bridge up but no one would have let me try that move plus I needed a bit of recovery. We're doing 4 laps. Mainly Jake and Dan and I are all looking at each other and they all have teammates sticking with me. I can't really do anything and just sit in and start thinking about the points math if there are like 6-7 people up the road. Only the top 10 are getting more than 1 point and there are some fast guys who came just for this race and it seems unlikely there's going to be much of a change in our positions. Jake's team probably should have been working more to isolate dan and get him the GC win but instead Ben was away off the front (and did win). I suppsoe the plan was to just give Jake a good leadout but then Kevin flatted. So we're in the bunch going up to the finish on the last lap and I'm pretty well positioned, right off Jake, Dan, and Will, all the guys I need to finish with if there are any points to be had. Ideally I finish ahead of Jake in the top 10 but history has shown he usually beats me in sprints. Then a guy overlaps or something and falls and Dan and I are part of like a 5-6 person crash. Jake is in front of it, manages 10th to get 2 points. Dan and I get back up and finish and get our point. Overall GC winds up Dan, Jake, then me, all 1 point apart. Shoulder hurts, have a big gouge on my forearm, scrapes on hip and down my left leg, new fancy bib shorts ruined, but everything else seems fine. Is going to make this week and next weekend a lot less comfortable though. There's a running hill climb wednesday night i kind of want to do because it's part of an uphill series, and then Saturday we have the state road race and then I was planning to race mountain bikes in Helena Sunday. Will have to see how riding a bike feels, especially on trails. I did actually manage to record video of mostly all of today and have a clip of the crash so I guess I'll make something for youtube at some point. It is on my instagram stories so a few people might have seen it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5-b_jzWkyg I could probably make a fairly ok video of the whole day but maybe distilling 2 hours into like a <10min video is too much effort. Podium 
jamal fucked around with this message at 21:59 on May 1, 2023 |
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May 1, 2023 03:05
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Another weekend of racing, this time with less crashing. Saturday was bearmouth road race, also the montana state championship, also about the only actual road race going on in the state right now. After work friday I drove out there and put up all the signs which let me avoid doing it in the morning so I could get a little more sleep. Due to the weather forcast of rain and cold we took out the big climb which kind of ruined my race plans of being in a small group after the climb and hopefully dropping kevin and ben. It definitely still rained whole time. I wore my somewhat water resistant bib tights and heavier jacket which was a good choice for warmth and comfort but the jacket is a little flappier than I'd like. Shoe covers kept the feet warmish but not dry. Aeroshell on the helmet was nice. Was unsure on what wheels to use. My aero wheels have tubes in them (latex) but my tubeless wheels have a cut in the front tire after last week and I noticed it had leaked a bit since then. They would have been nice for some extra flat protection in the rain but I made it through fine and while there was some wind it seemed lighter than forecast. The course change made it a pretty flat out and back with some small rolling terrain in the first and last ~12mi. 58 total I think, all on frontage road next to the clark fork river near Drummond. It's a pretty nice road to just go and ride as the valley you're in is kind of neat and there's hardly any traffic. The climb we cut out is really the feature of this course though. Off the start there were some digs up those climbs and I followed two of them, first with Andrew and this guy I don't know who chose to wear a white skinsuit, and then with Jake and Brian. we got nowhere. Then Andrew went again off the front and no one chased him, since he and Kevin are like the only cat 1s in the field I think. Then like 6 3s and the rest 4/5s and masters. Think we started with like 40 which is not bad for rain and cold in montana and some locals going to tour de bloom. After my attempt with Jake and Brian I drifted back a bit and then they went again and I missed it. Which kind of left the chasing on me since Jake's team wasn't going to chase. I got a few people pulling through and worked way too hard and Ben and Kevin were interrupting things and then we did catch them before the turnaround. Then Brian decided he was too cold and stopped. The flat part of the frontage road back was the worst because you're more in the open and we had a headwind plus the rain picked up for a bit. Pretty miserable. Andrew was pretty gone but at times a good rotation was going on as we all kind of just wanted to get through it. With the weather and no climb I didn't have much of a plan, and mostly wanted it to be over with, and was treating it kind of like a hard group ride. Then we hit the 2nd and biggest roller on the way back with like, 9? mi to go and ben led out jake and I followed it and had to pedal really loving hard and a group of 7 of us got away and left people all over the road. We were working fairly ok but ben kept attacking up every little climb and I took that personally. Then white skinsuit guy wasn't really working and then like a mile or two from the finish a chasing group of at least 10 caught us and I was tired but attacked everyone anyway and got nowhere and rolled in at the back of that group after not being in the bunch sprint. I don't know who got the sprint but it was either white skinsuit guy (who was also a cat 3, but from out of state) or Kevin. Ben 4th I think. Turned out I still got 3rd in the cat 3 state championship, but meh. The highlight was mainly it being over. grimey. should probably pull the cranks and headset at the minimum and put on a new chain  Then I decided to go to Helena today to race mountain bikes. Not raining, kind of sunny, was able to race in short sleeves. Windy so I wore the aero helmet. First race on the new hardtail, which I have ridden like 3 times now but seem to have fit and tire pressures and fork settings fairly figured out. 19/20 in the pirelli xc/rc 2.4. They measure a bit small on my 29mm wheels and the rear did feel a touch soft sometimes but on the other hand had good compliance over rocks and stuff. Probably stick with that. I have a tubolight sl insert in there. The start is narrow on double track and John took off hard and I was 2nd row behind kind of a lot of people. Well not that many because there were like 12 in the cat 1 start but it seems like a lot when you're blocked in and a couple guys are way up there. Worked my way through and got in front over the steep pitch at the top of the start climb, gap to Matt with John on my wheel. Then we hit a dip, climb a bit, do a crazy fast doubletrack descent (you hit like 40mph and it's kind of rocky and loose) to a hard 180, and John goes by me on the climb and I am not staying with it. Matt catches me at the end of the lap and gets a little space. 3rd lap I seem closer. Landon goes by from the cat 2 race, gets up to Matt and passes him but we're all within like 10-20 seconds. 3rd lap I get on Matt's wheel toward the end of the lap, go by pretty casually on the flat road in the headwind expecting us to ride together on the last lap but he's slowing down and by the time I get to the top on the 4th lap I don't see him but am closing back on Landon. Legs and body starting to feel really bad but I did drink like 1.5 bottles with drink mix and had a few shot blocks out there. On the climb from the downhill 180 I wondered if I was going to even make it to the end. But did get on Landon's wheel for like 4 seconds and then he pushed pretty hard on the last sort of rolling but uphill drag to the finish and that was about it for me. Roll in for 2nd in cat 1. race took about an hour and a half, I went ~3min faster than last year. More fatigued but better overall fitness, lighter hardtail with faster tires vs the hei hei, plus it was windy, so I guess in conclusion the bike is faster and also I'm faster. Won a cowbell.  Happy with bike but seatpost slipped a bit because I'm afraid to over tighten it with the transfer SL and the stock clamp has a spec of 6-8, which is much higher than the transfer says you can do. Theory is I had it tight enough for the seat post to stay in place but not tight enough for proper bolt tension on the clamp so it vibrated loose (because it was kind of loose when i noticed it was lower and checked. Have bikeyoke squeezy coming but it was backordered forever. Those clamp better and have a lower spec and a titanium bolt. Oh and Matt was on that new Epic world cup with the new sram drivetrain and brakes which seemed neat. He said it was his first ride on it. e-hey a picture 
jamal fucked around with this message at 17:17 on May 10, 2023 |
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May 8, 2023 02:57
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Wed xc series started this week. Due to a lot of snow this spring we were pretty worried about any of the trails being open and clear so we decided to do a short track race on a loop at the bottom. Same as the pro xc course actually, which climbs and hits the bottom of the dual slalom course and then goes over to a bit of singletrack and back down. laps like 3min long. After two weekends of racing and then a long ride monday and then setting up course I wasn't as fresh and rested as I'd like, but oh well I also want to try to build a little more fitness so being a little tired is ok. Definitely still feeling off today but a couple of long z2 rides this weekend and then next week's xc and then a little rest before another race in kalispell next sunday should work out ok and keep me in a decent spot. We did 3 starts- kids/beginner/clydesdales, open and masters women, and then open and masters men. Our field was pretty big with 45, and no one got pulled, just finished on the lead lap, so it got a little hectic toward the end with lapped traffic. I lined up on the 2nd row and then the guy in front of me blew his chain off which was pretty exciting but he went off to the side and it wasn't an issue. then I was 3rd into the dual slalom and 2nd into the single track and then kinda went backward from there, winding up 6th. It was hard. Planned time was 20min + 2 laps which should have been, like, 26min, but someone didn't do math right and it went to like 34 which was pretty miserable. 11 laps I think. Max HR a little lower than I'd expect from something like that and I felt a little bad the whole time. But also was a little more aggressive than I needed to be at the start. oh this again  Anyway, next week we'll do traditional pro xc laps. The climb will be nice on the hardtail that's 5lbs lighter but I assume I won't get down the final descent quite as fast. Also I had a camera on and put up video of like the first 3 and then last 3 laps. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4x-E02JAog https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRcYmnrX_-8 jamal fucked around with this message at 05:26 on May 14, 2023 |
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May 13, 2023 05:28
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Wed XC week 2 - crashed the bike again This week we ran mostly the traditional pro xc lap, with a little shortcut near the top and the new cutover to the dual slalom course we built last year after the city tore out the flyover making the old lap that did a figure 8 at the bottom no longer possible. To be fair, a lot of people got hurt on that thing. But also to be fair, I crashed in the dual slalom sunday when I was over there checking out the course. Pretty minor with what i hope was a graceful somersault. I even ended up on my feet, with a little scrape on the right elbow. Making both my elbows scraped up. Monday night Shaun and I did a little maintenance and cut out some low hanging branches and did a little sweeping and raking. Pretty much no one rides the old xc lap up there even though it's open to the public now and instead just goes up to the new trails at the top, and it's early in the riding season, so there was quite a bit of debris out there. Anyway then wed i got things all taped and marked and was ready to race. So, first time on the xc course on the new hardtail. I was pretty exciting to climb to the top on it but a little nervous about the descent. But hey, I did it plenty on the old tall post king kahuna and at least I have a dropper on this thing. At the start, Dan went out really hard, with Elliot, Landon, and Jason sticking with him. Toby and I wound up a little off the wheels pretty quickly and then I went around Toby and got on with Jason and Landon about halfway up. Dan and Elliot on their own up there, but actually not too far away. At the top I made a pass on landon to get behind Jason, who I know is fast downhill, and also to give me a buffer to Toby, who was probably going to catch up. Jason had not too much room on me, right up until the last downhill switchback, that I overcooked and had to go straight kind of into the bushes on to get stopped, and then pick my bike up and turn it 90 degrees basically, watching landon then toby go by. Pass Jason and Toby about 5min into the next lap and get up near Landon near the top, but not fully on his wheel and he seems to build a gap on the descent. Same boat, chasing again up the start of the lap. Last lap, they've been about 16min long. I get on his wheel about halfway up and figure I'll need to try to get in a good dig on the road climb near the traverse across the top. So i go for it, get some space, get past the b-line around the old gap jump, am on the way out to the short little road climb to the last descent, pertty pinned, and put my front wheel off the edge and slide out. I've done this exact same thing in this exact spot and am always super careful there. Just not this time I guess. Get back on pretty quickly but have lost my lead and momentum. Landon blows by me on the road, gets down the descent, so i'm 4th. Almost had a podium. Maybe next week. Scraped up same elbow as sunday but worse, so that was pretty uncomfortable. I did record the whole thing again but need to figure out some sort of editing software to use to cut down the file sizes on these gopro videos and also clip it down so that people aren't just watching 45min of heavy breathing. Trek is definitely a different deal on the descent. I felt a little out of control the whole time but was at least going just as fast as I've gone on the hei hei. set a PR on the climb, on the 3rd lap even, and then also a PR on the descent, 3rd lap and after I'd just crashed. But that segment time depends on how hard you pedal over to the dual slalom and on just the main descent part I was about 10s slower than my best time on the kona. But made up for it on the rest of the course. Think I'll use it again next week but am bringing the hei hei to kalispell this weekend if I go do that race and probably also to butte and maybe for one or two of our wed xcs depending on the course. jamal fucked around with this message at 23:59 on May 22, 2023 |
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May 19, 2023 05:59
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Made that video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZuS_4L5rE4 i don't even get how i crashed there. so dumb. Anyway, went to kalispell today for the spirit bear mtb race. The formatted it as a "gran fondo" for some reason, i think maybe to offer anyone the choice of doing one or two 25mi laps and also to not require everyone to have a current usac license. Mine expired last week, conveniently after I'd done bearmouth and scratchgravel, and I didn't seem to need one for this. The old "herron hammer" race did laps on the trails right where we started but I think last year or the year before they changed it to climb this road way up to a ridgeline trail that actually starts at a ski area and goes all the way down to herron park. The full foy's to blacktail trail is like 13mi long but we caught it somewhere north of the ski hill so I dunno how long exactly we were on that specific thing. Then it got into the herron trails and rode a lot of the old course. I picked the two lap race and everyone started together so at first on the road you're not sure who's in it for the 2nd one. But it didn't take long for a group of 5 of us to form at the front after Landon was driving the pace at the start, having me looking at my HR wondering if I'm about to have a really bad time or if it's reading wrong or what. Hitting high threshold like 10mi into a 45+min climb we're doing twice was a little worrying but after about 20-30 min I started to feel a little better and took some turns on the front. Then it was just Landon and I to the top with Matt and Jake and Joel somewhere back there. Landon lives up there and has ridden the trail so I let him lead, but a lot of times still felt like I could have been going faster. Which was fine, I was getting a course preview and saving energy for the next lap. Matt and Joel know the trails really well and are also really fast so I knew they were back there and coming. The ridge is still pretty rolling and fairly mellow so there was nothing really scary fast or technical but I was glad to be on the hei hei instead of the hardtail as it's generally just a little more rough and chunky than the nice buff singletrack down at herron park. What did i even buy that thing for jeez. Hei hei rips on this kind of trail and keeps you a lot more comfortable over 4 hours of racing. I guess it can stay. Usually I keep the suspension mostly in trail mode but for this i had everything closed on the road and open on the singletrack. Eventually Matt and Jake caught up and we kind of had a party train going through the herron course and then all stopped for bottle refills and snacks at the start/finish. First lap took about 2 hours. So two more to go. I felt pretty good at the top of the first climb, didn't feel like I'd really pushed it too hard so far, and had done a good job of eating and drinking. It seemed like the road climb was the place to get some separation and that anyone getting to the trail together was probably going to still be close by the end. Pedaling harder than everyone else on the road on the 2nd lap seemed to be my best shot at winning and after the first lap I though I could pull it off. Once we started going up I got on the front and set a pace I thought I could hold to the top, maybe a little harder whenever the road got steeper, but trying to keep my HR in lowish z4. It didn't take long to notice people were dangling so I put in a bit of a dig and got some space. Everyone gets to play a fun game of "is this sustainable? can I make it to the finish if I keep riding this hard?" including myself. Jake stayed pretty close but eventually the gap widened and I think I had over 2min by the top. Which, with over an hour left on singletrack is not very much and Matt and Landon were back there too. I hit the trail and just tried to keep a good, consistent pace without ever pushing too hard, trying to maintain good momentum, and also stay on my bike and keep air in my tires. I think I even had some snacks along the way and went through both bottles pretty quick. Got to the herron trails clear and on my own, where you have to do a couple of climbs. It was hot and it started feeling pretty bad and my legs were pretty unhappy and starting to get crampy. Which, yeah, 4 hours of hard mtb racing in pretty warm weather will do that. But I made it. Rolled into the finish, get off my bike. timing guy runs up and is like "hey i think the 2 lap finishers will be coming through here pretty soon look out. I guess you can do another lap if you want." me: yeah I don't think I need to do three. him: ??? Me: i just won dude. "oh we didn't get a chip read first time through I guess" Maybe from 4 of us crossing the mats at once or something? kinda weird (he also might have thought that because i rolled up to the aid table to get a drink. bottles had been dry for awhile at that point). So that was fun, and hard. I had to just lie in the shade for a long time. they did have recover shakes at the finish which was cool. 50mi, 6900ft of climbing (e-7600 according to strava corrected data), chip time of like 3hrs 53min Jake rolled in for 2nd, then Matt, then Joel managed to get ahead of Landon, who was still the winner of the JR category. Jake took this picture of me  note to self: keep camp chair in car I got these things, plus $100 cash  apparently i'm a state champion of some sort now jamal fucked around with this message at 05:05 on May 23, 2023 |
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May 22, 2023 02:52
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I just rode over a man and his bicycle after he got mixed up with another rider and went down. Absolutely shocked I kept it upright. Crunchy.
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May 27, 2023 19:59
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Did you hop at all or did the approach angle just work out?
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May 27, 2023 23:18
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I unweighted the front wheel and might have got it slightly up but it happened quite fast. His rear wheel was angled from the ground upward so it acted like a ramp right over the seat stay.
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May 28, 2023 02:51
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Had another wed night last week, have another one this week. Plus the mullet classic team partners race where one person goes uphill and the other down. doing that with same guy as last year. Anyway, last wed I was probably still feeling the weekend a little, that was a pretty hard one. Those drat kids seem to recover better though because Landon was riding away from me and even caught elliot on the climb. We went a little farther up than the previous week to get on part of one of the new trails above the old XC course. First lap I get to the descent ahead of Jason but he caught me before the bottom and I let him by. 2nd lap (of 2), I get back up to Jason a couple minutes into the climb and then try my best to get enough room to say ahead. But he gets back on me at the base of the descent going over to the dual slalom. And then he rode down it a lot faster and better than me. Still managed to set an all time PR on the xc descent on the hardtail but not by enough. This week we're going just as high up but riding the lower half of the flow trail, which is pretty long and meandering so I need to get up there and get some practice laps in if I have any hope of finishing ahead of Jason. I am probably going to have a little fresher legs at least because it's been raining a bunch and I haven't ridden since thursday. Not sure which bike to ride- hei hei will be faster on that descent probably and I'm still struggling a bit to feel comfortable and balanced on the trek. So, need to go ride it more. For the hill climb I have some super flimsy lightweight kenda sabers and a rigid seatpost I'll probably swap on to save a little weight and rolling resistance, although it's probably fine and light enough as is. But I also just kind of want to see what it'll weigh.
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May 28, 2023 17:29
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Wed week 4 - why did i even buy that hardtail? With rain this morning and possibly more rain and t-storms in the forecast, and a long descent on the course, I took the hei hei instead of the hardtail to play it safe. Pretty much did all the course setup in the rain and then it was sunny and warm with good trail conditions by the time we raced. Tonight's lap is one of the courses we're doing next week for the pro XC, and a variation of last year's new "UCI lap." This year at the xc we're doing a shitload of different races and courses for some reason and it makes it a real huge extra pain in my rear end. It's already a long and exhausting week and the organizer just decided to add a bunch more poo poo maybe just to gently caress with me. Anyway, the lap climbs most of the old traditional pro xc course, skips a little section out on the far side (we used it last year but are going to cut it out to make the laps a bit shorter), and then instead of hitting the main xc descent you keep climbing a bit longer up to the new trails. Pro lap last year went down the bottom half of our "downhill" trail. We'll still do that on Saturday too but Friday's course goes down the flow trail instead, which is generally a fun time until you're trying actually race on it and stay ahead of Jason. I was a little stressed out about the long descent after last week and went up monday and took a bunch of laps on the flow trail part to get a little more comfortable. I was on the hardtail and came within a second of my PR so I felt fairly OK about that. But I still wasn't great with the little step down and some of the doubles and anyway yeah like I mentioned used the hei hei tonight instead. Actually clearing the jumps smoothly adds a lot of speed on that trail and there's a lot less fear of casing them and getting sent over the bars with the bigger bike. At the start I was lined up behind elliot but then moved over to the other side of the front row and then wound up a little farther back than I wanted due to a not clean pedal clip in. Anyway, still got there with Dan and Elliot and Landon and Jason and then got some good room on Jason pretty early and was with Landon. Landon gradually pulled away from me and even eventually got by Elliot to come in 2nd. Jason, and Joe who I had been referring to "questionable watts guy" in our zwift series, were back there still pretty close. I had a reasonable gap at the top I thought but then Jason caught me by the bottom of the flow trail and I let him by for the rest of the descent. Then lap 2 I get to chase back onto his wheel. Got there reasonably early and then we rode together a bit after he challenged me into the first two single track bits. Road on the far side I passed and then got myself into a nice zone of suffering, opening a gap. I couldn't see him at the top and then was running scared down the descent, going a good 15s faster than the first lap, although I pedaled pretty hard over to the dual slalom, and Jason was back in sight when I got into it. But anyway I hung on and got 4th. It was hard. I had to just sit there at the finish for awhile and maintained a pretty high HR for the full 50 some minutes. Which, I did take like 3 days off last weekend so I'm reasonably fresh despite that 4hr mtb ride monday. Friday I'm setting up and racing the mullet thing, and then next week is XC week and I'll probably not really race much if at all. Then things should calm down a bit so I can try to get some good volume and training in before butte. I'm in a good spot now but feel like I've been in a bit of a downhill slide due to a just lack of riding time and weather and work and stuff. "estimated ctl" still floating around 90 but I don't have power so who even knows. I suspect reality is higher but anyway yeah I need a real rest week and then to get back into some better structure and consistency and volume. jamal fucked around with this message at 15:36 on Jun 1, 2023 |
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Jun 1, 2023 06:06
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Mullet classic - guess it's good i have that hardtail Did a little work on the trek friday morning to make it lighter  Which was probably dumb and pointless but I really just wanted to see. No dropper, flimsy rear end kendas, single arundel mandible with little ti bolts. 20lbs 10oz. Includes sealant and pedals. Now I have to go put it all back because riding this bike with a tall post and those tires downhill really sucks. Anyway, after setting up the course we had the uphill race. I was not far off Elliot and Dan for the 1st 10min, HR was in a reasonable place, but my legs didn't feel so great and it felt hard. Toby was on his gravel bike and he and some jr I didn't know got by me on the road section about halfway up. I kept them in sight and got back with Toby at the top but he did beat me to the line. I still went over 2min faster over ~20min on the same course as last year so there's that at least. I just think I could be a little better with a little more rest and fresher legs but setting up and doing two races in a week doesn't give me that. I was 5th on the climb and then my partner's time on the descent put us 6th overall but we signed up in the bike shops team because it made sense when I was registering but it turns out most people even from shops just signed up for the regular categories. Anyway we won that and got fanny packs. I did not win or compete in the mullet style contest this time. jamal fucked around with this message at 04:11 on Jun 17, 2023 |
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Jun 4, 2023 06:37
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Oh I didn't write up last week's race. Well. Last week. gently caress. Missoula pro xc. Thurs-sun all day with a lot of different race courses that I had to sign and mark and get taped properly for each day. sometimes changes during the day. Also the UCI has, like, actual rules on how the course should be set up so that's a lot more work than my usual wed night beer league program. However, for previous races we did use a lot of the courses for the xc and I got some of the work done ahead of time. mainly I had to do a little more taping, put up more arrows, and then a nicer start straight plus fencing along the finish. Also a lot of general work during the racing. The green fencing is pretty annoying. I had to buy a chop saw and cut up a bunch of rebar and then get a bunch of pvc and cut that up and we used that for stakes (stole that idea from nica). I did have some good helpers that day so it went pretty well. Also had an extra vehicle to use for setup that a guy lent us  it's got 4 lo, mud terrains, and a rear locker. I actually kind of needed all that after it dumped rain thursday and I had to drive around on the old ski hill roads to set up friday's course. Also it's a little cramped for a tall person. and right hand drive and manual. Anyhow wed was my 3rd day in a row of being out in the sun hammering stakes in the ground and stuff and eventually I get changed and ride around and line up. We used thursday's course at least so I didn't have to like, go change anything. Traditional pro xc. Lower turnout because the juniors were more concerned about the real races and many of them skipped it. But Dan was there, and also signed up for every day of the XC with the pros, so 5 days in a row of racing. Elliot's over 18 so elite men for him too. I don't have a uci license but feel like I probably could have gotten not last with rest and fresh legs. So Dan won wed night but 2nd was pretty wide open between Toby, Joe, and I. I made it through the 1st lap in 2nd place and then that was pretty much all I could manage and Joe and Toby went by me pretty early in lap two and I limped my way around the rest of the race for 4th. Toby was actually fairly close but yeah I wasn't getting there. So then after a lot of long annoying days the xc was over and monday I got to lounge around and do basically nothing. well, worked on my bike and got some groceries. Riding after work tuesday didn't feel terrible but it didn't feel great either. Our last wed course was a little more complicated than usual and went on literally all the trails and even crossed itself once at the top to do that. Plus a different, shorter lap for the 5pm kids race, which wound up not being short enough apparently. So I'm out setting up when I hear the rear tire start hissing on the little utility truck. Cool. Great. I'm pretty far up there. Start driving back down, get most of the way before I decide I can't drive on the rim any more. It took awhile to go fully flat at least. Walk down. Get my own car and use that to finish setting up. Get to the bottom, am changed and ready a little after the kids race start so I ride up to where the tape needs to be changed and take a lap on one of the descents and then wait for the last kids to come by. Shaun is riding with them, says, I'll change all this, go ahead and finish your riding. So I get to the bottom, Abby comes over to me with a radio and someone needs to drive up there to pick up one of the kids. We send a couple of the other volunteers up and the kid gets down but the tape winds up not changed and it's kind of important and so Shaun winds up driving up and doing it and then course marshalling/cheering at the top. Anyway, the race starts about 15min late. Dan and Elliot are there after their weeks at the Missoula XC but don't seem quite as aggressive at the start and I'm leading for awhile. Actually like the whole old xc lap to the top. Dan is behind me, Elliot and Toby back there. we get out on the road and are going all the way to the top and I need to slow down a bit. Dan goes by, Toby and Elliot go by. I'm at least on Elliot's wheel and Toby is like 10-15s ahead. We get up the road a bit, get through the first section of trail climb, and Elliot decides he's done and pulls off. I'm a little recovered and get on Toby's wheel, then decide to go by and put a good dig in up the last road bit because my only chance of beating him is to get a big enough gap to stay ahead through the descents. He's another one of those guys that can go downhill on another level from the rest of us and so I'm running scared. First descent he's back there a few seconds but I get into the climb and to the top of the next one with a buffer. This is a little longer, descending the top half of one trail and the bottom half of our steeper "downhill" trail we built for collegiate nats a few years ago. it's pretty steep and has some drops and I brought the hei hei over the trek despite the climb all the way to the top off the bat. Bottom of that descent Toby is back almost on my wheel and then it's the last climb before going to the bottom and the finish line. I make it up, and all the way down, and to the line ahead of him to pull off 2nd, I think possibly my best wed night xc finish. Went 2min 30 faster than last year on the same course on the same bike so that's promising especially since I'm still tired and haven't been able to really train or ride consistently lately. But now I get a little break from all the setup and racing and will have like 3 days off in a row a week to go and ride my bike and get ready for butte. jamal fucked around with this message at 05:35 on Jun 19, 2023 |
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Jun 16, 2023 04:29
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Copy pasta Race Report: Regalado Road Race - Pro/1/2 Date: 6/4/2023 Team result: TobinHatesYou (4th) Course: 4 laps of the standard 17mi circuit except in the clockwise direction. While not a technical course by any means, it is harder CW vs CCW; the rollers are punchier and the rough section at Tim Bell Rd is faster with a cross-tailwind. Conditions: A ~12mph WNW wind making the frontside of the course fast and the backside slow. Low 70s at the start, almost 90 by the end. Race Plan: I had pre-registered for the Pro/1/2 race, but almost swapped to the combined 40-44,45-49 championship race instead with the intention of helping Brian K. Ultimately I made the decision to stick with the Pro/1/2, thinking Brian would make the winning break without my help. Fortunately this is exactly what happened. For mid-race nutrition and hydration I had two 26oz bottles of Skratch Super High Carb mix in my bottle cages and one 22oz bottle in my back pocket. That bottle nearly bounced out of my pocket on Tim Bell Rd...Castelli really needs to go back to having three small pockets on the San Remo roadsuit instead of two large ones. Alto Velo was the largest team with 4 racers while Dolce Vita had 3. Local strongman, Ryan G of Mike's Bikes was also in the race, so I expected constant attacks from Alto Velo in an effort to tire out Ryan. My plan was not to go out of my way to follow early moves that didn't have the right comp, but also to eventually sneak away while AV, DVC and Ryan neutralized each other. If they're going to play chess, I'm going to mess with 'em by playing Connect Four instead. At the end of the neutral rollout, Grant M from Alto Velo attacked, though never got out of sight. A few solo riders bridged up to him, while Ryan G set a fast tempo in the main pack. We caught the early move after 8 miles right as we turned onto the headwind side of the course. I am pretty aero and love a good headwind attack, so with Alto Velo crowding the front, I rode right through the middle and quickly got 5 seconds on the field. Alto Velo sent Nathan M after me and the two of us completed a full lap of the circuit, getting caught right where the breakaway began. AV should have launched one of their guys, but didn't, so I exhaled and took it upon myself to counterattack even though I had just been caught. Again I got a gap, and again one other rider chose to come along...this time it was Greg W from Ride Bikes Racing. After half a lap, Eric B of Olympic Club bridged up to us by himself. As we hit the backside of the course Ryan G, Conor A (AV,) and James Y (DVC) managed to get away from the main group and catch up to us. The break now had the perfect composition to make it all the way to the end. On the final lap Greg, Eric and James started skipping pulls, so I attacked the breakaway on Tim Bell Rd while everyone else was too focused on Ryan. Ryan quickly jumped on my wheel and then took over. We very nearly got away and in hindsight I should have come around one more time or encouraged him to up the pace. Unfortunately we only managed to drop James and Greg. For the remainder of the last lap, Ryan did most of the work while Eric, Conor and I barely contributed. Once we turned onto the crosswind section at Stoddard Rd, Ryan attacked for the final time and the rest of us CRAMPED SIMULTANEOUSLY. Eric managed to ride through it and got away as well. I tried to hang on for 3rd, but Conor recovered from his cramp and eventually passed me with less than a mile to go. In the end, I spent 58mi of a 67mi race in two separate breakaways with a decent chance of finishing 2nd, but ended up stumbling into 4th. The winning break averaged 25.5mph. I averaged 236W for 2h38m and my normalized power was 256W.  
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Jun 16, 2023 08:10
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After missoula xc and our wed night series I got to actally, like go ride my bike for fun the last two weeks. Have a little more free time to so volume back up to a better place and I have a couple of weeks before butte. Feeling pretty decent, weight is good, just need to not gently caress up. Today we had a gravel race, "garden city gravel." since i'm out there, working at it, setting up and such, I might as well race. Pretty simple course, same as last year, go out, take a left, do a general climby bit of forest road, back down to the main road and back. Like 52mi, 3500ft of climbing. Climb is not all at once, you kind of gradually go up for awhile, then hit the side road and have basically two climbs and some rolling terrain and then a long way back down. Better turnout than last year, some new people, and most of the usuals. First climb gets going and caleb, dan, dawson are up there, i'm a few wheels back, "HR seems high but I feel ok." Turns out my HRM was just hosed and reading off all day so who knows what it actually was. Anyway by the top of the first climb it's Caleb and Dawson up the road then me, Jake, Dan, Myke, Elliot. I can see them, and as we hit the 2nd climb Stella and Matt have gotten back with us and I can see that Caleb is leaving dawson behind. Dan gets away too. I'm setting a pretty solid pace, can hear heavy breathing behind me, keeping dan in sight. I'm a little concerned I've gone out a little hot due to the jacked up HR and decide we can ease up a bit and all get to the top and down the descent together. We do that and have a fairly nice ride, still solid pace, up to the top. We lost Matt and Stella at the bottom but they got with us again near the top and then Matt is ripping the descent, I'm behind Jake and Elliot who are letting a gap go, then they get back up and I'm by myself and "oh poo poo i might be hosed right now." Close back up though after a couple minutes of chasing at the bottom and then we have six of us rolling down a gentle grade for like 12mi into a bit of a headwind. "is that dan up there?" yes. Catch him, then dawson, so here we are all racing for 2nd now. Caleb of course is gone because he's a real pro. Hit the last rolling climb, I feel pretty decent- have gone through most of 3 bottles with mix plus got a few shot blocks in along the way. Headwind and uphill finish so I need to be patient. But I'm too patient. Jake and Elliot jump and I'm behind Dan (who was out late last night and on his own all day) and Dan doesn't react at all, no one else goes, so then I'm too far back and roll in for 4th. I get 4th all the loving time. Solid day anyhow and I don't think anyone got very lost or hurt. hey a picture with me not anywhere near the sprint for 2nd  also i had a camera running for some of it so here's that https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boHpiR4pt98 jamal fucked around with this message at 05:20 on Jul 11, 2023 |
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Jul 2, 2023 05:32
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I did that dumb 100mi mtb race again. it was hot and I still feel bad. So yeah, butte 100. my 5th time going so i thought maybe the'd make me a little copper mug or something for the "500mi club." Steve has done this 9 times now and last year they gave him one with his name on it for doing 8. But first i did have to actually finish. I need to figure out a better sleeping situation because again I got no sleep. I thought i had it figured out by driving up there before the race meeting to grab a spot down the road a bit away from the highway but it was all full. I also thought my new giant air mattress that barely fits in the tent was going to help. But then I wound up on the ground so welp, hosed that up I guess. Ate breakfast in my car in the dark at 5am, managed to poop before the start, and off we went. First climb is about 10-15min in and goes up for awhile, I found myself sitting in 3rd behind last year's winner who is a real pro bike racer and is going to marathon worlds and then Adam, who finished 4th ahead of me last year and used to be a real pro bike racer. But adam was in sight and I was comfortable. John, who won the helena race and is also pretty good ultrarunner was back there, along with some younger kids like Aiden from Butte and Elliot from my other race stuff. Then we ran into either a mis marked part of course or someone loving with the arrows, because we get sent up this like steep rocky thing that doesn't seem right and we're all walking and wandering around. Like a dozen other people are there and going up higher and I'm like no i don't think this is right and go back down and by ignoring the arrow I get back on track with some other people. There's a group in front of me now and I have no idea how far ahead Chris or Adam are and it cost about 10min. I'm going up the regular course and John comes out of the bushes so it worked out for him and we rode together for awhile. But I'm kind of thrown off, pedaling harder than I should because of the panicky "must catch up" feeling and am thrown off a bit but I guess we're all in the same boat. Throw my vest at AS2, I didn't plan on stopping there and didn't really need to wear the vest and it makes it harder to get stuff out of your pockets. I had some snacks in cargo bibs plus about 500cal in my two big water bottles so I mostly just needed to drink them both and have a few shot blocks before AS3 at mi 25. Stop at 3, get two more big bottles of mix and cram two gels in my face. am now with John and another guy (matt?") who don't stop but catch back up to john and we're back riding together. 3-4 you descent some actual singletrack instead of endless up and down sandy moto doubletrack. I had generally been a little all over the place on the thunder burts in the sand. Rode off trail a few times but stayed upright. John is descending faster than me and that I find a bit annoying because he's a runner and on a hardtail. I'm climbing faster though and on the sandy slog up to AS4 I leave him behind and then go by Matt who is stopped there. Get to 5 and grab a quick splash of water and then see someone up ahead of me. Oh hey it's Adam, I thought he was gone. He kept pace and didn't want to have me just go by but I put in a little bit of effort up a moderate climb and get some space going into the start/finish. We leave together, then you descend down from the pass to the butte valley on this ridiculously steep doubletrack full of huge washed out ruts. I let Adam go first and then we're on a short road section. You climb through a neighborhood then up a trail then drop down to the highway and climb back up a bit to AS7. I leave Adam on the climb, another quick half bottle of water at 7, and I'm on the way to basin creek. By now it's over 90f and the course only gets harder. At AS8 I get two more full bottles of mix, one insulated, plus a 3rd bottle of just water in my jersey pocket. I needed it. You climb like 3k feet to get to the next aid station and it seems endless. I had been carrying two bottles of mix up to here but kept one full of just water the rest of the way just to pour on myself. Legs are starting to feel unhappy and the heat is unpleasant. I get off my bike and walk a few times. Start catching the tail end of the 50mi race. Start getting some light cramping. Get to AS9 feeling not great wondering how in the gently caress I'm going to get up the next climbs and to the finish. It's still 20 loving more miles. Two more bottles and maybe a gel and some blocks or something, plus salt cap chews and a tylenol. Legs work a little better but right out of the aid station is steep as gently caress and starts to get a little more rocky and technical. This is the highest point of the course on the CDT, generally over 7k feet, and gently caress it's hot. I feel like I'm barely moving. Misery. I think my max HR for the last 4 hours was 153, so z2 to low tempo was all i could do before my legs said no. Keep looking back, see no one. Tell myself if I feel this bad they all do to. Kind of have fun on the descents, hei hei is ripping through the rocks and the thunder burts are much happier on the packed dirt instead of sand (i also let some air out at the halfway point because of the heat, and ran my suspension a little softer than normal). Thankfully the rocks are all pretty rounded. At one point I clipped a rock with my foot/pedal and tensed up and my legs cramped so hard hard I couldn't move them for like 10-20s. But then you just try to pedal and ignore how bad it feels. Finally get past limekin hill and have a pretty extended downhill to the last aid station. Have a shot of pickle juice, have a cup of coke, get a bottle of water and a bottle of mix, and just have to make it the last 9mi. Again, you're climbing off the bat, but the grade is more reasonable. It's not exactly a continuous climb and then a continuous descent but it's close. Couple of breaks on the way up, couple of short rises on the way down. It takes about 40min to get to the point where you're generally on the way down. Then 20 more to the finish. I see the R1k crew from town, say hi, and yell "this loving sucks." but seeing friends out there is a nice pick me up. Get to the finish almost 20min slower than last year. My goal was to be faster and I had the fitness to do it, but the early detour, slow and sandy conditions on the first half, and really loving hot weather conspired against that a bit. Surprisingly from the bottom of basin creek to the finish I was only 8min slower over 4 hours compared to last year. That poo poo really sucked and I didn't want to keep going. But uh, I did get 2nd overall so there's that. For some reason they didn't do awards or a podium and then ran out of food before like half the 100mi finishers were done which was kind of lovely. Maybe they'll mail me something. I think I went through about 14 bottles, most with 200-250cal of tailwind in them. And then about only ate shot bloks and vanilla gels. I tried a bite of a honey waffle at some point, and did put a few bars in my bags, but it's just really hard to chew and swallow things. Rode the hei hei, did not change much for setup.  Like I mentioned, went down very slightly in shock pressures. Also used the wheels from the trek since they're lighter along with some schwalbe thunder burts for a little more weight savings plus better rolling resistance. The pirellis probably would have been ok but they're starting to get a little worn and so if i'm going to use a flimsy xc tire I want some fresh sharp knobs. Whole bike needs a lot of work after that one. I did consider riding the hardtail (and I did do this race on my old one twice) but fs is definitely the way to go out there. Kind of considering selling both bikes to get an orbea oiz. oh yeah the level of salt accumulation was pretty gross.  even my sunglasses had salt crusted on them. jamal fucked around with this message at 06:19 on Jul 25, 2023 |
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Jul 23, 2023 22:26
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That sounds like a crazy race and a really good result!
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Jul 25, 2023 19:54
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Signed up for a local crit today, my first ever race. It's in two weeks from now and will be 40k/40laps in the uncategorized "hobby" class that I'm going to start in. No idea what I'm doing honestly, hope I don't crash and get to finish. 
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Aug 18, 2023 09:32
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It's really not about the results at all, you're going to love it!
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Aug 18, 2023 09:56
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Competitive Cycling - hope I don't crash and get to finish
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Aug 24, 2023 01:20
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That time of year I guess    We had a cross clinic and practice race yesterday at our "traditional" race venue. So tuesday and yesterday we had to do a lot of work out there mowing and raking and poo poo to get all the features back to use-able and have paths through the grass. So a few of us did that, then I set up a course, then I coached the clinic, then I tried to race bikes too after that and the fatigue definitely caught up with me after a few laps and I had to chill out a bit and give up on being with the front couple of guys. Plus I'm supposed to be taking a rest week. Had an ok time working on cornering and getting used to the tubulars again but then had to pick it up for the last lap or two because andrew was catching up. Generally feel good about my fitness going into the season but definitely need to start doing more high intensity stuff. First wed race next week, and I still have to figure out the pan-ams course. jamal fucked around with this message at 03:43 on Sep 15, 2023 |
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Sep 15, 2023 03:41
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I road a 10mile Time trial on my local motoracing circuit. The surface is smooth as silk, and for the first time I can remember the weather was great, it's a old airfield and very exposed to wind. Any hoo I came 19th overall with a time of 23:49. 6th in my age group and first road bike! It was nice overtaking people on TT bikes, and I am pleased with my time. But I am not sure where I go from here, as I don't think I could have gone any faster. Btw my Garmin said my V02 was 54 in the top 1% for my age and a fitness age of 20! I am 61 LOL
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Sep 15, 2023 19:08
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Have done some more cyclocross things Basically I can almost but not quite hang onto the front couple of guys and wind up dangling and then riding a pretty boring race in like 5th place. Pretty sure with actually fresh legs I can be there but I've been trying to get in as much riding and training as I can, plus I set up the courses. last week especially was rough because I did a pretty hard ride saturday, really long ride sunday, hard road ride monday, cx practice with the jrs tuesday that was kind of hard and had a lot of running up a huge hill, then course setup wed before the race. Anyway, hopefully this all pays off in a few weeks at our rolling thunder race and pan ams although those are both going to be a ton of work for me too. I do still have a borrowed gopro and took some video of the races. Week 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uG3JnKkyVE week 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06LTXa8DvLA Rewatching is kind of useful as I notice the mistakes I make early on that are not helping me stick on wheels, like taking the wrong lines and not trying hard enough to hold wheels and defend my spot. So I should really make an effort to ride more of the sections at full speed in pre-ride so i'm not braking too much or missing turn in and apexes and going too wide and such and losing ground.
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Oct 1, 2023 05:47
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Week 3 (and 4) was at the golf course. I was fairly optimistic about it because I get to borrow golf carts and drive around dropping cones on the ground which saves me a little bit of time on my feet. But instead the trailer and setup stuff wasn't there until 1:30 and I had less stuff than I would have liked so it was a bit of a stressful, rushed setup. Plus recent rain limited us a bit in where we could race (and we still left some pretty good grooves across one of the fairways that I think they probably weren't thrilled about). Anyway yeah so that was pretty frustrating and then it was time to line up. Big turnout with 25 in men a and like 165 total across all the races. So it got a little crowded out there but it's very wide open and not a big deal. Caleb Swartz came, plus Andrew, and all the usuals.  I had a pretty good first couple of laps and hung on/stayed in touch a little longer than the previous two weeks which wasn't bad. But Dan and Brian got away again and then I couldn't hang with Noah and Porter and think I wound up like, 7th? Oh, 8th. Ivan was out there too (he won cx nats as a 15-16 and raced for cannondale cx world as a uci JR but isn't trying to do the pro racer thing right now). I did beat Toby though. That grass out there is so slow and miserable and you basically feel like you get no rest the whole lap. Rode some dugast small bird tubulars out of the "jr dev team wheel library." I bought some rhinos for the later races but haven't pulled off the 3 season old baby limuses and glued them up yet. My other cross wheels right now are the bontrager aoelus 51s with 36mm gravel grinders, which would have also been a good option but I'm starting to notice the tread wear and less supple casing than the cx tires and also harder rubber. Quite a bit of slipping and sliding on those the first two weeks so I think I'm about done with them. Going to ride the small birbs again next week since I have a decent feel for them now. at 25/27psi they were very grippy and still relatively well supported but as the race went on and i was pushing them harder they definitely were folding over more. Wet weather coming again next week so we'll see if I can set up my ideal course or not. Also made a video, it's like the first 3 laps and then the last one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-_77rLTBdY Then today was the pattee canyon hill climb. I just edged out a PR and beat my time from last year by 8 seconds and seem to have won again. Amazingly nice sunny fall day with no wind. I went heavily on the aero with my 60mm hed jets, a lazer vento and "aero" poc sunglasses and a real tight skin suit. The organizer also liked my bright blue socks and shoes and I'm not sure if my gift card prize was from winning or from that. jamal fucked around with this message at 04:51 on Oct 9, 2023 |
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Oct 9, 2023 02:51
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They let you guys rip up a golf course?
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Oct 9, 2023 04:26
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Yeah, it is mostly in the driving range and not like, going across greens and tee-boxes. The tires don't do a lot of damage to the grass, especially compared to like, hitting a golf ball. We did have to avoid some softer spots from recent rain, you can see grooves in the grass in the video in some spots but they were gone in the worst spot after last week. Anyway, we were out there again. I had more time and brought more stakes on my own and was able to use a little more fun terrain because it was dryer, and came up with a little more technical course instead of a lot of really annoying grass. At the start I wound up a few wheels farther back than I wanted but made up some ground over the race. Andrew was off the front, then Ivan, Brian, Dan were up there. I came soo close to getting to Dan's wheel at one point but then no. Toby, Noah, and I had a little group going and caught Brian which kind of surprised me, he won the first week and then has been next behind Andrew and Caleb. Noah made a pretty good attack but Toby and I hung on and then went by after a lap, and wound up riding away on our own. Then I hosed up a bit on the last lap and he got away. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7vAm-kawIM   Rode the small birds again, think 25/27psi. I'm not sure how much I like these tires. I mean, I don't not like them, they seem fast and grippy enough but I don't know. A tire with a bigger cornering knob like a chicane or baby limus gives you a little better overall grip when leaned over and I guess a grabbier feel. The small birbs are a little more vague about what's going on. Next week I'll probably ride the older baby limuses and then I should swap on the fresh rhinos pretty soon. jamal fucked around with this message at 16:08 on Oct 14, 2023 |
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Oct 14, 2023 15:24
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That sounds like maybe you're running too high pressure? That's more than I run and I weigh a fair bit more than you.
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Oct 14, 2023 18:16
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Alex suggested that too, but I dunno, the grass is fast and grippy and I want a little more support in the high speed turns, plus better rolling resistance. After pre ride the pressures had dropped like 2-3 and I suppose I could have left it there. They felt ok.
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Oct 14, 2023 18:53
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Two more wed night races happened and then we had one of our big weekend races. It's been a lot of setup work and working every day between the course and the shop and i'm tired and i have another week of this poo poo and then i can like, i dunno, sit around for a day or three. We are hosting pan ams this weekend and gently caress i have so much left to do. I should be out there right now but i just wanted to hang out for a bit this morning. The nice thing is that we have been racing at the same venue so a lot of the things that are already setup are staying there and part of the pan ams course. But i still have to do a little more working on course marking, we have to set up the pits and start/finish which is on the street, and the start of the lap that's on the other side of the road. I barely remember how the last two wed night races went. Two weeks ago I remember being tired and far back off the start and then kind of piling into Evan when he crashed trying to sprint over some roots in the grass, then spending the rest of the lap playing catch up. Last wed kind of a blank. Looks like I got 5th. It was really cold- like 25f and windy and had snowed that morning. Then it snowed again thursday which made the course a little greasy saturday once it warmed up a bit, but by the time we raced at 4 it was pretty nice and grippy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQ2EUtGovdY this one is usually our biggest race of the year. We've been doing it out at the brewery which is fun and has a big huge hillside but with pan ams being at this venue it made sense to have it all in the same place. I did have a pretty decent race, but missed my pedal at the start and never got on the front group, then had my boa pop off my shoe. There was a group of about 5 chasing me and they got pretty close but then I fixed the shoe and starting putting down some nice consistent and fast laps and if i had just been able to do that from the start I'd have been up with Noah and Dan probably. I still got 6th after catching KBP going into the last lap. I think he crashed or something at some point and lost the front and then wasn't really into it. He did come out and win sunday but most of us sat that one out. After doing the mountain bike/party/ss race right after the main race I was barely able to even get there at a reasonable time in the morning and didn't even go out to the post race party. 
jamal fucked around with this message at 19:20 on Nov 7, 2023 |
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Oct 30, 2023 18:42
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we made it through pan ams, and i can finally sit around for most of a day. Getting the course all finished was a lot of work but I had the previous few weeks to get most of it set up. We just raced sections maybe in different orders and directions for the last few wed nights and the weekend before. Mainly we had to finish up sections of missing tape, build the start/finish straight on the street, the first section of course on the other side, and the double pit. I spent a lot of time reading the rules and drawing lines on a map this year and the friday course walk through went pretty well. It would have gone better if i hadn't run out of stakes thursday, which meant a bit of last minute work to add rows of tape in places like u-turns and where the course is next to itself. Our previous weeks of racing also helped me find the places where things were going to get broken so spots like that got adjusted and/or reinforced. We can't quite pull off that giant wood posts and snow fence lining the whole course thing.     I did race, in the 40-44 category, but I wasn't all that fresh. It went ok but I lost the front group on the first lap and then wound up racing with the usual guys plus a few canadians. 35-39 was out there too and got a 30s head start but we would up being generally faster and caught them in the first lap, which was a little annoying, especially as it happened right as we hit the runup and a series of tight turns. Mid race I was slowing down and kind of letting things go and then toward the end got myself going a little better. Caught all the guys right in front of me and sprinted with the guy who was 3rd in 35-39. Pretty sure he got me but can't tell from the timing/results because we started at different times. My last lap was my fastest, which i think mostly came from actually riding the course better and not so much pedaling harder. It was a little greasy out there and we actually had ruts in a lot of the turns.  Satruday after the age group pan am races were elite c2 category races, and then sunday was uci jr, u23, and elite pan am races, plus usac masters at the end of the day. There were also morning races for various u16 groups but there's no "pan am champoinships" for them. We put the beer tent at the top of the runup so that was lined with fans yelling and putting money out on the course and stuff. We did a good job because Sunday during the championship races the uci official came and kind of shut it down. I probably should have lined that with snow fence and put in a better course crossing but otherwise it was exactly what we wanted it to be. Pretty happy with how it all went. I would have liked a better race. I think I had the fitness this year to hang with guys like toby and kbp (who won the 40-44 race) but didn't have rest or fresh legs. From a techncal director/course designer/course builder perspective I'd also say it was pretty good. There are some fairly minor things i will change/improve for next year but overall it's going to stay pretty much the same and racers seemed to like it. Makes me laugh because this is our lovely little wed night venue we've been racing at for years. jamal fucked around with this message at 23:56 on Nov 7, 2023 |
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Nov 7, 2023 18:44
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Posting in Jamal's thread since I did my first XC race this past weekend. I was planning on doing some XC race series and other stuff last year but life happened and I didn't do it. Saw this local race come up just after I finished putting together a new bike and also saw someone I knew was signed up, so talked with him and he encouraged me to sign up for the 40+ expert group. Generally I'm a strong rider with decent handling skills but people around here (SF Bay Area) are strong as hell so I was a bit nervous about not having experience with that. But, also pretty much why I was doing it. Of course a little less than 2 weeks before the race COVID hits our household, but I was lucky enough to "barely get it". Extremely slight line on test results, no symptoms except a slight headache that came and went, no change in HR stats, and tested negative after 4 days. It messed with my preparation a bit though and I'd have liked to do that a bit different, but oh well, very lucky all things considered and that it had no noticeable impact on my cardiovascular system (I was pretty careful to monitor that when riding again to make sure things looked fine and to take some easy days before stressing myself). The race was the Stafford Lake Rattler XC race, up in Novato near (and including) the bike park up there. Most of the race was really along some trails in the disc golf course up there that aren't normally rideable, and it was basically lots of punchy and steep climbs with some decent singletrack bits and janky hiking trail switchbacks, then some bike park flow trail stuff. I pre-rode the course the day before and am glad I did, just to know how it went and where some issues were. Probably went a bit too hard on the pre-ride but maybe helped get my legs ready too...I dunno, without a chance at a real taper and prep I was winging it at this point. Expert/Pro started at 11am but got there around 9 to have time to warm up and not feel rushed. Had a donut for pre-race food and since it was relatively short-ish (4 laps of 4.2 miles) I just went with one bottle with Scratch Superfuel in it. At 10:45 we lined up, I was feeling a bit nervous about the start but watched the pro group and under 18 groups go off a bit ahead of us and their sprint start didn't look that bad so I just focused on holding my position when we got the go. Was maybe 100 yards along a dirt road until hitting a steep uphill with an "A" line that went straight up and a B line that was longer and went around and up. Right away people botched the climb, someone swerved in front of me and cut me off so I had to run the rest of the initial climb, shoulda maybe taken the B line. Following that was a narrow slog of a climb along the hillside and any worries I had about my bike handling were dispelled there with watching people have difficulties navigating that. One guy managed to fall over the only rock along the side of the trail, and I think when I got past him (can't actually remember if I passed people to get around him or not) I was behind one person I could tell was slower than me but we actually put a small gap on the group. After a short downhill I was able to get out in front of him on a longish flat dirt road section and then pushed up the next longer climb pretty hard. The track doubled back and wound back and forth through a field so I could see I had increased the gap some so I just kept at it through the next couple of ups and downs and into the long drag of a climb that came after, then hit the switchback-ish downhill pretty good but being cautious enough to not overcook anything. One guy who was a bit behind me I saw take a pretty good crash on the one slightly technical rocky section as I was coming around a switchback and could look up the trail. By that point I basically had gapped the group behind me and never saw them as a whole again anywhere close to threatening me. I caught one other guy on the bike park climb and flow trail on the first lap but was riding alone at that point. I passed at least one other person (maybe a few more) but laps 2 and 3 I had one guy hanging around behind me, not gaining time but I couldn't lose him either. The group ahead of me was pretty well gone and I wasn't catching them and I think it's fair to say they were all pretty much stronger than me in general so I'm not sad about how my positioning at the beginning started out. Unfortunately by the 4th lap my legs were starting to go and I couldn't hold off the guy behind me. He caught me at the end of the long climb and stuck behind me on the downhill and I let him pass on the flat after that. With just the bike park flow trail stuff remaining and no one threatening me from behind anymore I mostly cruised the last bit at a moderate pace as I knew I didn't have the legs to catch the guy anymore. I guess I should say that for a hour and a half race my HR averaged 175 and overall it was pretty brutal, but also fun in that "I'm racing" and "this is cool even if it hurts" and "this is definitely type 2 fun". I rolled in at 8th in the 40+ group that I think was 25-26 people, and if you include the small group of 19-39 (I think there was only 5 or 6) then I was 9th (the second place in 19-39 finished a minute and change behind me, 1st place was like 10 drat minutes ahead of me, hah). For my first actual race pretty happy overall. My biggest worries were how I'd handle the start and dealing with positioning and it ended up pretty much being a non factor, but I can see it being more aggressive in other races as well. I think I got exactly the finishing position I deserved as the people in front of me were stronger and the people who finished behind me I was stronger than and I didn't screw myself over getting dropped from the lead group or something because of bad decisions at the start...I wasn't going to hang with them anyways I think. Maybe next time I'll be more aggressive at trying to stay up at the front and try to hang on if I can but we'll see. I wish I could have held off the guy who passed me on the last lap but legs just didn't have it. I also need to really do some body work to mitigate some back pain that came up from constantly going hard. By lap 4 it probably robbed me of some energy and power as well, so that's a task for the winter. My buddy finished 16th and though it wasn't really his kind of race I was happy to have done well in comparison since he has more racing experience and I know he's pretty strong in general (probably does far better in races that aren't just punchy climbs). So, was fun, still kinda stoked. There's a XC series that goes on around some of the Sierra foothills towns that I'm going to try to do next year (the ones that I bailed on this year) and will probably keep an eye out for some other stuff. Couple of pics  
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Nov 15, 2023 04:25
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