- Completed a total of 16 races this year. 10 Mountain Bike races and 6 Cyclocross races.
- I found my legs in the sport category and will try to maintain that fitness through the winter. I have seen it drop off through the CX season, with a continued drop is the standings.
- Fell in love with single-speed racing.
- Didn't do enough fun rides. That is always the case.
- Found a new pain threshold, and thinned out quite a bit
Monday, December 5, 2011
Season Wrap-Up
It is that time of year again, where the snow starts to fly and you get an opportunity to reflect on how the racing and riding season went.
Monday, October 3, 2011
Cross Time
With the mountain bike season wrapping up last weekend, we move into the beautiful fall cross season. This year I have plans on riding more races than the 2 I did last year. I was a rookie last year, with a 26" wheel bike that wasn't primed to be an adequate cross bike. I now have the Niner and better fitness to make a true run at the sport.
Single Track Escape
The last race of the mountain bike season this year is the Single Track Escape in St. Cloud. It is also the single speed state championship, so the field of racers was quite a bit bigger. I hadn't raced for about a month but was hoping to get a good finish for the year. There were some top riders in the lineup that included Brendan Moore and Heath Weibrud. My goal for the race was to lead out fast and try to hold that position through the entire race. I tend to fade later in the race as other riders ratchet it up. My theory is that my body size is better suited for shorter hard efforts, and the guys that catch me are smaller and more efficient.
The prologue for this race is a long run down some double track ski trails. At the start I sprinted to the top 10 position and settled into the pace as we hit the double track. I found Todd Trembley's wheel in the double track and decided to let him do the leadout. The field was spread out and we were moving along fast enough to spin out my 36-20 29er gearing. I was feeling good behind Todd and knew I would need to make a move before the single track. At the end of the double track, just before the single track, there was a short kicker (maybe 30-40 yards straight up). I shot around Todd and hammered the climb as hard as I could. After that, I rode alone. The guys in front of me were Expert/Pros and I didn't see much of them after the double track. The guys behind me were my Sport competition stuck in traffic behind me.
The first lap I was all alone. No one came up to me in SS, and the other sport riders were all behind. Half way through the second lap I got caught by 5 or 6 non-SS sport riders. I was starting to cramp a bit from the cool weather and tight/technical single track. I ran one of the small climbs and that seemed to relieve the cramps. I had lost a bottle on the first lap and really needed some water. In the final section of single track I got caught by someone in SS running some impressive gearing. He beat me to the finish by about 30 seconds.
I finished 3rd in SS 35+ and 13 out of 25 in the SS state championship. It was a fun race on a tight course.
Hudson Double Cross Shootout
Raced my first cross race of the season this last Saturday. I raced the Niner with my 2.2" Small Block 8s.
I went to the starting line late and was pretty close to the back. Was racing with Josh Collins in the newly formed Ready-Rail -- Team Dirty team colors ;) At the whistle, the course took us up a long gradual climb to the spectator area. I decided to go up the right side and got boxed in on the climb. I watched as Josh found a hole on the left side and shot past. I wanted to try to hold his wheel and did some aggressive passing on the far right. I did make some good positions with the move, but it killed me. I found myself alone between the lead pack of riders and the rest of the field. Kept up the tempo and gradually lost a few positions over the race. Finish 15th out of 54 riders and Josh took the win in CX4!
Single Track Escape
The last race of the mountain bike season this year is the Single Track Escape in St. Cloud. It is also the single speed state championship, so the field of racers was quite a bit bigger. I hadn't raced for about a month but was hoping to get a good finish for the year. There were some top riders in the lineup that included Brendan Moore and Heath Weibrud. My goal for the race was to lead out fast and try to hold that position through the entire race. I tend to fade later in the race as other riders ratchet it up. My theory is that my body size is better suited for shorter hard efforts, and the guys that catch me are smaller and more efficient.
The prologue for this race is a long run down some double track ski trails. At the start I sprinted to the top 10 position and settled into the pace as we hit the double track. I found Todd Trembley's wheel in the double track and decided to let him do the leadout. The field was spread out and we were moving along fast enough to spin out my 36-20 29er gearing. I was feeling good behind Todd and knew I would need to make a move before the single track. At the end of the double track, just before the single track, there was a short kicker (maybe 30-40 yards straight up). I shot around Todd and hammered the climb as hard as I could. After that, I rode alone. The guys in front of me were Expert/Pros and I didn't see much of them after the double track. The guys behind me were my Sport competition stuck in traffic behind me.
The first lap I was all alone. No one came up to me in SS, and the other sport riders were all behind. Half way through the second lap I got caught by 5 or 6 non-SS sport riders. I was starting to cramp a bit from the cool weather and tight/technical single track. I ran one of the small climbs and that seemed to relieve the cramps. I had lost a bottle on the first lap and really needed some water. In the final section of single track I got caught by someone in SS running some impressive gearing. He beat me to the finish by about 30 seconds.
I finished 3rd in SS 35+ and 13 out of 25 in the SS state championship. It was a fun race on a tight course.
Hudson Double Cross Shootout
Raced my first cross race of the season this last Saturday. I raced the Niner with my 2.2" Small Block 8s.
I went to the starting line late and was pretty close to the back. Was racing with Josh Collins in the newly formed Ready-Rail -- Team Dirty team colors ;) At the whistle, the course took us up a long gradual climb to the spectator area. I decided to go up the right side and got boxed in on the climb. I watched as Josh found a hole on the left side and shot past. I wanted to try to hold his wheel and did some aggressive passing on the far right. I did make some good positions with the move, but it killed me. I found myself alone between the lead pack of riders and the rest of the field. Kept up the tempo and gradually lost a few positions over the race. Finish 15th out of 54 riders and Josh took the win in CX4!
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
August Wrap-Up
To close out August, and the height of the mountain bike season, I competed in the Murphy Sprint Series on the 17th and the Border Battle on the 21st.
The Murphy Sprint Series put on by Freewheel has a growing vibe and is a fun training race on Wednesday evenings in August. The race is a time trial format, where riders stage themselves and are sent out in 30 second intervals.
I staged myself toward the back, as I hadn't ridden any of the previous races and wasn't sure of my true positioning. I was riding gears for this race to give the knees a break and allow some spinning. The race went well, and I felt good most the time. Murphy is tight singletrack, so speed is probably more determined by handling skills and I was making a number of mistakes. In short, I rode the trail in 47 minutes and placed somewhere in the top third. What surprised me is the improvement of over 6 minutes from the last time I raced this TT. It was a good confidence builder going into the Border Battle.
The Border Battle race was at Whitetail Ridge in River Falls again this year. Unlike years past, the weather was dry and cool. I was racing in the SS sport category, for my second single speed race of the series.
It could not have been better conditions. The singletrack was fast, the weather was perfect, and Andy and Josh where both at the race. For the Wisconsin series, SS is an open category, so there were a lot of riders in the group. At the line-up we were staged with the 16-20 YO riders. Within the SS category there were 17 riders.
My plan for the race was to be the first SS rider to the singletrack. In order to do that, I would need to sprint to the first climb and stand on the pedals all the way to the top. At the start I was in the second row, and felt like I had a good start position. The gun went off and the chaos began. At the start of the climb, I was in 5th position and surging. As the young guys with gears dropped to something easier, I mashed on the pedals and rode behind two of the young riders. Here is a photo of my arm (black/orange twin six jersey).
At the top, I let the two youngins pace me to the singletrack. That was probably a bad idea, as it allowed some of the other SS riders to close the gap. We rode the singletrack for a while and caught the back of the group in front of us. Mid lap I was caught by one of the SS racers. I let him pass and pace. Again, another bad idea. I wanted to go faster through the singletrack and was riding his wheel. It also allowed another SS rider to catch us. I rode in #2 until the 2nd climb. On the climb we hit a lot of traffic. #3 broke around the traffic with #1 grabbing his wheel. I tried to follow, but couldn't hold on. I rode the rest of the race chasing/running and holding onto #3.
The racing tactics made for a very fun race.
Coming up - Cyclocross (18+ possible races) and the last MMBS race in St. Cloud
The Murphy Sprint Series put on by Freewheel has a growing vibe and is a fun training race on Wednesday evenings in August. The race is a time trial format, where riders stage themselves and are sent out in 30 second intervals.
I staged myself toward the back, as I hadn't ridden any of the previous races and wasn't sure of my true positioning. I was riding gears for this race to give the knees a break and allow some spinning. The race went well, and I felt good most the time. Murphy is tight singletrack, so speed is probably more determined by handling skills and I was making a number of mistakes. In short, I rode the trail in 47 minutes and placed somewhere in the top third. What surprised me is the improvement of over 6 minutes from the last time I raced this TT. It was a good confidence builder going into the Border Battle.
The Border Battle race was at Whitetail Ridge in River Falls again this year. Unlike years past, the weather was dry and cool. I was racing in the SS sport category, for my second single speed race of the series.
It could not have been better conditions. The singletrack was fast, the weather was perfect, and Andy and Josh where both at the race. For the Wisconsin series, SS is an open category, so there were a lot of riders in the group. At the line-up we were staged with the 16-20 YO riders. Within the SS category there were 17 riders.
My plan for the race was to be the first SS rider to the singletrack. In order to do that, I would need to sprint to the first climb and stand on the pedals all the way to the top. At the start I was in the second row, and felt like I had a good start position. The gun went off and the chaos began. At the start of the climb, I was in 5th position and surging. As the young guys with gears dropped to something easier, I mashed on the pedals and rode behind two of the young riders. Here is a photo of my arm (black/orange twin six jersey).
Coming up - Cyclocross (18+ possible races) and the last MMBS race in St. Cloud
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