Big Bear, Season Finale

Well it took all season, and on the last race of the series, but I feel like Im finally starting to get everything figured out.  I think Trevor and I are finally starting to get my nutrition figured out as this is the first race where I didn't have to try to shake off cramps!  I drove up that morning and had plenty of time to register and hangout with Dave and Tammy.  Got in my warmup on the way to start and headed to the line really ready, for once, to throw down.

Im not the most aggressive at starts, and this was one of the most odd starts Ive had.  Once you go its pretty much uphill for the next 30+ minutes, I had planned with Trevor for this race to go all in for the first 20 minutes or so and if I blew up ohh well!  At the start Marco took off and I found myself right behind him next to Ty, which I thought was super odd for me.  I decided to sit in with Ty for a while and not chase down Marco, as I figured he knows the course better than me and may just be saving it for a solid attack.

I was feeling pretty good so I pulled away and road solo reeling in other riders that started before us, I started to sit in and slow down a little when Ty caught back up to me right after the first single track downhill.  Was still feeling pretty solid so I put in some more hard efforts up the next single track climb and continued to reel in more riders.  I got onto a good group of pro riders to take turns pulling on the flats and fire roads until the final super fun decent to the finish.

One huge bummer about this race is that the sport and beginner riders who do the shorter course are finishing on the last 5 miles of singletrack at the same time that all the Cat 1 and Pro riders are.  It really makes for some hard passing opportunities and bottlenecks.  I jumped in front of the other guys I was riding with before the downhill as I didn't want to take any chances of having someone come up on me in the last few minutes.  There was only a little bit of carnage as one guy I had just passed tire exploded and he went tumbling end over end.  I started to slow down and another rider behind me yelled that he was OK and to keep rolling.

Ended up finishing first in my age group, and had the second fastest Cat 1 time of the day.  Stoked to finally race to my full potential, and am looking forward to next year.  In the meantime its all about fun rides with friends, and trying to get in a little more surfing!

Sage Brush Safari

Im damn glad that I got the opportunity to go out and pre-ride the course before the race, as I learned that its dry as hell!  I was pretty delirious after the pre ride, as I didnt have enough water or nutirion, and we took it super easy.  So after that I made the decision to rock a camelback, as it was supposed to be 90 degrees and really dry race day.

So I dug out the trusty old camelback, dusted it off and headed out to lake Morena for my 3rd geared US Cup race of the year.  I made it out there with plenty of time to spare and sat around shooting the shit with Len, and even got a chance to hangout with Johnny Q for a little while too.  Made sure I took plenty of electrolyte pills, put nutrition in my bottle, and applied plenty of sunscreen and headed out for a quick 20 minute warmup before heading to the line.  

Again we were lucky to start with the 35-39 age group which is full of hammers.  The first two miles of the course are on pretty much flat pavement, then a nice little two mile climb immediately after that before funneling into some super fast and fun singletrack.  At the start everyone was in a solid paceline with Marco and Ty leading the pack, I was doing ok just sitting in midpack at about 10th.  As soon as we hit the climb there was a break and I was a little bit to far back to cover it, but I somehow managed to bridge up to Justin Mann bringing with me another rider in my age group.  For some reason my stomach was not agreeing with me at this point, looking back I think I ate too close to start time, I felt like I was going to vomit and I wasn't even going that hard.  

Justin slowly dropped me and the other rider, and we took turns pulling in front of each other the rest of the climb.  I know that most people in my group aren't that good at technical downhills and I somehow managed to throw it in the big ring and pass the other dude just before we entered the singletrack.  I just rode at a good comfortable pace on this fun section and slowly kept reeling people in.  Knew I was doing ok, at least in second but not sure if Brandon Gritters showed up and if he was in the break with Marco?  So I boogied out pushing it pretty good on the downhill to try to grab a few extra seconds before the dreaded hike a bike section that was next (thank you preride!)

Entry Singletrack...

I got up and over the hike a bike with no major issues continuing to reel in other riders, and didn't see anyone really gaining on me.  Flew down the fire road descent to the longest climb of the race Los Pinos.  Its a solid paved climb thats around 4 miles long.  I had kinda been saving a lot for this climb as I knew if I were to blowup here a bunch of people would pass me.  Managed to put out a good pace all the way to the top in the big ring with no one gaining on me.  Still had no sign if anyone was in front of me from my age group, all I had to do from here is throw down some solid downhill runs with a short climb and I was definitely on the podium.

I passed Justin with a flat, thanks to a 4" long nail, right before the Los Pinos downhill which has to be one of the best descents on the entire US Cup.  Put in a good run, with a short little climb back to four corners for the last downhill before two miles of flat back to the start.  Which, also, has to be one of the most fun singletracks so far this season, this is definitely my kind of racing!  Unfortunately the trail was a little crowded with some sport and beginner riders finishing too, so it was hard to get super focused on the trail.  

Managed to make it down to the finish without anyone passing me, and ended up second on the day in my age group, Gritters was in fact there and in the break with Marco.  Damnit!  Ohh well next time, I had a super fun day racing at one of the best stops on the Cup, this is more what mountain biking is all about!  Got to hangout at the loaded tent with Johnny and Len and drink some beers before making the drive back north.  

Ohh yeah, ran into my old co-worker Elise and her BF Jake from JPOV photography and they snapped this great pic!

https://www.facebook.com/jakespointofview