2009 Blogs
Early Friday morning was the Under-23 Mountain Bike National Championships in Granby, CO at the small ski resort of Sol Vista Basin. Just an hour and a half drive from Boulder, I made it a goal of mine to race as my final year in the U23 ranks. Given that Tour de Toona was canceled this year, the time was allotted for the race as well as for a little bit of practice on the knobbie tires.
The race consisted of 3 laps of a 4.5 mile circuit. Sounds short in roadie lingo...but each lap took about 30 minutes to complete. The start/finish was at the foot of a lung-busting jeep road climb which brought you onto more climbing, this time on twisty-turny single track. You climb and climb for a good 20 minutes before opening up to a beautiful and wide-open panoramic view of the mountains (which I was able to appreciate in my inspection of the course...not so much in the race). At this point you breath is either taken away from the lack of oxygen, the beautiful view, or the nerves of dropping into a ripping steep, technical, loose and twiggy descent. Next is "The Drop". It's a rock-laden, dusty and loose descent that weaves through trees, ultimately leading to a cliff-like drop, where you then need to take a hard left out of the woods. My method here was basically to lean so far back that I was almost sitting on my rear wheel, grab some brake, and surf the sand...hoping and praying to keep it upright. Finally through the Dirty Drop, we hit some more twisting single track before a wood-chip based grind of climb with very little traction. This, I had thought was the final place to pass...whoever led into this final switchback descent had the race in the bag. So into the woods for switchback single track, then a very quick jeep road descent of maybe 100m, before the final 5 switchbacks into the finishing straight which definitely did not allow much chance of overcoming in a sprint finish.
My original strategy was to climb away from the start. This I achieved, and after all the single-tracking ascending, I had a pretty sizeable gap going into the initial descent. But then I started hacking. The lines I was riding the day prior in my inspection seemed impossible and I couldn't get out of my own way. When I was hitting the Drop I was already hearing the rattling of Chloe's (Forsman of Luna, reigning champ) chain coming fast upon me. She flew passed me and I grabbed her wheel. It was the most concentrating I have ever done in a bike race. In a road race you can grab someone's wheel and just keep an eye on it, whereas here, I was intently studying her wheel, her weight distribution, and her body language. I had to keep it close enough so I could ride her exact line, but far enough so I wasn't grabbing a handful of brake so as not to crash into her or lose momentum through the switchbacks. It went like this for the remainder of the first lap and into the second lap, and it was exhilarating because it was like a lighbulb coming on - "Ohh, so this is how it's done!!" The lines I was riding from my practice laps the day prior, to the final lap of the race were drastically different and faster.
Coming down the final switchbacks into the third lap however, I got a bit too close, overlapped wheels, panicked, and grabbed a metric-sh*!-ton of brake and somersaulted over the bars. The adrenaline picked me up quickly as I saw her sprinting out of my battle zone. Now in freak-out mode I started hacking terribly again, braking at the wrong times, almost crashing again, shaking...before I got the better of my racing heart. I made myself chill and established a flow again. As we embarked on the final lap, Chloe was just a bit in front of me going up the climb, but I chewed her advantage away.
We entered the single track together and I decided to try an attack. I established a tiny gap, but she closed it down before the descent and hopped in front of me again. Twice more, before the wood chip grind I tried to get in front, but every time she would surge and move into me, successfuly blocking and leaving me scrambling to hold her wheel again. We entered the switchbacks and after an effort to come around, I was losing ground on her. I had one more ethereal hope of getting around her on the 100m jeep road section. So I got as close to her wheel as possible, and as we shot out of the woods, stood up in my big ring and accelerated as hard as I could, barely sneaking passed her before entering the single track again. With all that speed, I was hauling into the switchbacks and almost dumped it several times, riding on the very edge of my ability through the loose corners. I felt her right beside me through some of the turns as we were battling and bumping wheels. I led through and had the prime line for the left turn up to the finish. We were sprinting hard, and Chloe ultimately pulled out of her pedal in one of her final pedal strokes.
Neck and neck the entire race, it was a truly exciting race to race, and also to watch. I am stoked to have won, but need to offer mad props to Chloe for her racing. It could have gone either way, and I attribute my win to all that I have learned on the road, racing with Webcor. Thank you to Coach Ben Ollett, KneadEd Massage, Stan's NoTubes, Excel Sports, Oakley, Williams Wheels, Kenda Tires, Hudz, Chamois Butt'r, Skins Compression
http://www.cyclingdirt.org/
http://www.cyclingdirt.org/
The race consisted of 3 laps of a 4.5 mile circuit. Sounds short in roadie lingo...but each lap took about 30 minutes to complete. The start/finish was at the foot of a lung-busting jeep road climb which brought you onto more climbing, this time on twisty-turny single track. You climb and climb for a good 20 minutes before opening up to a beautiful and wide-open panoramic view of the mountains (which I was able to appreciate in my inspection of the course...not so much in the race). At this point you breath is either taken away from the lack of oxygen, the beautiful view, or the nerves of dropping into a ripping steep, technical, loose and twiggy descent. Next is "The Drop". It's a rock-laden, dusty and loose descent that weaves through trees, ultimately leading to a cliff-like drop, where you then need to take a hard left out of the woods. My method here was basically to lean so far back that I was almost sitting on my rear wheel, grab some brake, and surf the sand...hoping and praying to keep it upright. Finally through the Dirty Drop, we hit some more twisting single track before a wood-chip based grind of climb with very little traction. This, I had thought was the final place to pass...whoever led into this final switchback descent had the race in the bag. So into the woods for switchback single track, then a very quick jeep road descent of maybe 100m, before the final 5 switchbacks into the finishing straight which definitely did not allow much chance of overcoming in a sprint finish.
My original strategy was to climb away from the start. This I achieved, and after all the single-tracking ascending, I had a pretty sizeable gap going into the initial descent. But then I started hacking. The lines I was riding the day prior in my inspection seemed impossible and I couldn't get out of my own way. When I was hitting the Drop I was already hearing the rattling of Chloe's (Forsman of Luna, reigning champ) chain coming fast upon me. She flew passed me and I grabbed her wheel. It was the most concentrating I have ever done in a bike race. In a road race you can grab someone's wheel and just keep an eye on it, whereas here, I was intently studying her wheel, her weight distribution, and her body language. I had to keep it close enough so I could ride her exact line, but far enough so I wasn't grabbing a handful of brake so as not to crash into her or lose momentum through the switchbacks. It went like this for the remainder of the first lap and into the second lap, and it was exhilarating because it was like a lighbulb coming on - "Ohh, so this is how it's done!!" The lines I was riding from my practice laps the day prior, to the final lap of the race were drastically different and faster.
Coming down the final switchbacks into the third lap however, I got a bit too close, overlapped wheels, panicked, and grabbed a metric-sh*!-ton of brake and somersaulted over the bars. The adrenaline picked me up quickly as I saw her sprinting out of my battle zone. Now in freak-out mode I started hacking terribly again, braking at the wrong times, almost crashing again, shaking...before I got the better of my racing heart. I made myself chill and established a flow again. As we embarked on the final lap, Chloe was just a bit in front of me going up the climb, but I chewed her advantage away.
We entered the single track together and I decided to try an attack. I established a tiny gap, but she closed it down before the descent and hopped in front of me again. Twice more, before the wood chip grind I tried to get in front, but every time she would surge and move into me, successfuly blocking and leaving me scrambling to hold her wheel again. We entered the switchbacks and after an effort to come around, I was losing ground on her. I had one more ethereal hope of getting around her on the 100m jeep road section. So I got as close to her wheel as possible, and as we shot out of the woods, stood up in my big ring and accelerated as hard as I could, barely sneaking passed her before entering the single track again. With all that speed, I was hauling into the switchbacks and almost dumped it several times, riding on the very edge of my ability through the loose corners. I felt her right beside me through some of the turns as we were battling and bumping wheels. I led through and had the prime line for the left turn up to the finish. We were sprinting hard, and Chloe ultimately pulled out of her pedal in one of her final pedal strokes.
Neck and neck the entire race, it was a truly exciting race to race, and also to watch. I am stoked to have won, but need to offer mad props to Chloe for her racing. It could have gone either way, and I attribute my win to all that I have learned on the road, racing with Webcor. Thank you to Coach Ben Ollett, KneadEd Massage, Stan's NoTubes, Excel Sports, Oakley, Williams Wheels, Kenda Tires, Hudz, Chamois Butt'r, Skins Compression
http://www.cyclingdirt.org/
http://www.cyclingdirt.org/