Shenandoah 100 / 'doah MTB Festival / Rowdy Dawg
Shenandoah 100
A busy summer has led to an intense autumn. Leading off was the Shenandoah 100 Mountain Bike Race on September 23rd. This was my second go of it and I wanted to improve over last year's performance. I focused on better hydration and smarter tire selection. I only rode about 150 miles more than last year in preparing for this event. Instead of doing more longer rides I did high intensity short rides more often. Short as in about 30-35 minutes on a the crit course in the woods around our house. Id go in, warm up 5 mins. and then just crush it till I had to get ready for work in the mornings
My tire set-up was Bontrager Super X Revolt Tubeless 2.2's with Stan's of course. At about 32 psi front and 35 psi rear they really hooked up and rolled with minimal effort. Best thing was - NO FLATS! This is the same tire that Chris Eatough (6 World 24 Solo Champion) runs and he has had one flat in that entire span.
The race was extra exciting this year because Floyd Landis (TdF Champion 2006) was racing and everyone thought he could give Eatough a run for his money - he had just finished second in the Leadville 100 - could've won it but for a crash and a flat. Unfortunately, Eatough had a mechanical on the second big climb of the race and we were denied the opportunity to see who had what. Floyd went on to finish third.
My race went well, Greg 'HiFi' Hylton and I duo-teamed up after a fast start and attacking riders on 'Cookie' at the top of the first climb. This rocky, singletrack had most folks pushing their bikes while we middle-ringed on through - passing dozens. Greg had his first of 6 flats for the day (NOT running Stan's) on the fire road leading to the Hankey Mtn. climb. We changed them out like an F-1 team and didn't lose too much time.
My hydration plan consisted of two bottles of Hammer Perpetuem and HEED throughout the race. Regular shots of Hammer gel and Clif Blox did the job. My energy was steady through the race with no twinges or cramps. We kept our pace steady - hammered the downhills and team time-trialed the flats and climbs.
We had a good time and things went well. The Death Climb after checkpoint 4 went by pretty fast - we rolled it up and felt really good. On the final downhill off of Hankey we smoked past a few more guys in the techno-rocky single-track that had tightened up and rolled into the Finish Line together. The Dominion Ale tasted really nice. I improved on last years time by an hour and 18 minutes. Felt good the next day too. Next year will shoot to break 10 hours.
'Doah MTB Festival
Went to the festival in Stokesville held by the Shenandoah Mountain Bike Club for the first time this year. Got a sweet campsite set-up with the Moonstompers and immediately suited up for the 6 Pack Downhill Race. My first - so I didn't know really what to expect. We rode up Trimble Mtn. Trail and waited at the top to sign in for our start times. The wx was cool on top and I pulled on my jacket as we waited for folks to roll up. Mike Carpenter was running the show and seeded me fifth in the running order - I thought that was earlier than I should probably go - usually the fastest guys run first - there were 50+ riders there.
I had never seen the course - and was not really set-up for DH - but figured to have fun and be conservative. When my start came I hustled off trying to keep my tires on the trail and just be smooth with the brakes. As the trail wound down over the rocks and roots I found my flow and opened it up a bit more - getting pretty aggressive near the bottom. I took the whoops at the bottom with a lot of speed and got some applause and hoots from the Carnage Crowd assembled there. My time was 30 seconds slower than the fastest finisher - but proved to be the 8th fastest for the day - I was about 13th overall - three guys were tied for 1st and three more tied for 4th. I'll take it - no crashes!
Rest of the weekend included a battleball tournament that nite. Our team consisted of Joel Maynard, Craig Riddle and myself. We eliminated about 6 teams before finally succumbing in the semi-final to a team that eventually won the tournament - what a BLAST!
Next morning, Sully, Chenger, Cridder, Eric, Fedak and myself did a climb out of camp after breakfast up to Hankey Mountain than out Lookout - about 10 miles. Beautiful lookout there - the climbs were very stiff but worth it. After lunch Sully had to roll out to a wedding (poor guy) and Than arrived. After we got Than settled into camp it was time for another ride of about 25 miles. We rolled up the SM100 initial climb - out on Cookie - where I endo'd while trying to pressure Chenger (on a fancy 6" travel rig) doing a head auger into a big rock, smashing my helmet pretty good and leaving a nice contusion my left thigh. The ride went on and we hit the new Narrowback section before guessing at our route - no map - and finding Festival Trail to climb back up and back track along Cookie (where we ran into the Sue Haywood led Women's Ride). We continued back along Cookie as the sun got lower and made it to the downhill on Tillman Trail. Our arrival back in camp was just in time as there was almost no light left.
Saturday night's burritos were really good and followed up with a slide show. The observatory was open so I went over and got to see a nebula and a star cluster. What beautiful night, I spent about an hour after in the field looking up at the Milky Way and counted 9 falling stars before falling asleep, waking up and rolling into the tent.
Sunday morning we packed up our camp and Cridder shuttled Fedak, Thanimal, Chenger and myself up to Reddish Knob for a run down Chestnut and Grindstone. Jacob (the Trek/Gary Fisher Demo Dude) loaned me a GF Carbon Pro HiFi to test out on this very demanding ride. 5" of Fox plushness was exactly what I needed. I got it dialed in and the trail just flew on by. Very impressed with it's performance - climbing, downhilling through the rocks and loose gravelly and sandy corners. At 23.5 lbs - pretty tough to beat.
What a great weekend - lookin' forward to next year!
Rowdy Dawg this Sunday - lots to do to get ready for it - hoping for some rain to knock down the dust.
A busy summer has led to an intense autumn. Leading off was the Shenandoah 100 Mountain Bike Race on September 23rd. This was my second go of it and I wanted to improve over last year's performance. I focused on better hydration and smarter tire selection. I only rode about 150 miles more than last year in preparing for this event. Instead of doing more longer rides I did high intensity short rides more often. Short as in about 30-35 minutes on a the crit course in the woods around our house. Id go in, warm up 5 mins. and then just crush it till I had to get ready for work in the mornings
My tire set-up was Bontrager Super X Revolt Tubeless 2.2's with Stan's of course. At about 32 psi front and 35 psi rear they really hooked up and rolled with minimal effort. Best thing was - NO FLATS! This is the same tire that Chris Eatough (6 World 24 Solo Champion) runs and he has had one flat in that entire span.
The race was extra exciting this year because Floyd Landis (TdF Champion 2006) was racing and everyone thought he could give Eatough a run for his money - he had just finished second in the Leadville 100 - could've won it but for a crash and a flat. Unfortunately, Eatough had a mechanical on the second big climb of the race and we were denied the opportunity to see who had what. Floyd went on to finish third.
My race went well, Greg 'HiFi' Hylton and I duo-teamed up after a fast start and attacking riders on 'Cookie' at the top of the first climb. This rocky, singletrack had most folks pushing their bikes while we middle-ringed on through - passing dozens. Greg had his first of 6 flats for the day (NOT running Stan's) on the fire road leading to the Hankey Mtn. climb. We changed them out like an F-1 team and didn't lose too much time.
My hydration plan consisted of two bottles of Hammer Perpetuem and HEED throughout the race. Regular shots of Hammer gel and Clif Blox did the job. My energy was steady through the race with no twinges or cramps. We kept our pace steady - hammered the downhills and team time-trialed the flats and climbs.
We had a good time and things went well. The Death Climb after checkpoint 4 went by pretty fast - we rolled it up and felt really good. On the final downhill off of Hankey we smoked past a few more guys in the techno-rocky single-track that had tightened up and rolled into the Finish Line together. The Dominion Ale tasted really nice. I improved on last years time by an hour and 18 minutes. Felt good the next day too. Next year will shoot to break 10 hours.
'Doah MTB Festival
Went to the festival in Stokesville held by the Shenandoah Mountain Bike Club for the first time this year. Got a sweet campsite set-up with the Moonstompers and immediately suited up for the 6 Pack Downhill Race. My first - so I didn't know really what to expect. We rode up Trimble Mtn. Trail and waited at the top to sign in for our start times. The wx was cool on top and I pulled on my jacket as we waited for folks to roll up. Mike Carpenter was running the show and seeded me fifth in the running order - I thought that was earlier than I should probably go - usually the fastest guys run first - there were 50+ riders there.
I had never seen the course - and was not really set-up for DH - but figured to have fun and be conservative. When my start came I hustled off trying to keep my tires on the trail and just be smooth with the brakes. As the trail wound down over the rocks and roots I found my flow and opened it up a bit more - getting pretty aggressive near the bottom. I took the whoops at the bottom with a lot of speed and got some applause and hoots from the Carnage Crowd assembled there. My time was 30 seconds slower than the fastest finisher - but proved to be the 8th fastest for the day - I was about 13th overall - three guys were tied for 1st and three more tied for 4th. I'll take it - no crashes!
Rest of the weekend included a battleball tournament that nite. Our team consisted of Joel Maynard, Craig Riddle and myself. We eliminated about 6 teams before finally succumbing in the semi-final to a team that eventually won the tournament - what a BLAST!
Next morning, Sully, Chenger, Cridder, Eric, Fedak and myself did a climb out of camp after breakfast up to Hankey Mountain than out Lookout - about 10 miles. Beautiful lookout there - the climbs were very stiff but worth it. After lunch Sully had to roll out to a wedding (poor guy) and Than arrived. After we got Than settled into camp it was time for another ride of about 25 miles. We rolled up the SM100 initial climb - out on Cookie - where I endo'd while trying to pressure Chenger (on a fancy 6" travel rig) doing a head auger into a big rock, smashing my helmet pretty good and leaving a nice contusion my left thigh. The ride went on and we hit the new Narrowback section before guessing at our route - no map - and finding Festival Trail to climb back up and back track along Cookie (where we ran into the Sue Haywood led Women's Ride). We continued back along Cookie as the sun got lower and made it to the downhill on Tillman Trail. Our arrival back in camp was just in time as there was almost no light left.
Saturday night's burritos were really good and followed up with a slide show. The observatory was open so I went over and got to see a nebula and a star cluster. What beautiful night, I spent about an hour after in the field looking up at the Milky Way and counted 9 falling stars before falling asleep, waking up and rolling into the tent.
Sunday morning we packed up our camp and Cridder shuttled Fedak, Thanimal, Chenger and myself up to Reddish Knob for a run down Chestnut and Grindstone. Jacob (the Trek/Gary Fisher Demo Dude) loaned me a GF Carbon Pro HiFi to test out on this very demanding ride. 5" of Fox plushness was exactly what I needed. I got it dialed in and the trail just flew on by. Very impressed with it's performance - climbing, downhilling through the rocks and loose gravelly and sandy corners. At 23.5 lbs - pretty tough to beat.
What a great weekend - lookin' forward to next year!
Rowdy Dawg this Sunday - lots to do to get ready for it - hoping for some rain to knock down the dust.
posted by doubleB at 7:41 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home