2012 Root 66 Race #1: Hopbrook Dam

There are a bunch of rules most good racers follow to prepare for a race.  Since I am such a "class act", the only two I can think of right now are: don't change components or mess w/ your bike the day before a race, and have an excuse ready to go if the race doesn't go well.  The excuse is not just to give to others, but to justify it to myself if I need to!  And I needed a good one after my less than stellar performance at King of Burlingame.

I did of course mess w/ the bike the night before the race, so really I ended up w/ the last rule, the excuse.  My sorry tale was that I had started to feel sick on Thursday and it had progressively gotten worse.  By Saturday night, I was feeling like shit!  Since it was the first race of the Root 66 series, and I had pre registered already, there was no way I was going to miss it.  And as my co-pilot to the race stated: the race should help sweat that right out.  But since I am writing about excuses, it's pretty clear where this is going!

I need to point out here that we got to the race on time.  This should be the only time this year I write that!

Race was really well attended and though the forecast had been less than stellar, it was dry and not too cold. We lined up at the start and it looked to be close to 30 deep in my age group.  Very well attended indeed.  I guess there were not a lot of road races, and since the NY series had not started yet, there were lots of NYC SIDs racers, including my brother!

Here is a good video of the course: click!

I do like the Hopbrook course.  It’s not too technical; which is always a good way to start the season when skills are still a little rusty; but challenging enough to keep you engaged and paying attention.  The main feature was a climb that was punchy at the start, went on for a little while, and concluded w/ a little kicker to really make you feel it.  By itself it was not that bad, but the course also has a couple of other little climbs that put together started to add up!  Do four laps, and it started to hurt!  There was also a fast and  furious 'don’t touch the brakes fly down the fire road' descend that had some loose rocks which would take your tire out you if you hit them. This year another descend had been covered w/ large loose gravel and required some careful navigation.

The start had always been a mess, since the single track arrives very quickly, and it was no different this year.   Since I was feeling slightly under the weather, and knew I was going to need a slower warm up, I did not try to fight for position.  I hit the single track pretty close to last place w/ my brother right behind me and since everyone in front tried to pile into a single file, we practically came to stand still waiting for the line to sort itself out.

I knew from the warm up that I was going to have a KOB repeat since my legs felt sore, and indeed the first little hills on the race course proved to be more painful than they should have been.   On the big climb, though it hurt, I did manage to pass a couple of guys, but knew my pace was pretty damn slow.

Towards the end of the first lap, Bo and Sean caught up on their single speed and I hung w/ them for a bit.  I tried to give them a lead out on the asphalt and through the start/finish area, but let them pass once we got back into the single track; then struggled to hang on.  W/ hindsight, I would have done better to just try to stick to their wheel as long as I could right from the moment they caught me.   The second and third lap went by in a blur and was spend mostly riding by myself.  A few single speeders caught and passed me but I did not see anyone from my class.  No push from the back or no carrot in front!  Not that that would have made a difference in my speed anyways.   By the time I hit the fourth lap, I had no idea how many laps I had completed and it took a while before another singlespeeder passed and confirmed this was indeed, and thankfully, the last lap.   I just rode the lap out since again there no push/pull for position.   

Throughout the race, I never felt great (as in being able to dig in deep) and my legs again felt weak on the climbs.   My legs were once again my limiting factor.  I never felt my flue symptoms throughout the race but knew they were there.  This was my second race (kob doesn't really count) on a HT and though it's not been an issue jra-ing, my aging back was screaming bloody murder by 3rd lap, and was missing that squish in the back.  Hopefully just growing pains though...

My placement was of course pretty terrible at 21 out of 30, w/ a time of 1 hour 59 mins. Soon after the race my cold came back on w/ a vengeance, and was fighting it for days to come.   Special "thanks" to Adam from Coppola photography for taking the posted pictures here and other fantastic pictures of all the racers!  You can see the rest of them here: https://www.facebook.com/coppolaphotography.  Also it was great to pick up Stacey and have a companion in the car.  Makes those 2 hrs up and back to the race so much more pleasant (hopefully the feeling was mutual!)

Onto Farmington...

Race Report for 2010 Bunny Hop Brook Dam, Root 66 Race #1

Race Report for 2010 Bunny Hop Brook Dam, Root 66 Race #1

So here it was…my first race as a Cat 1.  Sure there was Burlingame two weeks ago, but that’s a 30 minute time trial and that for me doesn’t count (especially since I suck at staying that anaerobic).  I remember so vividly when I was a newb mtber waiting for my cat 3 start at Mt Snow on my Proflex, watching at the Cat 1 racers on their expensive $3K (!!) bikes, thinking about how those guys were the real deal. The true racers, riders I respected and wanted to be like. Cat 1 was the promised land of mountain biking and you were really someone if you raced in that group.  I vowed then that in five years I would be a Cat 1 racer too.  Well this was of course over 10 years ago. 

So there was some excitement about finally racing Cat 1. The flip side was of course that w/ the whole knee fiasco, my training, since the end of Jan, had been non-existent.   So my question/conflict was that even though I was racing Cat 1, could I really be considered a Cat 1 racer?! Would I get completely killed out there? Would I get taught that really I was only a “cat 1 wannabe”?  Driving the 2 ½ hr down to the race left me ample time to obsess about this and contemplate the four laps we were going to do.  I, and you have to forgive the really cheesy metaphor here (just saw Clash of the Titans w/ the kids) felt like I was being send to slay a dragon w/ a teaspoon: not exactly promising.

Bla, bla, bla!  “Shut the fuck up”, was the other narrative going on, and enjoy that the weather was about to turn nice and for once I would not be racing the Bunny Hop Brook race in a semi snow/ sleet/ rain storm. That should be my focus.  Racing conditions were not going to be miserable, and though it rained the night before, it should not be the mud fest of previous years.  My goal should be to just finish, and not care if I DFLed.  All I wanted was my knee, legs, and lungs to hold on for all the four laps.  Strategy was to close the pack and not get in anyone’s way.  This was somewhat of a new racing distance for me and I knew I had a steep learning curve ahead.  It was going to be about learning about the learning curve and I just wanted to use it as training.  I wanted to ride mostly in the middle of zone 4 for the first two laps and then start to bring it up slightly for the remaining two if I had anything left.  Of course I could not find my handle bar mount for my Polar HRM watch and it ended up being hidden under my arm warmers.   Racing by feel instead of numbers is much better anyways.  I think the thought of having an exact strategy is a little bit like believing in god:  really in the end it doesn’t do much of anything, but helps you to feel better since it makes you feel like you have a plan while you are on the way.  My other two strategy points were to remain loose and relaxed and by the time I was the starting line I had forgotten what the third was!

I got there on time for once!  How nice it was not to have to rush around trying to get everything ready.  I ran into some guys from last year’s cat 2 who had also moved up  and we got to  talking.  Before I knew I was back to running late w/ little warm up time left (which, w/ the four laps ahead, was not something I wanted huge amounts of anyways!).   I lined up w/ Joe and Scott from last year; Joe being the one I barely outsprinted at Mt Snow 3, while he beat me at Mt Snow 1.  Scott and I engaged in the usual disclaiming of our fitness and abilities “and not training and therefore we are going to suck” routine.  We both agreed this would be quite painful both physically and emotionally.

The course was really nice.  Mostly dry w/ a few deep mud puddles strewn throughout. There were really only four sections needing to be carefully navigated to avoid flatting.  Overall nothing bad at all, and very easy compared to the previous year’s mud bath.  There were a couple of steep climbs that burned already by the first lap and a wet grass field crossing riding directly into some pretty strong head wind that also sucked by the first lap.

The first lap went somewhat better than planned as I was not the last guy.  I knew Scott was behind me but was unsure if there is anyone else.  Everything was rideable and I was staying pretty loose and riding smart, picking my lines.  On the second lap I almost went down big time, riding a fast S section on ledge.  Coming out of the last fast turn my handle bar just caught the outside tree and almost sent me down the ledge.  That was as bad as it got.  I caught some riders on the second lap but decided I was not going to look at their number plate as I just wanted to focus on riding my own pace and not be forced into a higher pace which I might not be able to sustain.  I was able to pass them on the last climb of the second lap and did not see them again.  The third lap is where things got interesting, and by that I mean painful.  At the beginning of the third lap I consumed a Gu pack and had a little bit of energy burst.  Yet once that wore off in the middle of the long climb I hit “the wall”.  Suddenly I was calling for my granny gear which I had not yet used and could feel my legs just burn and struggle to turn each pedals over.  It really felt like I had no matches left and started to worry about being able to finish the race.  This was made worse when some of those !@#% fast guys lapped me and came by me like I was going backwards.  I was able to grab the wheel of someone who passed me, which helped to drag my sorry ass to the end of that lap.  When he pulled over I asked him what he was doing and he coolly stated he finished his fourth lap.  Mother fu…good for him!  The last lap was a lot better, since it was the last one.  I was able to pick up the pace and consume all the Gu packs I had left.  I stayed in the middle ring longer on the climbs and even passed a couple of guys, none of which were in my group sadly.  On the final stretch of asphalt I saw a rider in the distance who I knew was in my group and burned all I had left to catch up.  As I announced I was passing him on the left on the last climb, he turned around to look at my number plate and took off.  I had nothing left and could not keep up.  He beat me by 6 seconds.  I ended up finishing with a time of 2 hours and 13 minutes to place 14 out of 19.  That certainly leaves lots of room to move up, but it is also better than DFL. Joe did beat me by 3 minutes, but if my knee holds and I can increase my training, well who knows, maybe beat him and maybe brake into the top ten.  Top 10 in Cat 1….now that sounds like a Cat 1 racer!

Here is a topo map of the race course:

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