2013 Battle of Burlingame

I forgot to mention in my last post that I now ride w/ NBX.  Kit was not quite ready for this race but I should have it for the next one.  Pretty exited about it as there are a lot of really good people on the team, and by good I mean cool people, not just fast riders.  I'll still continue to ride with Providence Velo Club, but will race under the NBX banner.  So here are the links for the team sponsors:

NBX bike  /  Narragansett Beer   /  Apex Technologies        

Give them a click to support them!  Thanks.

Back to racing... and a great pic by Meg:

Race course was super fast with a couple of sections to keep it a Mountain bike race.  Liz, John, and I pre rode the lap right before the start of our race to warm up, and it still amaze me to this day how different a course is when just riding it vs racing it.  Even the techy ledge section on the pre ride was very manageable (coming down it in the above pic), yet it totally stumped me for the first four laps of the race.  I finally got the rhythm of it on the fifth and last lap.

Anyways, since I only have one minute to write this report, the skinny of it is that I finished 5th...

Here are some other cool shots by some local riders who took the time to shoot these:

Landmine 2010 Season Finale of the Root 66 Series

.... the season finale already!  Don't say it's so....  It's way to early for the mtb season to be over already!  There are at least a couple of good months left for racing, and I don't care if it overlaps w/ Cross... I finally have my endurance pegged a little bit better, where I feel like I can handle racing hard for 2 + hours and it's over!  WTF...  What the hell am i going to do w/ myself????  Cross?? Fun certainaly, but that is just 45 mins long.  I spend all season working hard so I could handle more than 45 mins!  Damn!


As will be mentioned in posts I will write soon for previous races I have yet to write a race report for, I have learned through the season that I am slow...at the start that is.  I need to give my body a chance to really warm up before I hit it hard.  Most likely due to being 40+ (and a reason I will always suck at cross).

Landmine is a great course that suits me perfectly!  I lined up at the back and at the start had planned on staying on Scott's wheel and let him pace me until I felt warmed up.  Well the grassy section around the parking set me back a lot more than expected (I hate riding on grass)  and when I made to the single track, Scott was well ahead with lots of guys in between us. I had counted 18 at the start, and had one rider behind me.  It was still quite early in the race but I did not want to get dropped that much already so I decided to really pick up the pace and reel Scott in.  I was able to so just as the rooty climb started. I think I passed three riders to get there.  I recovered surprisingly quickly from that effort and soon found the pace too slow, especially on the short climbs.  I knew it was still very early in the race but decided since I felt good, I should go for it and not over pace myself.  My suspension had been set up carefully the night before (for once) and the bike was just flowing over the rocks and roots.  Racers were riding around obstacles which I was just riding over and this really helped me pass several more riders.  That crazy fast 50+ guy (I forgot his name) passed me what seemed way to early in the race, and so I grabbed his wheel and tried to hang on for as long as I could.  Since there were some road sections, this was quite helpful, and soon we caught up to a couple of other riders in my age group who also jumped the train but could not hang on. Eventually neither could I and the moment I let go, I saw three riders ahead who I knew were also in my age group. They caught his wheel as he passed and every time they hit smooth single track or pavement they would grow the gap.  They were not able to hang on for too long, and slowly, especially in the technical sections, I would pull them in. Finally, I was able to pass them but they would be right back on my wheel as soon we hit those numerous short pavement sections, which quickly became quite demoralizing.  There was finally a long section of dirt w/ some short steep climbs  and fun challenging "whopty dos" (sp?) where I was able to get clear.  For the rest of the race I kept on switching places w/ a "kid" in the 19 to 29 age group until the finish where he pulled away.  Since this was only my second time finishing this course (dnf'ed last year after cracking my wheel landing a jump) it was really hard to figure out where I was and how much further I had left.  I was quite surprised when the trail suddenly came out of the woods and I found the finish line.  I was expecting at least another 4 miles to the course.  I also had no idea where I placed at all.  I was hoping for top 10.

After the race, Nate and I waited for the results to be posted but due to some snafu, they were still not posted after 2 hours, so we ended up leaving w/out being able to check.  I was texted I finished 5th which I was quite pleased with!  As I am typing this though, official results just got posted on the root 66 site, and I finished 4th!  Damn I am pretty happy w/ that.  Most importantly I was only 4 mins off from first place (as compared to 26 mins at the start of the season)!  I'll take that and that's not a bad way to close my first Cat 1 season!!!!

Racing Results and Standing for 2009 Season.

3^rd Place Finish: King of Burlingame, Charlestown, RI; MTB Time Trials, Cat 2, Age 40 to 49, on 3/5/2009.

8^th Place Finish: Bunny Hopbrook Dam Mtn. Bike Race, CT; Root 66 MTB Race Series, Cat 2, Age 40 to 49, on 4/11/2009.

3^rd Place Finish: Fat Tire Classic, Winding Trails, Farmington, CT;  Root 66 MTB Race Series, Cat 2, Age 40 to 49, on 4/26/2009.

1^st Place Finish: Winsted Woods MTB, Winsted, CT; Root 66 MTB Race Series, Cat 2, Age 40 to 49, on 5/17/2009.

1^st  Place Finish: Putney/West Hill Mtn. Bike Race, Putney VT; Root 66 MTB Race Series, Cat 2, Age 40 to 49, on 6/28/2009.

1^st  Place Finish: Domnarski Farm Race, Ware, MA; Root 66 MTB Race Series, Cat 2, Age 40 to 49, on 7/5/2009.

2^nd  Place Finish: Root 66 Racing at Mt. Snow, Dover, VT;  Root 66 MTB Race Series, Cat 2, Age 40 to 49, on 7/26/2009.

1^st  Place Finish: Annual Hodges Village Dam, Oxford, MA;  Root 66 MTB Race Series, Cat 2, Age 40 to 49, on 8/2/2009.

1^st  Place Finish: U.S. Cup/Snow Shootout, Mt. Snow, Dover, VT; Root 66 MTB Race Series, Cat 2, Age 40 to 49, on 8/6/2009.

1^st Place Finish: Bikes for Bovines, Keene, NH; Root 66 MTB Race Series, Cat 2, Age 40 to 49, on 8/23/2009.  Also full category win.

1^st Place Finish: Norcross Scurry, Ashford, CT; Root 66 MTB Race Series, Cat 2, Age 40 to 49, on 8/29/2009.

1^st Place Finish: Mt Snow, Trail of Two Lakes, West Dover, VT; Root 66 MTB Race Series, Cat 2, Age 40 to 49, on 9/20/2009.

2009 Series Winner for the Root 66 MTB Race Series for Cat 2, Age 40 to 49.

National Rank by USA Cycling for Master’s Cat 2: 8^th (out of 1200

Root 66 Race Series, Mt Snow, Trail of Two Lakes

Race Report for Mt Snow, Trail of Two Lakes, 9/20/2009


This was the most exiting race of the year!!!

Weather: Could not be better!

Course description: Third time this season for racing Mt Snow, w/ the first two resulting in a lot of bitching from racers (incl me). None too happy to be back at Snow for the season finally, but got there on Sat to pre ride, as they supposedly had redesigned the course somewhat. Lo and behold, course was awesome! Dry…I have to say that one again…dry. I feel like Homer Simpson, saying donuts... Climbing was done on the access roads all the way up (+- 2K feet I believe). Steep and loose but all rideable. At the top, the course shot into some really twisty gnarly singletrack, the likes I have not seen yet this season. Some sections were long sections of just roots. The tires would not touch dirt for yards. Then there were rocks, lots of them, big and sharp ones, with the course actually being in a dried up stream bed. Somehow though, it all had some great flow to it. The downhill being so dry allowed for a superfast and fun descending. The speed did add some good adrenaline, for if you screwed up, you were going to be in a world of hurt.

We had to do two laps. Turnout was low, but the usual faces were there, including the guy who beat me at the first Mt Snow. He took off pretty fast and I had to give it all to stay w/ him. Half way up the first lap I was really struggling to keep to his wheel but I really did not want to let him go. I was hoping he was riding faster than he could sustain w/ me on his wheel and that he would blow up on the second lap. Though at that pace, I was pretty sure I was going to blow up on the second one too. He had created a little gap by the top, but I caught back to him pretty quickly on the downhill. It seemed I was faster on the down, so my goal became to stick to him going back up, and pass him just before entering the downhill section and try to drop him. As we started going up the second time around, he seemed to be struggling just a bit so I passed him but could not drop him. Soon he had me passed again, but was not dropping me. As we neared the top, I screwed up over some rocks and had to dismount which gave him quite a big gap. He entered the downhill section way before me. So much for my very clever plan! I was able to catch back up and half way down found a section to pass him. I flew down, completely out of control to try to gap him. He stuck to me though and to my great frustration, slowly passed me again on an uphill section 20 yards before the finish. As he crested the top and turned to go down toward the finish, he took it wide, and I was able to cut to the inside and gave it everything I had left! I came in first by a bike length.

Well, I ain't no King...

Race Report: King of Burlingame - 4/5/09

This was a mountain bike time trial w/ each rider starting at a 30 second interval.Good turnout from the team (for a mountain bike race that is) w/ Jeff, Geoff, Nate, Kirk (sp) and myself. 5 refunds riders at an mtb race! Maybe everyone will convert to mtb in the next couple of years (yeah right!).I was wondering how I would fare this year. Last year I was still recovering from my knee injury and never really had any serious training time. This year, though my knee was (and is) still acting up here and there, and has prevented me from putting in hard efforts, I have been able to spend time on the trainer several times a week.Well I am definitely no King (though I have princess like qualities!)Jeff and I pre rode the course yesterday and we had stopped in several sections to try to pick the best lines through some technical sections. Nothing was too bad and everything was ride-able (at least for jeff). Some lines just lend themselves better to keep your momentum. Perhaps there were three tricky sections total. The first was a short uphill then a flat w/ some large sized rocks, this came soon after the start; the second, a large down wet tree over a stream at an awkward angle; and the last was a mud hole with a couple of large rocks after a bridge. Throughout the whole pre-ride I think I dismounted for only those sections w/ everything else being very ride-able.I felt pretty good this morning and was looking forward the season opener. The first 1/3 of the race quickly dampened my enthusiasm. Right from the start I kept on hesitating and taking the wrong lines. I kept on telling myself I should be looking down the trail and not right in front of my tire, but my gaze just kept on coming back to only what was right in front of my tire, resulting in much dabbling and having to walk certain sections which I knew I should have been able to flow through. This was really slowing me down, and starting to piss me off. I did quickly catch up to the guy in front of me which energized me, but when I passed him, I realized it was not because I was fast but rather because he was just really slow. A little bit of a letdown but I was still glad that I at least had passed one guy as I would not end up being dead last.The rest of course was easier and had many more flowing single track sections, and there I found my rhythm. Midway, there was a fire road climb and I saw the next guy in front of cresting the top. Soon after re-entering the single track sections and finding a good flow on the downhill and over the rock ledges, I caught him and saw another racer ahead. That one was hurting, and I had to dismount and run off the trail past him as he was short on air and not quite aware of what he was doing or that I wanted to pass. The rest was just a hammer fest w/ a few mud pits thrown in at the end to slow you down and make you work just a little harder.Though the race was a short 7.xx miles, it was pretty painful from being pretty close to max heart right from the start and having to stay there throughout the race. No time to allow for any recovery and where. I thought I would finish mid pack and ended up finishing third, with a time of 34 min and ?? seconds. This might actually be mid pack since I have no idea how many racers were in our group, and there might just have been 6 or7. It looks like the guy (Steven) who came in second, might have beaten me by less than ½ second. That makes me wish I had not coasted over the finish line! I'll see when the official results are up. Anyways, I did win a nice new pair of Spech gloves.Also of note is that Jeff ended up winning not only his age group but the whole sports category w/ a fantastic time of 31 minutes!