Downieville Classic 07...cramps gallore!
Team,
Oh boy, I'm so sore today. Everytime I stand-up from my chair I get shooting pains thru my outer hamstrings. Not really sure if it's muscular or tendors...ouch!
The climb went fairly well. I set a steady tempo, picking people off when I could. I got into a battle with about 5 people on the really steep climing near the top. It was cool cause we just kept going back and forth. I would pass them, I would need to recover, then they would pass me, I would recover and pass them back.
Finally on a real steep pitch, I floored it and spun past them all, kept on the gas and I never saw them again! In the process of the climb I almost lost my breakfast of coffee and a peanut butter sandwich like 5 times. Whew! At one point I was so hot, I thought for sure my brain and lungs would explode. I back off a bit, recovered from riding at make HR of 187 and suddenly felt way better and went on the attack again.
I hit the first feed station at 52 minutes. Took a water bottle and dumped the whole thing on my head...I gasped as the cold water ran over my head and down my back...whew...feel better already. I hit the highest point of the race, which I think is packer's saddle at 1:07. The next highest peak I hit at 1:12. So I guess my time for the climb was somewhere in that range. I felt better than last year, but not as good as two years ago.
I hit the baby heads section at full speed and flew past a few people.
Any who, I escaped the race with only on real crash. I grabbed to much brakes after coming up on two guys in a technical section. The next thing you know my front wheel is out to the side and I'm going over the bars. I tucked and rolled. Took the major impact on my head and left leg. I jumped up, rotated my bars and kept on rolling!
I also managed to burp all the air out of my tubeless front tire. Again I rode up on a few people in a steep, tight, technical section and I grabbed too much front brake (gosh dang-it...such a frik'n roadie!). My front tire got caught up on a big rock, I nose wheelied on the rock, but held my balance. In the meantime my weight on the front tire allowed all the air out of my front tire. I was like oh crap, oh crap...I'm falling but managed to jump off the side of the bike with out getting hurt.I quickly flipped my bike over in the bushed and discharged on CO2 into the tire and baam! my tire was inflated and ready to ride. God i f*ck'n love tubeless!
The rest of the descent went well. I was flying and picked off more riders along the way. By the time I got to 1st divide I was solo. I put in a hard effort on the pavement to make sure nobody snuck up on me.
I pounded like 4 bottled waters at the finish line as I waited to see more TWW jerseys. I swapped war stories with a few of the guys hanging around the finish area. Johnny H was the next to roll thru. I saw many others but was starting to bonk so I don't really remember the exact order, but I saw Josh, Patrick, Frank, Michel, Dan, Paule, Julie and a few other mice. Then I had to go get myself a beer! About 3 sips into my beer and I was already tossed. If you want a cheap date just take me to the races and then give me a beer ;-) After my first beer I headed over to wait for Meredith and the rest of the crew to come in...Cerkel and Eryn!. I can't say I remember seeing Cerkel or Eryn! come in, but I knew they were okay as I saw back at camp.
Thank you to Big Sky Brewing for the post race "recovery" beverages and thank you to Matt Cerkel for hauling them up to the Sierras (Your cooler is safe with me..although mostly empty).
All together we had: Mo, Eryn, Cerkel, Dan, Kat, Patrick, Frank, Josh, Chad, Michel, Jeff, and me. Not our largest TWW showing ( i think we had like 18 people in '05!), but it was cool to see some new faces at the Downieville race: Dan, Patrick, Josh and Chad. Also had a few friends from my 'cross team Lander and Geoff. Unfortunately Lander descended the last ten miles from Pauley Creek to Lavezzola road on foot as he busted his collar bone...ouch! Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures, but hopefully somebody did.
La-la-loyd (Rachel Lloyd) took the All-Mountain Challenge on the Women's Podium and Jason Moschler took it for the men. Jason Mochler set a new course record at 1:53! He bested Mark Weir by about 3 minutes, who bested his previous course record of 1:58! That's crazy! Oh yeah, Jason Moschler did it on a frick'n hardtail! Damn, that is loco!
Although we were all initially excited about the race being saturday so we could party all nite long....it didn't really happen. We were all whipped out. The remaining TWWers got together with the Roaring Mice for a bit of a pasta and chicken feed. We then proceeded to make a descent dent in the "recovery" beverages before topping off the nite with smores and then passing out in our camping chairs around the fire. I think it was about 11pm when we finally went to bed....frick'n light weights ;-)
Sunday was pretty mellow. Sleep in, make pancakes and drink lots of coffee. Roll into town around 2. Check out some DH results, then sit in the river drinking beers...ahh, the tough life.
I already can't wait till next year. I gotta get on that elusive expert podium! I got 8th/23 finishers. I reason that if I didn't flat, crash once, and possibly pushed it a bit more up the climb, I coulda rounded out the podium at 5th place. Winning time in my category was 2:12. Two years ago, if hadn't pinch flatted on 1st divide, I would have pulled a time of about 2:14. I've got one more year to try and hit the podium in the 19-34 category and then I have to contend with the 35+ category whose winning time was 2:03, the second place was 2:09, while 5th place was by Aaron Bonar (Sycip guy that I'm always chasin' in cross) at 2:14!
Will post some pictures as I get my grubby hands on them!
Oh boy, I'm so sore today. Everytime I stand-up from my chair I get shooting pains thru my outer hamstrings. Not really sure if it's muscular or tendors...ouch!
The climb went fairly well. I set a steady tempo, picking people off when I could. I got into a battle with about 5 people on the really steep climing near the top. It was cool cause we just kept going back and forth. I would pass them, I would need to recover, then they would pass me, I would recover and pass them back.
Finally on a real steep pitch, I floored it and spun past them all, kept on the gas and I never saw them again! In the process of the climb I almost lost my breakfast of coffee and a peanut butter sandwich like 5 times. Whew! At one point I was so hot, I thought for sure my brain and lungs would explode. I back off a bit, recovered from riding at make HR of 187 and suddenly felt way better and went on the attack again.
I hit the first feed station at 52 minutes. Took a water bottle and dumped the whole thing on my head...I gasped as the cold water ran over my head and down my back...whew...feel better already. I hit the highest point of the race, which I think is packer's saddle at 1:07. The next highest peak I hit at 1:12. So I guess my time for the climb was somewhere in that range. I felt better than last year, but not as good as two years ago.
I hit the baby heads section at full speed and flew past a few people.
Any who, I escaped the race with only on real crash. I grabbed to much brakes after coming up on two guys in a technical section. The next thing you know my front wheel is out to the side and I'm going over the bars. I tucked and rolled. Took the major impact on my head and left leg. I jumped up, rotated my bars and kept on rolling!
I also managed to burp all the air out of my tubeless front tire. Again I rode up on a few people in a steep, tight, technical section and I grabbed too much front brake (gosh dang-it...such a frik'n roadie!). My front tire got caught up on a big rock, I nose wheelied on the rock, but held my balance. In the meantime my weight on the front tire allowed all the air out of my front tire. I was like oh crap, oh crap...I'm falling but managed to jump off the side of the bike with out getting hurt.I quickly flipped my bike over in the bushed and discharged on CO2 into the tire and baam! my tire was inflated and ready to ride. God i f*ck'n love tubeless!
The rest of the descent went well. I was flying and picked off more riders along the way. By the time I got to 1st divide I was solo. I put in a hard effort on the pavement to make sure nobody snuck up on me.
I pounded like 4 bottled waters at the finish line as I waited to see more TWW jerseys. I swapped war stories with a few of the guys hanging around the finish area. Johnny H was the next to roll thru. I saw many others but was starting to bonk so I don't really remember the exact order, but I saw Josh, Patrick, Frank, Michel, Dan, Paule, Julie and a few other mice. Then I had to go get myself a beer! About 3 sips into my beer and I was already tossed. If you want a cheap date just take me to the races and then give me a beer ;-) After my first beer I headed over to wait for Meredith and the rest of the crew to come in...Cerkel and Eryn!. I can't say I remember seeing Cerkel or Eryn! come in, but I knew they were okay as I saw back at camp.
Thank you to Big Sky Brewing for the post race "recovery" beverages and thank you to Matt Cerkel for hauling them up to the Sierras (Your cooler is safe with me..although mostly empty).
All together we had: Mo, Eryn, Cerkel, Dan, Kat, Patrick, Frank, Josh, Chad, Michel, Jeff, and me. Not our largest TWW showing ( i think we had like 18 people in '05!), but it was cool to see some new faces at the Downieville race: Dan, Patrick, Josh and Chad. Also had a few friends from my 'cross team Lander and Geoff. Unfortunately Lander descended the last ten miles from Pauley Creek to Lavezzola road on foot as he busted his collar bone...ouch! Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures, but hopefully somebody did.
La-la-loyd (Rachel Lloyd) took the All-Mountain Challenge on the Women's Podium and Jason Moschler took it for the men. Jason Mochler set a new course record at 1:53! He bested Mark Weir by about 3 minutes, who bested his previous course record of 1:58! That's crazy! Oh yeah, Jason Moschler did it on a frick'n hardtail! Damn, that is loco!
Although we were all initially excited about the race being saturday so we could party all nite long....it didn't really happen. We were all whipped out. The remaining TWWers got together with the Roaring Mice for a bit of a pasta and chicken feed. We then proceeded to make a descent dent in the "recovery" beverages before topping off the nite with smores and then passing out in our camping chairs around the fire. I think it was about 11pm when we finally went to bed....frick'n light weights ;-)
Sunday was pretty mellow. Sleep in, make pancakes and drink lots of coffee. Roll into town around 2. Check out some DH results, then sit in the river drinking beers...ahh, the tough life.
I already can't wait till next year. I gotta get on that elusive expert podium! I got 8th/23 finishers. I reason that if I didn't flat, crash once, and possibly pushed it a bit more up the climb, I coulda rounded out the podium at 5th place. Winning time in my category was 2:12. Two years ago, if hadn't pinch flatted on 1st divide, I would have pulled a time of about 2:14. I've got one more year to try and hit the podium in the 19-34 category and then I have to contend with the 35+ category whose winning time was 2:03, the second place was 2:09, while 5th place was by Aaron Bonar (Sycip guy that I'm always chasin' in cross) at 2:14!
Will post some pictures as I get my grubby hands on them!
Comments
Are you doing the Albany crit this weekend?
I can't wait for Howell mtn. I'm fiending for the SS.
holla