Howell Mtn Challenge
Open Expert SingleSpeed
2/7dist - 30.41 miles; time - 2:33:53; climbing - 4948ft
So last year I did this race on my 26" singlespeed with a gear of 32/17. I suffered immensely and post race my achilles, shins, ankles and legs all hurt for 1 week after. This year, I was to be aboard a 29er ss. As I didn't want to ride my rigid Raleigh after torturning myself on it for 90+ miles in Murphy's Enduro ride, I decided to find a suspension fork for my bike. My craigslist deal fell thru and so I posted the request for a fork to my list of mtb buddies.
Here's a nice picture of the beauty!
Ty responds to me with, "you can borrow my fork, with the bike attached!" For those who don't know what Ty's riding these days, allow me to fill you in...beautiful steel 29er ss built by
Pereira. In my mind I was like "are you f*ck'n kidding me! Yes!" The gearing on this bad boy was 32/20 with 29" wheels, so like a 32/18 on a 26er. After suffering like I did last year, I knew the slightly easier gear would be perfect, especially consider the amount of climbing!
On to the race already....so I down a Pomegranite Rockstar Juiced, slather up with sunscreen and go ride the bike around the track for a warm up. The twenty minutes warm up on the bikes was the longest I'd spent on it. Yikes, racing a totally new bike made me a little nervous. Did a quick little jaunt up the starting incline to the first singletrack and then went to line up.
My buddy Nick Hanni was there and I'd promised him a battle, since he beat me off the podium last year! The good thing was that we'd both raced the day before, he did Carrera de San Rafael and I did Patterson Pass, so I'd say an equivalent handicap.
The started us off in wave #5 behind the pro\expert women. I felt suprisingly relaxed. I lined up next to Nick and Rich Blanco(Sycip guy who I've known and raced with forever...fast sser). Also in the mix was Allan from TWW, Daniele new Mouse and a few other friends like Johnny Blackwell in the sport cat(they started in the same wave as us).
So the whistle blows and Rich takes off like a bat out of hell. I jump on his wheel, just as he slows down, Nick comes flying by, so I hop on his wheel...ya see, being a roadie translate to the mountain ;-) We create a bit of a gap, I'm on Nick's wheel into the singletrack, but I can hear Rich making his way back. I'm totally frick'n redlined, but still turning the pedals. I recover a bit on the first little descent into the meadow before heading to the fireroad climb.
We hit the fireroad climb and I gotta slow a bit. Rich and Nick pull away and i can see the other gain on me. We hit the runup at the top of the fireroad and I'm right in back of Rich. Nick is off in the distance. I spin like a mofo and see one other guy right in back of me. I get on his wheel as we head past the airport. We latch back on to Nick and Rich. I sit in recover and just before the descent, which will lead to the first singletrack climbing, I jump and get around the train. I figure I could out descend them.
The attack is good, caught them by surprise. They are working to get back on my wheel. We start catching some of the previous starters. Rich and I are now chasing Nick who's up ahead somewhere. Finally I had to slow down a bit. Rich and Nick take off for a bit, but I keep them in sight as I recover. We hit a few of the climbs and I start closing in on them. Finally catch them as Rich starts pulling away. Nick says I'm feeling really bad. I tell him to sit in recover and then get back into it. He didn't manage to get on my wheel so I took off to chase Rich.
And that was the rest of the race. Rich and I blew thru all the categories that started ahead of us, first the womens field, then the junior experts and some other younger experts. By lap three we were passing some of the pro\semi-pro field! I kept thinking to myself, is this really happening? While I was hurting, I was still able to recover and still keep attacking.
Finally in the third lap after one short climb that lead into a descent, I spun past Rich who was walking, dismounted ran to the top of the hill, jumped back on and got ahead of him. He yelled out to me, "So thats how you do it." We had fun battling it out. Every time I saw ahead of me on a climb I'd yell out to him, "I'm coming for you Blanco," to which he would respond, "I know!" Good times.
So I bomb one of the final singletrack sections, I'm on 29er and Rich is on 26er, after the race he said he had to work really hard to stay with the momentum of a 29er. Anyway, we hit the final, longest, steep climb. I hit it first and immediately and forced to dismount as my legs are just about to cramp I have almost no juice left. Rich is on my tail. I was suddenly struck with how hilarious it was that the race leaders were basically walking\trotting side by side up the steep climb. We actually walked past some lapped riders...yea, the hill was that steep. As he started to walk slightly faster than me, I said to him, "damn your running background," to which he laughed and then responded, " i haven't run in a while."
So he beat me to the top of the climb and I could see him quickly pull away. I pushed, pushed, pushed my bike and jump back on and gave chase. And now, the final fireroad climb...ugh...my left hamstring is swinging with cramps, so I massage it and use the right leg, oh f*ck..my right hammy is cramping...ok I'll stand, oh f*ck there go my quads. So i'm doing this up down in the saddle, slide back in the saddle trying to push my legs like pistons all the while breathing as deeply as I can and trying to convert the lactate in my legs back into energy(pyruvate...ok so I'm a bit of a sports science geek).
Ok, I hit the top of the climb and I'm like whew, just got the whoop de doos and we're pretty much done with the race. I rail those, walk the 3rd one cause lapped riders were in the trail. I hit the fireroad and spin, spin. Past the lake and spin, spin. I passed Ray Storm somewhere around here, but then again maybe that was in the second lap...I was delirious already and then I remember Ray telling me about talking to a leprechaun in the forest...i laughed and joked back...the humor really helped dissipate the pain.
So I'm spinning like a mofo past the airport, i'm pretty much in the home stretch, I'm bombing down the fireroad after the hike a bike and I can see Rich on the lower part of the fireroad. I yell out in frustration and start spinning like a mad man. I come across the grass section spinning like an eggbeater....hit the pavement, make a left, then onto the track and I sprinted the entire track distance as hard as I could. It musta been a scene to see me spinning at 200rpm!
I cross the line and go directly to give Rich a high 5. Man, 42seconds back from Rich, who took 1st place. I got 2nd...no frick'n way! I'm so excited as this was another one of those races where the podium has always been elusive...usually only by one or two spots!
After checking out the results, I saw that I would have come in second the geared expert category! So I know I would have taken first in the expert field on my geared bike...yes!
Post ride meal was at Silverado Brewing Company with a mixed group of Mice, Sheila Moon and Altezza40....good, good times. I drank a bit much and had to have Andrew drive home ;-) Good IPA and excellent Tri-tip!
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