Belated Canyons Race Report

Things have been a bit hectic around here, but better late than never. Fortunately, things got crazy the week before the Canyons race, which made for a nice forced taper before the race.

I pre-rode the course a couple of weeks before and predicted that we'd see some crashes. The descent is high-speed with a lot of blind hazards and unpredictable off-camber turns. But surely those crashes would all come from the other people. Riiiiight....

The imaginary gun went off and I immediately loved this race. With the long dirt road climb before the single track, most of the group seemed happy with a nice mellow pace to start. It was a nice change from the "sprint as fast as you can before the singletrack" start that is typical in my class.

The pace eventually picked up before we filed into the singletrack. I was feeling good at the time and a few people in front were slowing down. From what I can remember, everyone was cool about passing at the Canyons race. It was very refreshing. If anything, I was the person holding people back, but I did offer multiple times to let people by.

I made a few passes before the descent started. Well, with the course, you think that the descent is starting, but before you know it, you're climbing again:

The second lap started and I was feeling pretty good. I felt like I was climbing okay, but everyone seemed to be flying today. I had a few guys on my tail that I just couldn't seem to shake. I finally made it to the top, and then quickly remembered, that the top is really more of a false flat that doesn't let you relax much.

The descent was fast and fun:

On the last lap, I was still feeling okay, but had no idea of my positioning. I made a few passes on the climb and was making desent time until that last straight away that just seems to go on forever. I think that the climb started to get in my head a bit. At the end, it all seems to look the same. I convinced myself a few times that I was at the top, which never came. Finally, I accepted that I had a while to go, and 2 guys in my class jumped around me just before the top finally arrived.

I closed the gap on the false flat and on the beginning of the downhill. I finally caught back on during the mid-descent climb and when the downhill started again, the guy in front was cool enough to let me pass without asking. I went by and could see the next guy up ahead. I was pushing as fast as I could and finally was about to make contact just as one of the off-camber right-hand turns snuck up on me. Before I knew it I was flying over my bars and into the bushes. It looks like my pre-race prediction came true in an ironic and unwelcome way.

All of my limbs were attached, so I started to climb back out as the guy I had just passed leapfrogged me. I followed him down the rest of the way, and he was smart not to let me pass again. Between the sketchy switchbacks at the end and the lapper traffic, I had no chance to contest the sprint and finished in 7th, 30 seconds out of another visit to the tweety chair.

All in all, it was a great way to end another great i-cup season.

Race details

Thanks to Scott at primelite photo for the great pictures! Search by your race number and you're likely to find some good pictures of you.

Be Good Like Susan

As Adam, Brandon and I sat at the back of the cultural hall for Susan's funeral, we tried to pick out some of our cycling friends from the congregation. A few times, we went back and forth 2 or 3 times trying to decide if we had identified our bald-headed friends correctly. Adam mentioned that it would be a lot easier if everyone was wearing a cycling kit or a ski suit.

Seeing so many cycling friends in suits and ties and wiping tears from their eyes was a sobering sight. It was good to see that the bonds of riding and skiing go far beyond the singletrack and powder days.

Elden talked about how Susan managed to turn cancer into a good thing by raising over $600,000 for cancer research. That is certainly impressive and is easy to quantify. What is harder to quantify, but every bit as impressive, is the positive influence she had on others. By following Susan's example, I'll renew my efforts to be a good spouse, a good parent, a good son to my mom who has cancer, a good friend, a good neighbor, and in the words of Susan's sister-in-law, "just plain good." I know I'm not the only one who drove away from the chapel today with a resolve to be good (and fight) like Susan.

Tibble Fork Picture Share

No time to write, but here are a few pics from yesterday morning's Tibble+Joy+Mud=Good ride:

Mark on the climb:

Elden in Tibble Meadow


Rick descending Tibble:

And although not from the Tibble ride, if you are night-riding in Glenwild, watch out for these bad boys:

Considering that we had at least 3-4 porcupine sightings and almost every one of us crashed at least once, it's amazing one of us didn't have a rather uncomfortable landing, followed by the removal of a hundred or so sharp quills.

Tetons Race and Ride

Taming the Tetons is a race that was not initially on the heavily negotiated race schedule.  However, the week before the race, the misses decided to pack up the kids and head to Oregon to see their cousins, so I was living the bachelor life.  And I took full advantage.  Not only did I go on my peep-show ride, but I was able to hit the Crest for the first time this year, and even got double the pleasure (double the fun) one evening by pre-riding the Canyons race course and then hitting a Glenwild night ride.  

I was hoping to have some legs left over for the Tetons race, and I suppose I felt okay, but didn't have the upper end power for the climbs.  There were only 10 starters this week, and I finished in 4th.  I went back and forth with 3rd place for a while - he'd pull ahead on the climbs, and I'd pull back time or pass him on the descents - but he eventually landed the knock-out punch on the 3rd lap. I certainly can't complain about another visit to the Tweety Chair though.

(Thanks to Kris for the photo)

I drove up to Jackson with the Holleys, so I was their third wheel (or wheels five and six, to be more specific) for the weekend.  On Sunday, the Holleys, Keith, Tim, Dave Dean and I headed out for what ended up being an amazing ride in the mountains to the South of Jackson.  I'd ridden up there once before a few years back, but Kris hooked me up with a map so that we could find our way around. 

Everyone but the Holleys and I called it a day after 25 miles (what sort of pansy only wants to do 25 miles the day after a race?), so I joined the Holleys for another 15 miles of "Leadville Training" (hopefully I can put the training to another good use).  If you want to become a better descender, just try and follow Chris around for 5 hours.  During the few times you can keep up, you'll pick up a thing or two about maintaining flow and momentum.

Unfortunately I didn't take a single picture during the ride, but I can tell you that it would be tough to beat that ride in any way, shape or form (right KC?).

Here's a snapshot of the route:

If you want more detail because you were on the ride (or you're a tech geek or just really bored), check the ride out here.  Click on the "Player" tab, and it will take you through the map and elevation profile of the entire ride.  I forgot to start recording until 4-5 miles into the ride, but you'll get the gist.

Un-American

(I thought this posted last week before I left for the Tetons. Since it didn't, I've revised it and am posting it now)

I was recently accused of being Un-American by a friend from work. He caught me committing the ultimate act of anti-patriotism. I had practically committed treason. I had openly rooted for Alberto Contador.

He simply could not fathom how I could express any support for Contador when he was the arch-rival of Lance Armstrong. It was akin to supporting Communism in the 80's.

I went on to explain why I thought most of the complaints against Contador were unfair. (I was going to say that the Contador haters were full of crap, but I know that Mark is very sensitive and I didn't want to hurt his feelings. Ha).

The complaints against Contador started in earnest after his first attack on Arcalis. "Johan told him not to attack", people were saying. Well, if I were Alberto, I don't know that I'd be listening to Johan either, because he knew as well as I did who Johan's main pony was. The longer he was behind Lance, the longer he was second fiddle on the team.

"The attack on Arcalis was bad tactically. The climb was too short and windy to make up any real time", was the critique provided by the infinitely wise viewing public. Well, look who's laughing now. I'd say it was one of the best cards he played this tour. Not only did he gain time on everyone else, but he put himself on equal footing with his main rival going forward.

The Contador haters really came out when he "attacked Kloden" on stage 17. "What a horrible teammate!" What, you think he should be concerned with his team? The team that practically threw him under the team bus as soon as Lance happened to be in a split that gained him 41 seconds on the other GC'ers? The team that wouldn't give him a 100% commitment despite the fact that he'd won three of the past 5 grand tours (now 4 of the past 6) and is clearly the best stage racer in the world? Yeah, when given the choice between being a "good teammate" and winning the tour, I think he made quite a few good decisions during the tour.

Alberto's only mistake on stage 17 was that he slowed down after the attack. He hoped that Kloden would have stayed with the Schleks, but when he saw that Kloden got dropped he slowed down in hopes that Kloden would catch back on. He should have done what Lance would have done back in the day - not given a second thought to what happened to his teammate and gone on to win the stage. Contador was the clear team leader at that point and I don't think he should be faulted for wanting to win the stage. No gifts, right?

The other thing that cracks me up about the stage 17 fallout is that, as with almost every tour, people were complaining about the tour being boring because "none of the GC contenders are attacking." Contador finally tries something exciting and he's labeled reckless and a bad teammate. Mark recently wrote a funny article about how how none of the GC contenders were willing to throw down any attacks, as well as how all of the racers were whining throughout the tour. He forgot to include the fans amongst the whiners - they whined when racers didn't attack, and whined even more when someone (Contador) finally did.

And then, of course, there are the "Contadopers." Of course he's a doper. He won the Tour didn't he? Case closed. No more testing is needed. Yeah, maybe "they" will eventually prove that he's a doper. And maybe they won't, and he'll go on to win 5 more tours.

It seems to me that most of the Contador haters hate him because he had the nerve to actually want to win the tour, and then was un-American enough to go and do it.

Jungle Love

What would you do in this "hypothetical" situation:

You are 'just riding along' on one of your favorite trails (like Timpooneke, for example), enjoying the cool air and prestine singletrack. You come across a couple of WalMart bikes stashed along side the trail, and you start to wonder why two bikes would be sitting here without their owners nearby, since there are no other trailheads or landmarks around. In the corner of your eye, you see something moving around amongst the aspen and pine trees. As you ride by, you take a closer look. You are so shocked by what you see that it takes your brain a second or two to register what you are looking at:

Two people, both well qualified for the "Clydesdale division", one firmly grasping a poor and innocent aspen tree, going at it.

Yeah, that's right. IT.

I'm pretty sure that if Adam and I found ourselves in that "hypothetical" situation, Adam would yell "classy", and the only thing I could think up would be to yell at Adam to grab his camera (loud enough for the Clydesdales to hear). Then we would keep riding, because we'd be too sick to our stomachs, not to mention shocked, to think of doing anything else.

And then we'd spend the rest of the ride talking about what we should have done.

Oh, and while talking about how exactly a douchebag guy approaches his skanky girlfriend about performing such an act, Adam would yell in his loud and boisterous voice "Hey babe, I'm getting tired of riding these bikes. Wanna pull over and DO IT?", just as another rider (one of the only other riders we'd see all evening) would round the corner from the opposite direction. And then I'd try and explain (all too late) that Adam's comment was not directed toward me, but was instead a hypothetical conversation between said douchebag and said skank.

So again I ask. What would you do in this "hypothetical" situation? Because lets face it, anyone willing to perform such an act in a publicly visible area deserves to be mocked, ridiculed, and/or injured, right?

Solitude - ICUP State Championship

As expected, that was a really hard race. I didn't want to blow up, so I tried to go out easy. I started in about 15th place, and I still felt like I pushed a bit too hard up that new climb. The first lap of a race is the only time where it can seem harder to go slow than to go fast. That all changes after about 15 minutes though, and people started popping left and right. I kept a pretty steady pace throughout the day and slowly picked off riders.

On the top of the 3rd lap, I started feeling some potential cramping coming on. I started using granny LaBerta quite a bit more from there on out. What was really surprising is that the cramping actually came on even harder during the 3rd lap descent. Each time I straightened my left leg to make a sharp right-hand turn, my left quad would start to seize up. I eased up on the the DH a bit, started drinking a bunch more CarboRocket (Thanks Kellie for the extra handup!) and ended up fine on the 4th lap.

Perhaps I over-estimated, but I thought we started with around 20-25 racers - at least 2 solid rows. I finished and was hoping to be top 10, so I was surprised to see I finished in 4th. I think more people drop out of this race than any other, which padded my result a bit. I think that less than 15 finished.

It was nice to feel good for a change. And when I say "good", I mean that I suffered like a dog, but I at least felt like I could push for most of the 3.5 laps. I've felt like I've been in a bit of a slump over the past couple months, but finally started feeling good last week. The conditions worked in my favor as well. I don't necessarily enjoy riding in the heat, but i always seem to do better when it's hot. My legs just never seem to get the wake up call when it's chilly like at Deer Valley.

Thanks to Jim W (who in addition to being a strong rider is also a really strong CX ski racer) for documenting one of my rare visits to the tweety chair:

Splits: Lap 1: 39:30 (including initial shakeout)
Lap 2: 38:00
Lap 3: 39:00
Lap 4 (lower loop): 25:30