Amateur Race Blag

We arrived in the little town of Angwin to only to find a dense layer of fog hanging around. I thought today was supposed to be sunny? On go the arm warmers on and time for my warmup. As I warm up so does the weather and the fog melts away. Fine, arm warmers off then. Things are looking perfect. The course was mostly tacky, with some muddy spots and high streams scattered about.

After what seemed like forever, the 10:30am start finally arrived. Weather? Check. Bike prepped? Sorta-check. Feeling good? Check!

The race starts on pavement, straight up a steepish hill; it’s always a race to get to the singletrack in a decent position. I managed to hit the dirt somewhere around 6th or so, and gained a couple more positions on the climb up to the super steep wall that forces everybody to dismount and run up. By the time we left the tree cover and hit the fire roads I was somewhere around 4th but losing ground quickly on 1st and 2nd. This would be the last I saw of them.

I was riding in a pack of 3 when we hit the dense forest singletrack section. About a minute in we’re ripping down a hill when we encounter a poorly marked split in the course and we all go left instead of right. Luckily there were marshalls in the area to yell that we were off course, but I lost a good 30-45 seconds and all my momentum turning around.

The rest of the way into the forest was otherwise fine, but the way out (and up) really started to grind on me. I had a guy in my category on my wheel the whole time and we spent a couple miles just passing people from other classes.

Eventually at about mile 9, right as we were leaving the forest singletrack, I cracked. I’m super disappointed with myself, but in that moment I was mentally beat. We got to a wider area of the trail and I moved off to the right and waved my competitor on through. I spent the next 3 miles hating everything and in disbelief at what I had just done.

Thankfully things took a turn for the better around mile 12, right before the big climb out of Pope Valley starts, and I got my head back in the race. Climbing seems to be one of my strengths (it’s definitely not descending…), so I decided to see if I could make a charge on the climb and catch him. I knew I was sitting at 4th at this point and it was killing me that I had given up a spot on the podium so willingly. I passed a lot of people on the way up, and rode all but 3 really steep and muddy sections, and with about ¾ a mile to go on the climb I caught him riding in a group of riders from other categories. I kept the engine going and made my pass on the group, bringing one other guy wearing blue with me. The climb must have been too much because he didn’t try to counter my attack. We finally reached the top when me and Mr. Blue traded turns pulling each other along the final fire road before the last little climb came up and I dropped him too. It was literally all downhill from there, and I came across finish about a minute ahead of the 4th place finisher.

Despite being disappointed with my mental game, I couldn’t help but be happy that I managed to make it into to the top 3. Looking back on where I was at last year at the same race is something I’m really proud of. Last year I finished in 2:09:59 while this year despite the mud and mental lapse I finished in 1:45:51 – nearly a 25 minute improvement. I can’t help but thank everyone at The Hub and on the team for all the support and encouragement; I certainly wouldn’t be where I am without it!

The course is a blast and it’s easy to see why it’s a regional favorite. I can’t wait for HMC this fall – hope to see you out there.

This report is going to be short and to the point because honestly the entire race is just a jumbled and blurred together memory. The TBF MTB Challenge is aptly named: 4 laps at 8 miles each for a total of 32 miles. Not the furthest I’ve ever ridden by a long shot, but definitely the longest race I’ve ever done. Thankfully between my training and my 3-day pre-race rituals and diet I felt well prepared for it. Average HR was 181bpm over 2 hours 9 minutes. 1hr 58m in Zone 4, 11m in Zone 3; a hammer-fest all the way thanks to the course’s lack of down hills to actually recover on.

My strategy was to hammer the first couple of laps, hopefully edging my way to the front of my class, before getting lost in lapped traffic for laps 3 and 4. So I hammer hammer hammer. Lap 3 arrives. There’s minimal to no lapped traffic. Crap. Thanks to the 8 mile laps traffic is spread super thin and turns out not to be a problem. OK, no problem, I’ve got a huge gap on whoever happens to be behind me so I’ll just keep up the pace and try not to get passed. Crap, there goes 2 high school kids. OK, fine, nobody else gets past! Lap 4. High school kids still in sight. Pass another expert rider, not sure what age group. Sweet! I rolled through the finish arch strong and still feeling really good.

I peek at results; 3rd place. Awesome! But then who won? Riley Howard followed by Andrew Taylor. Whoa. Riley beat me by five minutes… that kid is fast. I wish they’d start the Pro/Open in a separate wave so I could at least attempt to hang on to Riley and Andrew. I didn’t even see them or know I was racing against them. Bummer. They would probably still beat me, but at least I’d know it’s coming when I dropped off wheels eventually.

Anyways, the event was a blast. Granite Bay was in amazing condition; hero dirt everywhere. Love that TBF does bottle hand outs since my bike only has one bottle mount. The Hub was out in full force, snatching up podiums everywhere! Good job guys. Major thanks to Andy for manning the tent too. It’s always just awesome to have support out at the races. Hearing your name shouted as you pass by each lap always feel pretty good as well, even if you’re too delirious to know who shouted it.

I make it a point try to learn something from every race I attend and today’s lesson was a harsh one: expert starts are fast, competitive, and brutal. I was already 4-5 rows back because I was late getting to the line. The race started, elbows were flying, and we were very quickly funneled onto single-track. I was way in the back and had no idea who was in my class and age group.

Experts were racing 3 six-mile laps and I spent the first lap passing as many people as I could trying to make up for my poor start. I was feeling pretty good considering I hadn’t actually planned on racing today. My original plan was to show up and do some cheer-leading for my teammates. On the back side of lap two I caught up to fast-guy Scott Hooper so I knew I was in good shape. I spent the rest of the lap following his wheel until we traded places right before lap three. On the third and final lap I made my move and gave it everything I had left. We were starting to lap beginner and sport riders so I made an effort to put as many riders as I could between the two of us. By the time I dropped out to the parking lot at Beek’s I couldn’t see Scott behind me anymore so it appeared to work. I wasn’t about to get comfortable though; I kept the hammer down for the rest of the lap and rolled through the arch in what I would eventually find out was 2nd place.

Big thanks to Heath for convincing me to race at around 9:35 and to The Hub for keeping me and my bike ready to ride. And wow… I grew a bit lazy over the winter. I forgot what it’s like to keep it pinned for an entire ride. It’s a good thing it’s still really early in the season because I’m in desperate need of some speed and intensity work.