Battle at the Bird and Redline

Today was the 1st race in the Oklahoma Mountain Bike Championship series, otherwise known as Tour De Dirt. Lake Thunderbird in Norman was the location for this season opener and the weather was kinda poopy......overcast, grey, chilly....perfect for me!!!
I didn't get much sleep Sat night due to the excitement, so I spent some time doing something I've carried over to bike racing from my soccer playing days is visualizing, whereby I know exactly what I'm going to do and when.

The Birdy

Springing forward sucks. I sleepily arrived at 8am to offload my bike and help setup the Team Phoenix tent. Slowly but surely folks started pouring in......this was going to be a large turnout of racers for the 1st event of the year.

Team Phoenix area

Race time was at approx 11am for me so I set off to get a good warm up in 30 mins prior.....I knew that the start of this circus would be a flat out drag race for a while and I'd need to be good and warm for it.

The Main Event

Around 10:45am I headed over to the start area to get a spot on the front row as this would be crucial to a fast start. It was here that the race organizers explained we'd be doing a little detour to start the race.....ummmmmm ok??

As more and more people lined up, I started looking around and seriously thought my chances were diminishing rapidly here for my top 5 finish. The Off-Camber team had a big presence and chatting to the guy lined up beside me, it was clear we would be competitors for the day.

Eventually the race got under way and I got just the start I wanted.....3rd heading into the 1st corner. Unfortunately this was the little detour we were told about and all of a sudden there's a guy whacking his wheel into my bike, followed by another crashing to my right. I came out of this pile up in 7th place, pissed and headed to the drag strip. I gunned it and flew down this section passing 3 guys to put myself in 4th headed into the real singletrack.

It was me, the Off-Camber guy, black and white shirt guy and a dude from New Zealand racing for Schlegels Bicycle store.

I knew I had to patient somewhat through the 1st section or so and stuck on these guys wheels and settled in for a bit. The 4 of us had already put a substantial gap into the rest of the field, so it was clear this was the competition.

Race Results Posted

White shirt dude had pulled away at the front and was out of sight, so I knew I had to make a move as Off-Camber guy and the New Zealander were starting to lag a little.

We came out of a corner and Off-Camber guy went a little right and I shot past him and started to hammer. I was on the tail of New Zealand and we played cat and mouse for a while with each other. From the training I've been doing and skills practice I knew I had a substantial advantage when we hit the technical sections in the gold.

Sure enough the 1st sets of roller coasters and wooden ramps, he was over cautious and I flew past him.

At this point my sole goal was to chase down white shirt guy and I pushed myself into zone 5 of my HR and stayed there for the duration of the race. It's amazing what training and practice can do.....I hit every line that we went over with Mark, floated over the rocks and flew down the single track. I honestly got into such a flow that the last 1/3 of the race was a blur......I was hammering it and absolutely loving it. I knew I was a different racer when I started going through the 19-29 year old class that started a full minute ahead of us.

I knew I was gaining on white shirt guy in the final section of the race when I could finally see him, but he had too much of a head start for me to catch.

Crossing the finish line I knew I was spent and left it all on the course........my goal was to get a top 5 finish, so getting 2nd and reeling back in the guy in 1st was a huge bonus. All the hard work, training and time spent on the trail clearly paid off.

The best compliment I got was from the New Zealand guy who after the race told me that he thought he could catch me on the flats, but the minute we hit the hills I pulled away big time and he couldn't react.

I now know how much I can push myself at redline.......and thats very important in these XC races.

Podium

Next we're off to Osage Hills in a couple of weeks for race #2 and a very rocky technical course....right up my alley!!!!

The HorseOutside is rollin!!!

Leadville, Mayhem, Rocks and Flats

Earlier this week I received the dreaded email:
Dear Leadville Race Series Family,
We regret to inform you that we are unable to accept your application for the
2011 Leadville Trail 100 MTB race. In order to offer the nation’s highest quality athletic
experience with the utmost degree of safety, medical care, and racer support, we are
unable to accommodate every interested rider. We do not offer a waiting list, and are
unable to accept entries for 2012.

Blah blah...whatever. I wasn't too bothered about it as I've said before just entering Leadville was the catalyst for spawning so much more.

Training this week went really well and I felt ready to tackle the race that was the "Mountains of Mayhem". I was really curious for this pre-season game to test out just how far I'd come and where I was.

Race Day:

On to the day of the event. Myself, Mark Orton and Jeff Sikes all headed down to Ft Sill nice and early and it was freeeeeezing. I'd loaded my bag the night before and put my warm weather gear in just in case. We were 1 of the first there and went and registered, took care of some nature business, then got back in the truck where it was warm.

Me stripping off my warm weather gear (Thanks Tommy!!)

Eventually we decided it would be a good idea to start getting our crap together for the warm up etc. So bikes were unloaded, gear put on, and off we rode to warm up. I decided to tackle the 1st hill as part of my warm up.....holy crap!!! It was steep, loose, rocks the size of some small Japanese cars!!! I was a little nervous at first, but this crap was not stuff I was used to riding on nevermind racing on.

The Race:

At about 10:45am we lined up to start this Mayhem (now I see why its called that), and I moved towards the front of the pack as I didn't want to get stuck behind people who would be walking their bikes up the hill. Come 11am (or so) they shot off the huge cannon and the race was underway. I pushed hard to hit the hill as part of the 1st 1/3 of people and starting climbing......this hill was nasty, gnarly, steep, and loose rocks everywhere. One thing I discovered quickly is that I now have a climbing ability.....holy crap I can climb!!! A 60lbs weight loss will give you a new ability to be faster (who woulda thought that).

I cruised up the hills pretty comfortably, and headed into the meat of the course. One thing I don't do well is descend on loose rocks....so for this race I made it a point to fly up the climbs, bomb the flats and be very careful on the descents.

The Flats:

No I'm not talking about the fast parts of the course. Prior to heading down to this race I had been warned to bring 2 spare tubes and 3-4 Co2 cartridges, which I did but never thought I would use them. About 2/3 of the way through the race I ran over a pretty big cactus....and of course air starts pouring out. Luckily I got the wheel spinning enough that the Stans sealed the hole (yeah for tubless and Stans). After that I started speeding up on the descents a little, and of course I hit the sharp edge of one of those Japanese cars. This cause about a 2 inch gash along the side of my front tire (booooo for tubeless and Stans). So off I got to fix that one by putting in one of my 2 tubes and burning a Co2 to inflate. 10 mins later back on my merry way. Crested the last major hill and riiiiiiiip....another rock rips open my front tire again in a different place and pops the tube.......seriously. Another 10 mins later and telling one of the course marshalls that "no I wasn't going to quit because I flatted", I was on my way again.

I pushed really hard for the last 1/3 of the race to make up time and ended up coming in middle of the pack overall with a time of 2:14:00. If I take away 25 mins for the flats my time would have been right at 1:50:00 which is impressive to me.

Post race conversation regarding flats

Overall I was really happy with the race despite the flats and it was a fun race to do as there are not any others quite like the Mountains of Mayhem.

Next week is the start of the TDD series with a race at T-Bird......with a bit of luck, I'm shooting for a top 5 spot in my category.

Below is the race video I took with my helmet cam. Its not great due to the helmet mount I had setup but you get the general idea.