Lake Hope State Park Ride today

love this place....didn't love it so much today. Crossing the creeks was an icy slick mess. Where the ground started to thaw, the layers of leaves had ice crystals between them on the trail which made our tires sink in 6 inches in some areas. Just like riding in sand with peanut butter mixed in. Uggg. My quads feel like I was doing squats for about 5 hours. Not sure any tire other than a 29er would have rolled any faster, too bad I don't have a 29er. It was good to be out, the temp when we left the car was 20deg. But the wind in areas was making it much colder. Tim was the only one to step up and go...

Lake Hope Mountain Bike Race - August 2, 2009

Success to failure – in seconds flat

“If you ain’t first, you’re last”

Lake Hope Mountain Bike Race
Sunday, August 2, 2009

Feeling good all week on the bike, I knew all the planning would come together on Sunday for this favorite “A” race for the year. The legs felt strong; the watts were up, the HR steady and flat line, the planets in alignment, the squirrels were busy.

Do you ever have one of those days, where everything just goes right? Where around every turn, you are surprised by how each traffic light turns to green? Where everything just goes right where it is supposed to go in your day? I indeed had one of those days until about 1:50 p.m. during my race.

Jen and I arrive in plenty of time, to be registered and see some familiar faces, Mike Mikes, Dave Groen from my Masters club. I see a few other new faces; my guess is they are getting things in order for cyclocross training. I change into the team kit and get on my bike for a good warm up. From the first warm-up pedal stroke, to the last I know the legs and body are in alignment today. I think, wow, these guys are going to suffer today behind me.

Ryan O'Dell makes his pre-race announcements on his fancy megaphone. He explains how the West Virginia series racers will be combined with the OMBC series race groups. There is a big moan from the crowd, when he announces the Sport category will be combined with several other Sport groups. I think we had 60-65 Or so lined up to take off just after 1:00 p.m. Myself, Mike Mikes and Dave Groen and several of the WV boys all creep and creep our way to a virtual start line – Ryan yells out, “that’s enough creeping boys”.

I had a great spot on the front line. I knew if I stayed on the right side of the road, it would allow me to elbow and maintain my space on the way up the water tower hill at the sound of the gun. It worked. I was or I should say, easily had the legs and fitness to be first up that hill. I sat back at the top for the right turn onto the gravel road. The road certainly separated our group quickly. I glanced back under my arm in my big ring sprint to see a group of about 8 of us shredding the field of sport riders. There is one semi steep (creep up on you hill) climb on the gravel road, just before we hit the single-track into the woods. I stood up and let a few guys in front of me. I figured if they were up here with me, they would know how to handle their bike and could carve trail like a knife into the Christmas ham. Mike is right in my sights and I thought I would just keep him within striking distance, wait for a hill or wait for him to make a mistake and I would not hesitate to pounce (this time).

The pace is high and we are picking off riders shelled from the groups that started in front of our group. Katsu is in front of me, keeping a great pace, but pops and I roll around him on a hill climb. I pick the pace up some more and get on Mike’s wheel. Alas, he picks a wrong line through a tough off camber slickery turn and up to the right. He goes down, but is ok. I put a massive dig in and hit the throttle hard. I figure if I can just keep this up for about another 10-minutes I will have first place. It was not to be. This was not one of those days where everything goes right. It suddenly becomes one of those moments where everything that could go wrong, does. In an instant, I feel the back end of the bike, getting a little wallow on me. I look down between the frame for a quick moment, while out of the saddle trying to see if there is something blatant sticking out of the tire or if it indeed is going flat. UGGGG. It is going flat. I keep riding trying to rationally think what the best course of action would result in the least amount of lost time. I decide to pull out the big Co2 and give it a shot at just replacing some of the lost air. Dave G. catches back up but is suffering and hurting. I get back on…mention I had a slow leak and pass him. About another 10 minutes, the tire is going again. I now know I must get off at some point and change the back tube. The nightmare begins.

I continue to climb up and around and down hanging on to the bike, trying to keep it on the trail with the back end wallowing around like a whale tail. I keep thinking, wow, this just couldn’t suck anymore having to change a tube – mid race. Finally, I yell out to Dave G. I am going to pull over and change it. Dave says good luck. I get the wheel off, get my tube and C02 out, I learn quickly I have no easy way to get the tire off the rim, it’s a newer tire I just put on about a month prior and the bead is still as stiff as an iron wagon wheel. It won’t come off. I fight, fight and fight. Nothing. I try my Cook Bros. multi tool, 9 ways – nothing. I swear and cuss like a 15 year-old outloud when no one is passing me on the trail just below. Wow, has it been an hour, it seems so, standing there sweating, drenched, simply trying to remove a tire. I try to calm down and think think, what can I use to the the tire off….ahhhhh the wheel skewer! Genius. I take the skewer out and think, oh I should thread the other side of the skewer back on with the springs so they don’t get lost. My guess is, I didn’t quite thread them on quite far enough. That’s right, I get the tire off, new tube, tire back on, filled up with air and proceed to put the wheel back on the bike, I look down and don’t see one of the springs or the other side of my skewer, WTF? You have got to be kidding me? Brian A. of COMBO fame rolls up and asks what I need help with…he’s tired and not interested in racing anymore. We slowly scour the ground with a stick find the spring and the skewer nut, wheel back in bike and I am on my way.

I pass 2 riders maybe in my quest to survive this hideous ordeal. About 2 miles roll by, I think I don’t have much further to do, maybe I can salvage a DNF out of this when all of a sudden I feel the front wheel washing around into a corner. I look down and realize, yes another Flat tire. WTF. I calm down and just wait for Brian again. He arrives and automatically knows I need a tube and air. Most racers only carry one tube and enough air for maybe two fill ups. We have a laugh, since he is so “out of his race” and I as well, change the tube and I am off to try to finish. My body and legs by this time are just about finished and I really struggled to power up the last few climbs out of the valley to get to the uphill finish line. Needless to say, when I crossed the finish line I was not a happy camper and ran off to the car to finish sweating and try to calm down. Jen came back to the car, I decided to be a good sport and go hang out, while my co-racers, collected their monies.

It was a good call in the end, karma baby, I got to eat some great ombc food, try to have a few laughs about my double flat situation and not take myself so seriously or the racing. I spoke to Michael M. after and he was amazed I wasn’t running Stan’s Tubeless system. The reason he did it a few years ago….he was leading a race and got flats. So…maybe there is some Stan’s in my future?

I guess, I just wanted the W so bad, worked so hard, it felt like most of my summer was working towards this race (one of my favorites) and I knew I had it in me. When the time came; I did have it, the power, lungs, the skills were all there. We must take away the positive sometimes and not focus on the negative.

OMBC - Lake Hope State Park - Mountain Bike Race

weeeeeee,
My race today went like an 1:24 min ride on a super fun roller coaster. My watch said 1:21 min, Avg. Speed 12.34 mph, 1730 feet of elevation gain, . I need to look up my info from last year.

I have never ridden Lake Hope so fast in many years of riding there. This was my second year racing there in the Sport Category. Layne, my wife and I all Subaru'd down together.
This race is combined with the West Virginia race series and their race catergories do not match up with OMBC. So....to make things easy the Sport Catagory for racers from 19-50 were all leaving in one group. Yeah that was fun. I think 50 guys? I nudged up to the front 12 or so for the start and hoped to get a good flying start up the gravel road to the water tower. I did, but we were 4.5 wide on that road and I was eating branches on the right side up the hill, when many faded in fitness towards the top, I manged to get passed 5 or 6, make the turn to the left at the bottom of the hill, where our cars were parked, and up the second real gravel road hill. We fly up that, fly down the hill and head up to the crest of the third hill right before the single-track into the woods. I manged to pass quite a few in my big ring before the dirt and we all bunched up at the entrance. I think there may have been 15/18 or so of us at the front of the Sport group. I felt pretty good about where I was sitting. I did manage to get some warm up before the race start, but now the legs were starting to feel pretty good about 3 miles or so in. I was passing lots of riders, passed a few of the women off the back and trying to maintain a steady pedal state. I rode really agressive on any hills or sections I knew really well, thinking anyone that was behind me would have to fight till the end to pass me. I saw one girl go down really hard on her face after flying right over the handle bars. She ended up being ok and finishing. Jen and I hung out with Amanda Sproat and Joe Devault today after the race at a picnic table eating and drinking. It's a nice change of pace being at mountain bike race from the 'serious ness' of the road and crit scene. Although there are some somewhat serious, too serious dudes at these mtb races, it was good to hang with the Superfly Twins.

I do believe I should have ridden with the Experts today. I don't think I was sandbagging per say - all the other guys in my Sport group were all within 1 min of each other. And the only guy to beat me today, came around me in the last few miles, pretty rude in his pass, ran into the wheel that was in front of me after passing me.
I was within 10 to 15 seconds of getting 1st back at the finish, I saw him look back at the top of the second hill before the finish. I dug really hard in my big ring to catch him coming out of the woods and up the steep dirt hill before the campground pavement.
I ended up with a solid Second Place this year.
I am pretty sure after thinking about it today, that the top 3 finishers in the entire sport category should be racing Expert as well. There were guys that finished 5 to 10 min faster than I did - they must have been just motoring, sick. My low back is so sore, after riding in the car home, getting on a plane to chicago, I sit here with ice on my low back. Dang, I am old.
Layne got third in the Single Speeds today, pretty good considering, he hadn't ridden MTB much this year.
More tomorrow if I can come up with more -