Well that could be my race report for my first XC race. The End ....
Two flats put me out of the race. It was not a long race, about 5.25 kms a lap, 3 laps, so a single flat will certainly hurt your placing. No results yet posted but my guess from the sheet a la course showed an average lap of around 25 minutes for my category(40-49). I had brought 1 tube and a patch kit. Next race I will bring 2 tubes. At least if I get a second flat I will be able to ride back to the car instead of doing the long walk after pulling out :(
Quick Bio. I turned 40 this year. 5'4" and about 145-150 lbs. In the last 8 years I slowly gave up all my sports(Hockey(ball,ice,roller), broomball, and Slo-Pitch) due to starting a family and building a house. About 4 years ago I started commuting to work. It is about 40km round trip. I was doing the ride summer and winter in the snow and this is how I got interested in MTB'ing. I have always been very competitive in sports so the commuting was keeping me in shape but I was missing the sporty part. So I started riding with some beg/interm rides last summer and ended the year riding with some very experienced riders. This is how I got on a team, or gang. I did one race in August, which was a 24 hr solo effort, just to see what its all about. I'm hooked and signed up for two 24 solos this year.
I was looking forward to doing my first XC race all winter. I even got rollers and did a little training for about 6 weeks before I got the damn flu bug.It was about a week before the first O'Cup. I was off work for about a week. It was like having a 7 day headache along with every muscle in my body aching with fever. I lost about 10 pounds and I am only normally around 150lb (5'4"). Of course I managed to get the cough they said is common to have for 1-2 weeks after the flu which, heeding the advice of friends and forum members, caused me to skip O'Cup #2. It was probably a wise choice for many reasons. So last night ended up being my first race.
Race Recap
I got to the race early, signed up and got my plate just before the big rush came. My licence came in the mail the day before even tho it was seeming to take forever. I took this as good
karma :) I had lots of time to check over the bike, get dressed, and warm up. I chatted with the guys on the team(or gang) and was very relaxed.
I did a warm-up of about 15 mins and then went to the start and lined up with the guys. It was a delayed group start of about one minute delay between groups. I think Sport was 3rd to go. I was very relaxed and sat near the back of the group chatting away with a couple teammates. There is a long steep climb to the single track so no need to bolt off at the start. Your fitness level will quickly be shown too all :) . The first 200 meters are fairly flat, the next 200 meter are around 9% grade and the last 200 meters before the single track are around 14-20% grade!
On the first lap I was feeling a bit of hurt and weak on this climb and my heart rate was between 170-180(180 my max,40 yrs). On the second and third lap I felt that I was going at least as fast as the first lap and my heart rate was almost 10 beats lower.
I feel that technically I am very good for only one summer of experience. There was no spot on the course that I didn't clear when not blocked by another rider stalled out on the good line minus one technical rooty, soft soil, rooty climb. I picked a bit of a bad line and my tire spun. It was the third lap and I was a bit tired. I know for next time I need to get more speed up for this section.
That said I learned quickly in the first section of singletrack that its not good to be behind riders in any tight, technical section. Can you say 'Log Jam!'. And I think the odds are good that the farther down the pack you are on a climb the more chance you have of getting stopped from a guy in front of you not clearing a section. This could simply be being out of steam from the climb to do that half rotation that always seems to elude you on a little steep, rocky section shortly after :). So I had to actually stop for 10 seconds and wait for a few guys to push up through a tight rocky section.
My first flat came about 15 minutes in. It took about 5:30 seconds to change. It was a real bummer to watch the couple guys on the team go that I figured where around my caliber. Would make for a more fun race and better gossip afterwords since we would be watching each other. I think by the time I got rolling again I was dead last out of all of the groups. The good thing was that I had lots of tight single track all too myself :)
I did find my calfs cramped a bit two times but went away once I had some sports drink. I usually ride with a pack with two bladders, one with drink and one with water. I have only one cage on my GT i-drive so I only took one bottle. I figured it would be marginal, but enough. I was planning on two laps according the guys and them saying the first race of the season would not be as long, but it was 3 laps. I will carry another bottle of water in my middle jersey pocket for next race an I am sure I will be fine.
I caught a few people in the second lap. One was a team member who I figured would do well. Turned out he flatted in the warm-up and fixed his flat at the car, but missed the start. He passed me while I was fixing mine. He was aout to call it quits when I came by. I stopped to kick his butt in gear when he told me the story and that he lost his tire irons at the car. I gave him my set, told him to change the tube and try and catch me! I don't need irons for the Kenda Karma DTC's I am running.
I passed a few more people on lap two, but I was pretty sure they were not my class. It was on the start of the climb on the third lap that I saw some people that I new where in my class. I tried not to get too excited to catch them at this point. I knew I was reeling them in and had a whole lap to go. I was feeling pretty good at this point. It's a nice feeling to see you are catching someone and confident that you are gonna do it. I think I was hurting more on the climbs with no one in site feeling like I was at the back of the pack :(
After the first climb is a technical rocky singletrack section, the a little bit of double lane switchbacks to a fast but rough singletrack section. After this you have one more nasty fire road climb(small gravel and sandy, so bit loose, but energy sapping). You are almost at the top of the mountain by then. The kicker here is you turn back into the singletack to another really tough and steep climb for about 200m. If you went to hard on the fire road you would be in serious trouble to climb this section. Lots of rocks and roots so you need that bit of power to clear the bigger ones.
I passed one person on this fire road section and pulled up to the wheel of two other guys at the turn in of the singletrack climb I mentioned. The second guy hit a root and stalled and I passed him here. The guy ahead of me turned out to be pretty good technically and was pretty fast on the downhill technical stuff. I held his wheel out of the singletrack climb but I wasn't sure if I should do a sprint pass here or wait. I decided to follow and we went down some steep rocky sections in the open hill and back into the woods for some fast downhill singletrack. I was keeping about a 10 bike length lead on the downhill in case he went down and I figured I would close that gap back in the woods. He seemed to pull away a bit, as I said I under estimated hill climbing ability with technical skill. Oooops! I was determined not to let him get away so I kinda let it a bit loose to to close the gap. I knew there was a small rock drop coming(can you say endo!) that split into two for about 5 bike lengths. He went left and I went right with wreck less abandon
It was getting close to the end of the race and I was feeling great. I knew the end was coming so I was really starting to push it. Then Psssst! Another front flat! WTF ! ! I was pisssed. I decided to run out of the last of this singletrack as it opens up to the open ski hill and lots of room to change the tire. I ran bit more into the open pushing the bike while fighting in my mind if I should just run with the bike to the finish or fix the flat.
I decided to fix the flat. It was a real bummer to be there on the open mountain, right in front of the chalet with people on the balcony, trying to put a patch on a tube. Again I had people start passing me. I think the first person to pass me was my teammate who had fixed his tire after all. I don't think he would have caught me as I was less than 4 minutes from the finish(gotta get a dig in haha). Seeing Iggy go by did lift my spirits for a few seconds as I tried to pump up the damn tire I patched. I couldn't get it to pump up. I could hear the air leaking out. I pulled the tube out and could see that I didn't let the glue dry enough and had the patch on the edge of the double snake bite flat. A few more riders went by and the guy that I figured was in last place goes by saying "at least I'm gonna beat somebody". Oh I wanted to get my tire pumped so bad at that moment ! ! ! But alas my tire was phsst'ing away with every stroke of the pump. IT was at this point I hung my head down, stuck the flatted wheel back on the bike and walked off the course. At least I only had 100m or so to walk to the chalet.....
Well I got a DNF for my first XC race. But I have to say I really enjoyed it and plan to have lots of fun racing the SS series this year. Evey other weds. Next race I will bring two tubes and will be running a bit more pressure from the start to hopefully avoid any flats in the first place.
My average lap times without flats I figured would be around 27 minutes a lap using data from my GPS. I found out I was not the only one to flat. Our fastest guy got a flat his first lap on Mens Expert. Had some fun chatting with the guys after over a beer and a burger. I think they keep points from 4 of 7 races so all is not lost !!!
I have a few questions.
1.) What happens when you blow up?
I ask this cause my heart rate was in the 170's(MAX 180) on the climbs. I don't mind holding it there but was wondering what would happen if I gave it a bit more on the first climb and held it closer too or at my max HR on this climb. I think I could get in front of several people this way but don't want to do it only to get passed again or slow people in the singletrack ahead cause I am toast.
2.) How do I get to be a better climber?
Maybe 10 hours a week to train max, including 3 hour MTB technical, hilly group riding Sundays(intense for me)
Cheers,
