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Saturday
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and training.
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This past Saturday was the 6 hour Grind on the Greenway in Fort Mill, SC. There were heavy rains the day before, but Saturday was looking good. I got to the race about an hour and a half before start. I had time to get set-up, checked in, and cut up with Andy and Stephen. Just before the race I noticed I had almost no back brakes left. Oh well, I guess I will have to not use them. The race started off at 11:00, with a perfect temperature on a sunny day. I decided to not worry too much about the start, most of the field was solo, and there was a a pretty good distance before we had to funnel into the single track. I started well, and worked through traffic nicely on the first lap, with the exception of the guy with two headphones in (loser). I started lap 2 feeling great and just wanted to keep a consistent pace, I kept working my way through the field. I wasn't paying too much attention to numbers at this point, I had 4+ hours to go, so I just rode. I took a short break after 2 hours for a bite of a sandwich and wet lube for the bike. The trail was not too bad, mostly dry, with the mud only in sharp turns, technical sections and the bottom of climbs (how does that happen? haha). I was staying at my pace and trying to find people to ride with. I felt good until 3:40 in (yes, I looked at the clock). I was hoping that I wasn't crashing (internally), so when I came back around I downed the rest of my First Endurance EFS and some COLD water. I also changed clothes, this seemed to work I was ready to go for lap 5, my wife (and pit crew that did a perfect job for the race today) let me know I was in 6th. I started paying attention to numbers, but that wasn't helping because I was lapping other riders in my field. I got on the gas with all that I had left for my last lap hoping I would move up. When I looked at the results , I had pulled in 7th out of 25 ( I know I passed #768 on the last lap). I was happy with the result and felt good with my performance.
Next week, Columbia!!
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This past weekend was XC race #2 in the Southern Classic Series. The race was in Uwharrie National Forest. There had been 4 days of rain to the race, but I figured the course would drain. I was wrong. I left my dry conditions tires on and was about to get an education in drifting.
The weather was great for race day. But, as soon as we took off, the mud was everywhere. The front group started off all together with just enough room to let the mud spray between riders. Two guys were off the back at the start. I knew this was going to be a hard day when I realized I was working harder and going about 10 mph slower than last year. The mud was negating all of my power and making me sit and spin up every climb. I settled into 6th place and rode for a while. One of the guys behind me at the start went by, but I didn't want to change my pace. I made up one spot and felt ok. I was hoping that my flat feeling that I had before the race. The leaders of the next class caught me and I tucked in behind on the road. The technical section was a welcome change on the second half of the course, with only a few bad spots. I finished the first lap and was hoping to feel stronger as the race went on.
On the second lap I was feeling ok. As I got closer to the top, conditions were getting worse on the trail. Climbs were getting slicker and small wet spots were getting stretched out. This was starting to take a toll on me. 7th place caught me on the small climbs on the back half of the course, I decided to stay on his wheel to pace and to try and get him to make a mistake. I stayed really close, this helped to take my mind off of the suffering and I could see he was having trouble in the technical/rocky sections. I rode his wheel as close as I could all the way to the bottom, he messed up and had to get of his bike. I went by and started to attack. I knew he was going to do all that he could to stay with me, so I kept it steady. We made it out to the second road section and he passed me back after a few minutes. I was getting really tired, so I just tried to keep sight of him.
I was trying to eat and drink as much as possible, this didn't help. When lap 3 started I was cooked. I knew I had to push through it. I kept going and hoped I could take 6th back on this lap. I was struggling up what had become a mostly mud course now. The mud was thicker and slicker for the last lap. I didn't see anyone for the first half of the lap. As I continued through the technical section, I saw 6th. He just flatted and had to make a quick stop. I rode by and checked on him. He was ok, so I pushed on. I wanted to to the technical sections as fast as possible to keep distance for the last road section. I was alone until the last mile when I thought I heard a bike, I climbed with all that I had and sprinted to the finish. I must have been imagining things because no other riders came in for about 6 minutes. I was happy to be done for today. Now I can spend all week cleaning up!
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This past weekend was the Tree Shaker 12 hour race in Fort Mill, SC. Jim and I had planned on going for a while with Billy, but he had a wedding that day and could not squeeze in both, so we had to find a 3rd person to race 3 man open or do a duo. Jim's friend Jeremy agreed to do the race with us even though he had never done any type of mountain bike race. Jim and I weren't sure if this would hurt our chances to take 1st in the open class (the toughest class) or not, but we decided that no matter what we would give it all we had, make a good showing for our sponsors, and have a good time.
The race got started and I hit the singletrack in 3rd, the gravel and the wet grass made me a little nervous, so I kept from going all out. After a mile or so, I was up in to 2nd and on the leaders wheel. We opened up a 15 or 20 second gap on everyone else and cruised. I tried to remember the course from last year, but made some poor decisions on my first lap, causing me to slow down a bit. I dropped my chain on the first downhill and lost 7 or 8 spots before I recovered. I motored on the rest of the lap picking a few bad lines, but learning the course. I was in the top 10 from all of the teams and 2nd for our class.
The rest of the day went smooth, we thought that we were fighting for 3rd place, but realized the team that we were racing was in a different category (they had the same color plate as we did).
We all did our parts to keep our place steady with Jim and I putting in laps about 15 minutes faster than Jeremy. We all stayed consistent, and had no big problems.
We ended up 3rd, a lap behind the leaders(some local xc racers that knew the trail and the pros from Coca-Cola Barkley), and a lap ahead of 4th. The day ended up being awesome for all of us, we had to tease Jeremy for being on the podium in his first 12 hour race in the open class with a very competitive field.
Thanks to all of the sponsors and supporters that made another podium finish possible!
Go Velosports.
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It has been a while since I posted a blog, but as of this summer I am part of the 4 person open 12 hour NC state champions, along with Nathan Wyatt, Billy McCracken, and Jim Clark.
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This past weekend was the 12 hours of Tsali. Velosports sent two sport teams and Nate from Carolina Fatz was doing 6 hours solo. Frank and I left his house at 7:00 a.m. making sure that we were getting enough coffee into our bodies along the way. We met up with Doug briefly on the road to Tsali before he decided to make a pit stop. We arrived at the venue, and thanks to Smoky Mountain Bikes, we were able to set-up with them and have a great spot, easy to load/unload our stuff, and have a great position to watch the race and switch out riders.
We got everyone registered and ready to go, then started to get into race mode.
Dave from SMB got started early changing tires for me and fixing Andre's bike, hub, brakes, etc. to get us ready. I changed Frank's stem and now we were ready to roll, and Andre ready to run.
Adam and Andre started out the race with the LeMans start (600 yard run) and did the first lap. They came in from the first lap in 2nd and 3rd positions (frickin' awesome), and the race started. Billy and I were the 2nd riders, Frank and Doug went 3rd, and David and Alan took the 4th spots. One of the teams moved into 2nd place ahead of us and we started trying to catch them. We started moving between the 3rd and 4th places in the race with team # 30 making the race really fun. I started cramping on my 3rd lap, costing my team a little bit of time, but I moved my cleats and felt much better on my last lap. My last lap was in the dark and was great. The only issues I had were a raccoon running out in front of me and a bat landing on my helmet (it happened).
When all was said and done, Team #2 took third for the sport class and Team #1 finished 6th. It was an awesome day, we had no bad accidents, no big mechanicals, and everyone had an awesome time.
Thanks to all of my teammates, Team #2 and Team #1.
Thanks to Dave, Pam, Phil, and Karen from Smoky Mountain Bikes, they helped keep us rolling and fed.
Thanks to David and Terry Berger for a great event, the weather cooperated this time and the race was awesome!
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