Kenda Cup West Final/Big Bear Shootout #2
Well it has come and past, the end of the Kenda Cup West. In it’s 2nd year it was a great series. Much larger talent pool than anything I encountered back at home in PA and bigger fields than at the Racers and Chasers events I racedin 2008 before I started working with Robert for the 2009/10 races. It was awesome seeing my fitness come into it’s own as the season progressed. It all started back in Feb with Sage Brush and ended this past weekend in Big Bear. I came up short on the race win but managed to prevent enough damage to my points to retain the overall lead and be crowned Cat 3 Clydesdale 34 and Under Champion. Now hope you enjoy my blow-by-blow of how this last race went down.
At the start the sun was out in full force and the temps were slowly climbing up to their predicted high of 68, which is always perfect for mountain biking. I was a bit nervous because I had never ridden at 7,0000 ft and was unsure howmy body would react. The day prior I had done a short 1hr recon ride to scope the start and finish but didn’t get into much of the course, but I always do well at blind courses. 11:18 rolled around and we were off. I did my usual strong start to see where Noel’s legs were at, at first I had him but about .25 mile into it he was on my wheel. So I hunkered down and kept spinning. We ended up peaking out at 8,000 ft at the top of the first climb which also made up the first 2.5 miles of the 17 mile course. My HR was at redline the whole time up the climb, but we were finally cresting and I was looking forward to trying to rest a bit on the flats and descents. Somewhere in that first climb I was able to rideNoel off my wheel.
Once I was off the climb and on the “rolling” section of the course I was able to put some power down and catch a bunch of the people that started ahead of me. The wide fire-roads on the course were well groomed but the inside ofthe turns were soft, something I’m used to riding here in SD. I was going back and forth with one of Noel’s teammates from SDBC . We kept this up until about mile 8.5 when we turned into the woods for the first ST section. Typical of my I went for it, little did I know coming up was a nice set of creek crossings and mud bogs. The first crossing/bog I got way off line and had to put my foot down into ankle deep mud. Lesson learned, the rest of the crossings and ST section I rocked it, felt great and full of power. Coming out of the woods we started going back up, thats when the altitude and my HR being so high started to get to me, around mile 10 Noel caught me. I was able to hold him off for a bit but as we started into the last climb at mile 12 I popped. He rode away up the climb and started opening a gap. The whole time was kept praying and wishing for the top and the fast fire-road descent into the last really technicalsection of ST which is where I could make time up. But little did I know Team Big Bear wasn’t going to make it that easy, we turned back into the woods for the 2nd time and started on some nice flowy ST with a log crossing and nice turn, then I got to the dreaded ST climb I had been told about. There wasn’t any sense in trying toride up, so I scooted up as quickly as possible and remounted. Coming out of the woods I saw the 1st aid station that was near the top of the first climb so I knew the last descent was near. I went down the fire-road section as fast as I felt comfortable. At the bottom I made the left had turn into the start of the last technical section I had ridden 2-3 times the day before in preperation of having Noel on my wheel at that spot. Lead into the woods not seeing Noel at all and knowing I wasn’tgoing to come in 1st. There wasn’t enough downhill for me to catch him. But I did manage to have an almost flawless run through the top technical section with the exception of a small tree getting in the way ofmy shoulder and knocking what little wind I had left out of me. But I held it together and started my run into the finish as strongly as I could. I crossed the line in 1:37, which was 23 min faster than I was expecting myself to do 17 miles w/22ooft of climbing.
I came away with some lessons learned on this race. First off, if I take a gel with me on the bike I shouldn’t wait till I need it. I need to plan out my nutrition better. Had I taken the gel at mile 8 like I should’ve, I could have possible heldoff my bonk moment a little bit longer and not have blown up at the base of the last climb. Secondly, my start mayhave been too much, I think on these longer courses I need to sit back a little bit more and save some for the end. Third, I really underestimated the altitude, next time I’m going to be a little bit more cautious and take straight water instead of Gu Brew as my primary bottle. Lastly, sometimes it’s better to not know all of the course, that way you’re looser and able to react quicker to situations. All the ST that didn’t involve that steep climb I felt great on and was able to just flow with it.
Now that my spring campaign is done, it’s time to take some time off and relax. I’ll be prepping for either the Kenda Cup Invitational or California State Championships in Sept. But in my down time I’ll just enjoy myself with some swimming and running with Emily.
I’d like to thank everyone who has supported me through out this season. Emily mostly for coming to all the races and not only being my soigneur but stepped up to help out with feeding the team and our other friends that were racing. I’dalso like to give a huge thanks to Coach Zippy for molding my 237lb blob into a nice lean 204lb XC monster. Without his guidance and coaching I don’t think I would’ve done nearly as well as I did this season. I’d also like to thank my sponsors (of course, it’s a requirement,lol), ESI grips, Crank Brothers, Pronghorn Racing, GU Energy Labs, Schwalbe Tires, and a huge thanks to Mike and Doug at North of the Border Bike Shop! Without the support of youguys this would be extremely expensive and hard to do as a normal working class guy! Lastly, thanks to all my fellow racers out there that I’ve become fond friends with, Brian Crooks, Doug Herrick, Kathryn La Pointe, Robert Herber, Steve Herrera, Bob Wolfe, Mike Page and everyone else that either passes me out there or I pass them. Can’t forget about my awesome teammates, Scott, Matt, and Larry (Jason), we did it guys our first season and we were all contenders!
