On the Box

A short race report from the weekends 20th Annual Peak Sports Mudslinger in Blodgett, OR.

SLR and I rolled down to Portland, OR on Friday night and met up with our good friend Mags from MU. She generously served as our host for the weekend showing us around Stumptown and joining us on the journey to Blodgett for the race. On Saturday, we stopped in at a sweet bike shop in Portland that fabricates the most beautiful wooden bike fenders I have ever seen. My mind quickly was processing what kind of bike I could build around those fenders.

Race day was Sunday morning. We got a little lost on our way to the little town due to a lack of adequate directions in the race information. We arrived at Blodgett Elementary where the cars with roof racks lined both sides of the road and we were relegated to parking on a fire road a good distance from the registration area. The number of cars was indicative of the number of racers in the field, many.

The race started with a 2-mile neutral rollout to the base of the first climb. Once there we staged for the start and I was stuck mid-pack. Despite my poor start position, I quickly started passing riders on the steep stair-step climb. The course just kept going up and I just kept passing riders. As it turns out, the race had no shortage of climbing, somewhere between 4000 and 4800 feet of vertical gain depending on who you talk to.

After slogging up the climbs and sliding down the slippery descents, I came through after the first lap in 4th place. I should have ran fenders on my bike because the Mudslinger was living up to its name. SLR and Mags cheered me on and gave me a fresh bottle as I started the climb again and with their encouragement I focused on catching more racers. About a mile into the climb, the skies opened up, first with rain, then with hail. The conditions motivated me even more to charge up the climb. I caught up to the third place rider and quickly moved by before he could muster a counter attack. Again, I descended slow and steady in the mud because I couldn't see and I was doing my best to keep the bike upright.

I dropped onto the road back to the finish line, put it in the big ring, and hammered as hard as I could. I passed the second place rider like he was in the granny. I crested the final climb to the cheers of SLR and Mags. I rolled across the line as the second expert overall in about 2:40. I'm considering it a win, because the winner of the expert category beat the entire semi-pro field and half the pro field in the process. I think I could have shaved some serious time off if I had run some fenders and could see the trail when heading downhill. Hindsight!

Charging to the finish (note the fresh coat of mud on my face):



There was some mud out there:



On the Box:



Bring on Sea Otter because I'm ready to thrown down. Hopefully, there is enough climbing that I can put the hurt on some guys.

Later,

Blue Star

Gear Rolls In

Almost all the sponsorship goods are in the garage. It's so fun to get new gear from the sponsors. Almost like being a kid on Christmas with a mountain of new toys to play with. I just hope I represent this season and make their investment worth while.

A few weeks back Maxxis sent me a bunch of tires to satisfy my OC obsession with having the right tire for the right condition. My initial shipment included a good mix of tires for conditions from hardpack to wet and loose. I will post reviews of the various tires after I get some more time on them. This past weekend I ran an Ignitor on the front and an ADvantage on the rear. I think this is a good all-around condition setup. My only gripe is that the bead on the Ignitor is a little loose and I couldn't get it to seat in the rim with a Stan's NoTubes rim strip, which resulted in a mess of wet latex on the garage floor. So, I'm running a tube up front and Stan's in the rear for the moment until I get brave and try and do the Stan's again. I've got some Rancheros set up on the XTR wheelset for the Otter.

Spent a few hours last night getting the Enlightenment (a.k.a Stealth Bomber) dialed in. I'm going to run it this weekend with all the climbing that the Mudslinger course is going to throw at me. Plus, it will allow me to identify any issues that may be lurking before Sea Otter. As it sits now, its weighing in at ~21 el bees.

Yesterday, the brown box truck dropped off a sweet Fox F100x fork. I ran the F100x on my Enlightenment hardtail last year and liked it so much am going to put the one that arrived yesterday on the new Truth (when it FINALLY gets to Seattle). The beauty of the X line of Fox forks is the inertia valve. I call it the auto-lockout. Essentially, what the valve does is prevent the fork from compressing when there is downward force from the handlebar, i.e. no bob, and it will activate when the wheel takes an upward hit from the terrain. This technology makes out of saddle efforts during races easy because you don't waste any energy on a pogo-sticking front fork and when your in the pain cave you don't have to remember to turn on or off a manual lockout. Not to mention, that all the forks guts are machined aluminum and the stanchions are some super-stiff 32mm fattys. No flexy legs or out of spec plastic crap need apply.

Stick a fork in me...

... because I'm done.

Blue Star out

Dash for Cash

On Sunday, SLR and I hopped the ferry over to Whidbey Island for the Dash for Cash race (formerly known as the Whidbey Island Mudder). Sunny skies and dry trails made for a good day to be racing the mountain bike. Lots of racers turned out this weekend, the Expert 30-39 category had 21 guys doing battle.

The race was held on a short, fast course that winds like an intestine on a fairly small piece of private property. The key to doing well is acceleration. Brake, turn 180 degrees, accelerate explosively to hold the wheel of the guy in front of you. Repeat many, many times. There were two short gradual climbs that could be used to crack the whip on some wheel suckers.

My strength as a cyclist is not high end power. Steady efforts are my thing. So, I did my best to follow wheels today. I got a good start and placed myself 3rd going into the singletrack. I jockeyed for that position the rest of the day. I had second in my sight for the first 3 out of 5 laps, but that blue and yellow jersey slowly disappeared out of view. The last lap my legs began to fade from all the power surges. I ended up giving up my third place position as I zig zagged through the intestine one last time. I almost got it back on the climb, but my descending in a fog of fatigue allowed the gap to grow again. I crossed the line comfortably in fourth place in a time of about 1 hour and 25 minutes. My dash for some cash fell one spot short. Nevertheless, I fought the good fight and am happy with 4th place. I realize that I just don't do well on power courses.

This weekend we're off to Corvallis, OR for the Mudslinger. The Mudslinger promises to be more my style of race with a 32 mile course and 4000 feet of climbing. Maybe all that climbing THayes and I did over the winter will be put to good use at this one.

17 days until Sea Otter.

Blue Star

Weekend Off

I took a holiday from training this weekend. It was THayes' last stand as a bachelor. The chosen venue was Whistler, during "Ladies' Week" no less. Lots of snow the past two months had locals saying that the conditions were the best in 5 years. Good skiing. Good times. That's about all I can say because what happens in Canada stays in Canada.

Now it is back to training for Sea Otter. Only 24 days until the biggest MTB race in the country. Lots of super high intensity intervals and some tune-up races during that time should give me a few more watts in the legs when I hit the start line. I'm really looking forward to some warm weather where no leg or arm warmers are necessary.

Blue Star

Quote Day Returns

A personal favorite:

"Do not speak, unless it improves on silence."
--Buddhist Proverb

Still Waiting

Got word that my new Truth won't be showing up for another month. Luckily, Sea Otter is a hardtail course and I'll be running the Enlightenment. Here's a sneak peak at the new Truth:


The frame has the new asymmetrical stays, smooth ano finish, and allegedly cuts some ounces with a carbon cross bar on the rocker. Artwork!

Tired Cyclist = No Posts

Sorry for the lack of updates around here. I've been so tired for the last few weeks. I think it correlates with the start of the build phase in my training plan, which includes a plethora of high-intensity intervals throughout the week. Stack hard workouts on top of a heavy work load at the j-o-b and that equals no blog updates.

A few things to report. My first race of the season was on February 12th at South Seatac Park. It went well with a win in my age-group although I was a little disappointed that I didn't get the overall fastest time. I got a real bad start and had to work through the field and that allowed a couple guys to get away. Seatac does not suit my strengths either because it requires lots of big power bursts and I train for putting out long steady efforts in anticipation of the climbing races to come this summer.

The second race of the season did not go as well. The Valentine's Challenge is at Tahuhya State Forest near Belfair, WA. I historically do well at this race and my legs were feeling good. I got the hole shot from the start and built a substantial lead during the early portions of the first lap. Near the end of the first lap in a rooty technical section, a stick kicked up into my cassette at high speed and sheared my derailleur hanger off the frame and bent the derailleur 90 degrees the wrong direction. Needless to say, my day was done and I started the slow walk back to the start/finish area. About two minutes later, the main pack in my category came by. Frustrating.

35 days until Sea Otter. Looking forward to some sun and dry trails.

Until next time (hopefully not two weeks from now),

Blue Star