Back to School

After working all summer at Gregg's Cycles in Bellevue, I am happy to be back in school and living in Bellingham. Here are a few things I have been up to over the last couple weeks:

Noble Knob ride with lots of Nobles!

Whitney, my F4, and the White River Valley.

Whitney pushing her bike up a steep hike-a-bike section.

Last weekend's Starcrossed and Rapha/Focus GP cyclocross races were lot of fun. Both days featured superstars of the sport from around the world. It was really cool to have the opportunity to race at such a high level so close to home. I had a great race on saturday, finishing 18th. Sunday was going well for the first couple laps, but I blew up hard and went backwards before being pulled.

CX Magazine reports for Starcrossed and Rapha/Focus GP.

Starcrossed start. Photo: Deanna Lloyd.

Long beach run. Photo: Ryan Rickerts.

Leading Aaron and Nick. Photo: Deanna Lloyd.

Good friend Aaron leading on sunday, rain coming down. Photo: Suza Marie Photography

Sand and Lake Sammamish. Photo: Suza Marie Photography

Last tuesday Whitney and I hiked Yellow Aster Butte in the North Cascades. The pictures speak for themselves:

View from the top looking south. Shuksan left, Baker right.

Looking north into Canada. Mt Larrabee, top-right.

Fall is starting to reveal itself.

Capitol 100

Wow, that was a humbling experience. I have a new respect for endurance mountain bike racing after competing in the Capitol Forest 100 mile race yesterday.

My long time friend, Gian Dalle, and I had made plans to ride most of the race together. Unfortunately, that plan only lasted about 5 minutes into the race when I clipped my pedal on a rock and twisted my chain. My only option to stay in the race was to turn around and ride back to the start and hope I could find someone with a spare chain. Very fortunately, a race-support mechanic from The Bike Stand in Olympia drove up and offered me a chain. I am so grateful to have had my bike fixed and been able to get back in the race. Nothing would have sucked more than only being able to race the first mile of a 100 mile mtb race!

Once rolling again, I started to have a lot of fun cruising through the different sections of trail. Capitol Forest has some seriously fun singletrack! The race promotors and Friends of Capitol Forest did an amazing job of clearing the 42 miles of singletrack (Imagine how long it would take to even walk that far, not to mention clearing brush!). About ten miles in, I started to catch some other racers and for the rest of the first 50 mile lap I slowly worked my way through the field of riders. It was really encouraging having so many people in front of me to chase down. The second 50 mile lap was a different story...

I had now moved all the way back up to third place and I was still feeling good, but definitely a bit lonely out there. It wasn't until the one and only fire-road section of the race, an 8 mile climb up Capitol Peak, that the mileage really started to catch up with me. I was beginning to have stomach problems, felt like I was going to puke, and my body was hurting in places that had never hurt before. It was a relief to finally make it to the last aid station, where I sucked down a couple of caffeinated clif shots. Those helped big time, and I found enough energy to push over the final climb and down to the finish. Speaking of feed zones, they rocked! There were nine feed stops, in total, and each time that I stopped I was overwhelmed by helpful and friendly volunteers offering me whatever I needed.

I rolled across the line in second place, about twenty minutes behind Gian. Going straight to my car, I sat on the grass for a while and tried to eat. That was a seriously hard race in a way that I am not used to. I guess the pain is a big reason why racing is so satisfying though, right? Sounds like Gian had a pretty easy race. He waited for me for a while, not knowing how long I had been delayed. I think it would have been a close battle between us, but I have a feeling he may have been a little stronger. It's been a long season of racing for me and I'm ready to take a break and then maybe ride and run around in the mud (for shits and giggles).

9 hours and 13,000 feet of climbing. Ouch.

This event, like the Stottlemeyer 60 miler back in May, was a ton of fun. I think it's really great that there is a new mtb race series in Washington, especially an endurance series. I think a lot of people are more interested in these longer "marathon" style events as opposed to the "olympic format" multi-lap races. Roger, head of the NW Epic Series, is even planning to add more races to the calendar next year. I'm excited to see what the future brings.

Pimped my ride!

Capitol Forest Classic

The Friends of Capitol Forest put on an awesome event last weekend; the Capitol Forest Classic. Saturday's cross country course was a blast, with 100% singletrack and an epic feel. Greggs co-worker/friend Gian (John) Dalle, Loren Hanson, and I rode a lot of the race together, enjoying the fun trails. I attacked on the long downhill about halfway through the race and held on for the win. Gian and Loren finished strong for 2nd and 3rd respectively. Noble teammate, Aaron Mickels had a great ride for 4th place on the new Noble F5. After the race, lots of free Fish Tale local beer and food was consumed. There was even a tequila bar with free shots!

Sunday's Super-D (D for downhill) was a ton of fun. Gian and I decided to ride over 2000 vertical feet up to the start of the course. Long story short, we ended up getting lost and had to burry ourselves up a fireroad climb in an attempt to make our start times. Gian missed his by a couple minutes and I made mine with less than two minutes to catch my breath. All things considered, it was probably the perfect warmup for the race. I had a mostly clean run, with only one memorable mistake. I was later surprised to find out that I had set the fastest time of the day, ahead of some fast downhill racers. Gian was forced to wait on top of the mountain for an hour until he could take a later start time. Unfortunately, he broke his chain mid-run and had to pump extra hard. I bet he would have given me a good run for my money, had his chain not broken.

All-Mountain king and queen.

As the winner of the XC and Super-D, I was also the winner of the "All-Mountain Championship." Gian finished 2nd and Aaron 3rd. FOCF pimped the women's All-Mountain winner and me both out with some goods. The "King" cowbell will be perfect for cyclocross season!

Padden

After missing out on the Missoula Pro XCT race this weekend, I decided to race the Padden Pedal, a Northwest classic. Mark Peterson of the WHIMPS always puts on a top notch event and is a super active leader in the mtb community as well.

I knew my form was good, since I was aiming to peak for my Sun Valley-Missoula double header. Other than some soreness from my crash on wednesday, I felt great today. I took the 100 dollar holeshot for the first time ever and lead halfway up the climb until Russell Stevenson came flying around me. I couldn't match the acceleration, but tried to minimize the damage. Patrick Means also came around me and was riding super strong up the climb. Over the top Russ had about a ten second gap ahead of Patrick and me. I lead ahead of Patrick on the descent and started bringing Russ back(definately helps to live in Bham and know the trails). As I closed in on Russ, he clipped a pedal and went down. Turns out he twisted his chain a little in the wreck, causing some shifting issues.

Gotta love the northwest forest! Credit: Jeff McConaughy

Now with some space behind me, I settled into a rhythm. Canadian Ricky Federau caught me on the third lap and put in some really big digs on the climb. I sucked down a clif shot and barely hung on. Fourth lap and I countered his efforts and pulled away. Fifth and sixth laps I was solo, but Ricky and Russ were close enough to make the suffering continue. Ricky came within 30 seconds on the last lap, but I had enough of a gap to hold on for the win.

Padden is notoriously challenging.

I should give props to Ricky for racing so strong, especially considering he had raced the Gearjammer in Squamish the day before! I'm sure it would have been a great 3-way battle, had Russ not had a mechanical. The Noble F4's were out in force today as well. It really is the perfect bike for that course. Lots of flowy, punchy sections with some technical climbing and descending too. So much fun!

Sun Valley Nationals

Having previously spent time riding incredible trails in Sun Valley, Idaho, I was super excited when USA Cycling announced that the town would be hosting the 2011 xc mountain bike nationals.

The cross-country race was incredibly hard. The course designers thought it would be a good idea to send us straight up the ski slope on a loose service road. To say it was steep would be an understatement. I managed to successfully ride the climb only two of the six painful laps. The rest of the course was better, with a long gradual singletrack descent and short flat loop around the village that included a challenging machine-built rock garden.

Looking down the course towards the start/finish area.

The race felt more like survival than racing. I fought hard and finished 27th, one of the last to avoid being pulled as a lapped rider. I knew I was capable of a better result, but sometimes things just don't work out the way you hope.

The super-d event bright and early the next morning turned out to be a lot of fun. I raced downhill as a junior back in the day, but had never raced super-d before. Check out the video to see a lot of the course. I surprised myself and finished 14th in Pro on my standard xc-setup F4. Definitely want to do some more super-d/enduro type events in the future.

Sunday through tuesday after the races, local brothers Matt and Andy Luhn took me on some world-class rides. The riding possibilities in this area are endless. I have never been anywhere else where you can (legally) ride all over the place deep in the heart of rugged mountains.

Pioneer Cabin at 9500 feet.

Wednesday morning I loaded up the honda and hit the road for Missoula, Montana. The drive north was so beautiful!

8701 foot Galena Summit.

Sawtooths above the town of Stanley, Idaho.

My plan for Missoula was to race the weekly wednesday night race series, ride with my buddy Brian on thursday and friday, then race the Pro XCT final race on saturday.

Lots of racers at the weekly beer series! http://www.tomrobertsonphoto.com/

The weekly race was a ton of fun, but unfortunately I crashed really hard on the wooden fly-over ramp. Turns out I should have pre-ridden a little more and not hit the ramp with that much speed. I wasn't seriously injured, but there was enough damage done that I decided to head back to Washington so I could heal up. The course was such a blast and there were so many people out racing already! Looking forward to coming back next year.

Methow Valley

Last weekend was the first weekend that really felt like summer to me. A couple days of camping in the beautiful Methow Valley was just what the doctor ordered. The 2nd annual Loup Loup Indie Series race was a blast. A couple tweaks to the course, including a fun new bermed descent had people smiling. Joe Brown put on another great event! Like last year, all procedes go towards expanding the trails at Loup Loup. This should be an even better venue in years to come.

My race went well. I took the hole shot and kept the pace hot the first time up the long climb to the near 6k foot high point. On the second lap I started to fade a little and Kevin Bradford Parish almost caught me on the climb before he eased up. I ended up holding him off for the second year in a row and taking the win. Good friend Patrick Means had a great ride and rolled in shortly after Kevin to round out the podium.

Thank you for the podium shot Patrick and Deanna!

The Sunday after the race, Whitney, Courtenay Mcfadden, Kristin Stouder, and I rode Buck Mountain. I had never done this one and it turned out to be fantastic! Epic feel, without the big commitment and miles. Randomly, it seemed as if the whole Bellingham mountain bike community was riding the trail at the same time as us!

Thanks for the photo Courtenay!

The next two weekends I'll will be racing a few summer crits, then I'm off to mountain bike nationals in Sun Valley, ID, followed by the ProXCT finals in Missoula, MT. Well, that is assuming I can find a way to get to the races...

Test of Metal

Do you ever get the feeling that some things are just not meant to be? For me, Test of Metal might be one of those things. The first and only other time I raced the 67km 800-person mass-start race was in 2008. That year I was having a great race until flatting out. I was really excited to give Test another try this year. After racing Gearjammer a couple times since '08, I've gotten to know the Squamish trails pretty well.

Whitney and I loaded up the civic friday morning and headed up to Squamish. The quick 2.5 hour drive from Bellingham made me wonder why I don't ride up there more often. After meeting Patrick and Deanna and setting up camp, Whitney and I hit some nearby trails. White Rabbit, Wonderland, and the Dump trails were rooty, rocky, and fun. I never cease to be amazed by the number of cedar ladder bridges on the trails.

Friday night the pattering of rain on the tent woke us up. Not letting up until morning before our start, the trails were soaked. Lining up in front of 800 people at the start line makes Test of Metal a truly special event. The race started out with a few miles of pavement as we climbed up through some neighborhoods. Tons of people were out in their front yards cheering. Entering the first dirt surfaces of the race, everyone sprinted hard for position. I saw my heart rate the highest I have ever seen in a race: 198 bpm!

As we continued to climb, now on dirt, a lead group formed that included Max Plaxton(Specialized), Neal Kindree(Devinci), Kris Sneddon(Kona), Chris Sheppard(Rocky Mountain), and myself. After a short downhill for some recovery, we climbed up "Jack's trail"-the first singletrack of the race. With Plaxton on the front, the elastic started to stretch between everyone on his wheel. Fully in the pain cave, I let some space open between Sneddon and my front wheel. Sheppard came around me and filled it in, but I struggled to hold the pace. Coming out of the trail onto Alice Lake road, I was about 10 seconds behind. Seeing the lead of the race slowly ride away from you has to be one of the most agonizing feelings in a race.

From the Test of Metal website.

In no-man's land, I rode steadily for the next few miles, until being caught by Marty Lazarski(Devinci), Kevin Calhoun(Rocky Mountain), and an unknown Blue-Cycles rider. Following Marty down "Cliff's Corners" and "Roller Coaster" was awesome! Canadians know how to descend, that's for sure! The tunnel of cheering spectators lining "Roller Coaster" was the highlight of the whole race for me.

Heading through the feed zone(thank you for the bottle Deanna!) we soon hit "9-mile," the infamously long climb of the race. By the top, Marty and I were together with nobody else around. Following the Canadian down "Ring Creek Rip" at breakneck speeds, I heard the heartbreaking hiss that can only be one thing; a flat tire. Pulling over, I did whatever I could to fix the flat. Patrick even dropped me his Co2 when he went by, but in the end, I had to put a tube in and was only able to pump it up to about 20 psi. It was enough to get me down the "Powerhouse Plunge" and part-way through "Crumpit Woods," before I flatted the tube and had no other option than to run and walk. After about 45 minutes, I finally reached the finish line in 196th place.

It's always disappointing to have mechanical problems in a race, but it really is just another part of the sport. One thing that makes mountain bike racing so special to me is the self-supported aspect that comes from the roots of mountain biking in the wilderness. Plus, when I think about it, I was really overdue for a flat tire. The funny thing is, the last time I can remember flatting in a mountain bike race was during Test of Metal in 2008!

Whitney kicked-butt and finished 2nd in her age group, despite her "lack of riding!" Patrick finished strong for a top-20 in his first Test of Metal. Other highlights of the weekend include great gas mileage (45mpg!) and really delicious cappuccinos from Galileo coffee in Britania Beach.

Full results: here