Sea Otter Classic 2009

Day 1 – The Drive & Setup

Well it was quite the drive. We packed up Al’s RV and headed onto the highway at 7.30am to arrive in Laguna Seca near Monterrey and the location of the Sea Otter Classic a bit after 2. After spending a considerable about of time we managed to shoe-horn the 29 foot RV onto the small amount of flat space our campsite provided. There was room for the 3 tents to be setup on the grass down the slope a little so it was all good.

We headed down to the registration area to pick up our number plates for all the respective races we were doing. I could glimpse over the fences and see the vast number of stalls and shows from all the vendors but restrained the urge to look. Instead I went and setup my new Crossmax wheels with No Tubes with both a UST and non UST tire using Al’s air compressor and guidance. It was to be my first experience running tubeless tires.

Al, I and Katrina headed out to ride the Super D course. I kinda wanted to do the race but restrained myself due to the high entry fee for a 6 minute race. It was fun though. Smooth and fast with big drifting fire road corners. There was also a huge flock of sheep around too. The area looked and smelt like the foothills of Canterbury. We also hit up some of the single-track near the campsite.

Day 2 – Vendors and Pre-Ride

After a super cold night in the tent, it got close to freezing I spent the morning and early afternoon hanging out in the Vendor area. It was massive with heaps and heaps of bling to look at and buy of course. Heaps of wicked people to talk too and chew the phat with. Bikes galore and all ‘us’ bikers were in heaven. I spent a good half hour hanging out with Kieran Bennett and his new X-Fusion Team. He’s a real cool guy and he spotted me with my Kiwi cap and VORB Shirt when I was ogling his new Intense Tracer rig. Pretty dam sweet ride and that proves how the DH course really is not a full on course when the top guys are running smaller bikes like Kieran. I also had some custom Lizard Skin Peaty Grips engraved with my own name and in anodized red to match the rest of my bike. Pretty mean.

That afternoon Al and I headed out to pre-ride the XC course. It is a 19 mile loop (30.5km) with 3300ft (1000m) of climbing and we had to race 2 laps on Sunday morning. Al was doing the Pro Single Speed and I was doing the Cat 1 category, the same as all my other races. As it turned out we were out there not long after the beginner race began. So for the next 2 hrs we were chilling behind slower people before we had the chance to break loose and ‘shred some gnar’ for a few breif moments. Right at the start of this lap though I was ripping down a hill, one that Al did 45mph (75kph) on in the race (I had no speedo) and hit the ‘G’ out at the bottom. I got bucked right at the same time I thought my new rear wheel had blown itself to smithereens. I was not happy. Anyway after almost eating the dirt at some stupid speed I managed to not crash and be laughed at by all the beginners that were were flying past. Turns out with 35psi in the rear tire I managed to roll it off the rim and ‘burp’ air out of it. Anyhow we were back on the track after a couple of mins thanks to CO2 canisters and 40psi back there now.

I had heard bad things about the course. Let me tell you I was impressed. Heaps of Singletrack and then fun double track and not that much fire road. Super sandy bits, blown out corners, steep techy climbs, fast fast patches, wicked flowy single-track through trees and a series of 3 fire-road climbs right at the end (called the 3 b@tches) before you finished the race on the raceway itself at the start finish line.

That night we headed into Monterrey to have a great dinner at “The Brew Pub” before we went to the North American Premier of Clay Porters new film called “The Tipping Point”. It was good but more of a documentary. We spotted Sam Hill, Minnar, and The Atherton’s all in the audience. Gee introduced the film.

Day 3 – Chillin and Dual Slalom

Today after riding a good distance the day before I wanted to let the legs recuperate so I spent much of the day at the vendors in the hot, hot sun. They had a whole demo area setup with pump track, jumps Etc. So I tried out an Intense Tracer and a GT Sanction. Pretty fun times but I nearly stacked it big time in front of all the little pinners since the brakes were all on back to front North American Style. Had some good gelatos and looked at more and more bike bling.

That evening I watched the Dual Slalom finals. It was great fun. Lots of action all the time with 2 riders coming down the hillside at a time trying to beat the other to the bottom via jumps, berms, pedaling sections and some mean as cornering speed. Sam Hill in the end won it pretty easily beating out Gee in the Semis. Rando was out there cranking his Trance X and was very competitive. Pretty cool to see for a 40yr old. Seeing these guys hit the tight corners so fast is awesome. Sam Hill really has upped his game with pedaling this year but he really can corner in a different league like always.

That night I had an early night. It was warm as hell and the sleeping bag was too hot in the tent this time, a huge change from the first night thats for sure.

Day 4 – Race Day

Well it was finally here. After watching thousands of others, some world class racing in their own disciplines from DH to XC to Dual Slalom to the road races and crits my race was here. I started at 8.15am and lined up on the Laguna Seca start/finish line with about 40-50 other guys in the Cat 1(expert) class in my 25-29yr old age group. We spent the first mile tearing around the raceway before hitting the dirt. The pace was pretty intense and the top guys on the first big hill started to get away. They were still just insight not too much ahead of me for the first 20 mins however. I settled into my work and got stuck behind someone in the first tight single-track section. I saw two people had crashed already as we went by. It was loose and tight in there with many blind corners and blown out outside lips of the track with numerous trees to get in your way.

Anyhow I settled into my work and felt pretty good actually. One of the first downhills was this sandy double track thing. It seriously was like surfing. Keep off the front brake and use your legs and weight to steer via the back wheel. People were falling off all over the show. It was all good fun apart from all the sand flying over the already dry drive chain. At the halfway mark of the lap they had a water/cytomax stop. I was handed a bottle of water and continued onwards getting a gel down. It was getting real hot now and I was as always sweating like a tap. More climbing and a small chat to a Pro SS suffering on the steep grades I was really having a good time. There was a cool ridge section with small pinch climbs over red rock and fast little decents. Some big smiles along here till a half mile pavement climb which was steep though I felt pretty strong and was pretty sure I would start catching people.

A short decent and onto the 3 b%tches. They were not too long but kinda steep and demoralizing as its all open and you can see what’s coming. A guy in my Cat caught me and we started to chat. Turns out he was one of the guys that crashed at the start, it also turns out he won it last year. Ha. So the fact I hung with him right till the top of the last b$tch meant I felt pretty good. He also said when I asked that there was another water stop at the start/finish line (start of the 2^nd lap). Hearing this and the fact it was roasting I finished my liquids. Well this was a mistake though in the end it would not have made any difference.

After ripping down the speedway I knew from a distance there was no water here. I was not too happy bout this. So I was now running dry for the next 10 miles and it was getting real hot. Well into the 80s (28c+). Anyway after 5 miles I could feel the muscles saying that if I push too hard then they would cramp. Finally got to the midway point. I grabbed a bottle of water and cytomax and slammed them into the cages. I then got a gel down and to my horror when I was already round the corner and up a hill I noticed that the bottle of water was half full. How pointless is that? Giving racers a half full bottle. Well the damage was done. I had stopped sweating all together and for me that’s a big deal. The next 10 miles to the end got harder and harder. I pushed on the downs and cruised on the ups and dreamt about water, well actually Fresh-Up.

Finally passed over the finish line in 3hrs 2 mins. A total distance of 61km with 2000m of climbing and good for 12^th out of 31 finishes and a bunch of DNFs. It was a great course and I wish that I had worked out the liquid situation better as I was only 5 mins down on 7^th. I was well down on the top few people though. Like the other races so far they would do very well in the Pro Class. My goal was top 10 so I was not too far off and hope that I can pull a top 5 at one of the smaller races. My laps times were about 1hr 24min and then it blew out to 1hr 38 mins which shows how I died towards the end.

All up a great long weekend. A great event and any bikers of any type should check out Sea Otter oneday given the chance.

KOM Race 1 – The Mulholland Challenge

Well where to begin aye. Geez. Derek and I drove up on Friday afternoon to Calabasas. We stayed at the Goodnite Hotel where the race also started and was administered from. That night I got more ‘full’ than I can remember being. We went to a place called the Woodlot Ranch or something and the meals were massive. I had half a BBQ’ed chicken and trust me this chicken was suffering from gigantism. Also chips, salad, half plate of breaded and shredded onions along with a chocolate desert so rich even I couldn’t conquer it.

The next day after waking up and still feeling full during the night I had a real small breakfast and we headed off at 7.07am. The way this ride worked was that you knew the checkpoints and food stops had certain open times and that you had to get a stickered at 6 spots to signify that you had in fact been there and had not cheated by taking a shortcut. So slower people could leave at 6.30 and you could leave as late as 8ish. We were up so decided to head off pretty early.

After freezing my fingers (they were super painful) we finally descended the couple of hundred meters to the Coast to ride along the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) for about 5 odd miles before heading up the first big hill. It was actually pretty steep but it was good to warm up. So the first 27 miles went by pretty fast and before we knew it we had our first sticker. A bit of a big ring downhill, Derek was ahead of me at this stage, we were both just doing our thing and then bang. Yep here we go. As I slowed to check out the rear flat tire Derek rode away from me not noticing what had happened.

• Suffice to say I was real ‘pissed’, because I was not that happy with my Michelin Tires anyway. They are not very old and have little cuts and wear points on them and they are not cheap. I think they really are too lightweight. I gotta go with a bit more BEEF.
• Anyway I fixed it while everyone was zooming past me. 460 riders were signed up for this event.
• Got going again. Not 400m down the road…”BANG”.
• Yep I was furious.
• Checked the tire real good and the rim this time. Couldn’t find anything out of the ordinary. I put this down to just bad luck or a bad tube. What else could I do? In goes the last tube and my last CO2 canister to fill the sucker up.
• Well this time I got not half a mile. BANG…. S*&t, F%$K, C#$P
• By this stage I was half an hour behind and people were still flying past me.
• Anyway I was having to ask, beg for help by this stage.
• One guy stopped. He said he could spare a tube so I put it in then he realized he didn’t have enough CO2 so off he went.
• Next another guy stopped. He could spare a canister but didn’t want to stay so took off. Anyway his canister did not fit my little pump thing so now I had a tube, a canister and no way of getting air into the tire.
• Next an older guy stopped. He was good and had all manner of stuff with him. After he blew up two canisters trying to fit them where they don’t fit we managed to fill up the tire. BINGO. This time I saw the problem. Yep there was a 0.5cm ripe in the sidewall of the tire. The tube was actually bulging out of it like a zit ready to pop.
• We talked about this for a bit, what to do and then as we were standing there, BANG. Yip and it was not even on the bike.
• Anyway this guy left and I was on the side of the road pretty despondent. I was already planning where I was going to do some ‘real’ riding in the dirt the next day since I had only done 30 miles.
• Another guy stopped to help me now. He was not in the race but was training for a fundraising ride to support a cure for AIDs. Anyway he spared me a tube.
• As we were about to pump it up a Sweeper fellow in an SUV came by. He had a boot. A hunk of rubber we seated inside the tire which was better than the chocolate bar rapper I was about to use.
• By this stage everyone had past me. All the slower people and I knew I was going to miss the first checkpoint. The sweeper guy said just explain the situation and as long as you are in by dark you will be good.
• Got going again finally. Some guy not racing caught me and we rode together for a bit. He thought I was nuts hearing the story. Then we caught up to some other guy riding the Challenge. He asked what I was doing back here. Anyway after 8 miles he said well it looks like you are going to be sweet. It’s holding well. I kid you not, it was not 10 secs later and yep. You guessed it… BANG!!!
• He really put his foot in it and he said sorry. Haha. Anyway this guy was a bike mechanic. He had my wheel off and tire off before I could feel even more sorry for myself. The other guy had a great big sticker thing made for just this repair. We plonked it in. They gave me a tube and air and we were on our way. Just 90psi in the tire to make sure we didn’t put too much pressure on the torn sidewall and I was off again.

So 5 tubes and 7 CO2 canisters and help from 4 people I was finally on my way. I rode essentially by myself for the next 100km. I passed hundreds of people. Had some good chats to people along the way and I take my hat off to the people that really are out there just to finish. They have great determination and if it was going to take me 10-12+hrs then I wouldn’t bother. Good on them. I felt kinda bad flying up the big hills passing them all. It was silly really but gave me some appreciation that I am actually kinda fast and that the training has paid off somewhat. Many asked what I was doing back here and what time I started. I told them the brief story. “Basically 5 tubes, ripped sidewall and well over 1hr lost”. One guy grinding away in his granny gear said it was my fault for running such light ‘racing’ tires has he churned away at a half my speed dragging double the rubber ran friction up the hill as me. Haha. Good on him.

I got dehydrated, bored, exhilarated, real tired, felt like my legs would fall off and wow’ed for the next 4-5hrs or so and 60 miles. The scenery blew me away, descending from 800m staring down to the PCH with its deep blue waters much like the Kaikoura Coast back home. It was incredible as were the descents themselves though I was always worried about the back tire for the rest of the ride. We climbed so many hills and some steep grades but in the end I finished. I finished pretty strong but I was done. I had had enough of the day, the frustration and pain mixed in with some wicked moments. It was all too much and I was happy for it to be over. Real Happy.

I finished with a time of about 8hrs 20 mins. My riding time was just 6hrs 26mins riding 102 miles (164km) with +12000ft (+3660m) of climbing. An average speed of 15.86mph (25.5kph). Derek ended up doing well. He had a recorded time of just over 7hrs but I was pretty happy to hear that he had a ride time just 10-12mins faster than me. Maybe I could have been close to hanging with him :-)

So the main thing is I finished and I am still in the running to do the King of the Mountains Series. In 3 weeks the next one, the hardest is up. In our own back yard it’s the “Breathless Agony” where the final climb is a 2000m ascent up to ONYX Summit at an Elevation of 2600m. Yikes.

Before then however I have two more races in the dirt. Yippee. One of them being Sea Otter which will mean something to all you Mountain Bikers out there :-)

ChannelMTB Vids from Fontana and Sagebrush

2009 Fontana City National - Cross Country from ChannelMTB on Vimeo.

Just the Pros in this Vid.



2009 US Cup - Sagebrush from ChannelMTB on Vimeo.

I have a fleeting moment on a climb 2min 47secs. I'm the big bugger.

Sagebrush Safari XC – US Cup West Race 3

Number 3 of 6 down in the US Cup, though I am only likely to do 5 of them because one is in Colorado in June and being a 16hr+ drive, well its a little hard to justify for a long weekend. All of the races I have done thus far also count towards the Southern Californian State Series (so its 3 down out of 8 there).

Early on Sat 4th April 4 of us met at Al’s place, packed up his big RV and headed down towards San Diego. Not long after going through Temecula there was a weird sound from behind us and Jimmy noted how a big hunk of rubber just went flying past his window. We stopped and found out one of the tires had de-treaded itself and ripped off the wheel arch cover while it was at it. So we limped into the burbs and Al replaced all four tires and the spare with a set of EXTRA heavy duty tires. $600+ later we were on the road again having made the tire people’s morning. It was lucky it happened where it did otherwise it may have been a real nightmare had it blown in the middle of nowhere especially since one of the other tires sidewalls had a massive boil ready to pop.

We got to the Sagebrush Safari staging and camping area early that arvo after making it almost to the Mexican border having spotted a number of border patrol cars on the way. We setup and headed up for a small spin. Rob was there racing in the pro class, Al was racing pro single speed and Jimmy was racing Cat 2 single speed. Anyway long story short it was a fun wee ride but we ended up spending almost 2hrs on the bikes, riding 29km and climbing 700m. Not really the ideal prep for the race tomorrow. We rode the whole shorter course that Jimmy would ride tomorrow. The rest of us would have to add a 13km extension up Mt Pinus (get your head out of the gutter) with a further 400m of climbing. So the race for me, Rob and Al was 42km long with 1100m+ of climbing.

Anyhow after a chill night with the wind blowing a gale and the boys in the tents being buffeted around for half the night we relaxed till the 11am start times. This course was designated as the most diverse of the series and I think it will prove to be. It went as follows:

• Started with a 2 miles of flat rolling tarmac. This was weird. The whole group was together. 20+ riders in my wave. Someone would break and everyone would charge and draft. The whole peloton would slow right down no one wanting to break wind and waste energy. Then someone would breakaway and slowly a few people got dropped. This process happened again and again.
• Hit the first climb. About vertical 300m up tarmac and I struggled to hang with the top guys. I held my own and was 7^th up the climb.
• Hit the first single-track and started to realize why I MTB again (I was wishing I had my 17 pound road bike for a while then).
• It was like a big BMX track. Rolling, swoopy with some blown out corners and rock sections to keep it interesting. I passed one guy in my class about 5 mins into this section.
• So after cranking up and down rocks, sandy slopes and managing to keep the rubber side down in the windy dusty conditions I caught up to the top Pro women bar one who blew the field away. I hit a fire road and attempted to ride one-handed while trying to eat a squeezy. Well I soon got put off that idea as riding at 25+mph with loose rocks and ruts to deal with one-handed is not one of the brightest things I have done.
• The most technical climb of the track was up now and though I cleared all but a small part yesterday today too many people were falling about all over the place so it was hike-a-bike time. Once at the top it was back to double-track styles. It was middle ring territory, cranking up and down the small hills along the ridge hanging on trying to make the wheels stick to the desert sand. It was swooping, pretty smooth, fast and major fun.
• A small rip down a rough fireroad, through a small creek crossing and then it was up up up again ;-)
• Eventually it turned to tarmac again and people were everywhere. The top girls were still about fighting it out between themselves. It was cool to be witness to that competition. They are real strong. At one stage one of the girls burst up the hill and draughted some other guy. I had 2 of the Kenda sponsored girls behind me and I made it my mission to slowly drag them back up to the other girl. It worked and I also passed the guy but he was not in my category.
• After reaching 4-corners where we headed down the hill yesterday to complete the short course I today headed up for the extra 13km, 400 vertical meter loop. It was sapping tarmac right till the top (my calves quivering for much of the way). For you Welly guys its much like starting from the top of Willis St and climbing up the road till a near the top of Hawkins hill. The grades were similar.
• Anyway having been in pain for 30 mins it was with much delight I reached the start of downhill fireroad. As it would turnout for maybe the next 15mins I had the biggest grin on my face I am sure. It made all the pain worthwhile. I let rip and was beginning to the get the feeling of the new HT with the 110mm stem and lo-rise monkeylite bars. For 2 mins it was rough fireroad then it was wide singletrack for the 450-500m descent. All I can describe it as is a single-track Super D course with heaps of BMX style whoops. It went something like… straight section – whoop (airtime for a second or two at 30kph) – land - brake shit brake - rail berm - down chute (dodge rock) - round blow out corner - dodge ugly looking bush - whoop (shit flew a bit too far that time) – corner (dam stay in the rut wheel) – berm – whoop (whoa that’s sweet, went a good few meters that time) – c$%p brake (yell, pass slow person taking out a bush on the way) – pump, pump, pump – whoop – berm – rocks (oops bit fast, please don’t puncture) – Whooopie :-)
• Well you get the idea. It was WICKED. No one caught me and I passed a bunch of people all whom were good and let me through as best they could. Some of them pro’s must be roadies cause I picked off a few of them aswell.
• Back to four corners after a good chat up the last hill with one of the other Cat 1 racers in an older age group before it was down the last downhill of the day.
• It too rocked my world. Having ridden it the day before and eaten dirt I held it together and we were all needing too hold back a little cause we were with all the short loop people at this stage.
• Passing people is an art of patience and urgency all rolled into one. I seem to have few issues and most will let me through. I have perfected the art I believe. It involves flying up behind them (in a controlled manor of course…). The skidding brakes and loud clicking freehub which came out of nowhere seems to make them realize I mean business. They will often pull over a little themselves. If not I say something like “when there’s room I’ll come through”, if they pass by a spot that will work and don’t let me by then I get more proactive. As soon as I can see a spot coming up I yell on the right or left and make my way through, though taken by surprise sometimes I skip through fast and no damage is done. I have never (touch wood) caused an accident. I always say thanks and always get a friendly reply back. I stay in the good books and feel good myself. 12/24hr events have perfected this for me. At times this has lead to off track detours but that’s my issue to deal with, especially when there is a big rock hidden in the grass or a huge hole under the pine-needles (Rotorua/Taupo anyone!!!)
• Anyway I crossed the dusty line in 2hrs 3mins. Good for 6^th, 10 mins down on the top guys in my category who would have been in the top 10 in the Pro Category. Go figure.
• All 3 of us Don’s boys finished real close to each other. With the staggered start we were only a few mins apart in the end. Rob getting me by a minute and Al only 2 mins down on a Single-speed (2nd Pro Single Speed). Dam that’s an effort. Lisa came through in 4^th place. Her field is tight. Less than 5mins separating the top 4 in her category.
• Sid Taberlay, the Aussie Nat Champ racing for Team Shoair over here this year won the pro class again somehow taking another 20mins off my time. Pretty incredible. They are climbing machines.

So all in a great weekend, and even though all the tarmac was there it meant some mean as descents on the dirt. Great times. Bring on the pain of the Mulholland Challenge this weekend. The first of the King of the Mountains Centuries. 176km with 3700m of climbing. Dam why am I doing this. Goddam road bike. I will not feel my man parts for hours, yikes. Well that is if I can make it. It will prob be about 9hrs on the bike. This is the biggest ride I have ever done for sure. Stay tuned if you care…

         

Fontana US Cup XC Race

My next race after a few weeks interlude since the Vision Quest which went well and the first US Cup XC race which did not was another US Cup. At this race in Fontana which was unique cause the course was based around one small hill in the middle of the suburbs. From any vantage point on the course you could always see signs of civilization, houses, roads Etc. I never raced in such a place; it was not removed from elements of the human world at all.

Anyhow the track was actually pretty cool. Heaps of single-track and most of it for a race was pretty technical actually. I had to do four laps of a 6 mile course, so about 34km all up with about 1200m of climbing over the race. The lap started out in a huge burst as always. People are so dam eager and I gotta say there are some real fit people in my category. A few small pinches to spread out the group a little then into a real gut buster of a climb. Super steep with a huge hunk of rock slab to ride over in the middle of the climb. The top part always had to be walked due to it being so steep and sandy. It was then into some great single-track, it was tight but a hell of a good time except for side-swiping a massive granite boulder with my shoulder. Something to look forward to after the climb for sure especially on the last couple of laps. Next up was gentler climbing to the high point of the track winding round more great flowing single-track. It was then down gradually through berms, sandy patches and narrow single-track. Back up a fireroad for a few minutes before a short fast technical downhill. Flat riding around the backside of the hill and after some switchbacks and a few chutes in front of the spectators it was through the finish line for yet any 3 laps.

For me it went pretty well. 1st lap was hard. It seems to always take me a while to warm up. 2nd lap was not so good due to issues with bottles flying out of my cages again. It seems to be the Don’s Bike Shop bottles. They are soft and ok on the road bikes but when on the dirt they can’t hang with it. 3rd lap was a good time. A few duals going on with some of the fast guys that started in a category after me. Last lap was an effort, starting to cramp near the end though I held it together well and finished in 6th place. It was cool catching up to Lisa. Our girl rider in the Don’s Team. She finished 4th in her class and Jeff managed to get a photo on course with both of us in the frame. So I did much better than last time but the guy that has now won both races in my category was 12min ahead. He is dam fast and I doubt I can even come close to being near him. Still my goal of top 5s is looking a little more likely now.

  

 

That afternoon after the race I also headed out for a road ride with Lee and Derek up the big hill to Angelus Oaks. I wanted to do this because I have not been doing enough endurance training. Just no time and the first of the big mountain centuries on the road bike is in a couple of weeks. Yikes. Anyway it was one tough day with the race then this ride. I was stuffed and the legs were dead. Still that’s what it’s all about aye. No pain no gain.