Race Season Wrap-up – Thanks for hanging in there with me…

Well a summary of it and a few sums that I calculated. It sure was pretty surprising when you start to look at totals. Yikes.

14 Feb    - Tour de Palm Springs Charity 100 mile ride
1 Mar      – Bonelli Park (US Cup Race 1 & Sthn Cal State Race 1)
7 Mar      – Vision Quest 60 mile Mountain Bike Race
29 Mar    – Fontana (US Cup Race 2 & Sthn Cal State Race 2)
5 Apr      – Sagebrush Safari (US Cup Race 3 & Sthn Cal State Race 3)
11 Apr    – Mulholland Challenge 103 mile race (King of the Mountains Race 1)
19 Apr    – Sea Otter XC Race 40 miles (US Cup Race 4)
2 May     – Breathless Agony 114 mile race (King of the Mountains Race 2)
23 May   – Heartbreak 100, 102 mile race (King of the Mountains Race 3)
31 May   – Big Bear Shootout 1 XC Race (Sth Cal State Race 5)
7 Jun     – Elings Park XC Race (Sth Cal State Race 6)
13 Jun   – Ride around the Bear 100 mile race
28 Jun   – Rim Nordic XC Race 1 (Sth Cal State Race 7)
12 Jul    – Big Bear Shootout 2 (Sth Cal State Race 8 – The Final of 2009)

All up I have raced in the above races 790 miles (1270km) this year. 519 miles (835km) of this total has been on the road leaving the remaining 271 miles (436km) being on the dirt in XC MTB races. Roughly the total amount of climbing in all of these events equals 82500 feet (25000m). That's similar to climbing from sea level up Mt Cook 7 times. Mt Cook is New Zealand's highest mountain for all you North Americans  :-)

It’s pretty weird totaling up these figures and seeing just what is possible when you really concentrate on racing. It has been by far the most active race season, the most action packed, the most varied and the most rewarding I have ever done, as well as the toughest. The combination of huge road rides vs the shorter insane paced XC races in the Cat 1 category has been a tough one to balance. Looking back at it I thought the long endurance rides would have helped out my shorter XC Races but I gotta say that the tougher rides were definitely the MTB races. Though they averaged only around 2hrs for most of the US Cup and Cal State races the pace and intensity for the most part meant I found them harder than the long road races where I was out for 6-8hrs.

All that was missing from this mix was competing in some 12/24hr races like I use to do all the time back home. Oh and mud. In a weird way I missed the mud, though I never once missed riding in rain that’s for sure.

The highlights have been across the board. First up was completing the Vision Quest (the biggest MTB race I have done and doing pretty well in it). Competing at Sea Otter was also a great time however the most satisfying events I have completed were both on the road (I think cause I had not raced on the road before and due to the epic nature of the events). It was pretty fun I have to admit, though I am still a dirt boy. Getting about 20th (out of 400 odd riders) in Breathless Agony and finishing it with Derek together after all our training together and beating many good roadies with all their bling at their own game was awesome and massively satisfying. At the same level however was competing and racing in the Round the Bear Century. I raced this by myself, rode by myself and had a fantastic day. After 100 miles, 10000ft of climbing and 5hrs 57min in the saddle I got 10th out of about 350 riders. Lastly but not least though was the XC racing and especially the final Big Bear Race as detailed in my last post. Getting 2nd was great and the 4th overall placing was fantastic.

The Dons Bikes Team has also had a pretty successful year overall. Both Al, Lisa and Jeff have had great results in both individual races and in the overall series as well. More details can be found on the Dons Bikes Team Blog we have setup and pictures on the team Picasa site.

I gotta say though I am pretty happy that all the racing is over. I just wanna chillout for a bit. Hit the beach a few times and start doing some exploring on the mountain bikes and do some more downhilling like I did last weekend up at Lake Tahoe. I wanna get the buzz of exploring new trials and riding because I want to ride not because you force yourself due to the race next weekend. Don't get me wrong I have really enjoyed the races and will be back to it at some stage however some time out is required. I just got to try and keep a bit of a base there so that I can get back to race speed pretty fast. Oh and not eat as much as I have been cause I will not be burning as many calories. Or maybe I should just eat some pies and turn into a true blue DH guy :-)

I leave you with 2 collages. Each has 15 pictures in it. One is a selection of pics from my road races this year and the other is from all the MTB races I have been doing. Over and Out.