Matt and I decided to pre-ride the course the day before the race which turned out to be very valuable. I was fortunate to have a place to stay in La Mesa thanks to Matt and his awesome Grandpa Jack. It's always nice to save a few bucks and to have a warm bed to sleep in along with a shower. Upon pre-riding the course I was shocked on how much tarmac there was to deal with. The first 5 miles of the course had us pedaling on a paved road which was mostly flat until the last mile or so. I knew some strategy would come into play during the start. Everyone kept saying that this course had really awesome singletrack. I think most riders seem to have a different definition of what singletrack truly is. They were right about it being awesome and fun, but they were wrong about it being singletrack. IMO, there were very few sections of singletrack. It was mostly doubletrack which should be the correct definition as the trail was plenty wide enough for 2 riders to pedal side by side. I was also expecting the trail to be more technical than it came off to be as it was explained to me it was a technical trail. The natural obstacles such as rockbeds and the small rock drops are always a pleasant sight which do add a new element of fun. Riding the same trails over and over in the OC can get quite boring, so it's always fun to ride somewhere new. Alas, I found the trail to have very few technical spots to me, but maybe others found it to be opposite. I think this is because I have become such an awesome mountain biker that these normally technical trails look completely tame to me now...lol! I think this can be proven by the fact on how many people ate shit on race day. One thing for sure, this course was going to be very fast and very fun. They were right about it being fun!
Race day started off nice with Grandpa Jack making bacon, eggs, and toast for breakfast which was yummy. Hopefully it would provide the fuel for the burn that was to come later. We arrived at Sagebrush just before 10am and got our gear ready. We found the Team Velosport EZ-Up and relaxed before our 11 something start times. My race started at 11:13a while Matt started at 11:19a. The weather forecast was calling for temps in the low 80's, but man was it chilly. It turned out to be quite windy and dry which made it hard to warm up. I knew it would be fine once the race started. Once in the staging area, I had good conversation (CONVO) with my fellow competitors including Robert, who is the guy that got first at Fontana last weekend. I knew I would have my work cut out for me because this guy is fast. Turns out he's a really cool guy and didn't have that typical racer "I'm better than you" attitude. I find that attitude to rarely exist in the MTB world which is nice.
I lined up on the front line with 19 others in my category! This was the biggest field of racers I've raced against. GO!....off we went. The start was very good and I'm glad no one decided to be a speed demon for the first miles of flat road section. My plan was to not pull the group through the windy flat road miles of the course. That's exactly what I did. I stayed about 5 riders back as everyone was riding in a single file line. As soon as I felt the group splitting and my chase group falling behind a little, I decided to pass my chase group leader and grab onto the wheel of the 2nd guy in the lead group. I didn't want any large gaps before the 1st climb of the day. I could see most of the riders in my field falling behind as there was about 8 of us in the lead group now. Once we approached the climb, I knew things were going to get shaken up a bit. Robert attacked the climb hard and I couldn't match his pace that early on. I could see him pulling away at every bend on the road. At that point I was hoping I make some time up on the "singletrack" and I would just pedal away on the climb. Three other racers were in front of me, but I slowly reeled them in just before the climb crested. I grabbed my water bottle from the feed zone, drank a big swig and made it to the "singletrack".
I was sitting in 3rd at this point and I could see 2nd place about 100ft in front of me as the trail twisted left and right. I knew this section was where I had to make up some ground. I quickly caught up to 2nd and was able to pass on this short little sandy/rocky section where there was a small traffic jam. Once someone gets off the bike, everyone gets off. This is where I made my move and passed 2nd while running my bike. I just happened to pick the less congested line at the time. After that, I was able to increase my gap with ease while passing other slower riders either left or right on the "singletrack". There was quite a bit of traffic because of the other categories that started before me, but I never was really held up that much. A couple of times I would get held up while waiting for the safest moment to pass. Once the trail opened up a bit with no one in my way, I had so much fun with all the banked turns.
About halfway through the course I knew I was approaching the Hike-A-Bike (HAB) section. I was hoping I would see a glimpse of 1st, but I didn't. Robert told me that his downhill skills aren't that good, but maybe he was playing mind games with me? The HAB section sucked. I pedaled up the lower 1/4 of it until I ran into someone walking. I got off and ran passed this hiker, but man that really was hard. Trying to push your bike fast on a steep, sandy uphill is pretty tough. It really tired me out. Once I got to the top of the HAB, things got easier and I was able to recover. More "singletrack" was ahead and I took advantage of this terrain. Things were going great while passing more slower riders as I approached the last sustained climb of the day.
Of course this climb was on a paved road. Although boring, it does take alot less out of you then climbing on a dirt road where traction is limited. A couple of riders from the category that started a minute behind me passed me up. I knew at this point I wasn't pushing hard enough and I turned up the effort. I was able to catch up to those 2 guys and passed one just before reaching the top of four corners for the 2nd time. I grabbed a water bottle to cool myself off and went down the last "singletrack" of the day.
I caught up very early to the guy that passed me who was not in my category on the pavement climb. He let me pass and I started gaping him big time. This part of the course was the loosest, dustiest, and sandiest part. I guess riders were a little bit more careful on this section. I was fortunate to not have anyone in front of me at all. No one to slow me down, or throw up dust in my face. This was nice. It was also on this last downhill where I broke a spoke on my rear wheel. I remember going through some rougher terrain and hitting a couple of harder bumps. The bumps were hard, but I've hit harder bumps with no problems. I knew something was up with my bike since a new sound was coming from it. My guess was a broken spoke and I could see my rear wheel had a small wobble to it. A broken spoke would cause that symptom especially since I just had my wheels trued the day before. It wasn't slowing me down so I just kept going at race pace.
I was just a couple of miles before the finish and on the last "singletrack". Actually this was singletrack! I took a look over my shoulder to see if I had to put out a hard effort to the finish and I see the guy I recently passed not too far behind. This part of the trail was all flat. It seems the flats is where I lose time. At this point I felt I was home free and I was. That guy did catch up to me and we finished the race at the same time. I finished 2nd with a time of 1:29:14! I'm definitely happy with this result and I felt 100% better than I did last weekend at Fontana. I found Robert who got 1st and he had beaten me by 3:40. Wow! That is alot of ground to make up. I also verified that I did indeed break a spoke. At least this was a small mechanical that didn't give me any problems during the race.
In closing, it was a great race weekend and I had alot of fun out there. Again, the roadie turned mountain biker was just too fast for me on the climbs and the flats. I was hoping the course would have favored a true mountain biker more, but that didn't happen. How do I get faster? The question that no one has the answer too. Next US Cup event is the Sea Otter Classic at the Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey, CA. I'm planning to go this event, but it's not set in stone yet. I'm still sitting 1st in the overall standings, but that is just because I have 1 more race under my belt.
PS: The guy that beat me out for 3rd in Fontana decided to move up to CAT 1. Kind of sucks as I was hoping to race against him at Sagebrush. Doesn't seem to be too many event pictures either. If I find some, I will upload them.
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