Big Bear ShootOut #2/Socal State Final

Socal State Champion!!!

I did it! All the hard work and consistent training has paid off. Winning the overall was my goal for the season and I'm ecstatic to say I have reached that goal. The season was challenging and the competitors were tough. It did help to have a little luck on my side as well as a mechanical free season. I had a fantastic time at all the races even when I felt my performance was sub-par. Mountain Biking is the best thing in the world and has completely transformed my life.

Going into the final race of the season I had a 16 point lead over Barbee. After going through many calculations and different scenarios, it was determined that I could still lose the overall. For that to happen, Barbee would have to finish 1st and I could do no worse than 3rd. If I finished 4th or worse, we would be in a tie and the winner would go to the better performer for the race. My plan for the race was to stick with Barbee for as long as I could just to see how things would pan out. It was a little disappointing to have another small showing of racers in my category. Only 6 showed up.

The morning was already turning out to be pretty warm with temps in the mid 80's. Fortunately the breeze was nice. The race started out at a nice pace. Slowly got the heart rate up while not killing myself. Barbee and I rode next to each for almost the entire initial climb. Evidence of that is here. Just a nice relaxing ride with my BFF out in the woods...lol.

David hung with us for most of the climb as well, but started to fade towards the crest. Barbee started to open up a gap before the fireroad started to get fast with ups and downs. I decided it would be best to not chase him and conserve myself. I knew there still was quite a ways to go. About 12 or 13 miles into the race, David passes me on the fireroad. I guess I was going a little too easy. I decided to attack and up my pace. I immediately passed him, hoping this would discourage him and slow down his pace. He hung in there though. I was tiring and it was starting to show. He passed me up again and this time I didn't have the energy to chase him. I knew we were nearing the Pirates and Fall line singletracks and was planning to attack him there. I kept him in my sights and he had about a 20 second lead. I turned onto Pirates and put in a hard effort to close the gap. I could see him up ahead and I was planning to get by him as the trail would crest before going down. That's exactly what happened and the funny thing about it was I passed him at the exact same spot at the previous Big Bear Shoot Out race. I said "Hey David" and I think I caught him by surprise.

This was where the racing became really fun. David is a really good bike handler and it showed as he was chasing me down Pirates. As soon as we hit the fireroad transition before Fall Line, he was right on my wheel. I was taking the fireroad descent a little more cautious than I should have and ended up making a mistake by running wide on a turn. This allowed David to sneak by and now I was chasing him. We both were attacking on the singletrack as I was following his dust. It was so hard to see the trail at times due to the amount of dust. As we approached the most technical part of the trail, David made a mistake and washed out in a corner. I encouraged him to get back up and get the train moving again. I didn't want to pass him in that state, plus he was blocking the trail. He quickly got on his bike, but couldn't get clipped into his pedals entirely. It just so happened to be the worst spot of the trail and he ended up crashing. This forced me to take a much more difficult line straight over the 2 rocks since David was covering the main line. I almost ended up crashing a well, but I was able to keep the rubber side down. David really was putting in a max effort to stay ahead of me and he was going at a pretty good clip. He didn't hurt himself that bad as he did get back on his bike to finish the race in 3rd. 2nd place was mine once I went by David since there was just about a mile left before the finish. I ended up finishing 1.5 minutes behind Barbee as he took the win. That's ok though. I just won the overall!

Luck was on my side, after the post race discussions with my fellow competitors and team, I noticed my rear tire was practically flat. It turns out I burped the tire because sealant was obvious on the bead of the tire. It must have been a slow leak because I didn't notice a drop in pressure while racing to the finish. I think it happened when I had to take that difficult line around David about a mile from the finish. I was able to pump it back up and it held pressure.

The post race festivities were pretty cool. They had a really cool reggae band playing and they were really good. The beers were flowing and the tacos were somewhat tasty. The award ceremonies went surprisingly quick. Here's a pic of my 2nd place finish with Barbee earning his win and David with his hard effort for 3rd.

The team also won the overall for CoEd.

Matt also won the overall for CAT2 SingleSpeeders. Congrats to him. On a side note, he got pretty sick after the race. He actually yak'd in the bushes before this picture was taken. He still managed to smile even though he was really out of it.

Well, that's the end of the Socal State Series and I must say Team Big Bear puts on a great series. The combined effort of the US Cup and TBB made this season one to not miss and I will most certainly be back for the 2010 season, but this time I will be racing against the big boys in CAT 1. I know I will be getting my ass handed to me on a platter for sure. It's a whole different level of fitness that I'm not sure I can achieve. I'm already prepared that 2010 will be an educational experience. I want to thank Team Velosport and most importantly Caroline for the awesome support with the cheerful demeanor to go along at the races. Thanks to all my riding buddies Ryan, Andrew, Troy, Mark, Brian, Doug and especially Matt. It was nice to have a good friend to race with at every event. I also need to extend my thanks out to all the guys at Rock n' Road in Laguna Niguel for their awesome support and always making sure my bike was in tip top shape. Those guys are the best. I also can't forget about my good friend Ryan and his wife Sara for their support. They both encouraged me to stay positive and of course Ryan is always the super homie for helping me attain certain bike goods among other things. Ryan just kicks ass. They even managed to make it up to Sea Otter to support me. Thanks to my family and especially my mother. Even though she is 500 miles away, she gave me the inspiration to help me succeed. Plus her hospitality and cooking is just awesome. That definitely made the trip out to Colorado worth it. Thanks to all the competitors at the races for making these races happen. Thanks to Mike Barbee for being a true sportsman and competitor. I hope to ride and compete with you soon buddy. I'm sure I'm forgetting others, but I do appreciate everyone's support to those that have been interested in my racing career. Enough with the thanks! Oh yeah...thanks to Jake for putting up with my bike repairs and bike builds. That's it!

There are a few more races before the year end that I'm not sure if I will be participating in yet. The Rim Nordic series is a 4 race series with 1 already in the books. The next one is next weekend and I'm contemplating competing in the next 3 but racing in the Single Speed category for fun. We'll see. I still haven't decided yet.

Rim Nordic #1/Socal State #7

Yet another weekend of racing and next up was the Rim Nordic race which was also the 7th race in the Socal State Series. Going into this race with a very small point margin for 1st overall, I knew I had to have a good result and try to finish ahead of Barbee. As the season draws to an end, Barbee has become a real tough competitor and has greatly improved his fitness. Props to Mikey B for getting back in some serious shape.

I'm just going to get into it. After I lined up on the starting line I noticed the lack of racers in my category. I think there was only a total of 6, but I only saw 4 on the starting line. I think the orgainizers messed up with placing the 30-34 on the grid. We were starting ahead of the younger guys? Oh well, this actually turned out to be a good thing since the organizers decided to have us start with the SS guys. This actually allowed us geared guys to get out ahead of everyone and have a clear path for most of the way. The race started and I set out for a fast pace taking the lead. I was surprised that no decided to follow and before I knew it, I had a good 20 second or so lead on Barbee. However, this wasn't to last and before I knew it, Barbee closed the gap very quickly on the first set of climbs. He's a really strong climber. I thought I was pretty good, but apparently I need to work on that. Barbee was right on my tail with really no where to go around since we were on singletrack. I was able to slow down the pace a bit, but then I had a problem with my drivetrain. A pretty significant sized stick got caught between my chainrings and my chain stay. I couldn't shift my gears so I had to dismount and let Barbee by. He was encouraging me to get on it, but didn't realize the massive stick stuck in my drivetrain. I then spent about a minute wrestling trying to remove that stupid stick. I ended up breaking the stick 3 times and with each break making it harder to remove. I finally got it free and mounted back up to finish attacking the climb before the fireroad. I knew at this point that Barbee would be gone and I lost some motivation to keep pushing. It was pretty warm out and I sure didn't feel like I had the strength.

The 1st place SS guy caught up to me and I eventually let him by since I couldn't match his pace exactly. We would trade back and forth for most of the race. He would let me by on the singletrack descents. I approached the 1st singletrack descent and caught up the SS guy pretty quickly. I mentioned to pass and he kindly pulled aside except I was no longer behind him since I ran wide on one of the sandy turns and bailed from my bike before really crashing. I guess it was a semi crash since I didn't really fall or hurt myself, I just ended up dismounting while moving. I mounted back up and went on my way and eventually got around the SS guy. As I was near the end of the 1st lap, I rounded a corner and I see Barbee mounting his bike and started pedaling. I asked him what happened and he said his rear tire has a slow leak and he had to air it up 3 times now. What a bummer for Barbee especially during an important race. I rode with for a little bit as he pulled away on the smaller climbs before the Start/Finish line.

On the 2nd lap, I managed to catch up to Barbee on the 1st climb as he pulled over to air up his tire again. Being the true sportsman that I am...lol...I gave him my Big Air CO2. He really did appreciate it and I know he would have done the same in return if the situation was reversed. Again, he pulled away on the small climb before the 1st little section of singletrack. I did manage to pull up to his wheel on that singletrack, but I eventually went by when Barbee pulled over at the switchback close to start. That would be the last time I see him until after the race.

For the rest of the race, I tried to keep my pace high. I was definitely fatigued, but as long as I could hold onto first, that is all that would matter. My 2nd lap was much slower, but I did cross the line first with DJ coming in second 1 minute behind and Barbee finishing 3rd a few more minutes behind. This win really did help give me an advantage for the overall points leader. It was unfortunate that Barbee dealt with tire issues for most of the race. He finally did end up putting a tube in his tire. His tire wasn't in the best of shape to begin the race as I found out afterwards. He was dissapointed, but that's how it goes sometimes. It's all apart of racing.

Of course I was happy to win the race, but I wasn't overly excited about my performance. If it wasn't for Barbee's flat, I would not have been able to keep his pace. He would have smoked me for sure. He is a better climber and I guess it does help he has a cabin at elevation. I'm not a big fan of racing at elevation. I haven't felt good at any mountain races. Stay tuned for the Socal State Finale in my next post.

12 Hours of Rim Nordic

I know I'm slacking when it comes to updating my blog, but no one reads this crap anyways. Ryan, Matt and myself decided to participate in the 12 hours of Rim Nordic on June 20th. We entered as a 3 man team and we all decided to do it on our single speeds for fun. Too bad there was no single speed category for a 3 man team. They only had 2 and 4 man SS teams. Oh well, we just wanted to go out and have fun. My morning started out great until the CHP decided to ticket me for doing 51 in a 30 just passed the 330 and 18 interchange. Who takes the speed limit from 55 down to 30 in a span of a 1oo feet or so? To be honest, I didn't see the first speed limit sign and by the time I saw the radar, it was too late. First infraction in about 1o years. My little subaru wagon can't even drive the speed limit up the mountain. CHP officer cut me no slack. Needless to say, I wasn't very happy about that and it was pretty evident I was upset about it when I arrived to the Rim Nordic Ski area.

I met Ryan and Matt up there and we set up our mini camp at the Sho-Air EZ-up. To my surprise, there was a ton of riders and familiar faces up there ready to get their 12 hours on. It's always great to see these grassroots type of events draw lots of competitors. Matt decided he would go first which would later turn out to be not the best of choice. The race started with a couple parade laps before the racers were let go.

We basically did 1 lap per rotation and I was 2nd in line with Ryan to follow. I think the team did great for the competition we were against. I believe there were a couple of 3 man teams that were professional. We ended up finishing 5th out of 16 teams with total of 13 laps. Matt got the extra lap and the only night lap of the day. I ended up doing 4 laps with times I was very happy with. I started out with a 48 minute lap. My 2nd was a 47, my 3rd was a 49, and my 4th was a 50. I was happy to be consistent with my lap times and to get familiar with the course. The Socal State #7/Rim Nordic #1 XC race was to follow the next weekend. I felt the 3 man rotation was perfect. It gave you just enough time to rest and recover for the next lap. No sitting around for hours like we did at the 24 hour race last year with a 5 man team. The event seemed well organized until the final results were posted. There was some confusion on almost every teams lap count.

Me rounding the switchback

Ryan surprised by the camera.

Me ready to go for my 1st lap

Matt always smiling.

Velosport pits.

It was a good weekend to be on a bike and no one got hurt which is always good. I'm contemplating trying one of these 12 hour events solo, we shall see. Matt did get attacked by a tree branch that ripped his jersey.