Winter Park Race 2 - The Cross Country Super Loop

I sat straight up in bed at 5:30am Sunday morning. I was wide awake after only 5 hours of sleep and fired up ready to race. The problem was the race didn't start for 5 more hours and I could have used a little more sleep. I closed my eyes for the next hour until my alarm went off, but couldn't fall back asleep.

M Coupe Loaded Up and Ready to Go

The M Coupe was loaded and Jo and I were on our way by 7:00am. The drive over Berthoud Pass on the way to Winterpark in the M Coupe is arguably as fun as the race. I'll just say we didn't get much rest on the drive and arrived at the race with high levels of fear, excitement, and adrenaline!

Mountains, Turns, and Smiles over Berthoud Pass

Jo and I having Arrived Safely at Winter Park

The Rest of Our Crew Before the Race

I appologize for the lack of pictures for the rest of the post, I couldn't find anyone to give my camera to.

After a solid 40 minute warm up and the mandatory pre-race bathroom pit stop I lined up with my age group. It's so hard to tell by looks how good the competition is. Some looked like seasoned professionals and some looked bike path warriors. I reserved passing judgement and focused on riding my own race.

When the gun sounded (actually there was no gun, someone just said "Go!") I found myself towards the front after just a few pedal strokes. I felt strong and after a few more pedal strokes I was in the lead. With the course starting at 9100 feet and a long climb ahead I got paranoid that I might crack and put myself on a leash, settling into 4th place. It didn't last, by the first switchback the entire pack had slowed down except for a guy named Matt in an Australia jersey. I felt strong so I attacked him and went off the front and opening a nice gab. As the fire road climb continued my gab widened and I started working my way through the stragglers of the preceding age group. At the start of the single track I was alone and in the lead! It felt good to be in the lead, but I knew it was a long race and tried not to get a big head over it.

After a short single track downhill the course started a long single track climb. I maintained my lead throughout the climb into a long flat section. I upshifted into a big gear used the Superfly's 29 inch wheels to speed across the couple miles of flat double track. I should have had an advantage on the entire section, but near the end I heard someone on my wheel. It was Matt sporting his Australia kit. He caught me and even worse on his 26 inch full suspension bike.

We traded places throughout the next 4 miles. I never let him ride off my front wheel and at times I would ride off his, but he would always catch me. It was racing as pure as it gets, both of us racing for the lead. Then I made a mistake that has been haunting me ever since. I didn't have a chance to pre-ride the course and the race organizers had changed it last minute by adding a couple miles and another climb to the end. As we rode up what I thought was the final climb, knowledge of the course ahead would have been invaluable.

I had just taken over the lead again on a steep straight fire road section. At the top of the hill I could see a course marshall and riders starting a downhill to the left. Thinking it was the top of the climb, I buried myself on the climb going deeply anaerobic in the process. By the time I reached the top I had opened up a nice gab and was feeling good until I saw that the course went right instead of left. The people going left were descending from the other side of a taped divider and the course marshall. To my right the course when straight up a rocky, root filled, gully. My heart sank, but determined not to lose first and pushed on. Going ever deeper anaerobic I powered up the first couple switchbacks. The climb seemed to go on and on in a never ending hell of roots and rocks. One advantage of being in first is that you can set the pace on climbs. I was already in my granny gear, but I slowed my cadence so I'd have some energy left to sprint to the finish on. It wasn't long before I heard the familiar sound of Matt on my rear wheel. He didn't pass me, instead choosing to ride my wheel for the entire climb.

Finally, the trail turned downward. Looking forward for a chance to recover and thinking it was all down hill my hopes of winning the race were strong. Unfortunately, neither would happen. The carbon hard tail design of the Superfly takes significant "whole body effort" to descend technical trails as fast as a full suspension bike. The more technical the trail, the more effort is required. The descent as I would find out was unrelenting, there would be no opportunity to recover. Halfway down I found myself cramping in areas I didn't even know could cramp. My fingers, wrists, arms, shoulders, back, abs and even ankles were all teetering on the verge of complete lock up. My abs were the worst, burning like I was on 999 of 1000 sit ups (as if I could do even 100). I slipped into survival mode and when the trail spit me out on a fire road near the bottom my lack of course knowledge caught up to me again.

Across the fire road the course started up a short 180 degree turning climb. I was cracked. As I dropped into my granny gear it was all I could do to turn the pedals over. The painful descent had taken a far worse toll than I had expected. I knew I was going to lose first and it was humiliating to have lost it on what used to be my greatest strength - Descending. Matt knew it too and attacked. I watched helpless as he slipped away with a small pack of leaders from the previous age group. The climb turned out to be relatively short, but the descent that followed was every bit as painful as the first. In survival mode, I made it down thinking I was in a solid second place but that was not to be.

Right near the end I heard "On your left", the signal to pass. I moved over thinking it was someone in a younger age group. I was wrong, it turned out to be someone in my class. Damn! How could I just let him by!! I screamed inside for some aggression, for some juice, for one last burst to reel him in, but I was cracked so bad nothing answered my call. It was like I was a spectator in my own body. I watched him sprint away, finishing 7.6 seconds behind him in third. I was 1 minute, 1.6 seconds behind Matt. Crossing the line in third after being in first for the majority of the race stung bad. It's one thing to finish third by working your way up to it from behind. It's completely different to end up in third because you lost first and second. Ouch! Don't get me wrong, I was glad to represent Phoenix Mulitsport on the Podium, I just would have rather done it from the center!

On the Podium with my Glass and Medal

Jo rode her single speed to a second place finish. I can't even imagine how much riding a single speed on that course must have hurt.

Jo Winning Second



Glad to be Done

In hind sight, I obviously went out too hard and accurate course knowledge would have prevented my poor energy management. It was also a valuable learning experience. I think losing is a much greater learning tool than winning. It feels good to win, but sometimes improvement has to earned through hardship. If I'm going to compete in a world of full suspensions, I need to condition my entire body to handle sustained technical descents at race speeds on the Superfly. The pro's win races on hard tails, there is no reason I shouldn't be able to either. I'm going to incorporate a long technical ride into my training week to brush up on my tech skills. I've been focusing so much on fitness and climbing that I neglected my natural strengths. Technical riding and descending.

I move on now, full speed ahead, into The Laramie Enduro preparation. This includes building up my base a little with much longer rides and ironing out some of the weaknesses mentioned above while not loosing the gains I've made in my climbing and fitness.

Training Update 6-30-08

I pretty much covered last week's training in the first paragraph on the post below. In addition to that I rode 18 miles at the race yesterday and am late for a recovery ride with Ramine today. I'll have my race post done soon, stay tuned...

Pre-Race, The Superfly is Creaking like the Titanic

Winter Park Race 2, The Cross Country Super Loop, is tomorrow. My start time is in 10 hours and 55 minutes. I should be in bed, but like the last race (The Burn), I'm a little de-railed (no pun intended). This week has been a less than ideal pre-race week. My goal was to taper throughout the week, instead I just didn't ride for 3 days, 2 in a row. When I did ride, they were fraught with problems and cut short due to time pressures. The first was cut into by a shady car dealer trying burn my new friend Jean-Paul, who also rides a Superfly. Then it was shorted when his chain ring bolts backed out, which happened to me on the Superfly's 3rd ride. The second ride didn't happen because I was rushing and forgot my shoes. Three times this has happened to me now and I am horribly embarrassed to admit it to the world, as I pride myself on being organized and not an idiot! That morning I looked in my riding bag and saw the bag my shoes go in, but as I found out later it was sans shoes. I ended up getting a short road ride in, but it was a bad day! Today, I managed a good effort and feel like I woke my legs up for tomorrow, but the Superfly was creaking so bad it sounded like the Titanic in her last moments.

Carbon resonates noises louder and at a different frequency than steel or aluminum. The Superfly has known issues with creaking, in fact my frame is going back to Trek (Gary Fisher) to have one of the issues fixed. The creaking today was so loud it was disturbing other people on the trail. I was the butt of many dirty looks today as I shattered people's serene walks in nature with a sound similar to that of a tin can being dragged under a moving vehicle. When I got home I tried to chase it down.

First I cleaned the bike and spent extra time on my chain, chain rings, and cassette.

Then I pulled both crank arms and cleaned, lubed, and inspected them. While they were out I checked my chain ring bolts, just in case they had loosened up. I cleaned the outside of the bottom bracket bearings and cups too.

Then I put it all back together and took it for a test ride. I was worse than before. With every pedal stroke it sung out like a hand saw cutting through a cello. I the hard realization hit me that through out my race tomorrow every pedal stroke shriek out with a demoralizing creak. There is nothing more demoralizing than a creaking bike during a race. Nothing! The only solution left was a less complicated, although somewhat elegant option.

Earplugs! Maybe the creak wouldn't be as demoralizing if it was muted by earplugs.

Resigned to my fate, I started cleaning up. Then it hit me! I remembered a ride I did last August shortly after building up my Santa Cruz for the 10th time. The bike felt fine at first, but as I pedaled more and more I felt play and heard an unsettling noise from below and behind. It was my cassette which had come loose from the rear wheel hub probably due to improper torquing on my part. I put the Superfly on the stand, pulled the rear wheel and torqued my cassette to the 40 Newton Meters specified on the lock nut. It let out a god awful screech, but it moved a little. I put the wheel back on and alas the creak was gone.

Victory! At least for tonight. I'm pretty much expecting the creak to come back in the middle of the race tomorrow and I'll bring ear plugs just in case. For now I'll go to bed with a little peace of mind knowing that I stopped it at least temporarily. Race start time is now T minus 10 hours and 27 minutes!

The Superlight is Back!

After 2 months on holiday the Superlight is finally home. If you haven't been following, it got diverted by Fedex due to thunderstorms and missed making it to the Greenbrier Race in April. It stayed in Maryland until early June when I went back to ride with my brothers. Since then I've been playing hide and seek with Fedex trying to be home for the delivery. Last Thursday I picked it up at the transfer station in Denver 12 hours before they were going to return ship it to Maryland.

I stayed up way too late putting it together Tuesday night in hopes of riding it the next day, but my rear shock wouldn't lockout. So it's back in the stable until I get time / money to overhaul my shock. At least it's safe at home.

Training Update 6-23-08 - The Cross Country Super Loop

Last week I rode 11 hours and 45 minutes over 5 rides. They included my normal weekly Super Walker along with a couple long mountain dirt road rides for base. I tried to increase my ride times and lower my intensity slightly to improve my base for the Laramie Enduro. It's really too close to the race for me to make any significant impact on where I should be, but it shouldn't hurt either. This coming week I'll do the opposite in order to taper for Winter Park Race 2, The Cross Country Super Loop, which takes place on Sunday the 29th.

The exact course and distance have yet to be announced, but they are similar to last year's. Here's last year's course maps:





The course should have about 2,670 feet of climbing most of it above 9000' elevation. Here's the profile:

Now that the season is in full swing, it seems like I never have enough time to get things done (including blogging). It's going to be a challenge to get my fitness level where it needs to be, spend time with Jo and the dogs, work enough to pay the bills and not burn out. I think I can do it if I'm super pro-active!

Squirrels and Carbon Forks Don't Mix

A friend of Doug's was on a road ride with someone who sucked a squirrel into his front fork resulting in the fork arm shearing off and causing him to crash catastrophically.

Here's the story posed in a question (I believe) to a carbon fork manufacturer:

"Two weekends ago a riding buddy's brother was eight miles in to a century when he sucked a squirrel in to his front wheel while traveling at a good 25-30 mph. He fractured his #10 thoracic vertebrae, but there was no spinal cord damage, so he will recover, albeit with some new and permanent internal hardware.

From what we can surmise, the squirrel got in the wheel and sheared the fork in half. The big chainring is bent, so it appears he came down on on the ring and then on to his right side, hard enough to damage the shifter, but not bend the bars.

We were all just surprised that a squirrel could shear a fork in half like that. Have you ever seen something like that happen before? I would have expected the wheel to just lock up, but I guess at 25-30 mph the force must be a lot more than I would have guessed, and as I understand it, carbon fiber does not do well under compression/impact. And the squirrel does appear to have hit the fork dead center — at the point of highest leverage.Any thoughts?"

Here's the response:

"I have seen this before — not in person but in photos people have sent me of dead squirrels and sheared-off carbon forks. The rider would be just as injured even if the fork had not failed — just the front wheel stopping so abruptly would have put him on his face. Watch out for those squirrels!"

I feel horrible for the cyclist and the squirrel. I have a carbon fork on my road bike and a carbon mountain bike frame. Jo has carbon forks on both her road and mountain bikes. I'm well aware of the physics behind how carbon works in different applications and agree that this would have resulted in a bad crash regardless of the material, but it is interesting to see how it failed. Next time I'm doing 50 mph down left hand canyon I'll be scanning the road for anything that could pose a hazard!

Here are some pics:

Thanks Carlos

Carlos Rizo left me this comment last week and I thought it was touching enough that I should write a post about it.

"Hi Alex,I read your blog almost daily and though I am a hang glider pilot, your posts about cycling are very interesting. Please keep writing despite not a lot of us leave messages. Anyway, I found this article in the NYT in case you have not seen it and I thought of your recent experience packing your baby. Here is the article: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/12/fashion/12physical.html?_r=1&ref=health&oref=slogin

Cheers from Canada

Carlos Rizo"

Thanks Carlos for your thoughts and support. That article has some sweet bike boxes in it. Unfortunately, I haven't got mine back from Maryland even thought it's been almost 2 months! Tomorrow might be the lucky day. If so, expect a short post to follow. I appologize for my lack of posts lately. Training has taken up huge chunks of time and I seem to be running about a week behind. I'll get caught up soon. Once again thanks for reading my blog and for your support...

Training Update 6-16-08

Last week I rode 7.5 hours over 5 days with 2 road rides, and 3 mountain rides. I rode Super Walker on Friday and my time was consistent with last week, although the backside climb didn't hurt as bad. I also worked an 8 day stretch, of mostly night shifts with one 30 hour break. I'm pretty fatigued, but the Laramie Enduro is only 5 weeks away and I have a lot of work to do if I'm going to be in shape for it. Jo did the hill climb race as posted below and I rode the course at a leisurely pace. If I had done the race I think I would have finished between 3rd and 6th. I'm going to do the next one in two weeks as a training event, I'll talk more about it in my next Training Update.

Jo Races Winter Park Hill Climb

The Winter Park Mountain Bike Race Series kicked off Saturday with the Hill Climb race. The Hill Climb is a 5.3 mile racing, climbing 2,062 feet from an elevation of 9,080 to 11,142 feet. Jo rode her Spot Single speed to a second place finish!

I had to work an overnight shift on Friday night and planned on meeting Jo in Winter Park on Saturday morning. I would be too tired to race, but it would fun to support Jo, James who was racing expert, and Ramine who was doing his first race as a pro. I drove the M Coupe to work Friday so I could make good time to Winter Park in the morning. Driving up Berthed Pass on the way to Winter Park was one of the best drives I've done in the car, it was almost more fun than biking - almost!

Jo's single speed class started with the Pro and Expert women. I got there in time to see her off the start. Jo swapped her air suspension fork out for a rigid carbon fiber fork and on the first descent had a bit of a crash breaking her sunglasses. I just happened to have picked up a warrentied pair the night before and gave them to her. After that I pedaled hard up the start hill to get in a good photo position about a half mile up the course. As the pack came by, Jo was in the leading the single speeders and not far behind the first couple pro women. I continued to the top of the mountain and did my best to stay out of the way of all the following racers on their way up. I cheered everyone that went by, but wearing my kit most people thought I was racing and snickered at me!

Jo at the Start

Pro, Expert, and Single Speed Women

Jo in the Pack

My teamate Molly leading Expert Women

6 Feet of Snow Borders the Race Course

HDR View from Halfway Up

(Note the Pine Beetle Damage)

Jo missed first place by less than a minute and putting almost 4 minutes on the girl behind her. My teamate Molly won the Expert Women class. James finished a strong second, 11 seconds behind the leader in Men's expert. Although he didn't finish as well as he would have liked, Ramine held his own in Pro easily hanging with some of the best riders in the area.

Jo Wearing her Medal

Ramine on the Way Down

James on the Podium

Tornados in Lincoln

I spent Wednesday night in Lincoln Nebraska. We got in around 5pm and I was super tired and ready for bed. Thursday I had to be up at 4:30am local time, which is 3:30am mountain time. I settled in to my normal routine of heating up dinner, stretching and organizing my stuff for the morning. Between Denver and Lincoln there was a huge line of thunderstorms headed East towards Lincoln. I expected the storms to hit that night, but did not think it would be much worse than a gentle spring thunderstorm. As I hit laied down to go to bed a tornado warning was broadcast over the TV using the Emergency Broadcast system you always see tested. It warned of tornado's on the ground headed for central Lincoln. I was on the 13th floor of the Holiday Inn in room 1313 of all rooms!


Annoyed, I decided I would head downstairs and take a look myself to see how bad it was. Outside the haunting cries of tornado sirens filled the back ground and after walking around for a while I spotted a small funnel cloud. Between the visual obstructions of city buildings I watched it dance about, skip off the ground and stir up a bunch on paper and garbage, and then recede upwards. I lost sight of it behind the train station. Shortly after it started raining so I found some cover under a large concrete awning. There was a parking garage nearby that I planned on using for shelter if a tornado headed directly towards me.


Funnel Cloud
(excuse the poor cell phone quality)





I enjoyed the lighting show and thunder as I sat under the awning. I felt safe, taking in the storm, until I was literally blown out of my seat by what sounded like a sonic boom. I didn't even see the flash. It sounded like I was right below the blast of a 4th of July firework finale. Ears ringing and body shaken I decided it was time to head the half block back to the hotel. As I left the cover of the awning it happened again, every bit as bad as the first time accept this time it wasn't just sound. I could feel electricity come off the top of my head. It felt I was suddenly overwhelmed with static electricity, but it never sparked. It was a feeling that I have never felt before, then it disappeared as quickly as it came. It was by far the closest lightning strike of my life. My body surged with adrenalin and I broke into a full sprint towards the hotel. When I looked back I saw that it struck a high tension line pole right above me that was obscured by the awning. Mental note: When observing lightning storms under concrete awnings check for high tension lines overhead first!


Approaching Storm from the 13th Floor




I headed back to my hotel room tired but thinking that the worst was over. When I turned the TV on for an update it warned of more tornado's and a tornado watch until as late as midnight. I looked out my 13th story window to confirm the reports and saw wall of darkness approaching from the West. Needing to go to bed I considered just hanging out, but the local news station weather man was pleading through the screen for anyone who was watching in central Lincoln to take cover immediately. Needing a second opinion I turned to the weather channel which also warned of tornado's on the ground near Lincoln, Nebraska. There was a stark contrast between the two meteorologists. The weather channel guy was calm, collect, and professional while the local guy was anxious, panicked, and over animated. Maybe the proximity of tornado's to their respective studios had something to do with it. I decided not to chance it and headed back down stairs. Avoiding the claustrophobic basement conference room the hotel was pushing guests to ride out the storm in I headed for the parking garage. It had a concrete staircase that I could bail into of a tornado came. Safe from lighting I was awed by the power of the storm. After the initial wall the sky turned black even though it was only 7:30pm. Gail force winds carrying water and golf ball size hail pelted the parking garage. After an hour the worst of it was over and I really had to go to bed. Just as I was about to turn the TV off a sad story came on the air. Four Boy Scouts were killed in a camp about 60 miles away in Western Iowa by the same line of storms. For the article click Here.

The Storm from the Parking Garage

Training Update 6-9-08 First Rides

Last week was a light training week, but I did get to go along for a couple first rides with friends and family. The first was my first time riding with Chris (pictured in the rafting trip post below). He recently picked up a 2006 Trek Madone road bike. I headed to Maryland Friday morning and Chris picked me up at BWI. My mountain bike was still there from when it didn't make it to the Greenbrier Race in April. Chris and I blasted a 20 mile road ride on some country roads West of my old home town. It was good fun even though my chain broke about halfway through. It was a catastrophic break, snapping right as I was loaded up my pedals at the beginning of a short climb. I managed to stay on the bike, but it got me thinking. If my bike had made to MD in time for the race and my chain broke at the very best it would have cost me the race, but more likely I would have had a horrible crash on the super technical course. Maybe there was a reason it didn't make it??

The second ride was with my younger, 14 year old brother John. My other younger brother Andrew and I built him up an old Gary Fisher Big Sur that was Andrew's first bike. I donated a fork, pedals, rear tire, a shifter, and cables. We took him up to the Frederick County Watershed and rode a 5 mile loop on some pretty technical trails for his first mountain bike ride ever. They were good trails for a first ride, but John did amazing. He took his time on the technical sections and didn't crash once, even clearing an uphill rock garden. Andrew on the other hand was the victim of bad luck. He got hung up on an innocuous log across the trail and endoed hitting his shoulder on a hockey puck size rock. We found out later he separated the AC joint in his shoulder and will be out for a couple months. It was the only rock on the trail and completely random that he hit it. The worst part is he just got a brand new mountain bike sitting in his garage begging to be ridden. Argh!!! I got to give him credit, he's got a positive attitude and is taking it in stride, much better than I would have.

Cheat River Rafting Trip 08

I've rafted the Cheat River with a group of friends on and off for the past 12 years. This year was a very special trip for two reasons. It would be the first year for Jo to go on the trip and also a fitting memorial for Bob, my good friend who passed away this winter (Remembering Bob). Bob, Lee and the other Bob have made the rafting trip happen every year for 14 years. This year with Bob absent everyone stepped in to fill his shoes and the trip went off without a hitch. This was Jo's first trip and she did great on the water. It was very special to make something that has always been my trip, our trip. Like most things in life it's the people that make it special. We could have floated around a kiddie pool in arm floats and it still would have been an a amazing time!

The Cheat River Canyon is a 13 mile stretch of white water in Northern West Virginia featuring over 30 class IV and V rapids. Our trip took place in early May so the river was flowing 7 feet above normal, right at the limit for commercial trips. The water was huge! It was so huge we were able to "sneak" around the most violent sections of the worst class V's with names like Big Nasty and Tear Drop. Although, we did go straight down the center of High Falls and up a 10 foot wave on the other side. The wall of water filled with white veins reminded me of cover of the book A Perfect Storm. I'll confes sitting in the front of the raft when I saw it I let out an involuntary scream of terror. The trip was great and although a couple rafts were dumped and people had to swim everyone in our group made it out okay. Sadly on a later trip a woman from New York drowned due to unknown circumstances (see press release Here). Her name was Vicki and our collective thoughts and prayers go out to her family and friends.

I'll let the pictures expand on more of the trip.

A and J (or PB& Blueberry J)

Chris, Alex, John

Lee, Robert, Bob, Aleah

Above plus Jen, Sylvia, Rick, and Amy

My Elf Look

Our Boat On the River

Port Side (front to back) Alex, Jo, Amy, Matt (our "Hot Guide" according to Jo!),

Starboard side John, Robert, Chris, Sylvia.

Skirting Big Nasty

While we were on the River Matt, Rick Aleah, Bob, Jen and Lee honored Bob B. by throwing his chip for this year into the River. It was a fitting tribute to his life.

Our boat after rescuing a couple swimmers from other rafts.

Chris Holding the Boat

Jo riding the "Bronco"

I love this next photo. Robert took it of Jo and I while were on a flat section of the river. The scene is typical of us. I'm probably talking too much or telling a crazy story while Jo is looking at me skeptically through her glasses as we float gently down the river with another raft in the background. It's pure journalism!

Post Trip Group Photo

Chris Cooking Dinner

Spending a day wet, cold and scared drives a hunger few meals can quench. Luckily everyone pitched in for a huge meal!

Spring Appalachian Rain