Fuj’s race journal

Seems my blogs have been absent this season. My riding was, too.

I only managed to get in three races this season: The Warda Race, Bikeland’s Big Ring Challenge and the X Bar Shootout.

I finished the season in 17th place for beginner men 30-39. My results for the season follows: X-Bar 7th place: 1:01:06, Coldspring 9th place: 1:22:14, Warda 9th place: 1:12:55.

I’m itching to cat up. But I want to get more consistent and stand on the blocks a few times. I’ll remain a beginner through the fall and set a goal to jump up to sport for next spring.

And now, off to the races…

The X-Bar Shootout hurt. I wished someone had shot me.

After the first mile and into the second, the trail started to really piss me off. We really rode like a group of beginners.

I took off from the start in third. The rider in second crashed out. I was no. 2 for a spell. Then the lead rider stopped on one of the climbs as his tires lost grip. That forced everyone to dismount. Someone behind me yelled, “You guys are doing that on purpose!” I wanted to fart on him.

But with no gas left, the crashing, dismounting, running took its toll on my energy level. The lead rider endoed on a downhill rocky section (I’m not sure if you guys saw the rocks if any) and I found myself in first.

That was exciting. I gunned it to try and get away from the group. I managed to stay in the lead as we exited some rocks and into a meadow-like area. But the problem with this course, I found, was with so many terrain changes, maintaining a rhythm was damn near impossible. So, after flying through a nice stretch, I crashed out into the trees failing to negotiate a tight turn. I had to run up this rocky section.

I  tried counting the riders passing me on my little jog. I thought I might have fallen back to fifth or sixth. I just tried to maintain my pace. Mentally, I was shot. I began to hate the course. I cursed under my breath. I took a wrong turn.

I added about a quarter of a mile to the course. At the end, some other racers did the same thing, too.

Bikelane Big Ring Challenge in Coldspring…

The day before, I did a cat 5 road race in the same town. I knew the mountain-biking course well enough, I thought. So, the road race sounded like something fun to do.

It wasn’t. It hurt.

What I wasn’t too familiar with was my new Vassago Optimus Ti. I built up the week prior. The inaugural ride was on the race course.

I was really comfortable on the straightaways. That 29er sure likes to go fast! And, I was amazed how it floated through the sand-volleyball court!

I dropped a rider from my group in the open and through the sand. He finally caught me in the trees about four miles later.

The turns got to me a bit. I wasn’t all that comfortable maneuvering it quickly through some of the turns. But it was a good race to break in the new bike!

Bluff Creek Ranch, Warda…

This was the last race on my BMC Fourstroke 03. It was so long ago, it’s kind of a blur. I remember riding the whole course cleanly. Except for the bridge I didn’t see and almost rode around it. I stopped before it got ugly, jumped up onto the bridge and rode across.

I had some problems with my brakes before the race. So, I had an Avid Juicy 7 on the rear and a Hope Mono Mini up front. It looked like I had been to a garage sale.

Otherwise, I finished 9th. Which was much better than my first ever race that was at the same place. I think I finished fourth from last.

Improvement: goal accomplished.

Next season: Improve much more.

See you in the funny pages.

I would have benefited greatly from having pre-ridden the course and having a clear set of lungs. But neither was possible so, I made the best of my 8th place finish with a time of 51:43.  Eighth place was enough points to sneak me into the top 10 of my category/age group for the season.

The beginner category is a full-out sprint! From the start, I hammered hard. Then came my nemesis: Fat Chuck’s Revenge. Who is Fat Chuck? I’d like to kick him in the groin. I managed to make it up 3/4 of it, but dismounted after trying to pass someone walking up the hill and found myself in a nice patch of loose rocks (the whole left side of the climb at this point).

Finally, up and over and a nice descent to catch my wheezing breath.

Through the trees, the single track was a nice roll through the trees. I rolled solo for most of it. When the trail hit the double track, I had to get off and jog my disc brakes side-to-side again to loosen up the pads. They do this at the worst times.

Back into the trees, then back out of the trees where the munchkins race joined our trail. It’s pretty cool to see the little tykes on their bikes. And, even though I’m not yet a parent, I encouraged the kids by saying things like, “You’re doing great!” “Phweew! Took me forever to catch you!” Then I would let them know I wanted to sneak by them.

It was a good thing I passed them before hitting “The Wall.” That’s my favorite section of the whole place. And there was a fair amount of spectators still hanging around for our race. Before I got there, I heard, “Go go go! Come on! You got…” and a huge collective “Awwww…” Then I came around and saw the guy move out of my line just as I went over the edge.” To my surprise, I heard someone say, “Good job, Kevin!” as I climbed out. Turns out it was one of the Houston bike-shop mechanics that I frequent.

Out in the open, again and heading toward the finish, a guy in my category and age group blew past me. I stood up and caught his wheel and sat on him for a bit. Then we came upon another little kid who seemed a bit rattled by this guy, then left me to work around him. I got to the final turn and just barely caught the guy at the line. Judges gave him a second ahead of me.

Best of all, I finally got to meet some of the guys and Boyd’s family. It’s such a great feeling to be part of a great group of people who also happen to be the best racers on the course. Looks like I’ve got some big nobbies to fill!

Zoom. “Hey!”  Zoom. “What’s up?”  Zoom. 

Zoom.  Zoom.  “S’up?” Zoom.

Zoom.  Zoom. Zoom.

Dallas Bike Works 3 for 3.

Sugar Cycles 1 for 3.

Bike Lane 0 for 3.

“How can you go wrong with perfection?” I thought to myself.  Three Dallas Bike Works racers warming up for their race gave me three warm and friendly hellos.  Only one of my local Houston counterparts managed to mumble something to me.

So, I emailed the shop and found myself back in the grace of Big D.

It’s good to be home.

Oh, the race…  Sorry for waxing nostalgic.

So, here’s what I remember of my Lake Bryan race: Whistle, left turn, move up, singletrack, turn, turn, turn, turn, turn, turn, straight, turn, turn, straight, turn, turn and turn, short hill climb, straight, down the hill, turn, turn, turn and turn again….

My buddy Gabriel picked me up at 0600.  We had planned to leave Houston by 0530 to get in a 15-minute warm up.  But…. We rolled up to start at 0800, got our numbers, dressed and got to the starting line.  Neither of us had a chance to pre-ride the course.

Which was too bad.  We both had too much air in our tires.

At the start, I somehow got stuck in the rear of the pack.  But on the first 180 degree left-hand turn, I sneaked to the outside (right side) and managed to put myself in the middle.  Once we got into the single track, I pretty much stayed there.  I stayed with a group of six riders.  On the first ascent up the berm, we ran into a slower group.  Ugh, that forced all of us off our bikes.  Back into the trees, four of our six dropped off.  We managed to catch another group.  Just as we did, a small, two-tiered root incline stopped the whole bunch!  Luck for me, I was in the very back.  So, I had a nice cushy stopping pad of the guy in front of me.  Unfortunately, his crash pad was a couple of bikes.

Many of the straight-away sprints from open grassy areas into the trees proved that I am a tree-hugging liberal. I smacked two oaks when the trail sharply turned in the woods.

Another intermittent problem has been my rear disc brakes.  Sometimes they like to stay locked down, sometimes they don’t.  After five miles, they decided I needed to slow down and smell the flowers.  The pads clamped down just enough to make me think I needed to put it in the granny gear.  I dismounted, opened my rear skewer, jogged the disc side-to-side to spread out the pads and took off again.  From that point on, I only used the front brake.

I finished in 48:05 just behind two guys I caught on the last straight-away.  That was good enough for 17th place.

But I really won that Sunday.  I found a new group to call teammates.