WORS #6 Alterra Classic

I didn't have plans on attending the Alterra Classic.  I got home from a long week at Nationals the Monday before, I had a rest week planned, and it's a fairly long drive.  In the last minutes of Thursday Amber and I decided to pack the car and leave after work on Friday.  We both wanted to get away and for some reason we enjoy the city of Milwaukee.

As mentioned I had a rest week, which was perfectly planned and needed.  With every day off the bike I could feel my body getting strength and energy back.  I felt like the last months of workouts was all catching up and I was giving them a chance to work.  Usually I'm a bit slow off a rest week but during the warm up on Friday, besides a small bit of laziness, the legs felt like they had been priming the whole week.  

The race started up a hill and I missed a pedal which put me mid pack fast.  By the time we crested the top the lead out had begun and I was not in a preferable position sitting about 15th.  I moved up a few spots to about 10th and had to settle for it because Alterra likes to squeeze you into single track and not let you out for long stretches of time.  About 10-15 min nto the race there was still quite a long line of riders together as we curved in and out of this terribly twisting single track.  Over a wet spot where they placed some flat rocks my bike started bouncing a bit too much and as I started to pedal again I realized that my chain was sucked up behind the little ring.  I tried to pedal it out but it only made it worse.  I got off my bike pulled it out and placed it back on.  15 or so seconds had passed by but now I had to wait for a long line of guys to pass until I found a gap to jump back in.  No less that 15 guys went by.  I knew my chances of catching the group I was with was small.  You can't do much chasing in a group on this course.  The single track whines too much and you are in it too long to make moves.  By the end of the first lap I was by myself working my way up to the next group.  I noticed the a group ahead any 1/2 way through the 2nd lap I had attached.  I stayed with the group until the finishing climb.  I was starting to feel really good so I made a small move up the hill and noticed I had a slight gap.  I figured because the legs were good I would try to bridge to the next group.  Before I knew it I had quite the gap on the group I just left.  It was all well until a bumpy open field dropped my chain again sucking it up in the same spot as before.  Panicked, I jumped off my bike got it back on.  Back on my bike and no less than 2 pedal strokes and off again.  By this time I had played with the chain for a good 20-30 seconds and the group still had not reached me.  Just as I remounted the 2nd time I noticed them about 5 seconds back.  I really didn't want to be caught so I went hard again.  Starting the last lap I had a slight gap but they were able to real me in.  I then sat on the front during the single track to recover a bit.  About 10 min left in the race Justin P. jumped up front and we approached the finishing climb together.  He had a bit more at the end and got me up the climb.  I finished 13th.  Keeping the chain problems in prospective, a good result.

The positive thing was I felt good and legs were firing very well off a rest week.  Although I never accept anything but my best this sport is teaching me to have patience.  You will have good days and bad days, whether that means fitness or mechanical.  Race your hardest and take things as they come.  I also got some mechanical tips from Matt G. and he suggested I contact Sram about my chain dropping.  So Phil at Quick Stop took care of me and sure enough Sram admitted to a chain slack problem with their rear derailleur causing chain drop.  I have a new one on the way.            

Nationals XC Start Sequence Shots

I was browsing pictures of the National Championships and ran across some sequence shots of the start of our XC race.  You can see from the first picture it's a wide start gate and everything looks calm.  Then all of sudden the guy on the right of the picture lost his wheel and fell into the rider next to him who eventually took out about 5 of us.  You can finally see me in the final picture on the right hitting the deck. Other riders were able to go around and continue on as the 5 of us untangled our bikes.  The guy that eventually won the race is the one out front in the 2nd picture gaining huge time over us on the floor.  2 of the top 4 riders, including myself, were caught up in this crash.

The whistle went off

First Contact

The Pile Up

All pictures are from www.teami4.com.  These are proofs only, all available for purchase on their site.

National Championships - Sun Valley, ID

My first attempt at the National Championships was in Sun Valley, ID.  Although it didn't matter where they were this year I was attending.  It just happend to be that it was in the middle of nowhere, Idaho and I found my new favorite little town in the process.  Sun Valley is a small mountain town of 6,000 people.  The town had everything you wanted for a small town and it is super clean and neat.  You could tell it was a place for the wealthy.  It was set in the valley of the mountains giving you an incredible back drop no matter where you looked.

I arrived in Boise, ID on Tuesday before the race.  I found a local bike shop that directed me to their only single track in the city.  It is always neat to ride new single track but this stuff is nothing to write home about.  It was set in the foot hills, in a massive open area and they were hard packed dirt trails that ran up and down through the hills.  The only good thing was once you made it to the top you could descend for up to 10 minutes.  During and after the ride I realized my legs were still out of commission from my blow up the weekend before, not how I want to feel the week before Nationals.  After a quick discussion with my brother he talked me into taking an ice bath.  He use to take them when he played football for Northern and said they helped him tremendously.  I took 2 ice baths and laid with my legs up for the rest of the night.

Thursday I was on my way over to Sun Valley.  A beautiful 2 1/2 drive up the hills into the mountains.  Upon arrival I had time for 1 pre-ride lap.  The legs were feeling much better and the course had me grinning.  Although a 25 minute climb is tough to grin about I was having fun.  The course started at the base of the mountain and it wrapped up the mountain in single track until the last 1/3 finished it off with two track. It was 25 minutes of constant climbing.  The reward, 18 minutes of single track down hill.  I did another lap of that night and was starting to feel comfortable on the course.  Friday was much of the same.  More ice baths, recovery, and pre-ride.

Category 1 25-29 Cross Country
Our start time was 7:30 am.  I had been keeping my body on EST the whole week so the early race wouldn't affect me to much.  Besides the 5:30 breakfast everything else was great about the early race.  Especially the cooler temps.

I got a front row call up because of my USA Cycling ranking.  I lined up in the middle because there was really no preferred line as 100 meters off the line you start a steep climb.  My mind and nerves were good and I was ready to go.  The whistle blew............bam!  On the ground in a pile up no more than 10 feet off the line.  I'm typically always the first out but because of the severity of this climb I figured I would ease into the start.  It most likely cost me my XC National Championship.  I went over the top of 2 riders that converged in front of me.  They were all tangled up and I calmly grabbed my bike and found my way around it.  It had costed me 30-45 seconds.  I approached the climb and the leaders were half way up the 90 second prologue climb.  I stayed incredibly calm for what my usual reaction would be.  I started to climb just picking one at a time.  We started the first down hill and in a single track down hill you have no choice but to follow whose in front.  I came out of the prologue lap sitting 20-25 according to my parents.

At the start of the big climb I settled into a groove and knew if I stayed calm in my tempo I would catch a group.  Sure enough I caught a group of 5 climbing.  Because of the technicality of the climb the first 1/3 had a lot of dismounts following 5 guys.  Because of this I was riding pretty comfortable.  About 1/2 way up I was able to take a couple spots and when we approached the 2 track climb I went into my race pace.  I was able to pick off quite a few more people before the 15 minute descent.  The descent is a blast but believe it or not it can get sickening going down hill for that long especially when the opportunity to pass is just about null 

The start of the second lap I had a clear shot at the climb and got into a tempo.  I could finally see another group of riders and worked my way up.  By the 2 track I had over taken that group.  Because USA Cycling doesn't use back numbers, I had no idea if I was racing these guys or not, which made it tough to judge the effort.  Approaching the top the 2 guys I passed took over and started the descent.  On the descent I dropped a chain and had to let the 2 guys go.  I didn't panic and knew I was probably around the top 5 so I figured just stay calm and finish the race safe.  Come to find out the 2 guys I let over take me on the top of the climb were 2nd and 3rd.  I rolled in solo for 4th place.  I was extremely happy with 4th place but now all I could think of was, "what if?"  I only finished 1:50 behind the winner and I lost all of :50 seconds between my pile up and my chain drop.  But racing is full of, "what if's" so I took my podium and let it go looking for revenge in the short track.

Category 1 19-29 Short Track Cross Country
I knew the legs were good and I was ready for an awesome STXC race.  They changed the course a bit which worked out into my favor because they added 2 sections that were power climbs.  This is exactly what I needed to make the race hard and ensure that I could stay up front and safe.

On the whistle I settled into 7th or so place.  Even though it was the first lap this isn't exactly where I wanted to be knowing their was a crash the day before.  I took an inside line for me to shoot to the front.  By the half way point I was in 3rd exactly where I wanted to be.  The race was 15 minutes plus 2 laps, so about a 20 min race.  I'm typically the aggressor and I wasn't changing it for the National Championships.  About 5-7 minutes into the race I was on the front and noticed I was pulling about 10 guys along.  This course favored drafting and I knew that if I kept this pace we would have way to many in contention.  At the 9 minute mark I picked my first attack point and made my move.  At first it took about 5 guys with me but the continued pressure eventually pulled me and another guy off the front.  For 3 laps this gap stuck.  I briefly told the guy, "We can keep this gap, lets work."  After the 3 laps he didn't come around and I noticed a group of 3 approaching.  With 3 laps to go another rider attached.  The guy I was with never came around and in the heat of competition I let him know my feelings.  With 2 to go the other rider fell off leaving it down to 2 of us again.  I gave him the lead for the final laps taking a small break and planning my move.  In the same spot as my first move I went for it and took over the front.  The course ends with 3 corners and whoever is in front in those 3 corners is going to win the race.  Coming down the last straight stretch I hammered it but was over taken on a nice inside move into a corner.  With only the 3 corners left I made one last attempt to come around but ran out of real estate.  On the last corner I sprinted off his wheel but ran out of room losing by a wheel.  2nd place.

I was so close I could feel the Starts and Stripe jersey on my back.  I wanted it so bad but got out done on the last 1/4 of the lap.  As a racer we train hours and hours on end.  Race so hard our bodies hate us.  We do this all for 1 moment, the win.  Coming so close to that one moment and not getting hurts more than the race effort itself.  Don't get me wrong, a 4th and 2nd place at the National Championships is wonderful but I trained for the win.  Coming so close to that win leaves a burning inside me to get faster so I can overcome that last 1/4 of a lap and feel that moment.            

Approaching Sun Valley

View from our descent

Climbed up the right.  Descended down the left.

This video is a view from half way down our descent.  It was one of the 17 switchbacks down the hill.

      

Mining Journal Coverage

Mountain bikers seek new outlets this summer after canceled race

Blazing new trails

July 5, 2011

By AMANDA MONTHEI - Journal Sports Writer (sports@miningjournal.net) ,The Mining Journal

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ISHPEMING - The one thing that the Upper Peninsula certainly does not lack is terrain. Rocks, forests, large hills that can possibly be considered mountains gives the U.P. nearly everything under the sun.

For a mountain biker, that makes it a really good place to be.

In lieu of the annual Superior Bike Fest - which would have taken place at the end of June, but was canceled due to an unsustainable budget - area biking has taken a look past regional racing, and in some aspects toward just getting more people into the sport.

"We're the only (exclusive) mountain bike team in the Upper Peninsula, but there are other teams that have popped up in the area, which is showing the popularity of the sport and that it's growing," said Tyler Gauthier, the director of the Culver's Mountain Bike Racing Team in Ishpeming.

Gauthier began the race team two years ago as an outlet of the Range Mountain Bike Club, which is made up of bikers from Negaunee, Ishpeming and west Ishpeming. Gauthier has relied in past years on the Superior Bike Fest to deliver a fun racing environment on his home turf, so the cancellation of the race was a huge loss to the local racing circuit, leaving only the Ore to Shore Mountain Bike Epic in Marquette County in August.

"It wasn't so much a shock - it was more of a disappointment," he said. "Anytime you can race in your hometown for your home crowd and sleep in your own bed and get prepared for a race of such stature - I mean last year it was the Michigan State Championships - it holds a lot of value.

"It was definitely a disappointment to see such a big race leave our area."

Now Gauthier is focusing his efforts on his individual goals as well as the future of the club.

He is competing in both regional and national races at this point, and is also planning on competing in the national championships in Sun Valley, Idaho, this summer. There is also the Ore to Shore race scheduled this year for Aug. 13.

On top of races, Gauthier has high hopes for the still developing Culver's team.

"My plan as the director of this team last year was to get it up and running, to get the recognition and sponsorship money rolling in so we can sponsor some guys," he said.

"In the future I have the plan to create a women's team and a junior team, but we're too young in our development to spread that much money around right now.

"We don't have that youth development but it is definitely in the plans."

While Culver's is invite only, it participates directly with the Range Mountain Bike Club. As of recently, the two groups have ammased a large amount of interest for mountain biking in the area. They hold rides weekly on Wednesday nights, which have proven popular in recent weeks.

"On a nice night, we can have upwards of a hundred people show up to one of our rides. The popularity of the sport is growing and the interest is there and it only helps in our town of west Ishpeming and Ishpeming," Gauthier said.

The two groups stick mainly to the Range Mountain Bike Trails for riding, which spans from Negaunee to west Ishpeming and offer more than 60 miles of single-track biking trails.

Luckily for the mountain and road biking enthusiasts in the area, there is no shortage of scenic routes and quality trails in the area and the entire U.P.

At least all these trees, mountains and mud puddles make dealing with the loss of such a unique local race as the Superior Bike Fest just a little bit easier.

 © Copyright 2011 The Mining Journal. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

WORS #4 Subaru Cup ProXCT Pictures - Straight A Photography

All these incredible photo's are courtesy of Amber Gauthier/Straight A Photography