RR: Vail Lake 12 Hour Pre-Ride (er, Exploration)

[allison]

Hope I didn't miss Steph's RR for this already...

Following our underground Suicide D we headed back toward to Temecula and did a quick loop out at Vail to pop Steph's Vail Lake cherry and get her out to Vail prior to the race in June.

It was WINDY. And warm. I'd gotten my shoulders sunburnt the day before in Idyllwild, so had on a full jersey, and didn't feel like reapplying sunscreen, so kept on my knickers instead of shorts. Oh well.

My legs had felt like poo while climbing in Idyllwild, so I wasn't expecting much. I figured I'd take my time and be the caboose today. I was all day. Yay for cabooses!



We started out along the lake and the wind would come in here and there. Sometimes it was hotter than other times. We passed 3 others out for a Sunday ride on the climb. I cleared it all. I don't think we stopped.



The boys hammered up to the top, with Dan taking pics here and there.



Finally some much needed descent.





Then it was up a steep rise, short bend, and up a steeper climb. I hadn't made it on the Dos yet of my 2-3 tries, but I made it fairly easily on the Canzo.

A bit of fun descending, and we came up on the rock garden. I had no trouble clearing it my last try on the Dos without going back for more. I wasn't sure how to put the suspension for the Canzo. I'm planning on riding the Canzo at the 12 hour, with the light wheelset that is on the Dos. I may not do this afterall.

It took about 4 tries...









Last time...









Phew.. finally got the suspension and my head right and got through there!

Steph bloodied up her TT



Justin takes the camera for a bit







Didn't make it up this steep, though





Is Dan showing off, or just hanging on?



Nearing Marlin



Last photo



From the bottom of the drop (I have vids, but not yet uploaded) we headed back toward Marine Corps and climbed that. From there we got lost.

I need to find out from Jason how exactly the course is going to be routed. Then I need to find out from Luke how to get to the switchback climb from Marine Corps, cause the route we took was NOT correct

Sorry to all for getting us lost, but it was a fairly easy out and back.

After the ride we headed to Chipotle (yay!). I need to not eat Chipotle every weekend, though.

All in all, I had a great weekend. Was very tired last night.

Justin and I packed up our stuff and to start off our company's Exercise month correctly, we commuted in today! I feel really good. Not tired or hungry (I thought I'd be starving).

[lukewiens]

glad to hear you guys are spending more time out at vail!

we will have to find out whether or not jason is going to have the athletes go up or down robert's switchbacks. according to the dealy he has posted we are going down.

if you guys wanna come out on thursday i can show you the way i think it is going again.

[surlygal]

Just a bit of info for you all,

Jason always changes the course up just a bit the night before the race.

Neil pre-rides for weeks just to find something little (but enough to throw you) has changed the day before.

So if you can get out on Friday before the race you'll get to ride the whole course as it will be for the race

[allison]

Originally Posted by lukewiens

glad to hear you guys are spending more time out at vail!

we will have to find out whether or not jason is going to have the athletes go up or down robert's switchbacks. according to the dealy he has posted we are going down.

if you guys wanna come out on thursday i can show you the way i think it is going again.

We will for sure be there! I'm gonna email Jason today and ask, unless he responded to my post on MTBR asking.

I'd be happy to do up a geoladders course for it.

Originally Posted by surlygal

So if you can get out on Friday before the race you'll get to ride the whole course as it will be for the race

One or two small things are fine, but I still want to know the general direction of the course and the climbs ahead of time.

Especially since a lot of the stuff on the newer singletrack I still need to figure out how to ride consistantly!

Originally Posted by mechmann

when i talked to EC last week he said that the "Bridges" trail was supposed to be uni-directional as a climb... we will see.

Which I don't understand cause I thought that was one of the DH trails to descend? Unless they don't want people descending it and that's why they are saying up hill only.

I thought I remembered a steep loose section that we descended prior to descending down the bridges section. More HAB I guess? There isn't nearly enough of that...

[Pho'dUp]

Originally Posted by surlygal

So if you can get out on Friday before the race you'll get to ride the whole course as it will be for the race

That's my plan to pre-ride on Friday before. But so far it looks like we'll be going up the Dam climb again?

Anyone know if Jason is going to put more water stations on the course considering how hot it's going to be? I know not to depend on those aid stations but it would be a nice to know there are more of them just in case. I know Jason does a great job of putting lots of volunteers on the course and has several people on quads and motorbikes with radios cruising the course to make everything is going smooth. Getting heatstroke on the course and the overall heat factor has me intimidated this time.

Allison the dirt is getting pretty sandy out there huh?

[allison]

Originally Posted by Pho'dUp

Allison the dirt is getting pretty sandy out there huh?

I actually think the trails are in great condition. I didn't ride out here much last spring/summer, though. There is some sand in the washes, but the trails themselves are pretty good.

[lukewiens]

Originally Posted by allison

Which I don't understand cause I thought that was one of the DH trails to descend? Unless they don't want people descending it and that's why they are saying up hill only.

from the top there (the pic where dan is doing a wheely), it heads down and forks. the left heads towards bridges and the right heads towards burning calfs. burning calfs should be the primary descent from that point cuz EC said that has always been one of his favorite things out there (from our night ride long ago), and i know he is doing work on it. i think that is the entrance to the jump course.

i am pretty confused as to how jason is going to re route that course to go up bridges tho!! i suppose we will have to see....i am sure the battle for track has begun between all those guys out there.

Originally Posted by Pho'dUp

Allison the dirt is getting pretty sandy out there huh?

that is the one crazy thing about that course...it will change over the course of a week. i am sure by june there will be sand pits of despair and it will truly feel like the freakin' sahara during the race!!

[Jordansrealm]

Thank you for the RR. Allison do you happen to have the stats on the ride from your Garmin?

[Pho'dUp]

Originally Posted by Jordansrealm

Thank you for the RR. Allison do you happen to have the stats on the ride from your Garmin?

Hey Jordan, I don't have stats. But from my experience, plan on each lap to be around 9-10miles with 1200-1300 ft of climbing. Taking anywhere between 50min. to 1hr 20min. per lap depending on the person.

[sdyeti]

Yes, I got de-virginized at Vail yesterday

Overall, the course suited my riding style pretty well...I loved the descents (fast) and the steep uphills (esp. the shorter ones).

Will post up my RR later

[allison]

Originally Posted by Jordansrealm

Thank you for the RR. Allison do you happen to have the stats on the ride from your Garmin?

The info from yesterday wouldn't be of much use. We never managed to do another climb back up anywhere. I did post some info from 2 Thursday's ago in Luke's RR that night about what our mileage was, but I am thinking we did the last half backwards, so again not sure of the usefulness

If you get to this before I have a chance, check out my geoladders profile and it should have the info from 4/17? I guess it'd be? (aword4you)

[allison]

From the horse's (er, Jason's) mouth:

There are no changes from the posted course. The route down bridges is on. Just wanted to make sure there was no new construction on any of the trails. So same same fun stuff!

Hoping to have it mapped out for Geoladders from the route/map on the site by next week.

[sdyeti]

I will keep my RR to photos only this time around...only captions

Quadruple your pleasure


Charging up The Dam Climb


And up


And up some more


Alley-oop or is it Alli(son) up?


She easily cleaned it the first time...I had to do a do-over


Attempt #1...fail


Attempt #2...pwned


Attempt numero tres...so close


Attempt numero cuatro...nearly had it but my foot dabbed out


Blood from a scratchy zip tie (that's before the fucca yucca got me, too!) Apologies for the freakish vericose vein


Heading out for another climb


Exciting narrow singletrack, esp. with the wind blowing!


Dan took a dirt bath (drifted into a rut...I gave the dismount a 9.5...much more lenient than the Russian judge)


12 hours...here we come!

[JOx2]

Vail Lake wont disappoint you, they're so fun to ride. i rode there last week and ran into some riders who happen to work for Abbott, one lady said she is training for some triathlon, i forgot all their names except for Ryan. i was hoping to ran into them at work to see if they're going again but no luck.

So today after work , im at Vail again visiting "The Damn Climb" its so addicting.

I will be there again this Thursday.

Exciting narrow singletrack, esp. with the wind blowing!

Where does this narrow singletrack ends?

[allison]

Originally Posted by JOx2

I will be there again this Thursday.


Where does this narrow singletrack ends?

Ride with us Thurs. I think 1-2 engineers will be there also with us.

It's off of Marlin (or is Marlin) and we'll definitely be riding it!

We make a left and it drops us off on the south side of the r/c car track.

[Docklobster]

Joe and I will be there Thursday after work...