Warriors Society Traverse Recap

[ocrider]

nice job guyz!!! now lets here some storys

[xhuskr]

ok....story
bonked at mile 19
cramped at mile 34
finished ride with no crash!
too tired to type more.......sorry ocrider

and no.....I did not bring my camera....so no photos.......anybody have some?

[m210]

great ride. i'm not super familiar with all the peaks, so i cant share my experience very well.. they hurt, got my speed on on the dh fire roads, reeled in 5 on trabuco. worst part: the fire road to the finish. OI!

my wife road up maple with some of the geoladders guys and took a few pics. will post them soon later this eve.

congrats everyone, and thanks to all those who made it happen.

[Pain Freak]

Who won? and in what time?

[ocrider]

Manny won and Jason First was not far behind. They both finished under 4 hours

[genusmtbkr5]

Manny won geared expert(16-30) with a blistering time of 3:43, Cameron, won SS expert(16-30) 3:57. They crushed the course, the women did as well, I don't have the names or times for the other classes, but all around 4 hrs or so. I would've love to been at the finish, but I was too busy climbing towards the peak. I was doing good up to Lower HJ, then really just ran out of strength, so I could not maintain a pace to finish under 6 hrs. Coupled with slightly hyper extending my left knee on Blk. Star, cramping on the climb towards 4 corners and again at the "wall" towards WHT, and a minor mechanical (rear derailleur), I'm pleased with my time of around 6:40 or so. Realizing that my legs just didn't have it on the second half of the course, I just tried to finish under 7 hrs. This is IMO, tougher than the CC. Congrats Mario on your finish.

[m210]

worth mentioning that genus was out helping set up the course the night before! not sure how many volunteered their time and raced! cheers genus!

[mp3]

My race was so-so not so hot but not so bad. Everything was cool until almost the peak. I was riding with Sean who caught up to me at 4 corners (Teammates Manny, Jason & Cameron (singlespeed) were ahead as well as Michael (also SS)). Sean asked if I knew what place we were in for our category, "first." Then he took off. =) I figured I would catch up to him later. Anyway, Guy Sutton caught up to me on the "Wall" right before Horsetheif but I couldn't stay with him as I was starting to bonk...didn't take enough gel and I went through my two bottles much faster than I thought. Got to Trabuco and I was in pretty bad shape--famished and parched. I can normally fly down during the VQ but I could only keep a leisurely pace and I was sure that I would be passed by several riders. Caught up to Michael who had a flat. I was hoping that I could pick up the pace when I got to the road but I could barely turn the cranks. Michael caught up to me and I didn't even have enough energy to keep his pace. Got to the finish line asked for food and drink. Big thanks to my teammate, Craig, Suzanne from Switchback and the other folks who gave me what I needed at the finish. Third in my category and seventh overall. Considering all the fast guys out today my goal was top ten and I made that.

It was good to talk to several of the STR riders who rode today. I'm glad I was able to see some of the faces behind the screennames. Great job to everyone who finished.

[OMR]

The Traversa that is... well, actually, it wasn't that bad. The weather cooperated and never really turned that hot... which made it all bearable... but just like when you stop hitting your head with a hammer and how good that feels when you stop... that's how the Traverse was today.

Rolling out of bed with a 4:30am wake up is a hard way to start the day. But with a 6 am start time at the bottom of Blackstar, you gotta roll early. Ran into Gene at the parking lot. Sherry from Switchback Cyclery started us all 111 participants off at 6 am sharp. Although the morning was cool, the ride up to Beek's place warms you up pretty quickly. I was trying to maintain a good constant pace: 65 minutes to Beeks, 2 1/2 hrs to Motorway and 3 1/2 hrs to 4 corners at Pain (Main) Divide. (First cutoff point) Ran into Gene again there. Then 4 1/2 to Upper Holy Jim where I refueled the water bottle. I was carrying Accelerade in the 100 oz Camelback and a 24 oz bottle of water... no cramps or real fatigue the whole day (Yeah, that stuff really works).

So I'm making pretty good time when I roll into the top of Lower Holy Jim (the 2nd cut-off time check point). Decide to have a sandwich and sit and visit for 20 minutes... and that seemed to be my modus operandus the rest of the day. I'd pull into the check points and start visiting with people... which was really fun. I kept following Gene into the check points as he had been visiting there just before I arrived. People kept asking are you really racing or what?

Finally reached the wall before Horse Thief and walked about 100 yards of it before climbing back on the bike and reached the top of Trabuco and visited with Tim of Switchback for 10 minutes. Started down Trabuco and found several guys trying to clear a chain out of the free wheel. Took another 10 minutes before it popped out... just turned the bike loose and rock and rolled (literally) down Trabuco to the Holy Jim parking lot and jawed with the guys there. They said only one guy went off course.. continued on past Trabuco (don't know how he got under the tape across the road) and ended up at Blue Jay. Had to climb back up to Trabuco (ugh!)

The worst part of the ride is riding that damn wash down the canyon and out to the finish line. It just beats the heck out of you! Ended up doing the 44 miles in 7 hrs and 14 minutes with 8200 feet of elevation gain for good measure! Probably could have knocked another 30-45 minutes off if I hadn't been so social, but what the heck it was fun visiting with people. Arrived back at O'Neil and ran into Gene again and compared notes. At the check points they kept saying that I had just missed him by 5 minutes ... seems he was visiting too!

Ended up only eating the sandwich and not any of the Glu packs, or Power Bars. The Accelerade was enough to power me through the day. Legs felt quite good at the end and I had plenty of kick left.... although the butt was sore from all climbing in the saddle.

All in all it was a fun day... more fun than I expected... but glad it's over and I can go back to fun spins in Aliso Woods on the SS and not have to worry about major mileage.

Major congrats to all those that participated and kuddos to Gene... he rode very strong today. BTW: beer tastes really good after a ride like that!

OMR

PS: Next year they are going to cut an hour off the 2 cut off times. Just had way too much time this year.

PPS: Manny won in a time of 3:43 (yeah folks, while I was coming up to 4 Corners, he was finishing!!!) God did not create all people equal... some are more equal than others!!!

[m210]

yes, it was an early start, but for those of you not there, the views on the way up were beautiful. we broke throught the fog and cloud cover and looked down on white clouds in the valleys with crisp and cool air. on the way up blackstar, you could see riders climbing in the fog with rays of sun breaking through. it really was cool - worth geting up that early.

[Pilas]

Yeah, it was a fun race. We got lucky with the weather. Never got too warm. The course was pretty demanding, since there isn't any long descent (other than Trabuco) where you can recover.

Based on a pre-ride of some segments of the course, I was shooting for finishing time of around 5 hours. I ended up finishing in 4:37, so I was extremely happy. I didn't stick around for the awards, but I think I was 11 or 12 overall, and 6th in the Expert 31-45 category.
It was also nice to meet Mario in the shuttle ride back to Black Star.
Congrats to all who raced today!

[Jordansrealm]

props to all of u that did this!

[Ladd Jasper]

Those winning times sound inhuman. Just unbelievable.

Congrats to all who participated. The mere thought of retracing any part of the CC/VQ this soon--I mean, it's barely been several months now--absolutely turns my stomach. Clearly I'm not cut out for competition of this type, and have nothing but respect and admiration for those of you out there giving it your best. Good job, all!

And Gene, nicely done, buddy. Sounds like you exceeded your expectations, which is pretty much everything.

[genusmtbkr5]

Thanks Gregg, Tim, Dell, Jordan and to all. Congrats on your times, Gregg(OMR), Tim(m210), Manny(1st-expert geared, 16-30 yrs), Jason(2nd-expert geared, 16-30), Cameron(1st-expert SS 16-30), Mario(3rd-expert geared, 31-45), Bernice(3rd-expert), Mary(WS member), Ryan(3rd-intermediate 16-30), Matt(2nd-intermediate 16-30), Matt(1st-intermediate 16-30), Andrew(winger), Kevin(xhusker), Steven(ch4os), Tony(WS member) and Troy(thinkfast), and anyone who raced or just rode the course .

I was feeling good at the start and on Black star, I slightly hyper-extended my left knee. It didn't have any effect on my riding though. It's a little more sore now, but it will be fine. I was running a good under 6 hr pace and like Gregg, did a little too much socializing at the check points. Hey Rachel(Wrecker), sorry I didn't stop to chat but I did wave to you and Lare dog(Larry) . I compared my wheel time to my elapse time and I had a 52 min split. Wow! over 50 min, that's way too many stops.

The second half of the course from Lower HJ to Trabuco is where the I lost it. I was hoping this is where I could make up time cause the only real challege was the "wall" to WHT. I flew through that section during the Toad Festival, but I could not pick up the pace or even sustain my current one. When I realized that a 6 hour finish time was gone, I just rode to finish under 7 hrs.

I made a couple stops to rest up as I was just drained and cramping. I had lots of fluid, but I made a huge mistake and didn't eat breakfast(ouch!). When I needed the burst, it wasn't there. I couldn't choke down any clifbars and ran out of my red potatos back at the peak.

Lessons learned: rest up well before the race, eat a nice breakfast 2hrs before, a little less socializing and DRINK MORE FLUIDS. Congrats to all who participated!

Originally Posted by m210

worth mentioning that genus was out helping set up the course the night before! not sure how many volunteered their time and raced! cheers genus!

Thanks Tim. It was great training with you, Mary and Matt. Congrats on your times. For someone who has never road this course and not know what's ahead, you did great! I'll talk to you soon and you, me and OMR will just enjoy a leisurely ride through Aliso.

Finally, thanks to the Warriors Society, all the volunteers and sponsors for making this happen. It was a lot of fun!

[Pain Freak]

That's kind of what racing is all about. Finding what works for you, and exceeding your limits. Congrats to all you guys as it's a very difficult course and to finish at all is a challenge in itself.

That's an awesome time Rueben, one to be very proud of. I was thinking what could make this race even more exciting??? Relay's, yep, that would be a very competetive and fun race. But would probably be to many people for the rangers to accept.
Just a thought.

Props to the Warriors for putting it togther.

[m210]

relays would be kinda cool. exchange at the checkpoints, or could be strategic and exchange whereever each team wanted as long their "baton" got to the finish. quite the honors system so that a team of 4 really wasnt a team of 8, but it would still be fun....

[cH4os]

From the SS Persepective (32x20 CrashTestDummy) the climb to beeks 58min, Winger and Hermit passed at the normal spots, Doug House, THinkfast and Ryan kept pace to Beeks.

Reached Silverado Motorway @ 2:12 stopped and had PB&J, I thought I was last (Going Mental alittle) Sho-Air passed then Nice Job to Mary and Bernice!, Kept pace with a cat named Terry.

Hit 4 coroners where I looked and we had done more than 5800' of climbing for the 1st half... so now the mental has flipped... I got this... My Goal was finish by noon. Road a nice pace all the way to the Wall. Looking pack at the peaks as I passed, I saw maybe 1 other, So at least Im not last, I thought.

The Wall, I had no expectations, but there was an Ultra Runner at the bottom, I caught him, Mike, and we walked fast paced up, chatting... That was it didn't even think about it... In my Social Element.

Took a few water breaks, I had to force myself to stop in the shade and drink, as I was pumping it so hard I wasn't drinking enough.

Got to the Top of Trabuco at 11:30ish... made it to the bottom on the Fireroad by 11:55 I caught a few on the way down but was to tired to pass...

Exact Finish Time was 6:14, Ride Time on Edge was 5:24

Grabbed a couple of Beers at the Store and rolled into the park!

Andrew Winger, Ryan, Matt and THinkfast Troy, Killed it!!! MP3 Looked like he had taken a shower and changed.

Keith Eckstein road a 32x22 and said that was the way... he road all but the climb to 4coroners, and the wall...

Excellent Race Ladies and Gentleman!

I LOVED IT!!

Thanks Warriors for the event!! See you all soon!

[Waldo]

Huge props to all who did this ride. That is a big achievement, regardless of time or equipment. Hope to be out there with you next time.

Well done!

[GeorgiaOfTheJungle]

So, I rolled out of bed at 4am ; a bit early, but no more than half my work days. Plus, had to be at the start by 5:30am. Just made it there, loaded up and I was on my way.

Black Star was a bit more rough than I remember, and I took a bit of banging on those stupid "water bars". Luckily I was able to keep it together until I got to the top of Beeks--and, I beat Cameron up!

Unfortunately, the gate was locked so I was stuck there for a few minutes as the top riders went by (they went around the gate). If only FJ Cruisers were able to get around those damn gates!

I ended up at the top of Beeks, then was sag out to Holy Jim. Everyone looked great going by me, hope I waved to you all. Gene, totally understand you not stopping and wouldn't have expected you to, you were in a good position.

Only a few riders left for mechanical issues, and a few more due to heat/long climbs; it was a tough ride. Kuddos to those that raced!

Have to say, I was totally impressed by the first riders to go by (Cameron at 41min, Jason and Manny at 42min, Mario, just beyond). Those freaks weren't even breathing hard!

[ThinkFast]

Big thanks to the Warriors Society and all the volunteers who make rides like this possible.

Overall I couldn't have been much happier on how I did. The night before the race I only got 2 hours sleep. Started off faster than I planned but I guess a lot people do in a big ride like this. Ened up riding with cH4os most of the way to Beaks. Then continued on to Motorway and most of the way to 4 corners before I was riding with someone I knew. I was a little under an hour to Beaks, around 2 to Motorway and 3 to four corners. I only stopped for a minute or two at four corners.

As I started off to the peak I saw a rider up ahead. When I caught up to him I saw he was on a single speed. The rest of the ride we would trade off who was in front. I blows me away how strong most of you SSers are and this guy was no exception. He dropped me on the descent down Trabuco Trail. In the end I managed to pass him on the flat road at the end of Trabuco Road. Obviously because he didn't have the gearing I had.

It was cool to see the GeoLadders team guys out there too. They are always super cool and always offer support.

Also, I can't remember the time, but the fastest female was well under 5 hours!

Good seeing everyone and meeting new riders.

Thanks for the fun.

It was a lot like vision quest but without all of the ups and downs.