Race Report 2011 Traverse

Perfect weather today. I had fun. It was a good race, but not my most favorite trails. How was everyones day? What obstacles did you have to overcome?

 

Congratulations to everyone...the weather was perfect and there are some smoking times on Strava already posted!!!! This will help push STR up in the KOM challenge.....

GREAT JOB!!!!!!!! By all.......

 

My race was going well right until i got to the bottom of the wall after santiago.... I broke my chain had to walk to holy jim and wait for someone with a quicklink. That took an hour and a half and my 2 flats did help either. Moving time was a 5 hours and 18 mins and change so im proud with that effort. I'll race it next year.

 

Good times today, but wow this is a tough ride. I thought it was harder than Counting Coup even though my time was close to the same. The weather was great. Thanks to the Warriors Society and all of the volunteers. Total time was 5:08 with the following splits: Beeks 0:48, Motorway 1:44, 4 Corners 2:32, Peak 3:15, Trabuco 4:22. I need to get a little more confident on the downhills. I think I got passed by 4 or 5 people coming down Trabuco.

 

I usually see more SS guys out there but I did not see anyone else but me. Anyone else tackle this on the SS?

 

Singlespeeds are so 2010

 

Well I am old and out of the loop so it works for me

 

I saw a girl repping the ss. She could shred.

 

Awesome thread so far. </sarcasm>

 

Thanks. That was me. Congrats to all who were out there today!:clap: This was my 1st Traverse. And I have to say, it was harder than any other races/rides I've done on the SS! I now know why only a few do.](*,) My goal time was anything under 7 hours, and no ER visits. After hitting 4-Corners, and stopping by Hotchkiss's cheering crew for more water/bottles,:wave: I thought for sure that there was no way I'd be getting anything under 7:30, and that I was most likely not gonna place very well.

I caught a 2nd wind after bagging the Peak, and just kept pedaling. (yay, training!). I got to the top of Trabuco and realized that I had a good shot of making my original goal time. I took it a bit easy down Trabuco (I'm in a wedding tomorrow, and I knew the bride wouldn't be cool if I broke something, or came in with a busted up face). Rolled up to the "time-taking tent" at 6:47. Not bad placement either. I was totally shocked. For some reason, I painted this picture like I was gonna be the last person finishing or something. I guess that's what the Pain Divide does to a girl after 6+hrs on it.

Special thanks to the WS for the countless hours it takes to put on such a great event, and to all the volunteers out there!:clap::clap: And a special congrats to Chris B for his awesome 1st Place Men's Expert finish!!!!!:bang: It was nice to chat with you guys afterwards.

 

Hardest race I have ever done. Wow I did not know OC had such big hills to climb. How about Tinker. He killed it 3:45. That man is not human

 

What a great story WAY TO GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I woke up in morning thinking "WHY". This would be my 5th Traverse and you would think I've learned by now...., guess not. My knees felt good(I had to bail on the VQ due to knee issues) and this time I didn't loose my crankset like year. This time it was my lower back. No big deal, but I had to stop several times to stop and stretch out.

The weather was perfect today. Once we got above the clouds, it was sunny, but the Main Divide was the worst I've seen in a while. I guess the FS never got around to grading the sections from Motorway to 4 Corners as it was chunky and loose as ever.

No energy today as I wanted to quit so many times today. I had a wedding to go to in near Lake Arrowhead so I wondered if it was worth continuing on...., it was..., I finished. Not like I wanted to as I didn't have the energy to hammer in the sections I'm normally used to on the Main Divide, but after 5 Traverse races, I think I'm finally done. ;-)

Sorry no pics this time. I wish I had cause there was some awesome views along the way.

 

Way to go, Kimmi! I now really wish I had joined Greg's cheering crew, but my laziness got the better of me. You are making us SSers proud!

 

At 35 you must be fighting off Alzheimer's. [/sarcasm]

 

How many times have people said "never again" and then changed their minds?
Your avg HR exceeds my max and your time was 2nd best of your 5 times.

PM me when you want to work on your geoladders to-do list, but you'll have to slow down.

 

I guess I should do a little ride report now. I was not sure I was ready for the traverse and my confidence level at the start was low. I decided to do a new crankset, bb and rebuild my pedals the night before and in the process got some large click that I could not trace. Sitting in the parking lot I was just hoping my bike stayed together. This was my second traverse and last year set a goal of 6 hours and fell short, I kept that goal for this year bit was detirmind to make it. I set a good pace up to beeks and set a new pr for myself 53:07 gate to gate. The stretch to motorway was it's normal brutal self. On the single there are a few his that I plan on walking just to save myself for later. The only excitement was I watched someone do a big flying w and go down good on the fast downhill with the right hand u turn at the bottom, he was ok. The rut at the bottom was a killer and almost took me out. Got to motorway in 1:58 and was dreading the next section. Got my walk on going up the wall before 4 corners and had a friend catch up to me there. Rolled into 4 corners 2:59 with a buddy waiting and filled up the bottles and got moving in just a few minutes. Last year I went easy to the peak but not this time, I took off and kept a really good pace lagging the peak in about 45 minutes. Took my time going down to hj knowing it was loose and nasty. At this point I knew that unless something went wrong I had my time in the bag. I was tired but kept pushing on to trabuco. The gate at trabuco was a nice sight knowing I was downhill for the rest of my day. Not the fastest downhill guy bit did well for myself in the loose stuff. Not much to say about the wash, it sucks. Got to the line in about 5:40 and rolled over to oniell to see my family and friends waiting. The chicken was amazing and I was tired. Thank to everyone that helped, the warriors for putting on a good event and a the people that came out to cheer it is a big help.

 

Untill next year.

 

I noticed that you DNS'd for both VQ & Traverse????????????

The Traverse......


The Good:

Perfect riding weather.
All but 1 rider made the 4 Corners and LHJ cutoffs(rider was turned around at Beeks Place).

The Bad:

52 riders DNS'd.(175 registered)
2 separated shoulders.

 

My HR started out high about 173 average and slowly came down as got warmed up, but usually like it around 150-160. Last year I was faster, but my cranks issues cost me lots of time. I'll be PMing you soon Doug, thanks.

WOW! 52 riders? I guess they got up and thought it rained. They guessed wrong cause the weather was great and once you go above the clouds, the views were spectacular. Really bummed I didn't bring my camera.