Race Report 2011 Traverse

Was there a photographer at this event?

 

Not that I am aware of.

 

Thank you, I did notice a Warriors Society guy on Trabuco Rd. taking some pictures, hopefully he will post those somewhere.

Matt

 

There are a few pics of the leaders posted on MTB Race News...although the 2011 report isn't up yet. http://www.mtbracenews.com/view_article.jsp?id=316

 

Thanks for the link.

Here's my ride report,

The day started early. I had to be at Blackstar at 6 am to pick up my starting packet and jersey, so I was up at 3am and left my house at 4, ugh! When I arrived at the start line, the Warrior Society folks were well organized and a cool bunch of people. They checked me in and handed me my number plate and swag. Once I had my Jersey in hand, I thought, “hmmm, do I really need to do this” At that point I started to see a few familiar faces, Frank (Grinding), Mark, and Hal. I also met Marks son who was doing the race, and waved at Tinker, who was parked two cars down from me.

The Warrior Society peeps started calling us all to the start line at about 6:50, gave us a quick course overview and at 7am sharp, we were off. The weather was perfect, a gray overcast day with really mild temps. The conga line of riders spread out fairly quickly, and the route up Black Star was pretty mellow with no real nasty climbing that I can remember. We entered the clouds at Beeks Place at 1:03, then began the long grind down the Main Divide, traversing Pleasants, Bedford, Bald, and Modjeska Peaks, which included some of the more significant climbs of the day, a few of which turned into grinding hike-a-bikes. I don’t remember exactly when I exited the top of the clouds, but remember the views were incredible.

Four corners was a really welcome sight, making the 22 miles and 6000 feet of climb in around 3:20 (50 minutes ahead of the 4:00 cutoff). The Warriors society folks were great, cheering and guiding me in the direction of the food and water. I refilled my bottles, tossed down some nutes, and was back on my way heading for Santiago Peak. This is where the pain started to set in, as I was nearing the peak, I could feel my legs start to deaden, and I had to make a couple short stops on my way up. The feeling when I rounded the last corner at apx 28 miles and 7000+ feet of climb at 4:24, was arguably the best feeling I had during the entire race. Barring a crash on the descent to Lower Holy Jim, I would make the last cutoff with plenty of time to spare, leaving the only thing keeping me from finishing, was me.

The descent down Main Divide to the Lower Holy Jim checkpoint was tiring. It was steep in sections, covered with small rocks, and lot’s of baby heads. Once past the LHJ cutoff at around 4:35 (55 minutes ahead of the cutoff time) it was on to the dreaded Wall. I made it up the first ½ of the Wall with a combo of riding and hiking, then it became just hike-a-bike, with a nice serving of wobbly legs and pain. Then I was at the topwith another feeling of elation and a small boost in energy. I was basically done with the climbing, with only 600 to 700 feet remaining, although it felt more like a couple thousand while doing it.

When I rounded the last corner of Main Divide to Trabuco Trail (36 miles at 5:48 ) I caught up with Hal again at the last aid station. We had seen each other throughout the day and he’d been giving me the lay of the land out on the course. Since this was my first time on the Trabuco single track descent, I thought it was a good Idea to follow someone who was familiar. This was the funnest part of the whole ride, sailing down 6 miles of some beautiful single track that winds through some heavily wooded areas, some sections covered in loose shale, a few stream crossings, and then finally dumping out onto Trabuco Road for the last few miles to the finish. I followed Hal across the finish line at apx 6:41, we were stoked! We shook hands, congratulated each other, then rode over to festivities area was greeted with more cheers and some free El Pollo Loco.

What a day, This was a butt kicker, but I had a great time. I would do it again in a heartbeat . My goal next year, a sub 6 hour finish.

 

Johnny, Did you know the guy that rode for Ted his name is Paul Dalton

 

Holy cow, I should have recognized my own brother! I thought he was in New Jersey.

 

An aside update about Dave. He bent his rim real bad, but did not crash and was able to ride all the way back to his car. No hoofing was required.
I hope Mike recovered enough for the wedding he was heading to in Arrowhead.

 

Thanks to the Warriors Society for putting this event on. Apart from everything leading up to the event, I know there is a lot of clean up work and I appreciate whoever had to do it.

Such a great way to spend a day. It takes all the other people to be there to make it what it is. All of us striving for the same goal, moving at such similar speeds; it might take several minutes to overtake or be overtaken, yet there is so much silence. Like ships passing in the night. May be a quick gesture, or may be not. The sound of breathing.

Im ready to do it again.

Since reading reports is kinda fun, Ill throw mine out there.

I arrived with just enough time to comfortably get ready, but not enough time for a warm up, I would use the first half hour of the race for that: mistake number one.

Last year, I went with just bottles and thus needed to stop at the aids stations. This year I would use my camelback for water and carry just one bottle with about three hours worth of Perpetuem mix. But I would wait until the first aid station to fill the bottle, to save weight of course: mistake number two.

The day was cool at that time, but not cold. Grey and beautiful, it was great day to push yourself.

Following my normal MO for races I started slow and tried to think about the long haul.

I am constantly amazed by the number of people I see early in a race as long as this, who are already grimacing and grunting, mashing hard on the pedals or spinning their palpitating hearts out, all before we even start going up. I always wonder how those guys are gonna be doing ten minutes later.

By the time we hit the climb I could see that the front of the race was like, already gone and there was another group behind them, and they were gone too. It wasn't even a couple miles in but the gap was huge.

I rode with patience, I felt a bit lethargic, but I knew my body would show up eventually. I stood I sat, I pedaled with efficiency, but I avoided hard effort.

I hadn't yet had my morning coffee, that may be mistake number three. The Perpetuem flavor was CaffeLatte, which has caffeine in it, and I was so looking forward to it. Too forward really, the first aid station was much further than I had remembered, and I not only began to get hungry, but I really could have used that caffeine earlier.

Finally I got to the first aid station and drank some sweet nectar and immediately began to feel better. I love Perpetuem. I couldn't go fast yet, but I had found happiness in a bottle.

At the same point last year in the VQ, high on the maindivide, I was able to see the cities below like looking down from a helicopter. Their millions of lights shining very pretty. On this day, we looked to be some hundreds of feet above an impenetrable cloud layer. It could have been made of real whipped cream or porcelain, neat.

One nice thing about starting slow is that you are always passing people. Up and down I went, I caught and passed every single person that I saw. Honest. Just not quickly. With two guys in particular the struggle would go on for a couple hours.

It wasn't until four-corners that my body arrived. And all of a sudden, and quite noticeably, I just started going faster. I felt good and fast over Santiago and hauled as I could going down. It's crazy how sketchy that road can be. At mach speed I was able to really launch off some of the humps they have for erosion control, but I had to keep it mellow in the turns, I had seen several bloody riders already.

After descending for relatively long with out much pedaling, my legs always want a minute to feel better, so I let my body tell me when to go again.

I had a guy closing on me then, and that was fun. I generally don't care about position, but that far into the race, it felt like a threat. It was awesome. We had seen a lot of each other earlier. He liked passing me on the false flats and less steep climbs, but I would catch him when it got steep enough. Now I'm feeling fine.

I thought that I could sense his determination to over take me. I think he saw me as a back marker of sorts and just wanted to be in front of me. I see now I have no idea what he was thinking.

He was just a few seconds back as we came to the wall.

The effort there and the noise from the grit and gravel kept me from seeing or hearing him. I blindly rode with purpose, and when I got to the top I couldn't see him anymore or anyone else until the Trabuco ST.

Near the bottom of the trail, Heidi Volpe allowed me to go around her. I was thinking holy jeebus, thats a girl. I know there are fast ladies out there, but I was surprised to see one so late in the race.

I went as fast as I could convince myself to down the dirt road. Not quite my highest gear, I was daydreaming of catching someone or better yet someones and having an epic battle sprint to the finish, skidding recklessly all three of us through the finsh area and being yelled at, and emerging the victor, of course. But only if I got there in time. So I kept pedaling.

Then just as I was arriving at the area where I knew the finish line was, just before that dog-leg left, I saw a guy.

He looked like he was standing still, I couldn't see the line but I knew he could and so I was wondering what he was doing. It became clear when he un-clipped a foot and went on with only his right leg. I came up behind him with a bit of momentum and gave him a good shove (the second rider I pushed that day, I guess krunner was the other).

It was a gesture I guess. I'm not sure it helped him much, but in doing so I made my own leg cramp up and the two of us limped across the line separated by a few seconds.

I felt good afterward, strong still. I had some food and was about to ride back to the start when a shuttle ride proved to be too enticing.

For me, the hardest part of the ride by far had to of been that steep, loose and deep, sandy, rock-filled section prior to ...four-corners I think. I remember seeing people walking in the distance and I couldn't figure out why until I got there. I don't do walking, I hate it, so I was willing to expend the effort, but I just didn't have either the power or commitment to do it with any authority.


PS: Holy cow I saw so many $7k+++++ bikes it was ridiculous. `11 S-Works Epic 29ers($10k-ish) everywhere, it was unreal.

Till next year.

 

I second that! Instead of age groups, they should have income groups.

 

Hello

Just posted up a race report on www.MTBRacenews.com

Hope you like it

Thanks to Eric Hull for some pics

Jens

 

WS write up posted here: http://www.warriorssociety.org/events/writeup_traverse2011.html