2014 Pow Wow Race Reports

Good times again. I started further in the back at start time so I had to do a lot of maneuvering early on. Made it to the ball right at 1 hour and feeling good. Main Divide I felt great, really enjoying the sunrise, and hit Moto. I started passing a bunch of riders and then it happened. For the first time in 8 Pow Wows I got a flat. That put me behind and I rolled in to aid 1 at 2.5 hours. That's what I get for going with lighter xc tires. Me and xc tires are not a good match. Aid station 1 my wife and daughters greeted me and loaded up with supplies. A dosing of Pixie dust and a push from the girls and I was on the way. I knew I had to make up time so I pushed on. I had a blast as usual flying down UHJ and lower. As I passed many riders one said, "you have been waiting for this part for 35 miles". Yes I had. I typically make up good time on the downs. I got to aid 2 and was greeted by Troy who filled up my bottles. As I started up TCR I was surprised how good my legs felt. I had quad cramps coming on for the first 15 minutes on lower HJ so I was nervous what was to come. I rode all of Trabuco to WHT and never stopped. I asked for a Coke at the burger shack and went on my way. Trabuco was fast and I did worry about a flat with a tube in rear. No issues and got to the Trabuco gate at 7:45ish. One other rider, Charlie, came in at same time and I looked at him and said "we need to beat 8". We pushed each other down TCR and finished at 7:58. When I stopped I looked down and I had snapped my rear der cable in two. Luckily it happened in the biggest gear so I could hammer my way down TCR.


I really loved the finish this year. I have a young family and it was great they did not have to stand on a dirt road waiting for me to cross. Best Pow Wow ever put on in my opinion. Thanks to all WS volunteers. A big thanks to my wife for all of the support and to my cheering section with Daddy signs.

 

Looking at the wind blowing out there right now.....I am glad we didn't have to do this today.

 

Congratulations to all that put in the training and worked their asses off yesterday. That is a big accomplishment and something to be proud of. Looking at all the DNS's, it's pretty disappointing that many people took a spot from someone that could have actually ridden the event. Obviously given the time between the sign up and the event, life happens but if a system can't be managed to transfer spots, perhaps anyone who DNS's should have to wait a couple years before being allowed to sign up again?

 

Yup that's me... its an amazing bike...of course it climbs great but it descends like no HT I have ever ridden.

 

Great reports and someday I would like to try this but looking at the results, the number of DNS are very disappointing; may I suggest a couple of solutions

1) Move the sign up closer to the race that way people won't sign up way in advance and then decide they are not ready etc.. and DNS; you sell this race out every year so rest assured it will fill up like as always no matter when you do the sign up

2) Have a transfer system for those that decide to DNS with a waiting list for people that want to come in and they can then take those spots

there has to be a better way then having races with this amount of high DNS's; otherwise this looks like a great race!!!

 

Fun ride/race yesterday and great seeing everyone out there.
Thanks Andy for the cold beer at the bottom of Motorway, that was tasty!
Rigid single speed still sucks but only had one flat, for that I was thankful.

 

Yes, that is his wife.

Happens every year. Things happen, injury, sickness, didn't set alarm, car broke down on the way to event, who knows.

She wasn't the only woman to finish, maybe on the SS rigid, but not the only woman on SS

They didn't complete the VQ course and never checked in at the top of WHT and Trabuco. Can't stop everyone from turning right at the HJ parking lot with their number plate still attached when they should've went left..., the course is marked with arrows. DNF's get their plate removed when they reach a cutoff and didn't make it or decide they can't continue so when they come through, they will not get a feather. It's rider responsibility to know the course.

Read the names of those listed as DNS. Many of those are participants who could do and have done this event. I'm sure they had good reason not to ride after paying the entry fee which is NOT refundable.

Acitve.com handles the sign ups. I'm sure they have system in place that can handle transfers but that would probably cost extra. Do we raise the entry fee to cover such cost?

How do any of us know for sure that those "that could have actually ridden the event" couldn't ride either because of last minute injuries, flu/other sickness or family emergency. Do we start asking for Dr's notes to prove they had a legit reason not to show before we penalize them for 2 years?

The waiting list and transfer process was a burden to us who already have too much to do to get ready for this event. I could probably do it, but that would take away the time I need to do the others things I do leading up to the event like trail work, getting the 400 feathers ready and fixing ruts.

We have this come up EVERY YEAR and here is the answer: We've done it this way for a long time and it won't matter when we have sign ups. There will always be DNS's. Besides, when would start you're training. Imagine training for months leading up to sign ups say 1 month before day of event and NOT get a spot. We'd never hear the end of it.

We've done the transfer and waiting list in the past and it worked to get more people in, but there were those who took advantage of the system and would buy a spot to sell for profit knowing full well they had no intention of riding it in the first place. Or have someone who doesn't even ride buy multiple spots knowing they can sell it for profit. I heard someone actually paid $200 for their spot in the VQ on top of the $25 transfer fee.

Maintaining the waiting list, calling or notifying the next person became a pain in the butt. People were still tying to sell their spots the night before when the policy was in place that transfer cutoff was 48 hrs prior. Others showing up at packet pick up saying they bought a spot from so and so only to find out there was no spot for so and so.

As far as DNS's, can't help that some if not most get injured while training for this event. Others get sick with flu or something else. Have any of you ever planned on going for ride, then decided not to because you didn't get enough sleep the night before or got injured? I know many names on those DNS list for both events. Trust me, they wanted to be there..., they just simply were unable to ride.

To be clear, it's not that we're not open for suggestions as we've tried several ways to lessen the DNS's list with transfers. Even allowing transfer with a transfer fee of $25 which ALL went to charity. Trust me, if there was a way to insure that everyone who signed up showed up, we would try, but not if it adds a burden or headache to those already task with so much to do leading up to the day of the event.

Now, back to the reports. Thanks

 

One of the highlights of the ride was seeing you after you chugged the beer at the bottom of Motorway. Classic!

 

Course cutting during the VQ? For real? Talk about really missing the point of pretty much everything.

Anyhow, congrats to everyone else who was out there!

 

Some pics below...
I was wrangled in to support a couple buddies riding CC so got to see the sights for the first time at B*, Maple and then the finish. Glad I did, was a great experience, even if not riding. Amazing to see the pros flying down MW and then out of the saddle cranking up Maple, some without a stop or bottle change. But the coolest part was everyone cheering on all the riders as they came through, and ready to help anyone with food, tubes, pedals or a little push to get up to speed. edit: Oh yeah, and Phisin Paul's daughters throwing the pixie dust!

Big respect to all who rode, and kudos to all the family/friends/supporters and, of course, the Warriors Society. Great to see all the camaraderie in the mountainbike community.

Check in on B*


We got there before 5, parked quite aways down the road


genusmtbkr5 heading out from Aid station #1 bottom of Motorway


9er and a few others


FB Mike moving so fast the pic got blurred...


1x1clyde getting some nutrition, w/ andyakarut


quite the scene and tons of fun


Andyakarut getting a bacon handoff from the G2 folks


Finish line


Feather tent at the finish


Yamadan, first CC, way to go bud!


Other bud David's first CC, happy and tired

 

That pic of Neil is classic... Indy Style Pit crew....Surprise someone wasn't pouring that beer down his throw and timing it!

 

Maybe they didn't know to turn left and just followed CC riders as they went right. Again, it's riders responsibility to know the course. It's not like there isn't any info about it on here, the WS website, the info in race packet, STRAVA, Geoladders, etc.

 

That was some funny ass shiat!
Someone had to do it and I think it was best hearing the support groups around us freaking out that I was drinking a beer hahahahahahahaha!

Andy and Kevin did a great job as my pit crew lol!
As I attempted to chug a refreshingly cold Bud Light while never leaving the bike they filled my bottles, we posed for some pix, another beer was placed in my jersey pocket and away I went.
Those 2 are the real champions of the day!

 

Great time out there yesterday. Due to an embarrassing lack of training, my first Pow Wow with gears (1x10 this year vs. SS each time before with CC & VQ) was even slower than my 2009 CC and 2011 VQ times. Oh well, still had a blast. As always, WS put on a great event. I know we all appreciate your guys' hard work.

Feeling the clouds hit me while they swept over the peak was eerily beautiful. Since I already knew I wasn't going to beat my previous times, I stood there for a few minutes feeling like I was literally in this sticky cloud soup. It made the descent down from the peak pretty cold, though.

Good times!

 

Man, where to begin - with thanks of course. Thank you W.S., for the event and volunteer power. And, thank you to Stage 21, for keeping my bike alive as it so desperately tried to die, as I poured on the training miles.

To simplify things, I asked a buddy to drop me off and pick me up. Turns out parking was no problem, but one less thing to worry about. I hopped out of the truck nearly ready, only needing my helmet and gloves. I ended up grabbing my packet that morning, so there was some wait time. No problem, final pee took at least 10 min of waiting in line. I didn't pee the rest of the race - TMI? Well, maybe not for Rox! chuckles.

At the start, I ended up next to a Beers N Gears riding buddy, Tom Robe. As a veteran of this event, he reminded me to enjoy the train of lights in front and behind me, as we ascended BlackStar and to also enjoy the sunrise. I did just that. Kinda reminded of that scene in Field of Dreams, near the end, when the people line up for miles. And the sunrise - I don't think I have even seen such a red sun rise; no other color tones, like infrared. A little sci-fi, but totally cool.

After that, I followed Megan Brown and the Kestrel cycling crew for a bit. I was entertained following them, as her and I are often pretty close on ascending times (via Strava). Once the looping, fire road descents came, it was time to pull away.



Next was the hop over the bar, that takes you to Motorway and my favorite couple of mountain biking - Mr. and Mrs. Brown. Deb was already giving me shit about being so calm and that I need to do V.Q. next year! All I heard from E was, "Go Shawndoh"! Love you guys! Coming down MW was a focus-turning-point, as this area had really punished my tires during training. (IMO, the Schwalbe Evo Snakeskin, Rocket Ron/Racing Ralphs are really questionable in the Santa Ana's.) I really didn't want to change out a flat! Unfortunately, on the first sweeping left I asked to much of the front tire, (to much lean angle), and rode it to the ground. No biggie. Bounced up quickly, but in the mean time another rider had passed. I remounted and rode his azz down motorway... I would have asked to pass, but I figured it would better for me to trail someone just under my pace and save my tires and/or another get off. In the end, I think it was the right move.

Cruised through the feed zone and saw Gene on the way up. A fist bump from the watchful eye is always a good thing. From this point to the peak was not all that interesting. I saw some competitors pull away and fall back and my mind wondered. I gained some ground on the more rocky stuff - for some reason, it doesn't seem to bother me much. I did burp a tire a couple miles from the peak. Luckily a quick blast from the CO2 got me back on track; if not, I would have been walking - a long way (only 1 CO2)!

From the peak, it was all about passing people. I passed 2 on the final, rocky fire road, before the last right- to UHJ. I think I passed 3 on UHJ and another 3 on LHJ. The hard-tail guys were very savvy in stepping aside. There was 1 tight switch back on LHJ where a rider was gonna let me pass, but I miss judged him and had a super slow fall over to my right hand side. No problem, we were both good and I cranked on it after. Nice job guys.

Once I got to the stream crossings, it was on. I didn't give a rip about being wet, or muddy or whatever. I wanted to put distance on the fellas I past on the descent. I splashed through the water and was stoked that the hikers seem to be very aware of the riders barring down on them. I did my best to politely let them know, there is a train a coming!

One guy was still near me as we approached the split. Think he was a VQ guy, because he disappeared as I entered the wash. The wash was hammer time! No way was I gonna let some body creep back on me after all that! Plus, I love the upper portion of the wash; just let it rip and float over the bumps and potholes.
No problem, I'm cruising... until about half way down. And i start thinking, did I make a wrong turn? I don't see any other riders and no indicators that I am going the right way... Fack... Am I really gonna have to turn around, cause I missed some turn off? At this point, I don't care. I'm gonna haul azz to through the wash- cause my ride is there and it's just to late to salvage a proper finish, if I made a wrong turn...

I keep rolling, checking my 6, a couple times.

Finally I see a girl headed up the wash, ringing an encouraging bell. I must be going the right way??? chuckles...
I see some flags and a sharp right hand turn- into the bush! Is this the finish? Keep pedaling!
I pass what looks like a timing table? I holler, "Am I done?"
Still not sure, I crank it up. I see the final finish tent and realize, I am done!

Kinda of confusing on the finish, but none the less, I have finished.

4:48. Pretty decent- I am satisfied with my first effort and training.

Get my picture taken, by brother John Early. My buddy, toons is there to greet me. We talk about how I did and he takes note of all the big wheeled/ hard tail bikes.

My body starts to settle down, I have a soda, I see Ryan Clark pull in. Stage 21 domination! haha.

I put forth my best effort, time for a beer!

24th/ 156.

 

As a volunteer, I was able to make it to the start and help out a bit. I got there at 4:30. I did some loud-mouth direction giving. Made a few jabs at friends and did my best to lighten the spirits of the nervous riders. I was the loud mouth on the gate making sure no one ran into it at the start.

After the gun sounded I headed over to Aid Station 1. We set it up as best we could and waited patiently for the racers to get to us. Joel Titius was the first racer through. He came through at 1 and a half hours. Yeah, kinda quick right??!! Soon enough we had trains of racers coming in. It was a blast and most everyone was in a good mood. If they were not, it was my duty to get them fired up about the next climb. 1x1 Clyde was a bit grumpy so I had him chug a Bud Light. Awesome job Neil!!! Ted Willard from G2 along with AJ were there, Matt from Rock and Road, Jackie from the Trail Angels and several others cheering peop's on. This is the best part of volunteering. Watching other's support. The way it brings people together is amazing! Thanks to everyone.

After the final racer got through we packed up and headed to the finish line. I was stoked to see my wife and child there with smiles on. They are the greatest people I know. We helped out at the venue. Heather handed out El Pollo Loco and I had a few beers! We watched the final riders cross the finish line and helped out a bit with clean up. We were some of the volunteers that got to leave early. I left at 4:30.

Thanks to all the volunteers and the race organizers. People have no idea what is behind doing an event of this magnitude. Months and months of planning. As a volunteer I was there for over 12 hours. Yeah, it was a long day but Oh, So Worth it!!!!

Congrats to all the racers/riders out there!

 

First Time in 5 years I wasn't at least out there for support. Took a DNS due to a cracked rib. Reading all the reports bums me out that I didn't wake up early and join you all just for a bit.

 

Settling the nerves...1x1 style



Congrats to all who rode and bigger to to those who finished...always a great event to volunteer at. Kudos to all the volunteers who make events like this happen. Thank you WS for laying down the gauntlet so many want to meet.

 

I gotta let it be known-1x1 wasn't the first to chug a beer. The first beer chugger was also a singlespeeder but was a bit smarter with his selection. Mr Wagner enjoyed a Lagunitas IPA. I, however, started a few hours earlier with whiskey in the coffee!
This is also a long tradition with those wild singlespeed types. Those guys are just C.R.A.Z.Y!!!!

 

The Pow Wow always has a great vibe and some completely unique moments, and this year was no different! It started for me with a couple completely boneheaded mistakes. After training hard for months and getting everything pretty dialed, I went for a walk Thursday morning and got carried away, running a bit for the first time in years. Two days later I was still feeling it and my legs were really dead on event day. I also drove to the start with SpeckledTrout, and when I saw that she had a floor pump in her car I opted to leave mine at home. Also dumb - stick with what you know. I had trouble with her pump and with another borrowed one, but time was up, so with both tires too low we rolled off to the start, getting there just moments before the countdown. Also dumb.

With dead legs and low tires, it felt like I was working really hard up Blackstar. I tried to relax, knowing it is a long day and hoping that my legs would come around. About halfway across Pain Divide I started feeling a little better. The scenery was gorgeous too, with wispy clouds sweeping up the valleys and across the trail. And having Debbie and Erik cheering me on at the top of Motorway and telling me I had a great time going was a wonderful boost.

Then there was Motorway. I'm so glad I got over the gate at the top ahead of 4 or 5 guys who'd stopped, because I felt great and the trail was in PERFECT condition. The recent rain, combined with a bunch of people packing it down ahead of made it such a blast that I was giggling to myself, and I set a PR on the descent. Big thanks also to Gene for his recent rut repairs - that made a big difference too! I got into the aid station at pretty close to my projected time despite struggling in the first 15 miles or so, and got great help there from Kevin and Travis. They got me refilled and refueled, and Travis aired up my tires; it turned out I'd only had about 14 psi in the front and under 20 in the rear! Having properly inflated tires made the ride up Maple Springs feel better than anticipated, and I made it to the Peak right at my projected time. I've never actually enjoyed Upper Holy Jim until that day, but this time it was in good shape, and I attacked it (for me), rode more of it than usual, making good time, then did the same on LHJ. Gave myself a few scares but overall it was a fun descent.

I got to the Holy Jim parking lot realizing that if I just turned right I could shave over an hour off my previous best CC time, but I'd signed up for VQ and wanted that feather, so I went left. But I was cutting it closer to the WHT cutoff than I hoped. I made it, but just barely, and had been pushing so hard to get there that I was seriously spent as I started the relentless hike-a-bike. Walk-stop-walk-stop-walk-sit-walk...and then finally a little bit of pedaling right at the top.

KonaDupee swore to me that no matter what I felt like, I'd eat a burger up there and love it. Nope - couldn't do it. I had a Gu pack and some fluids, but couldn't eat anything solid. But I had a cool moment there, running into a guy I'd been Facebook friends with for a couple years through other mutual friends, even though we'd never met before, and we rode over to Trabuco together sharing a nice chat. By this time I knew my goal time wasn't gonna happen, so I tried to just relax and enjoy the rest. The combo of loose shale and some exposure on Trabuco is not my thing, but Saturday I rode it better than I ever have and genuinely had a blast. At the gate I found Xhuskr waiting for me and we rode out together, and that just added to the smile I already had going. Sure, I was WAY behind my goal time, but this event is about so much more than that, and I'm happy to have really enjoyed the last 12 miles or so of my first VQ. And as others have mentioned, the Parker Ranch finish area was great, though I'm still not sure where the actual finish line was! I stopped for pictures and to visit and probably cost myself a few minutes that took my time into the next hour, but I don't care. Finding a bunch of friends, especially my ever-supportive girlfriend Kristine, along with the Warriors who were still cheering, was awesome. The band was a great addition too, and they were good!

On a road ride in 2011, while training for my 3rd CC, I was hit by a truck, breaking my collarbone and 5 ribs. It took 2 surgeries and 14 months of rehab to get close to normal, and I really wondered if I'd ever be able to attempt something like this again. It was a life-changing experience in many ways, and I appreciate my great fortune in not being hurt worse and to have had so much great support in my recovery. Back then I couldn't imagine ever riding like this again, let alone finishing a VQ, so as I write this I am almost in tears as the enormity of the journey settles in.

Regardless of pace or placing, CC or VQ, everyone who takes on this challenge has a lot to be proud of. It is an amazing day and an epic journey, and I congratulate you all. I can't wrap my head around the thought of ever doing VQ again, but I hope to be back next year to try to take a big chunk off my previous CC times. Huge thanks again to the Warriors, and to all the other friends, family, and volunteers who make this such a special day.



At the finish with SpeckledTrout, Xhuskr, LetyRides, and me (sorry Travis - I don't know your s/n here!). This is what it's all about!



Got it!