Race Report Kenda Cup West #6

Time to start a Race Report thread.

Rain turned the ground into mud. The mud became clay. The clay ripped off derailleurs, imobilized wheels....

Some kid dichted his Trek SF100 on the back side and hiked the rest. Another guy handed his wheels to a bystander, and hiked ith his frame!

Personally, took off like a rocket, lost the battle on the climb to much lighter guys, looked forward to another fun, tough lap! Then....the clay...hiked a lot of the climbes the last lap. Clay turned my 24lbs bike into 35or morelbs. Mission changed, FINISH, will not DNF. And I did, got 3rd cat3 30-34.

Brutal conitions. And I thought the worst part was going to be camping in the rain. Boy, was I wrong.

Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

 

duke you forgot the straw mixed in with the clay. it was like my bike was trying to make adobe bricks.

 

Toughest race I have ever done.... sucked a chain and broke a half dozen spokes mid way through the second lap. Got my butt handed to me by some youn punk sandbagger, haha..... Pretty pumped not to DNF. Congrats to all the finishers out there!

 

For sure some interesting conditions out there. I had a good day, but not many people did. On the last lap I felt like I was a super hero as I rode past everyone except Sid Taberlay for the second fastest time of the day. Gotta give credit where credit is due, it wasn't me that did well it was my bike! The '11 Sworks Epic 26er was flawless with stock tires and everything! Even Allison said on the way home that my finish position/time had nothing to do with fitness. I always knew the limitation of 29ers was mud!

 

I still think that the fittest people finished well and won. It's not like by saying that I mean that anyone that won yesterday wasn't fit or race-ready. It was a lot mental and a little bit of luck, but still you had to have fitness and be fast on the bike...or, at least running/slipping through mud

 

It was in Los Olivos right? If I was in same area as DH and DS courses you hope it was mud. LOL

 

Mark - um yeah :-k Got a mouthful of dirt on lap 1 that worried me, and drinking from my bottle the maybe one time on lap 2 I definitely was hesitant!

Here are a few pics I took:





Dirtsnack after his finish!

 

We had a great time racing DH. Unfortunately it was cold and very windy making jumping almost impossible (those that did didn't fare so well). Since only 10 people signed up for DS, they cancelled and let us do 2 DH runs. I think there was only about 38 people racing. The course was alot looser than it used to be and my favorite high speed downhill in to the right hand berm was extremely sandy making for some interesting lines. I forewent the railroad tie jump and the drop due to the wind but had fun none-the-less!

We spent the night in Buellton and then headed over to shuttle Cold Springs and San Ysidro on Sunday. It ended up raining all day!!! We managed to get 2 runs in before the day was out. Cold, windy, foggy and raining. Rocks were slick, dirt was epic!

 

my blog post/RR...

http://themannadventure.blogspot.com/2011/06/smiling-through-it-all.html

 

it was great to get to hang out with you guys! mucho gracias!!!!! :beer:

 

My Race

I had no plans on racing until 11:00 pm fri.night. Got there early in the morn and got 3 hours sleep.
Did my pre run lap one time. 10 miles and 1400 vert feet. Two laps was going to be chore for me.
Race day come and they shorten the track by 3 miles. MMM goes to my favor.:lol:
I get an ok start cuz I did not what to blow up and make I save some for the end.
First lap was ok some mud and it was in 53 mins. Yes HAB too.
The second lap took me over 2 HOURS. This was a huge mental game going on here because of the mud. Pushing your bike when the wheels(yes both) will not turn over because your bike is loaded up with mud. I must have cleared bike with a stick at least a dozen times. Use my hand wipe the mud off on my shorts to get a grip on the handle bars.
I told myself too many times"And I paided money to do this??
Sometimes no gear shift in the rear. My whole drivetrain would just lock up and stop. Pedal backwards and then keep going. There was alot of stuff going on. Clipless?? HAHAHA
Any up hill was HAB. then on the down hills I would just try and stay upright. Mud trail and mud tires. At the end of the 2 nd lap I had back my FD and RD and clippless. Man was I sooo happy.








Finishing a race is better than doing drugs!! Sooo Buzzzed

 

Fat guys can still jump in the wind!