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"Can I say? I really enjoy mountain biking!"

Posted by PeterD Thu, 03 May 2007 17:16:00 GMT

One of our customers, Tom Rice, wrote up a race report from the Sea Otter. A passion for mountain biking sure comes out. And for those who haven’t raced, it gives some insight in to racing… (note – kind of a long posting…)

This was my first bicycle racing event in more than 20 years and my first race event on a mountain bike. This is by far my best finish ever in any bicycle racing event.

Prelude:

In March 2003, in a motorcycle accident, incidentally at Laguna Seca Raceway, I suffered a pretty nasty fracture of my left femur. In the summer of 2004 I began mountain biking, mostly to help with rehabilitation and strength. By the spring of 2005, I had become pretty strong but still had some lingering issues with mobility and flexibility. At the end of September 2006, I had a surgery to correct an alignment issue. My femur was cut, rotated and re-rodded with some totally cool, new titanium parts. Three weeks later, with my doctor’s approval, I was spinning on my stationary trainer. I have been lucky to have only the best doctors and physical therapists and they do great work.

Now only 7 months later a good week for me is as follows:

• Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays; medium to high effort mountain bike rides in Waterdog and Skeggs.
• Wednesday; the Passion Trail Bikes shop ride sometimes competitive but always fun.
• Sunday; an easy road ride.
• Monday; a hard road ride or a big long MTB ride someplace like the Demo.

Can I say? I really enjoy mountain biking!

In March this year, I decided I would race the Sea Otter. I got serious about my training and scheduled a two week vacation in the Caribbean sailing with my wife and some very good friends. Needless to say, there wasn’t much bicycling during the sailing trip. I did do a fair amount of “carbo-loading” so the trip wasn’t completely wasted. One of these friends calls this type of race preparation, “Anti-Training”. If you’re getting ready for a race, I don’t recommend it!

On my return from the Caribbean I’m fat, slow and happy. But I’ve got a week and a half to get ready for Sea Otter. My training schedule is all askew but I get some rides in and I think I’m ready.

Super-D Race Preparation:

On Wednesday my wife, Kate and I head down to Laguna Seca and setup our camper in the paddock of the racetrack (Camping Area D). In the afternoon, I get on my Versus Blitz II for a pre-ride of the Super-D course. The Super-D course is all dirt fire road with water bars on the downhill sections. It is about 3 miles long. The course begins with a 20 yard LeMans style start running on foot with your bike which you carry or push. Then you jump on your bike for a short flat section into a 150 degree left switchback, which is a difficult and sandy turn that starts a gentle downhill. Next is a two step climb to the top of the main downhill section. This downhill section includes a 90 degree right turn, a short climb and then it is just seriously downhill. Once you’re over the short climb, these downhill sections are 40+ mph at race pace!! At the bottom of the hill, you make a gentle yet fast left turn onto a sandy flat section for about 1,000 yards to the end of the course where a sharp right turn leads into the finish chute for a sprint to the line!

There are no technical sections. The water bars aren’t even that big. That said, at 40 mph, the water bars will launch you for a long distance!

I did 3 pre-rides of the Super-D course. My Blitz was just too much bike for this course so I put my trail setup on my Stumpjumper and rode the race on that bike. It was a good choice for me because the initial climbs were critical to my race tactics.

My Super-D Race:

I didn’t get the best start… Out of the 55 guys in my race (40 – 49 Men’s Open Class), Kate said I was third to last on the bike. Still, the race was really fun. Because of my lousy start, I got to pass lots of riders. I passed a couple of riders in the first switchback, lots of people in the initial climb, a couple more on the brakes at the first right hand turn and a few on the fast downhill. I was passed by two riders on the fast downhill section but I was able to stay pretty close to them.

The gradual left turn on to the flat sandy section was key to my finish. I could see two riders in front of me and no others. Because I’m comfortable in high speed turns (thanks to riding at Waterdog and Skeggs), I gained substantially transitioning onto the flats. I was able to pass the first rider pretty easily. The next guy was stronger. I caught up to him and drafted for a bit. Then I used the last sharp right turn into the finish chute to setup my sprint. I made my last pass at about 50 yards from the finish. I was fully panicked that I would get re-passed so I just rode as hard as I could across the line. I got 20th out of 55.

My time was 7:54.92 for 3 miles including the “LeMans Style” start. It was the hardest 8 minutes I’ve ever ridden. I was full throttle for the entire race, peddling as hard as I could the whole time, even on the downhill. I was so out of breath, I could hardly stand up!

Can I say? I really enjoy mountain biking!

Preparing for the Cross Country Race:

At registration we’d been given a race number for the front of the bike and an ID chip that electronically identifies each racer as we pass over receiver pads at the finish line and during the race. We’d also been given a strap to attach the ID chip to our ankles. There are so many racers that the electronics are required to accurately calculate finishing position and time. We have to return the ID chip after the end of the race.

The first thing I did to get ready was to put my bike back into XC race configuration. This just means that I cleaned the bike up so I’d look pretty at the start, installed my race number and that I put the lightweight wheels (a birthday present from Kate) back on the bike. This is actually more important than it might seem. My wheel/tire combination for XC racing is 1.5 pounds lighter than my trail setup! When you’re as old as I am, rolling weight savings is critical, especially for a course that approaches 20 miles and includes 6,000 feet of climbing.

On Friday, the day before the race, I peddled around the pits and the festival on my bike to try to ease the lactic acid built up during the Super-D. Even on Friday afternoon I was surprised how heavy my legs felt from the day before so I also did some stretching and got my hydration back up to normal. This helped tremendously. By evening my legs felt pretty good.

On Saturday, race day, I was up at 5:30. I needed to get a good breakfast, some fluids, my morning constitutional, dressed, my ID chip strapped to my leg, and somewhat warmed up for a 7:48 AM start. After a hero’s breakfast of Frosted Mini Wheats, Pop-Tarts, a banana and coffee and after finishing with my other morning requirements, I’m on my bike for a few warm-up laps around the paddock area. It’s 7:00.

At 7:25 I gathered up my groupies, that is the friends who helped with the afore mentioned “Anti-Training” including my wife, and we headed over to the starting line. It is critical to have groupies, or at least people to hang-out in my nice warm camper drinking coffee during most of the race but who are willing to say that they’ll watch you start and finish – as long as it’s not too cold or raining. This helps gives your motivation during those long hard climbs. After all you don’t want to look bad in front of the fans!

The Beginner Men 45 – 49 MTB XC Race:

The racing was started by age/category in waves starting from young to old every two minutes. That is, Tandems and Single Speeds started at 7:30 AM, Men under 14 at 7:32, Men 15 – 16 at 7:34, Men 17 – 18 at 7:36 and so on until they finally got to Men 45 – 49 starting at 7:48. These were huge groups. The two waves in front of mine had 137 and 104 riders respectively. There were nine waves in front us and three behind us for a total of 955 riders just in the Men’s classes. All riders were beginners except the Tandem class and the Single-Speed class.

The women’s beginner classes started in later waves but rode a shorter course. It will become apparent why this is important later in my story.

As our age group lined up for the start, 95 riders strong, the announcer babbled on, “…Now, the guys in this class are all either retired from extremely successful high tech careers with loads of money or they don’t work at all and their wives support them!...”

I’m sure this was hysterical for all the fans but I might have been vaguely offended -except that, well in my case it’s true. My wife works very hard and I am way, way beyond grateful that I get to spend an inordinate amount of my time riding my bicycles and beginning my new career as a bike racer. Thank you Miss Katie! (She says that, maybe, just maybe, I get to get a new racing bike.)

GO!! I was about 4 rows back from the start line at the beginning of the race. I made my way straight towards the front of the pack and got in the draft of one of the leaders. The race started between turns 4 and 5 on the Laguna Seca racetrack going the opposite direction of normal travel (we went clockwise). We exited the racetrack at turn 11 to begin the first dirt section of the race. No one seemed to want to lead up the hill and off the racetrack so I did. I was first to the dirt.

I was passed by one rider as soon as we got on the trails. He was just flying so I let him go and I never saw him again. I don’t know what happened to him but he was not in the top five.

Almost immediately upon reaching the trails we began to come up on and pass “back markers” – riders from previous waves. This made it almost impossible to know where you stood against the riders in your own class. There was just a mass of riders. I think I was still in second place until we got well into the single track. As the single track got steeper and slightly more technical, we came upon a long line of stopped riders. People in front had had trouble staying on their bikes and once a couple of people stopped or fell, there was no way to get by.

So when there was room, I went around. At first, some of the riders weren’t too pleased with this but, heck, this is a race, I’m not waiting in line at Safeway, I’m racin’! Besides I think I have a chance at the podium. Then a guy behind me comes crashing through the brush beside the single track, he’s yelling “Class leader, class leader. Comin’ by”. So I took up this chant. Slower people in front made every reasonable effort not to hold me up. As the race pace picked up again, all it took was a touch to the elbow or “on the left” and riders made way when they could. The sportsmanship was awesome.

The course contained a significant dose of very nice single track mixed with some two-track, fire trail and a small amount of pavement. Some of the single track was sand and the good line was narrow. In sandy sections, everything off the narrow firm line was deep treacherous sand, difficult to peddle and even more difficult to hold your line. Passing in these areas was an exercise in “coming by on your left. Oooh, maybe not, deep sand…” The sand could suck all of your momentum in a flash.

One rider from Florida and I rode together for much of the race. Sometimes he had the lead, sometimes I did. So we began a conversation:

Florida Guy, “I’m from Florida, man, these hills are amazing.”

Me, “Yep, I’ve been to Florida. It’s stone flat.”

Florida Guy, “We don’t have hills like this in Florida.”

Me, “Yeah, I ride up near Redwood City and San Francisco. Hills like this are all we ride. So, how old are you?”

Florida Guy was 45, in my age group. He was a good rider and I was only a little stronger on the hills and he was a monster on the flats. Go figure. Florida is stone flat.

We went up a steep, technical section and I got in front of Florida Guy and hadn’t seen him for a while when I came to a section of deep sand on a steep downhill. I’m thinking, “I got this.” I’m staying on the bike wallowing through the soft, beach sand like a peddle power dune buggy. Other people are falling off right and left so I’m feeling pretty good… Then I hear it, “Hey, you guys are goin’ the wrong way! The course is up here!”. Shit.

I jump off, pick up my bike and run back up the sand hill – I’ve lost some significant time. But I get back on course and begin re-working my way through riders who I’ve already passed once. Most of the riders I’m now with are much younger but I’ve just received a jolt of adrenaline due to my stupid off course excursion so soon I’m going pretty good again. The beginner’s mistake is forgotten.

I begin to recognize the terrain as we get closer to the Laguna Seca racetrack. I distinctly remember thinking, “Man, I hope we’re almost done, I don’t have much left.” Then thinking, “Is there another loop? I remember reading something about multiple loops. I hope we’re almost done. I could ride another loop but it would really hurt. I hope we’re almost done.”

We begin a climb I recognize as beginning our final approach to the racetrack. I get confident we’re almost done so I put in some extra effort and begin to pass between two riders. Remember I mentioned that the Women’s start times and course would come into play? Well, here it is. I’m confident. I’m making a clean pass. The terrain is rough but I’m feeling good. Oh, hey, the rider to my left in front is crossing my front wheel! I’m going down! “Ahhh”, crash, bang, smash. Hey, there’s a pretty woman, who I’ve knocked down, falling on top of me! So I catch her, like you would catch a big heavy medicine ball. Then I remember, “Oh, wait. I’m in a race.” So, I say to the woman, “I gotta get up. I gotta get up.” I don’t think she cared but I jumped up and tried to get back on my bike.”

I find something is wrong with my bike, I can’t get my wheel straight and my controls are all in the wrong place. I can’t figure out what’s broke. I’m frantic. Wait, my front wheel is facing backwards. The bars had turned 180 degrees. So I relax and get my wheel turned around and get back on the bike. The only thing wrong is I’m stuck on the big chain ring. Oh well, here I go…

Another adrenaline jolt from the crash gets me up the final climb. A short section of two-track, up and across the bridge over the racetrack, a descending section of single track into the finish chute and I’m done! I cross the finish line. 20 or more riders are in the finishing chute all at the same time. It’s chaos. Some dude cuts the strap holding the ID chip on my leg and takes the chip. I wait for the woman I knocked down and apologize to her about the crash. She says, “No worries.” Then I’m spit out the end of the finish line area.

Florida Guy is already there. He is certain we’re in the top five and on the podium. I’m skeptical. We chat for a little while with a couple of other riders and I drift off to find my groupies. It’s not raining and it’s not too cold so I find them dutifully watching for me at the finish chute. I sneak up on them for a laugh. They never saw me go by. They calculated my finish time based on what I thought our speed might be. I finished before they even got there.

I’m hoping that maybe Florida Guy is correct and I have a chance for the podium. So we drift over to the podium area and sit down for a rest and to listen for the call to the top 5 finishers in my age group. Megan, one of my groupies, wanders off. I don’t know where she’s going but I think maybe she’s hungry and looking for food. The announcer is calling the top 5 from previous classes in the race and I’m regaling my groupies with racing tales of daring done.

Megan comes back and she is wearing a Cheshire cat’s grin. She asks, “Do you want to know how you did?” Of course I do! “You got third place!” I’m still pretty skeptical, “Really?” “Yes, third place, you got third place!” I’m having trouble believing this, so she and Kate go look at the results again. Yep, third place!

I’m stunned. I rode hard and thought I’d done well, but third place! I’m very excited! The announcer calls the top five for the 45-49 age group, “… B. Thomas Rice, … report to the area behind the podium.” So I report. Of the top 5, only 3 of us are there. All five from a later class are there so they do that podium next and we wait. Then, Florida Guy shows up and now it’s our turn. More nervous chatter between the racers and they call us to the podium. It’s awesome, I get some swag, a kiss on the cheek from the podium girl and a cool medal for third place at the 2007 Sea Otter Classic!

First place was taken by Florida Guy, whose name is Troy Zimmerman! Troy beat me by one minute 37 seconds.

Can I say? I really enjoy Mountain Biking!

I rode my 2006 Specialized Carbon S-Works FSR Stumpjumper on Mavic SLR Disk wheels with Specialized Resolution Pro 2.1 and Roll-X Pro 2.0 tires front and rear mounted using Stan’s Tire and Rim Sealant without tubes.

Thanks to Charles at Passion Trail Bikes for support and tactical advice, to Berry at Passion Trail Bikes for onsite support and logistical help, to Bruce, Robin and Megan who were my groupies for cheering me on, to John, Jason, Gerard and Jeff for challenging me during our frequent rides, but mostly to Kate, my wife, for her support and encouragement to go racing and do as well as I could. I love Kate very much.