Big Winners in Wendover

It was a Revolution 1-2 at the Wendover Intermountain Cup race yesterday. I would have reversed the 1-2 order if possible, but I was excited for the result anyhow.

The race isn't actually in Wendover, but about 20 miles further west. We drove over in the morning, and I made a rookie mistake -- not enough food before the race. As I finished my warmup, I realized I already had the hungries, but no extra gel in the car. I slurped my warm-up bottle, which had Poweraide in it, and then off to the line.

Sam Moore sprinted off the start, as usual, but about 100 yards in he got his rear wheel fouled with weeds. I'm not sure how it happened since we were still on the huge lawn the race starts on, but he had to stop and unwrap. StupidBike moved into the front and we followed him into the singletrack with T Hodnett in 2nd, me in 3rd. Hodnett pushed it through the single-track with his front-wheel sliding around quite a bit, but Bob was able to open a decent gap of probably 30 seconds. We hit a stretch of rolling gravel road, passed the pro-women, and I was after Bob. I closed a little at first, but I didn't want to push too hard. Bob was going pretty fast and I was expecting a long, hard race. I was getting quite hungry, and trying to eat but conserve my gel.

The first climb took about 15 minutes, and Chad Harris passed me on that climb. He went by pretty fast, but then slowed a bit and tailed a pro for a while. I would see then now and then.

A two-minute descent, and then 40 minutes more climbing with two 1 minute descents in the last third of the climb. I caught Chad and friend at about the 50 minute mark and asked if they had any food. Chad gave me a gel with a deal that I wouldn't cut him off on the descent. I gladly agreed :) We dropped the pro, and Chad gapped me a few times, but I generally would catch back up. The last section of the climb was quite steep, and he gapped me again there. The feed at the top was unmanned, and Chad grabbed the bucket and dumped water over his back.

So at the the 1:10 point we had gone flat for 15, up for about 55, and down for about 3 (I know, doesn't quite add up). The downhill was almost 8 minutes long, and lots of fun. Another 6 minutes of climbing and then 5 more of down.

Then the real climb came. After climbing for 6 minutes we crested the climb, and I figured for some down, only to look up and see Bob crawling up a steep, long climb. It was actually 2 climbs, each about 3 minutes long, with the speed at sub-4 MPH. Chad opened it up on me on the first of these, but I caught him on the second.

At this point I was dying for food, and can't really remember the course as well, but we went up and down for for 10 more minutes and I finally passed and dropped Chad on the last climb before a long down-hill. The descent was deeply rutted and I nearly crashed, but by the bottom Chad was out of sight and I was catched glimpses of Bob from time to time.

I hoped to catch him, but he was too far up there. At mile 24 I figured a short descent and we're done, but that last mile had a fair amount of climbing and I was cramping in several places. It was tough, but I think it was tough on everyone. Chad seemed to fall further behind, and I think Bob opened his lead a little more. I didn't see the times at the finish, but Bob first, me Second, and Chad third.

The Turner was perfect for this race, light and efficient for the climbs and plenty of opportunity for the suspension to do its job.

I don't know how much difference food would have made. Bob rode a great race. His form has come on great this year.

Sadly, no pictures. The kids race was great with Scott, Heidi, and Ian all racing. Scott's race (6-9 years) was neck and neck the whole time, with him leading 3 of their four laps, but then he dabbed in the last turn and got passed by the other 3. Ian and Heidi's race was fun too, just to watch them ride.

Oh. Here is a profile map I swiped for Bob's StupidBike sight.

It is too bad more people didn't show for this race. The course is on of the best, the venue is great with the ranch, the big lawn, and the hambugers, and the drive is...unique. Seriously, though, only 2.5 hrs from my house in Draper. We stopped at the Bonneville Speedway on the way home, just to see it.

My own Pioneering D-100

Today I did my own D-100. No, not 100 miles...100 Degrees. Ah yes, 60 second intervals in the heat (at least it's a dry heat, right?)

I wonder if it was this hot when the pioneers decided to stop here? If it was, I'd have stopped on the other side of Big Mountain where it was a little cooler.

I like fireworks as much as anybody, but some people...you gotta wonder. Here is a shot of the Shoreline trail behind the flying park. (I'm told the vertical gash is a left-over of the Widow-Maker hill climb). The fire happened over the 4th of July weekend. Oh...did I mention if you traverse this slope for a 1/4 mile, it comes to about 15 ft behind my backyard? Get out the weenie roasting sticks kids...

Timp and Aspen Grove

Here is a nice pic of Kim as we left for a ride from Aspen Grove earlier this week.

Return of the Spider Man

Saturday the flies were thick and apparently that was good news for the "spider-bike" as my kids call the Intense Spider.

On the pre-ride Wednesday night, I decided I wanted something a little stiffer and better for speed than the SID-equipped Nitrous, so rode the Spider for the first race this year (it has a Fox 100 and CrossMax on the front). I was also interested in the Spider to get some power-measurements since that bike has the brake posts which allow me to ride the Powertap wheel on that bike.

Anyhow, The race started with Sam Moore sprinting off the line and Bob Saffel chasing him. I quickly moved into 3rd and fully expected everyone to come rushing by, but they didn't. We entered the single track and rather than getting passed, I was putting time into everyone behind me and gaining on Bob and Sam.

As we continued the first climb, Bob went past Sam, and moved in rightbehind Sam, and things remained that way up the climb. The pace was pretty high, but I felt like I'd just try to stay with them.

Of the first descent I passed Sam, and then Bob. I hit the bottom in 1st place, and had a good 10 seconds on the other guys, but they quickly caught me again. They both went by, and put a few seconds into me in the single track across the bottom. Things remained this way all the way up the second climb, but then I passed Bob again on the downhill. Nothing changed on the 3rd lap, and then on the 4th lap I was suffering but kept the pressure on hoping Sam would crack. He didn't, but I apparently put more time into Bob and finished in 2nd place -- best of the year for me.

The wattage plot was interesting. I haven't had a chance to look at it very closely, but one thing that stuck out at me was that the climb on lap 1 was about 20 watts higher than that of laps 2,3,4, all of which were within about 7 watts of each other. My last was the lowest, but only by 5 watts.

The field was pretty small. I know if Brad Pilling, Chris Fox, or Jarom Zenger had been there I'd have been further back, but I still feel good about it.

During the race, Scott handed me bottles, and we had radios -- mine with an ear-piece. During the race, he would encourage me from time to time. Big fun.

I'm spending this week at a family reunion at Aspen Grove near Sundance, getting a little riding in, but mostly family time.

Chain drop stop

Guess getting dropped is becoming a theme.

Scott started this year riding his 12" bike. That bike wasn't great off-road, so BP donated one of his 20" MTBs to the Scott racing team, and he's been running that all year. Only problem has been the chain coming off several times every race. 9 and unders generally ride about 20 mins, so that is pretty regularly.

Turns out Specialized doesn't actually sell any spare parts for these bikes -- they are disposable. Tonight we hacked together a fix. I made a guard out of polycarbonate, and then shaped it with a heat gun so the chain would not ride up on it. You can see it in the picture.

Scott gave it the side-walk test, and we'll find out how well it really works on Saturday.

Deer-Droppings

Yup, that was me getting dropped yesterday at the Deer Valley Norba. If you didn't see me it was because you didn't start after us.

I actually felt just fine, except for SupidBike passing me in the first lap and BP gliding by not long after that.

It was like Holczer said about Leipheimer: “He wasn’t sick and there was no problem with the bike. He just couldn’t speed up.” Difference is, I knew I wouldn't win this year. The watts are down.

The course was pretty rutted on the first descent section. One crash, no biggie.

Kim and Toni went to do some tri-training yesterday with the full brick of swim-bike-run. Put some aerobars on Kim's bike so she got to give them a try -- a little unstable at first, but she got the hang of it after a minute.

My Maguras were getting a little sticky, so I did some rotor-truing and piston-cycling in the afternoon. Truing the rotors was really easy: I just bent them (gently) with a crescent wrench. For the pistons I took the pads out and pushed them all the way in in with a tire-lever and then squeezed the lever to bring them out (these are described here). Seemed to help quite a bit.