Tom's Cycling and Other Stuff: 2009

I haven't seen the final results but I think Rebecca said we had 25 racers in the sport 30-39 class. It sure felt like a crowd at the starting line for our group. Rebecca did a role call at the starting line and I was at the bottom of the list so I quickly realized I was on the fourth row and getting to the woods first was going to be a challenge. So I did the rude thing and elbowed my way to the second row in the middle so I wouldn’t get caught in a crowd trying to get into the woods.

The horn blew and off we went up the gravel road and onto firebreak. When we crossed the wood ramp on firebreak I was in a comfortable 4th place position. This is where I stayed all of the way to spiderwoman and into inner woman. Essentially riding in a lead group of four riders including me at what felt like a moderate pace.

Inner woman was not on my mental preparation leading up to this race. I was surprised that we were going to ride inner woman when Rebecca announced it. I really do not like this trail. It never has been my strong point. So up inner woman we go and I am on the wheel of the dude in front of me. He is having shifter problems and can’t power up the hill so I have to slow up and wait for a place to pass. Finally I pass but by now I have let the 5th 6th etc place riders catch up. In the granny gear up inner woman in severe pain cussing the whole way up. Jim passes me on the way up and that’s the last time I saw him. I’m still in good position at this point and ready to descend inner woman. When I got to the rock garden I was trying to show off for some photographer on the side of the trail and unclipped. I couldn’t get back on the bike in time before several riders passed. I am now in about 10th position. Crap. Things are falling apart for me mentally.

Exiting spiderwoman and trying to navigate the rocks at the trail crossing, I darn near endo’ed and was surprised I didn’t bend the front wheel. Luckily I stayed vertical on the bike and was able to navigate through. Climbing out the big climb on midland mountain, I am still wondering when I will recover from spiderwoman. My lungs were on fire and my legs felt like watermelons. But I knew that once I could get my speed up and get in a consistent cadence, things would get a lot more comfortable. And indeed they did. I was able to regain several positions that I had lost on the fast sections and through crooked pine.

For the remainder of the race, I traded places several times with one other rider with a ETSU jersey on but he is the only person I saw. As we rolled along the fast section of stewardship we traded places several times…we must have ”on your left”-ed each other ten times as we rolled along. I was able to drop him for the final time on the climb up the switchbacks on the second lap. The rest of the race was solo for me and it felt great to cross the finish line.

Due to the shenanigans on spiderwoman, I honestly thought I was in about 8th or 9th position to finish the race. I was disappointed in the performance. But it turns out that I was racing the final lap with the ETSU guy for 5th place. I am glad I raced him for that position and was able to fend him off. It made the personal best 5th place finish that much sweeter. I had lots of fun which is what it is all about.

1 regret: The initial lead group pace was too slow. I should have jumped out into the lead early and then I wouldn't have gotten stuck on inner woman and my spiderwoman experience probably wouldn't have turned out so sloppy. Or it could have been sloppy as usual but wouldn't have mattered because I think I could have put some distance between me and 2nd place to make up for the sloppy performance. If I knew I was holding on to a top three finish after spiderwoman, I might have dug a little deeper to finish. But as it is, I don't think I left anything on the course...just got behind the eight ball a little by setling for the pace line instead of taking the lead when I could have.

When I started riding mtbs in ’02, I bought a $900 Raleigh Hardtail from Harrell’s. It had wtb motoraptors on it and they weigh probably 700g. I think they were 26x2.1’s. I rode the snot out of those tires, putting probably 2000 miles on them and they are still ridable today. They seemed to hook up fairly well (I rode slower back then) and the durability was impressive. These tires are heavy and durable.

Then I bought the Giant that I currently ride. It came with 500g Hutchinson pythons 2.0s on the front and rear, a tire meant for dry hardpack xc race conditions. They are fast rolling, low resistance. I busted my tail about 3 times right off the bat on the leaves and needles of our area before I realized the front would not hook up at local trails like harbison. So I slowed down and adjusted how I entered turns. Because of this, I have developed a bad habit of not leaning my bike into turns, rather leaning my body instead. One day while riding at harbison, a ½” diameter pine branch punctured the tire and tube on the rear. This ruined the tire so I used it as an opportunity to get a more aggressive tread on the front.

I ended up with a Continental Explorer 2.1 on the front and a Hutchinson Python 2.0 on the rear. This proved to be a nice combination for me considering how and where I ride. I need to replace both tires now and I’d like to lose some grams and gain speed, but need something that hooks up well around here. Dennis loaned me some used Continental Mountain King 2.2’s. I rode them last night and thought they hooked up well at first. They are also light and accelerate well. But according to Dennis you have to run 40 psi or they’ll pinch flat. I was running 32 psi so we bumped them to 40 psi. They no longer hooked up at 40 psi. I have personally watched Dennis go through 5 tubes with these tires so I am not very confident in the 2.2 size with 40 psi.

Does anyone have any suggestions? I might go back to the Continental Explorer 2.1 on the front and a python 2.0 on the rear, but would like to improve on that as well.