TWW Race Reports

Check out our antics at the races!!! Or if you're having trubble sleeping...

Monday, December 22, 2008

LARPD CX Race? report


ummm.. not so great.

So, I grabbed the mtb, switched from 2.55 tires to 2.0, and decided
to give this thing a try, not knowing what to expect.

The course is a bunch of twisty turns arounda couple of different
horse fields, stables, etc. A barrier section close to the start,
and a set close to the finish, and a nice run up the stairs. Much of
the course was very soft due to the rains, but there were only a
couple of real puddles.

I entered the C group, with the thought that I should be competive
with that group. (Wrong!) The starter told us we would likely do 4
laps, blew his whistle, and off we went.

The pack almost immediately split into two with about 8 or 9 opening
a gap, so I jumped to join them. We were pulling away from the rest,
but I didn't think it was too bad at first. I kept losing momentum
in some of the tight turns and had to give bigger efforts in the
straights to keep up. The leaders eventually pulled away in the
straights, but when we got to the stairs, instead of shouldering my
mtb, I did a one handed military press and flew up the steps passing
about 3 people, and I hammered trying to catch a couple riders in my
sights ahead. By the end of the first lap, I wasn't feeling too
good, and knew I went out too hard. The start of the second lap, I
almost puked (how's that for a newb), and got passed back by several
people in the longer straight-aways :( I formed a group with 2 others
and tried to recover myself, and maintained a decent pace with them
until the steps when I flew up again, and they were only 1/2 way up,
so off I went by myself. I thought I was probably in 10th or so, and
at the end of the second lap, the bell was ringing, and I thought
huh? So I pretty much rode the 3rd lap by myself with a big group in
front of me, the two guys behind me, and a big group several hundred
yards behind them. I tried to pick it up and catch the group in
front, which I got pretty close to, but couldn't quite catch.

Oh well. I think I ended up 13/27. Not very good, but I guess its a
good wake-up and learning experience. I was hoping to do one or 2 C
races this year, and do B's next year with a real cross bike. Maybe
I need to re-think that. But I probably will do Bs anyways because
the C race was waaay too short (even though I didn't seem to have
enough gas).

After the race, I caught up with a couple of other racers, and they
were saying that the pace wasn't nearly as fast as the B race they
did the week before (huh?). Then a couple of of them lined up for
the B race, and were up toward the front of that race for a bit
before I stopped paying attention.

I guess I am pretty good at the steps (all that hike-a-bike practice)
and seemed to make it over the barriers without tripping or losing
much position so I can take that as a bright spot.

Oh well. Next? I am eyeing the CXSR race on 1/10. Anyone else? The
SC Peak series conflicts, but I may try to make one.

Rafael

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Sunday, December 21, 2008

Peak Season CX #1


Fun course (Harbor High School in SC), and pretty good weather (rain held out). Really well organized grass roots event, and the free hot dogs at the end was a bonus :-) My race went pretty well except for the one water hand off that Shaney attempted with me near the beginning of my last lap - I clipped a PVC pole right afterward and went down quicker than you can say "huh?" Bummer was that I was just in front of a few guys in my catagory, and we had been trading places in the previous laps -they all proceeded to wiz on past. I was only down for a couple seconds though, and managed to still pull off a reasonably good last lap after that - including a sprint for the finish line which I actaully WON (first time I think this has ever happened to me). 10th/24 guys in B 35+. We stuck around long enough for Riley to race in the free kids race at noon - he was the smallest kid, and the only one with training wheels. I was proud of him for just finishing - it was a long lap!

In between mine and Riley's races, we were walking back to our van and I spot Brian Lopes pulling his bike out of his cool travel van (complete with "Lopes" and "55" in cool lettering on the side). I actually stopped accross the street and said "are you Lopes". Doh - what an idiot... He smiled and answered "yep"... So I asked "you're racing cross?". He said it was only like his third race or something, and then I blathered something about how there were a few local DHers getting into cross, and wished him good luck.

When we were taking off for the day the A's were just finishing their first lap - Lopes was at the tail end of the front pack of about 8 guys. Not bad for a gravity freak. I guess it helps to have a whole boatload of World Cup and World Championships under your belt... I now wished I would have looked closer at his bike - I forgot that he's racing for Ibis now, and I heard that they're getting ready to introduce a carbon cx frame. The only thing that I noticed was that he was running riser bars :-)

Scott

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Thursday, December 11, 2008

Race report Gluehweinrace 2008


Hello biking folks,

As a few of you guys and gals know, there is a event called Gluehwein
Race (mulled wine race) in my hometown every year. I couldn't join last
year so I really wanted to compete this year.

For the ones who don't know what I'm talking about: It's a race over 10
laps of short distance and without major technical difficulty. After
every lap you have to drink one cup of mulled wine, whereas you have to
carry the cup while you are riding (usually the peeps hang them around
their neck)


The weather this year was exceptionally poor so I was thinking twice if
I wanted to go there. However, I met with a buddy and headed to the
meeting point. Over there I met a lot of biker people I haven't seen in
years so it was very nice to have a little chat while it was raining in
down strings.


Because of the rain and the temperatures around freezing everybody
wanted to start as fast as possible. So around 50 people went off for
the Le Mans start, running to their bikes and start pedaling. The
interesting thing, however, was a abandonend house we had to cross right
after the start, which was a very tight maneuver and so there was quite
a jam in front of it.
Once a lap was complete, you had to jump off your bike and run over to
the mulled wine source to get your cup filled.
The first 4 laps I didn't feel anything from the wine, only my legs are
pretty weak since I didn't have a lot of opportunities to ride in the
last time. My legs became a little better in the following laps but I
could also feel the wine kicking in. Maybe I should also have used my
fast hardtail but I decided for my winter bike, which is 30lbs but does
not even have a front suspension or disc brakes.
In the end I came in top 10, the exact place I don't know since some
guys were too drunk to sign out at the finish line.

But even funnier was the ride back to my buds house, since the wine
needed some time to really kick in. All in all we had a lot of fun and I
hope this race is qualified for the Fox Cup ;-)

So long
Erik

PS: Of course I was flying the TWW colors, see the attachment.

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Monday, December 01, 2008

Pilarcitos #4 - Golden Gate Park - 11/30/08


Wow - REALLY awesome weather in SF yesterday, combined with a really fun CX course in the middle of Golden Gate Park, to make one really nice way to spend Sunday morning. Shaney and the boys joined me and cheered me on. The course was, as I had heard, a fair amount of single track - which was really niiiiiice. Two spots with barriers on uphill slopes made for forced run-ups, but they were pretty short. As usual, the Pilaritos folks are very well organized, and run a great race. Once again I found myself in a sprint to the finish - once again on a stretch of uphill pavement - and once again I couldn't pull it off. Damn it - I suck at sprinting! It was fun though, and made for an exciting ending.
This sprint started with me being right behind this one guy as we hit the pavement on the final stretch to the finish, but then quickly included my buddy Eric Sterner who saw us from the corner of his eye about to overtake him. Fun ending, but would have been more fun if I got those two guys... :-) Yesterday was my first race on my new tubeless setup - 40psi front and rear was very niiiiice, and had no issues... Results already posted - once again I'm mid-packish in Master Men 35+ B's, but at least this time moving every so slightly towards the top (instead of dead-center mid-pack, which is more typical of me this year): 32nd/73. (missing 30th by probably less than a few 10ths of a second... dangit).

http://www.pilarcitos.com/results/CrossResults/2008/GGP.html

Next race is this Sunday at Coyote Point, which is another fun venue - and has a beach area and a nice playground for the kids and/or picknicking afterwards. I's the last Pilarcitos race.

-Scott

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CCCX CX - Prunedale - 11/23/08


Gin looked at the CCCX CX results from last Sunday and saw my little
sandbagmanship. I've been wanting to check out the Prunedale venue
(Manzanita Park) for a couple of years now, but Riley had a Soccer
tournament game at 11am. My compromise was to race Mens C's at 9am
(at least it's all ages, so includes some guys close to half my
age). I started mid-pack and ended up picking off most of the field
by the third lap, and passing the 2nd place guy (I never even saw the
first place guy the whole race). 2nd place and I actually traded
places a few times in the last lap, and he got me in the final uphill
sprint. Before I bolted out of there, I congratulated him on the
great battle, explained I had moved to B 35's last year, and to tell
the guy who took 4th that he really deserved 3rd :-) (so at least I
fessed up).

Spectactular weather, fun course with some fast DH sections, well run
race - nice way to spend a Sunday morning. Reading on the
bayareacyclocross list, sounds like there were a couple of bad
crashes, including one heli-vac, but sounds like all are recovering
OK, which is good.

I'm digging my CX bike w/suspension...
-Schlachter


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