US Cup Invitational / CA State XC Championships

Well, what a year! Sunday’s CA State XC Championships / US Cup Invitationals capped off the 2011 mountain bike race season. Justin and I still have a full race calendar with the SoCal Cross race series happening every weekend, but cross racing for us is a bit more chill and a lot of fun.

I wasn’t sure how to really approach my 7th and final mountain bike race of the season. Leading up to the race we’d done 3 cross races (well 3.5 as I did half a men’s Elite A race last Sunday, and just shy of 5 for Justin) in 2.5 weeks. I felt like we’d been going moderately hard all week, not doing enough hard riding and not doing enough resting. We didn’t specifically train or prepare for the race, but I think the cross racing has been really good speed work for us.

Up until Sunday I didn’t know if there would be any Pro women racing, which always makes it interesting. In 2010 there were 3 of us (Heather Ranoa, who helped hubby Jason put on the So Cal Endurance West Coast Marathon on Saturday, and Joy [Duerkson] McColluch who’s doing her racing on the road and enjoying some downtime before 2012 road training). I was still coming off World’s fitness, with just a week in between World Champs and the Invitational event. This year Tonya from MTB Chick came out to throw down, and local racer Vanessa Humic had just upgraded from Cat 1 to Pro and was ready to test herself as well.

This year my race season hasn’t exactly gone according to plan (obviously).  I have tried to race well when I was able to race, and despite missing out on basically every big event aside from Nationals, I’m trying not to have any regrets on my mountain bike race year.  I’m still left wandering somewhere amidst acceptance, regret, and Dave-hand #WTF -ing the entirety of it.  Sunday would be the capstone of the year one way or the other.  Was I improving from all the loose-focused “base” riding I’d done since Nationals?  Would I be able to get back to where I was at in 2010?  Could I be competitive and get around any mental or physical demons?

A lot of questions loom for me, and sometimes they get in my head.

Saturday Justin and I headed out to pre-ride the course after the Marathon race and see what kind of “damage” had been done to the race course after 200 people laid down 2 laps of parts of the XC course. Things were a little loose and sandy, but otherwise it was just HOT out. Justin and I got on course after 1:30 or so with Richard and immediately I was not feeling it. My legs were just wrecked from a week of riding and the previous weekends’ racing. Mentally I was struggling with motivation, and the heat was sapping power too.

Justin was laying down some solid openers, so when Richard informed me that we were supposed to go straight instead of turning right at one point, I set off down a fire road to find the actual course. We were going the right way, but the course routed racers on a different trail than what Justin and I were used to riding around as we cruised Vail on our bi-monthly rides out there, and especially in pre-ride. I was looking for course markers, not paying attention to where I was going particularly, and biffed it trying to make a tight turn. Super low speed, but I banged up both my knees and messed up my front shifter pretty good.

Justin tore down the trail back to us and the 3 of us continued. After Bridges I realized that my shifter was loose, so Justin fixed that up and off we went.

We all were stoked to run into a neutral aid station halfway through the lap to stop and refill water as we were all running low after just 35 or so minutes out on course. Richard decided to call it a day early to get back and go fishing with his son, and Justin and I finished up trying to look at the course and get the final mile or so in our heads for the next day.

It was 105F in the shade post-ride, and we registered, chatted with some Marathon finishers, and decided to get out of the heat!

I knew Justin was in need of getting off his feet and out of the heat as much as I was, so when we got home I offered to help clean up my bike while he worked on his. I’d prepped dinner earlier in the morning after doing some house cleaning while he put new drivetrain parts on my Tarmac, so all we had to do was clean up/prep bikes and chill out for the evening.

I wiped off the entire bike, let the chain soak, brushed off the rear derailleur pulley’s and the cassette, blew the gunk off the chain with our air compressor and proceeded to put the chain back on the bike.  Justin asked where I’d put the quick link.  ”What do you mean?  I didn’t put it anywhere.”  Soo, I lost the quick link.  One side was on the ground by the air compressor and the other was in the pail where it had been soaking.  But then I couldn’t get it to snap on.  So much for trying to help!  Then I realized I’d routed the chain on the wrong side of the front derailleur.

Well, may as well learn now.

Justin gave my bike a once-over while I was in cooking and found that my crash had snapped the brake lever from the bar mount.  D’oh.  He said if it snapped entirely I’d be left without a front brake for the race, and we just luckily (?) happened to have a spare front brake.  He’d done the same thing to his rear brake before Nationals, so we’d bought an extra brake set.

We spent the evening chilling out, and even managed to snag about 9-10 hours of rest/sleep.

Sunday dawned; race day.  I was feeling mentally and physically ready to race, and looked forward to a good day. Coffee tasted awesome, breakfast was good, and we weren’t stressing.

We had no reason to hurry to the venue as it was about a 25 minute drive from home and our races weren’t until after 1pm.  The Rock N’ Road EZ-up had been set up under some trees Saturday afternoon, so all we needed to do was unload the bikes and coolers and hang out in the shade for a bit.

As we wanted to cheer on our Cat 2 buddies and we were both a little anxious we wound up at the venue around 9:30.  Unloaded to find the VeloSport tent nearby, and got to work setting up “camp”.

Richard, James, John, and a few other friends were kitted up and getting ready to race.  Temperatures weren’t too bad, but still it was getting warm.

The juniors had raced earlier in the morning, but just before 11 the Cat 2′s set off, followed by Cat 3′s.

We made our way back to camp and hung out with Zippy, catching up on life and training, and soon enough racers were filing through for mid-race feeds.

It was fun cheering on James and John to wins in their categories, and watching Richard finish strong as well.

Soon enough it was time for me to kit up, but it was so warm just sitting around that I decided to shorten my warm up a little and just chill out a little longer. I felt a little rushed in doing so once I did get on the bike, but I got in my warm up reps and felt pretty good on the line.

The Pro Women lined up with the Pro Men, and a little after 1:15pm we were off! I held on to the men just a bit in the grass by the start, but as soon as we hit dirt they were off and I was straggling behind the main pack. About 30 seconds too late I realized I should’ve pushed a little harder to stay with the group and catch some draft, and after we all started up the first little hill and I had a gap on Tonya and Vanessa and I decided I’d try to bridge up to Derek and Garnet. Well, that didn’t happen. I kept trying to keep the gap manageable, but wasn’t able to pull them in.

I was actually stoked to not be LOSING time to the guys. I know I’ve got a slight advantage as Vail is basically our home course and where we spend a lot of time riding. I think this was a double-edged sword in some regards.

We thought we’d be riding the course correctly, but had missed a few turns here and there in pre-rides. I know all the FUN ways across and down the trails, but don’t always focus on speed out there as much as just enjoying it and hopping off obstacles and chasing Justin. I don’t normally push XC pace on the climbs, repeatedly.

But, it was fun, and I was enjoying myself. There was a breeze in some spots and heat in others.

I wound up latching on Garnet on Ambulance, and we caught Derek. I pushed past (not physically!) Garnet at the beginning of Tunnel and did my best to rail it. I was expecting to be caught by Derek (super talented descender!) but saw the first of the Cat 1 field on its way when I did look back. On Vics a Sho-Air jersey passed me and said, “Your Mann’s right on me!” E-Boz sped by and I immediately was worried about Justin’s physical and mental state. I knew Eric would be his biggest competition. Justin passed me on BMX and for whatever reason I was actually able to hold the gap to him at about 5 seconds, but as we sped down through the campground toward the start/finish I backed off a bit so that Eric could feed us separately and I wouldn’t mess up Justin’s race!

Eric was heading out for lap 2 as I was coming in, and I cheered Justin on where I could. I noticed by the first little climb Justin was making headway, and off they sped, leaving me in the proverbial dust!

Up Bridges Justin was leading Eric, so I was super pumped he’d taken the lead again. Marco was barreling down on me, and not wanting to affect his race at all I pulled over immediately when he got close to me on Bridges and off he went. I noticed I was holding the gap to him on Slingshot and caught up a few times. A minor mistake by Marco on the following singletrack and I went around and said, “Let’s go!” I hammered up Ambulance expecting him to fly by (he’s an awesome climber!) but held my gap of probably 10-15 seconds or so down Tunnel and around the valley’s. He was on me through the start/finish and I figured he’d pass me again on Marine Corps. Nope!

Well, Bridges then? I looked back and he wasn’t closing down the 30 or so seconds I had at that point. I figured it’d be good motivation and competition for me, so I pushed myself and wanted my 2 minutes back! (I started 2 minutes ahead of Marco). Trail familiarity I think really helped me here. I was probably able to save a lot of energy maintaining momentum and feeling comfortable on the terrain where others hadn’t ridden before!

I started passing some of the Cat 1 women and was feeling really good. The race, while tough (it was hot out, and my legs felt on the verge of cramping a few times), felt almost effortless in some ways. I didn’t feel like I was pushing hard enough, but couldn’t have gone harder. The heat wasn’t bothering me much, and I just felt like I was going well. I was enjoying the race, and the challenges.

I came back down to the venue to a lot of cheers (thanks everyone!!) and hammered out the finish for the win. Super fun and super pumped!

Marco finished shortly after so we had 3 State Champs!

I was pretty burnt, but we managed to split a Pliny with a co-worker too who had never done a mountain bike race, and wound up winning her category despite a TOUGH race that was much longer than she expected!

3 Champs!

We got dinner locally with a Kim, Tim and his wife Kristen, Dana and his wife Beth, and my dad joined us for a celebratory brew as well.

Oktoberfest!

Overall, it was a pretty stellar day for me, and probably the best I’ve felt in a race all year.  It was an awesome way to end my “season” and hopefully I can carry the momentum with me in to training for 2012.  Lots of goals to hit next year, and a LOT of hard work.  I can’t wait!