ALLISON MANN

While this is (will be, maybe, I guess?) a race report from the 2012 Idyllwild Spring Challenge XC this past weekend up at Hurkey Creek campground in Idyllwild, this race is so much more than that.

I know that all race promoter’s work super hard and put in long hours and generally don’t get much respect or thanks, but they do hear complaints and rants, etc.  I fully respect and appreciate the work that goes in to all races, but would like to take a few words here and extend my appreciation and gratitude to Katie from Idyllwild Cycling, as well as all of the volunteers that came out, Bev and her husband (sorry! – Kerry?) from Rim Nordic, Tom Sitton, and everyone out from Idyllwild and similar areas that gave time, energy, love, etc. to make this event happen.

It seems like every year there are issues getting this race accomplished, but somehow Katie does it every year.  It started last year with a lot of money having to be put in to the course to help keep racers out of the creeks due to erosion and sediment concerns.  This year despite the butterfly habitat and trail closures Katie still managed to come up with a great course that maximizes singletrack and leaves everyone tired and smiling.

Justin and I have loved this event since we rode the long course in 2006, the weekend after the event.  We did NOT race it that year (we didn’t do the long course until 2009 if I recall correctly), and if we had, they would’ve had to call search & rescue for us and take our number plates cause it would’ve been about a 6 hour finish time for us.

In 2006 it took us just under 5.5 hours to ride the 30 mile loop.  Justin carried 2 Camelbak bladders.  I think I walked most of Southridge fire road.  There was some singletrack in that version that they don’t use now and we barely found that day, and it was a long and difficult day.  My longest ride ever at that point.  But, we were hooked.

We didn’t race much in 2007, except we did do our first XC race at Bonelli Park that October, but racing wasn’t on our radar when Idyllwild rolled around.

2008 was our first time racing Idyllwild Spring Challenge, and we both signed up as sport racers for the medium course.

Justin took 4th and I took 1st place (thanks to Dan for most of these 2008 pics).

Serious face on Exfoliator (I think)

Steph and I on the podium!

See?  Big wheels, in 2008.

And here’s a Darter sighting, just because it made me smile

Those pictures may not mean much to anyone else, but to me… I smile fondly, full of good memories, laughs, and amazing people.

2009 was the first year I raced Pro at ISC.  Solid women to be standing on the podium with, and a who’s who of So Cal at the time!

I am not really kidding when I say that Pua struggled to get the granite slab over her head! (they custom awards are THAT heavy!)

Justin was sick that year ,but he destroyed the Super D event!

In 2010 I took top honors and it was the first race I did after Justin’s accident.  He was “up and about”.  My dad drove him up to the feed zone on Southridge to cheer me on, but he was still in his straight leg brace and neck brace.  Actually, I think for Sunday’s TT and Super D it was the first time he drove after his accident, which had been a month prior.

2011, I sadly missed out on racing Idyllwild.  I was back on the bike, and rode the TT course at ISOMATA with Justin on Saturday evening after the XC race, but 3 hours + of tough singletrack was deemed too much for my foot at the time, as I was just getting back to pedaling.

I took a lot of pictures with my 60D camera and had fun cheering on the racers.

Justin took the W

Needless to say, in one form or another, Justin and I have a long standing relationship with this annual event, despite one of us seeming to miss it almost every year since we first raced it.  2012 was not going to be that way!

We both cut out of work a little early to pack the Black Max and head up to the mountains for a weekend of campfires, beers, and singletrack.  Let’s just say that Friday afternoon I didn’t hesitate to mention that if it wasn’t Idyllwild Spring Challenge, I would’ve skipped out on the race entirely.  I was really not in the mood for another travel weekend away from home or racing.  My mind wasn’t really in it.  The week had been a rest week on the bike, but I was feeling neither rested nor recovered after 2 hard weekends of racing (Sea Otter Classic in crazy heat, and Whiskey Off-Road 50 a much longer distance than I’m used to), plus 4-day travel weekends, getting home late on Sunday, not sleeping, etc.  I was ready to sit on the couch with a book all weekend.

But, we had race plans!  We both decided we’d make the best of it, and no matter what happened in the race or with results that we’d get out there and enjoy the trails.  If nothing else, it was < 2 hours from home (thanks Andy and Snaks), and was going to be some fun time camping in the mountains.

We were stoked when we pulled into the group camping and saw Volpe already set up, with room for the Turners nearby. It was a pretty early night after Justin and I celebrated Cinco de Mayo a day early, sat by the campfire and then turned in.  We shut our cell phones off when we got to the 243/74 interchange, so I have no idea what time it was.

I didn’t sleep great, but not horribly, woke up a little dehydrated, and we made our weekend oats and had Jet Boil French press coffee as the sun rose in the sky and temperatures climbed from really cold to manageable.

The parking lot was pretty empty, but soon enough racers started showing up and registering and then Steph and Dan got there and made my day!  Always great to see them.

This event as much as anything else is about the people you see and race and get to hang out with at awards and during the raffle.  2012 was no different than any other year catching up with people you may not see all the time, and making new friends as well.

I saw Zippy as I was finishing my warm up, and he hadn’t raced this in a few years!

Women started 2 minutes after the Pro men, and I staged with the largest Pro Women’s field to ever be at the start of Idyllwild Spring Challenge!  Which surprises me.  The last few years Katie has put up a really good Pro Payout ($1,000 to the winner in 2010 and 2012, not sure on 2011?), and EQUAL PAY OUT FOR WOMEN!  In addition to taking home money for the XC/overall (in 2010 and 2011 it was a 3-race stage race with XC on Saturday, and TT and Super D on Sunday), there’s also 3 KOM/QOM primes for the first to the top of each of 3 climbs on course: Keen Camp summit, top of the Cyclocross Lower Southridge Climb and May Valley, and then Cherry on Top at the top of Southridge Fire road.  You’d think with $1175 up for grabs there’d be more than 8 women on the line!  I know Whiskey had $5k, but this event doesn’t draw 1750 people either!

Pro Women’s start (thanks to Gretchen for the pic!)

I got the hole shot and led the group through a sand section and onto singletrack.  My pace!

I was actually really glad that I was doing the pace-making because my legs felt really bad.  They had felt like cinder blocks at Whiskey on the pavement and start of the dirt, but this wasn’t much better.  I just couldn’t push them at all.  We turned onto Keen Camp climb and I tried to lift the pace.

I was a little nervous as to the race (as always) because in addition to some fast So Cal ladies, 2 Xterra Professional athletes were racing too: Jessica Cerra and current Xterra WORLD CHAMP Lesley Paterson.

I cleaned all the rock sections and felt pretty solid.  I thought I had a bit of a small gap, but wasn’t sure.  I was stoked when I saw Dan and Steph near the top and asked Steph if I had a gap.  She said about 10-15 seconds.

Time to do work!

I hit Recovery Trail and really tried to punch it out – no brakes!  Felt solid.  Hit Johnson Meadow and was riding into a headwind.  I didn’t look back but was hoping I was going hard enough to keep my gap.

Marco caught me on May Valley as we headed up to Buena Vista singletrack, and Justin wasn’t too far behind.  I tried to hold Justin’s wheel on the singletrack, but he got clear.  I wound up nearly catching he and Marco on Mirkwood, but we hit the fire road traverse up to Lower Southridge climb and they were gone.

I actually felt like I climbed Lower Southridge fairly well.  There are 3-4 spots that I can’t clean, so I planned dismounts and ran and it seemed faster and smoother than pretending I could ride the stuff and getting hung up.  I still did a few times, but overall it was a solid climb.  At one point I looked back and saw a Trek kit and thought it was Lesley so took off in a hurry, but I think it must’ve been a Cat 1 man, but either way it sped me up for a minute or so!

Soon enough I was back to May Valley for some fire road climbing up to Sunset trail.  Sadly, I didn’t ride Sunset trail so well.  Just felt pretty “off” and despite keeping my mind focused and blinking and looking ahead, I just wasn’t riding that well.  Granted, I didn’t take a digger in front of the World Champion, but… still.

Thanks to Ti for making me look like I was riding fast, in any case, and looking good is half the battle.

After Sunset, and a short traverse through Astrocamp, Dan was taking pics and Steph was set up as a master bottle-hand off person.  THANK YOU GUYS SO MUCH!!

I grabbed my “last lap” bottle and began the short steep pavement grind up Pine to Tahquitz View for a last false flat feed before the right turn and then the steepness never ending Southridge fire road climb to Cherry on Top

Thanks to Diane Price for the shot!

I caught sight of Brian Crooks a turn or so ahead, cheering me to catch him.  No such luck!  I know this climb well.  I have no idea how long it took (wait, STRAVA) it was just over 12 minutes.  12.  It felt like 30.  In full granny, barely ticking over the pedals, back strained and screaming, legs wanting to twinge and cramp.  No air.  Sweating.  Almost there.  One more steep pitch.  OK, fine, two.  Two more pitches.

Got to the top, quick stretch, shift into the big ring, and hit the loose shale DG descent down Middle Southridge.  I could not descend.  I was all over the place.  I pitched it over into the side of the trail, got passed back by a Pro man who was soon out of sight, and slowly made my way down to Snakeskin.  I felt like I rode Snakeskin way better, but according to Strava I was still slower than 2 years ago!

About the time I’m finishing Snakeskin is about the time that staying in race mode is tough.  The field is spread out enough that I haven’t passed anyone in awhile, and no one has passed me.  Somewhere around Cahuilla Cut-Off and the trail between that and Coffee Pot I saw a few Cat 1 women on the shorter course and tried to cheer them on as I went by.  Motivation is tough at that point, and there’s still singletrack to go.

I was left chasing Brian Crooks again as we navigated the singletrack sections broken up slightly by fire road traversing.  Eventually I saw the “Coffee Pot” and followed Brian back on to May Valley for the final stretch of course.  I passed him and he sat in my draft down the 2nd climb, across the meadow, and halfway up Recovery Trail before wanting to go around.  You’re welcome for the pull!

We hit the descent down Keen and got squirrely and eventually Brian let me by.  I smiled for Kathy (thanks for the pics!), wanting to enjoy holding on to first so far, but having no idea how close behind the chasers were!

I nearly high-sided and tipped it, but managed to pull it off and continued back down to the venue and the finish

I sat up, checked behind me, and celebrated (thanks, Gretchen!)

I spun around for a few minutes with Justin and Griffith and then went back over and chatted with a bunch of other racers.  It was nearly raffle and award’s time.

Justin and I enjoyed a Pliny for our efforts (check the TT pint glass!  It’s all Cinco de Mayo’d out)

Pro Women’s podium L-R: Jessica Cerra 4th, Sarah Jansen 3rd, Allison Mann 1st, Lesley Paterson 2nd, Tonya Bray 5th  (missing Lesley who I think was out running – that’s a true professional!)

They called up Tinker and myself for the overall King and Queen of the Mountain awards.  These are always hand-crafted by Dore Capitani in Idyllwild and always awesome.  This was one solid piece of metal and he heat treated it to twist and turn the different “rings” (thanks, DT for the explanation!)

I was super stoked to be standing up there with TINKER JUAREZ.  It wasn’t all that long ago that Tinker was lapping me in XC races.

Next up was the Cat 1 30-39 mens podium, with Marco, Justin, and Griffith repping for Bikes for Boobs.  So many people are digging the cause and wanting the gear – soon!!

The team

After awards we were all pretty hungry, so we gathered up our stuff and headed over to the Burcham camp so that Justin could put together some of his famous “Buck Burgers”.  Greg and Kathy had a great spread of food, Steph brought the amazing beer, and we all had a blast hanging out with Ti, Lynn, Brent, Chris, etc. as we ate a huge BBQ dinner.

Justin and I of course decided to imbibe of the brownie bites and ice cream as well.  The Burcham’s are a bad influence.  (I kid.)

We set out for more fire wood and wound up with S’mores (how did THAT happen?).  Started our camp fire, showered, and hung out with Nick and Sydney from CO, Keith and Sarah, Tim Z and nephew, and Kathy and Greg.  Super fun evening hanging out with people around the campfire.  No cell phones, no TVs, just good conversation, stories, and lots of laughs.

Sunday was time trial day, and Justin decided to ride up to the race start at ISOMATA in Idyllwild.  I got 30 minutes in and decided it wasn’t to be.  I would’ve raced if we’d driven up since it is super fun, but there was still about 45 mins of climbing, not to mention the traverse and ride back down to camp.

Instead, I turned around, regretted my decision more than once, eventually made peace with it, saw Ti heading out to enjoy the trails solo, packed up camp, and then drove up for TT awards.

Justin beat his time from 2011, so there’s that!

Oh, and MY FAVORITE PART OF IDYLLWILD SPRING CHALLENGE:

Think I’m kidding?

2009

2010

2011

Yes, my favorite part is the M&M bowl.  Thank you, Katie!

Justin set off back to Saunder’s Meadow and May Valley to ride his own “Super D” with Sydney and Nick before they set off back toward Colorado, and I went back to Hurkey to enjoy some downtime

Nice to relax for a bit with nothing but nice mountain weather on a Sunday and a good book.

Needless to say, Monday after Idyllwild was the best, most rested I’ve probably felt since the week before Sea Otter.  Finally feeling human again.  If nothing else, this weekend nets no racing at all, so maybe we’ll get to sleep in and enjoy a quiet one at home.  I think it’ll be necessary for Justin and I in many ways.

Hope everyone had a great weekend no matter what they did.  Justin and I enjoyed ours!