ALLISON MANN

I’m still not even sure where to begin this tale.  I guess I should start at the beginning; and I don’t mean on Thursday’s road trip to Preskitt.

Epic Rides’ Whiskey Off Road 50 was not a race I’d had on my race calendar at all.  A group of friends and teammates had raced it the year prior, and I knew that it was a good, fun race that was well organized.  In 2011 Catharine Pendrel had duked it out with Pua Mata and Kelli Emmett, so I knew that it drew a big crowd of Pro racers.  Some of the local Pro’s were heading out as well (Tonya and Sarah).

Exactly a month ago I saw a link to an article in Mountain Flyer online that Whiskey Off Road 50 Promoter Todd Sadow, in conjunction with Stans No Tubes, was offering up 10 free pro women’s entries.  All of a sudden I was interested in racing!  Race entry fees get pretty expensive pretty fast, and with road trip costs, hotels, etc. any time we can save a few dollars it is a huge help getting to the events themselves.  So, I emailed my coach and Matt and asked if it was ok to race Whiskey instead of the local Triple Crown.  Both said sure!  I called Epic Rides that night and got my name on the list, and sent in my Pro entry and Justin’s 25 Proof entry the next day.

Huge thanks to both Epic Rides and No Tubes for getting more Pro Women to show up and throw down at such a cool event. Without No Tubes and Todd wanting to bring out the best Pro Women’s field I definitely wouldn’t have had the opportunity to make it to such a killer event in a great town.

Luckily for me, I also have family that lives in the area, so it was a fairly low-budget affair.  Free host housing, free pro entry, and 45 MPG in the Golf TDI on the way there.  Every little bit helps!

As I mentioned earlier this week (yes, I’m still milking this 3-day event!) I was pretty much a stress-ball most of the weekend.  Somehow, despite still not sleeping Saturday night, I woke up a little more tranquillo on Sunday morning.  Justin reminded me that racing is supposed to be fun.  It’s what we do to use all that fitness gained through the suffering and slogging on hill repeats and intervals and in training.  I’d trained hard this past winter and start to spring, and races like Whiskey (as well as Sea Otter, Bonelli, etc.) were the time to throw down, see where you fall, and enjoy using all that hard work!  Point taken.  I stopped stressing about my finish position, and just tried to get my head screwed on straight to race for 50 miles.  I don’t usually RIDE 50 miles off-road, much less RACE that long, so I was just hoping to finish in one piece and not bonk or cramp.

I’d loaded my pockets down with about 9 gel packs (I normally use a refillable gel flask, but had left it at home, so was going with uncharted territory and brought along a mix of Clif Shot Double Espresso’s and Cran-Razz, Peanut Butter Gu, and the free Hammer Nutrition gel that had been included in the swag bag) along with 5 bottles 3 of water and 2 with mix (1 with some caffeine).  In addition to my feed bottles I had Justin take along a pack of the Cytomax Energy Drops to stick some on my feed 3 mix bottle lid so I could chew them on the final climb up to the lookout, after Skull Valley.

Justin had suggested hydrating from my bottles any time that the ground leveled out the first hour of the race, having a gel shot 30 mins in, and then on the way up to Aid 1/3, etc.  So, I was somewhat armed with a feed plan and just hoped it worked out.

We got to downtown with plenty of time for me to spin around and get prepped.

It’s GO TIME

I rode around, trying to figure out if I was doing too much or not enough before such a long race, and eventually it was time to stage.

Since I’d kind of missed the boat so to speak for the Fat Tire Crit staging and line up, I wanted to make sure I had my position set for the XC race.  Even though there was plenty of room on the pavement to move around, it was one less thing I wanted to have on my mind.

I was lined up on the start behind the top-5 from Friday’s crit, in between Pua and Kelli.  Not a bad place to be, and much improved on my start spot from the Crit.

We took off around 8:40, 10 minutes after the Pro Men, and the start was about as benign as everyone (except me) said that it would be.  The pace was HIGH, but not insane.  I never looked around or back, but I’m pretty sure everyone remained in the peloton until we hit the first steep grunt climb out of town, which was probably 3+ miles in.  We were all working, but it wasn’t unsustainable.

However, despite the pace, it was high enough that 2 miles in my legs felt like utter bricks.  I started to get a bit panicked about holding on for the steep climb acceleration that I knew was coming.  Everyone started to jockey a bit and the gears were being shifted and then we were off and hammering up the steep climb on the pavement, and another, and I managed to keep myself positioned I think in the top-10.  We hit the dirt, made the right hand turn, and the fire road kicked up again.  I was at the back of a train, and soon enough fell off the Crankbrother’s “caboose” so to speak and the gap widened. My legs wouldn’t go any harder, and soon enough Gretchen from Tokyo Joe’s was in front of me and I just wanted to hold on.

We hit the singletrack and she opened up a gap on me, but I tried to keep the pace as high as I could.  I think I thought a few times, “I don’t think I can hold this pace for 3-4 hours.”  Just kept waiting for a small respite of descent so I could recover.  I kept Gretchen in sight, and had Jenny from NoTubes on my wheel.

I closed the gap to Gretchen, made a pass and hit a small descent, hoping to get a gap.  No such luck.  We hit the water bar climb out and I missed getting a wheel over, so we all came off.  After a bit of jostling, bikes falling to the ground, and walking up the hill, Gretchen and Jenny took off.  I had them in sight still, and just tried to keep it moving.  There was a long descent down Trail 260, and I thought I might be a slightly better descender.

We hit the fire road section between 2 singletrack’s and one of the Crankbrother’s race team members was on the side, I think fixing a flat.  As I hit the next singletrack section I distinctly remember thinking, “Justin had said to eat there.”  I’d tried to bridge up to Gretchen instead.  Oops!  Well, only about 25 more minutes to bottom of 260.

I hit 260 and was just stoked to be there and to enjoy the descent.  At one point I had to remind myself, “You’re raceee-ing” cause I felt like I was going way too slow, and coming around a corner Gretchen was off trail.  I did what I could to close the gap to Jenny since I wasn’t sure how good either of us would climb the next 2.3mi of fire road up to Aid 1/3.

I got to the bottom of 260 and we turned to climb up Tr 53 fire road.  I kept Jenny in sight, just wanting to close the gap, but not push it too soon.  She was climbing strong.  I caught up and was able to sit on her wheel, trying to find a good opportunity.  Her pace was solid.  I was just about to spring an attack and see if she followed when she had a shifting issue.  Good opportunity.  I went around and tried to get a gap, but she was right back on me everytime I looked back.  I got to the aid station where Justin handed me a full bottle of water.

They said 3 minutes to the leaders.  Justin said I was in, I think, 6th place.  Stoked!  But, damn.  6th!  Time to do work.  I hadn’t previewed the descent down to Skull Valley what-so-ever.  I tried to bonzai the descent, and only once had to come to almost a complete stop since I was over-cooking it into a turn.  I got about halfway down and started up “the climb in the middle of the descent” and it just kept climbing.  What is this!

I looked back once and Jenny was still right there.  D’oh!  Got to the top and started descending again, though this time it was a more gradual grade, not as steep as before.  The Pro men came barreling toward me in a pack of 10-12 with Conrad leading the charge on the front.  I cheered on a few guys and eventually near the bottom gave a cheer to both Georgia (leading) and Pua (not far behind).

I hit the pavement at the bottom, and while Todd in the pro rider meeting on Friday had mentioned a turn around in a parking lot, I had no idea where to go.  It wasn’t until I was long past the turn around cone that everyone started telling me to turn around.  OK, fine.

I had seen Heather and Kelli together at the 90* turn and noted the ride time on my Garmin.  When I got back to that point it was about 1:15 later.  Jenny was still really close behind me.  I was determined not to look back anymore and started playing seek and destroy.  It’s a game I came up with for myself racing the 4-woman at the June 2010 12 Hours of Temecula.

Skull Valley fire road climb was hot and airless.  I guess we had a tail wind, at least at the bottom, because there was no air hitting me at all, and it felt super warm.  After the big descent my legs didn’t want to work again.  I noted at some point on the climb that it was about 2:00 in.  I still had at least 1:30 to go.  That meant I’d been racing my bike for 2 hours, and still had an entire XCO race to go.  Head down.  Do work.

I had a few cheers from the women descending down the opposite side of the road.  At one point, not too far up the climb, someone said, “She’s right there in front of you!”  ”She?” I thought.  It was Heather AND Kelli up ahead.  I saw a bright green jersey and knew it wasn’t a Pro female.  Passed the pro man racer, and then saw another jersey ahead that looked like Heather.

5th place.

Podium.

“Don’t get too excited.”  This wasn’t too far up from the turn around, and I knew it’d be at least an hour climb, that I was being chased from behind, and that I didn’t want to blow up chasing Heather Irmiger up 2,500 ft only to explode and lose a bunch of spots.  We were only halfway through the race, afterall.

I kept making progress, getting a little closer, little closer.  Keep ticking over the pedals.  Don’t rush it.  It’s a long climb.

We got to the descent in the middle, er, near the top sort of, and suddenly she was GONE.  I have no idea if her aero-tuck was better or her gearing bigger, but the gap had grown.  Don’t panic.  She was in sight again, and I was on her wheel.  I went around made the pass to another pro man up ahead.  One at a time.

Before I knew it I was at the feedzone, with Justin handing me bottles and cold water over my back.  I felt a little chilled, ate my Cytosport Energy Drops and tried to get some hydration, and soon enough was traversing up to the outlook.  There were people here and there, a few pro men, but otherwise kind of quiet.  I hit the singletrack turn off just in front of one pro man and asked if he wanted to go around.  He said he was fine.  I distinctly recall wanting to rip this singletrack.  I felt like I was going faster than I had in our pre-ride on Thursday afternoon.  The trails were in super awesome condition.

I also distinctly recall about a mile or two down the trail hearing my rear rim hit a rock “V”: essentially, 2 rocks butted up against each other and ended in a V and that’s where my wheel hit.  I didn’t lose any air at the time, or didn’t seem to, and the tire felt fine on singletrack over rocks and around corners.

Through the big creek crossing, up cramp hill, where I distinctly recall thinking, “If I was going to cramp, it’d be here.”

(Thanks to Billy Befoot for the pic!)

Not much later I came around a corner to cheers and saw CPT and Dave cheering from the sidelines!  I was so pumped to see them out there I slowed up to high-5 Christina and charged off.

A few corners later I saw Judy off the trail around a switchback, another flat tire.

It literally couldn’t have been half a mile later I felt a rim strike going over some rocks.  Uh-oh.  I had 7-8 miles left to the finish line and my tire was low.  I tried not to panic.  ”Just hold out for 7 miles.  Please.  Just hold out.”  A few more creek crossings and my rim was striking everything.  I made it to the pavement and around the last dirt corner felt my tire give way.  Not good.

See the flat?

(Thanks to Vicki Lukina for the pic!, and the cheers!!)

I hit the pavement and tried to stay on the front wheel.  It was somewhat difficult negotiating the turns, rocky pavement, potholes, and ups and downs of the last 4~ miles of race course with a completely flat rear tire.  Not far into the road section I looked down at my tire and considered pulling over to shoot it with my C02.  I thought maybe it’d hold out and allow me to go a LITTLE faster, since I think I saw a tortoise pass me at one point, and everyone that DID have air in their tires was definitely moving faster.

It was then that I realized that I had no C02 canister in my holder on my seat post.  I have no idea where it came out, but it was gone.  Well, nothing I could do at that point.

I knew I was now sitting in 4th, and I figured that for better or worse I was going to ride out the flat until the wheel exploded.  At least I could then afford to replace my wheelset.  I actually spent some time while trying to aero-tuck and/or out of the saddle pedal as much as I could while staving off arm cramps (my arm is cramping!) trying to come up with an explanation to Justin as to why I rode with a rear flat on really expensive wheels we can’t afford to replace.  But, I digress.

After not being sure of two separate turns on course to get back to Goodwin/Whiskey Row, I finally hit the last set of cones down Goodwin and thought I was in the home stretch.  I didn’t have much energy left with which to hammer my flat tire, and slightly celebrated making it to the finish line.  Justin did not catch my finish celebration because Teal was RIGHT ON MY WHEEL (which I had so failed to notice since not once did I look behind me the entire 4 miles of pavement back to Whiskey Row and the start/finish) and he was so busy gesticulating to GET ACROSS THE LINE that he didn’t get the shot.  Luckily for me I had 2 seconds to spare and snagged 4th place.

Lesson learned: If you’re going to celebrate your finish, at least make sure no one is chasing you down from behind.  It hadn’t even occurred to me that someone would be that close at the finish, and I can’t fathom why, aside from the fact that I’d been racing my bike for 3.5 hours at mile high and wasn’t thinking clearly.

I apologized profusely to Justin for riding on the flat tire for 4 miles, and he switched out my rear wheel for his so I could do a cool down.  He said the rim looked fine.  Score.  My derailleur was trashed and my fork hadn’t been working, so I’m using his.  Time for some bike work I think!

I gathered myself a bit, chatted briefly with Bruce Dickman, where I’m pretty sure I explained how rad the Whiskey 50 and Prescott were

Was stoked to see Sonya finish and get her post-Whiskey red ale

And then went to lay down before awards.  I was a little tired at that point!

Then, super stoked to be on the podium with an amazing group of women

Actually, all of the women that had been on the start line were amazing.  It was about as diverse a group of female athletes as I’ve seen other than doing cyclocross racing.  We had National Champions, XCO and top endurance athletes, U23 women, triathletes, first time Pro’s, World Cup racers, and everything in between.  It was really cool to line up with such an amazing cast of characters and throw down for EQUAL WOMEN’S PRIZE MONEY!

Justin was starving, so we rushed to get changed into street clothes and head over to Raven Cafe for our final meal.  Luckily we hurried like we did since they stopped serving at 2 pm on Sunday!  Waiting for lunch

I was seriously bummed that they had run out of Hop Rising and Modus Hoperandi brews. I settled for a Dogfish Head Burton Baton (it was ok, even post-race, not my fave) as we waited on a breakfast burrito and burger to share. Lots of racers came in including Teal, Suzanne from Luna, and Heather and JHK. We did our last hanging out with Keith, Sarah, David, Ryan, and KT, and got to say hey to the Turners as well. Nice final lunch, but we had to get out of dodge for the long drive home. Justin was starting a new job in about 18 hours!

My GIANT CHECK barely fit in the car

I thought it was super cool to get to take it home!

Luckily for me following Whiskey it’s been a recovery week, but I’m not very recovered. What with eating junk food and not sleeping enough, my body is in shambles. Time to reboot and hit it again cause this weekend is the Idyllwild Spring Challenge! A 30 mile race up in Idyllwild on Saturday, followed by a fun time trial up by ISOMATA on Sunday morning and some ripping descending in the afternoon.

Our bikes are not functioning right, we’re both tired and carrying life stress, but hey… the sun is finally shining and campfires and singletrack awaits.

Until next week!