Bike Race

On August 17th I had my last bike race of the season. Since then I have been running a bunch (ran a 5:52 mile and a 20:45 5K) and mountain biking about once a week for fun. My weight has stayed down pretty good despite not eating the best and not trying to keep it at any certain weight.

Friday, Dad called and asked if I wanted to do a 56 mile mountain bike race in Southern Missouri. The Berryman Epic. I hesitated a bit because of the lack of specific training, but the few times I have been on my bike I have felt pretty good, so I said sure, I'll give it a shot.

Now I have 3 weeks to get back into race shape. Gotta get the legs used to the pain of racing, and build some endurance to finish 56 miles at a good pace. I think I can do it!

So in 3 weeks, Cayle and I are heading to STL to meet mom and dad and brothers and then south to the race for the weekend. We have a cabin to stay in near Steelville, MO at Bass River Resort.

He wants to ride!

This afternoon Cayle and I were out in the garage hanging out after our bike ride. He wanted to go for a ride in his little car, so I pushed him for a bit on the driveway and sidewalk. Then when we got back in the garage, I thought he was done. I headed inside the house to grab some chocolate milk, and when I went back into the garage to see what he was doing, I was kind of surprised! He had gone to the shelve where he keeps his bike helmet, grabbed the helmet and was standing by his tricycle holding the helmet waiting for me to help him. While watching him, he tried to put it on a few times with little luck. What can I say? I guess he just wanted to go for a ride! It's super cool that he already knows, in order to ride his tricycle he needs to wear a helmet!

Had a mt. bike race last night. The 2nd last race in the series. The Boneyard Brawl in Eagle. Going in, I was sitting in 2nd overall, 40 pts behind the leader and 10 points ahead of 3rd place. Basically in order to have a chance to win the series, I needed to win the last 2 races. That's not going to happen, but I did get 3rd last night. While I was super excited about the result... the guy behind me in the overall won the race, and because of the 15 point winners bonus, he leapfrogged me into 2nd overall, and I slid to 3rd.
It was probably one of my favorite races yet this year. The course was basically 3 miles up and 3 miles down, we did 2 laps. At the top of the first climb I looked around and it was just the 3 of us overall contenders. Shannon, Brinton, and I. I was feeling really good, and was climbing really good. We all went downhill together, but at the bottom of the downhill, I crashed! Not a bad one, but took enough time that I never saw 1st and 2nd place again... Finished the rest of the race on my own, and took an easy enough 3rd place. It is super fun being competitive in this local series! Going to have to try to grab the win in 2 weeks at the final race in Beaver Creek. If I can do that, I will move back into 2nd place overall, but it's definitely not going to be easy! Results

Results for the Men's Sport
Place Bib Name LAST Team Time Point
===== ==== ===================== ============================== === ======= =====
1. 267 Shannon Crockford 54:17 100
2. 7 Brinton Barry Vail Mountain Bike Camps/M 54:25 85
3. 330 Nicholas Brummer Yeti's Grind 55:53 80

Cayle's 2nd cousin ..... and....Race tomorrow

My cousin Jodi who lives in Highlands Ranch, CO, and her mom came out to visit us today and are spending the next couple of nights with us. Jodi and her husband Luke have a 9 mo. old son, Nathan, who came along to hang out with his 2nd cousin, Cayle. At this point, I'm not sure you would call it hanging out so much since Cayle doesn't really get around that well. Although Nathan did try to pull his hair a couple times.... Nice gesture towards friendship I guess.... :) Below is a picture of Nathan cleaning the carpet for us.... Thanks Nathan!

2nd race of the season tomorrow in Eagle Ranch. I don't usually pre-ride the course, but decided to today. Happy I did so, just so I know a few of the turns. I think I should be able to get a top 10 as long as everything goes ok equipment wise. It's not the best course for me, but should be fine. Starts out with an 8 minute climb on a dirt road, then dirt road back down, into a singletrack rhythm section, out into a power false flat back to the finish/2nd lap. The 2nd lap is exactly the same as the first with a granny gear climb at the beginning of it. Hope all goes well, and I can get back to back good results and more points for Mountain Peddler in the series.

Recap

Bike Racing 101 for all you non-bike racers that may read this post.

2 types of races:
Criterium - go around in circles really fast for a certain amount of time, usually about an hour.

Road Race - A certain distance on the open road, usually 30-100+ miles.

You start out in a pack, also known as the field, or the peloton. The pack is the safety net. In order to be successful in a bike race you have to at least be able to ride with the pack. If you come off the back of the pack you have no chance and may as well quit, unless you like riding with no chance of winning. If you are strong enough to ride off the front of the pack, that is a good thing, you give yourself a better chance to win if you eliminate some of the other racers, although you also lose the safety of the draft from the other riders in the pack, so it is much more difficult. If the pack is all together at the finish you get what is known as a field sprint. At this point it is usually the most explosive sprinter, or the person that just times the sprint correctly that gets the win. Timing is key cause you can only sprint at max effort for a short amt. of time, say like a couple hundred meters.

Ok then, so Sunday afternoon I drove down to Boulder to do the Category 3 race. This was my first crit since late June. And my first race with the 3's since upgrading. My goal was to be aggressive and ride near the front of the pack (it's safer here, less crashes). So the race started on a slight uphill, made a left turn to a slight downhill for one block, left turn into an alley that was about half as wide as the road, then a left turn out of the alley, sharp right, then sharp left for a block then another left to the finishing straight and the uphill. Following me????

I lasted for 10:00 minutes with the field, and was ready to drop out when a guy in a Carmichael kit came past me and I thought sweet, he will pull me back in, he looks like he is going strong. About 5 minutes later I just rode away from him, he couldn't hang, and I had no one else to help me get back to the field. 10 minutes after I got dropped like a bad habit, the front end of the field lapped me and I pulled out of the race.

Why did this happen? Well I have lots of excuses and theories, but basically I just wasn't in good enough shape. Our avg. speed was 25.6 when I got dropped and I have been successful in races with a higher avg. speed, so I know I can do it. Among the other reasons that I have for getting dropped so early are.

1.) I started off at the back of the field, so going into the 2nd turn when I was doing 18 mph, the front of the field was doing 32 mph, and with 57 riders I had to sprint max effort to get back onto the back of the pack. Multiply this effort over the next 7 turns and I was fried....

2.) The first 3 wheels I picked to draft off of got dropped within the first 2 laps, and I had to close those gaps burning tons of energy in the process.

3.) I am about 5-10 lbs over my ideal race weight and where I think I need to be to be competitive with these guys out here.

Basically I just need to be in better shape and have better legs, but I also need to stay near the front of the pack to avoid the accordion effect. There was 55 starters and only 25 finished. I will be there next year I am confident.