Rockhopper Mnt Bike Race-5/12/12-Miles Reports

Where- Vacaville, CA

When- May 12th, 2012
Race- 40-49 Cat3 mens- 14 racers
Stats- 1 lap, 10 miles of fire road, double and single track trails.
1600 ft of climbing per lap.

I was solo in my race but teammate Dave Tripier was in

the Cat2 race ahead of me.

We left Menlo Park around 8am for the 1.5 hour drive up US80. Our races started at 11am, staggered starts of 1 min apart.

I haven't written a race report for a while now since there really hasn't been much to write about my Road Races lately. I have been getting frustrated and had been having more fun riding Centuries rather than riding in the peleton. I picked up a new 29er hardtail this past winter and started breaking up my rides from road to dirt just to keep it interesting. I've been feeling pretty comfortable on the new off road rig and thought I should try a race.

With Dave T egging me on, I decided that the Rockhopper Classic was a good one for me to get my feet wet, since I dont mind going up hill and the 29er hardtail climbs like crazy.

My background is dirt, racing motorcycles on very similar terrain, and I felt pretty comfortable with the change of surface.

In the car on the way up I drilled Dave with questions so I could come up with a plan of attack. As many of you know I dont do well with the unknown and need a plan ahead of time (bite your lip Laura!). The start seemed to be a big part of MTB races since you funnel down to single track soon after the start and cant always pass quickly if needed. As I lined up for my start I made it to the front row, far left side, so I could be in the top 5 or so after we started to get going.

My plan was to keep track of the front few as this race was really a sprint and happens all with in an hour. I got a good start and was around 6th going onto the trails.

The first few miles are mostly rollers with some flat spots to recover or make up ground, which ever is needed. In the first loose grassy section, some guy in front of me tries to force a pass and washes out his front end and goes over the bars and hits the ground tumbling. One down. 5 to go...

As we get climbing a little I get into a battle with 3 or 4th place (not sure at this point), he throws a chain on a steep climb but gets back up to me a few minutes later. We battle a few more times back and forth and I can tell he is already spent because of his efforts with his chain. We get to a flat gravel road for a few minutes and I decide I'd had enough if this guy and click up two gears and hammer. I never see him again. One more down, 3 to go...

I was feeling great at this point and hitting all the climbs hard but not at max. It gets messy here and there as we catch up to the slower riders n the race in front of us. I have to walk up two sections as the riders in front are stalled out mid climb and blocking the single track.

As I pass riders I keep track of their numbers and most are in the class ahead of me. I wish for more in my race. Eventually I catch 3rd place and get him on another climb. This one is basically the second half of the race and goes up and up via tight switch backs. After I pass him my goal changes to riding smooth & not crash. The hardest thing here is passing the lapped riders cleanly and still keeping your momentum up so you don't fall or go backwards. Again Dave T gave me the low down, and I knew that after this good 900 ft ascend I was home free with mostly down hill left. As I get close to the top I can see one more guy and challenge myself to pass him before we crest and start to descend. I get him a few pedal strokes from the top and take a big calming breath as we start going down the sweet flowing single track. At this point I am starting to feel the effects of my efforts and my mind starts to wander. I'm not sure if I'm in the lead or top 3, but know that I'm doing good. I really try hard to concentrate, as one wrong move and your off the trail and down a really steep hill to my side. There are a few large obstacles here and there and I try hard to keep my concentration up. I think to myself that this is identical to my motorcycle races were your mental state at the end is the difference between finishing your race in one piece and crashing out of the race with a laps in concentration.

Once I got to the last section which is relatively flat going into the finish I feel great and actually recovered a bit during my descend. There are a few racers ahead of me and I hammer one last time to past a few. The numbers tell me that these were all riders in the race ahead of me again. As I cross the finish line I am pretty happy with my ride, but not sure if I won or am just in the top 3 or so. There is one guy that looks like he just came in ahead of me and we talk between breaths to confirm placement. He really didn't know either. The cool thing at this race was there were chips in everybody's paper number, so results were pretty quick. I went straight over to the large flat screen and could see the results within minutes. 2nd place. He had beat me by 27 seconds. I feel good about my first podium on a pedal powered bike.

I recover and look for Dave as he finishes a stellar 3rd place finish!

After our race we get a free lunch, I make Dave hang around after the podium ceremonies for the raffle. I figure we had good luck today and have a good chance at some sweet swag, but it wasn't meant to be. I end up missing my daughters soccer game in lieu of the ceremonies, but screw it, I got a medal!

Thanks for reading

-Miles