New 2013 bikes that have arrived

This time of year is always one of the most exciting (at least for me as a bike geek). . . it's the time of year that we receive most of the new higher end bikes ($2000+) for the year.  In the last couple weeks we've received a full line of the 2013 Specialized Epics (minus the S-Works Sram version, which Specialized is waiting on the XX1 group to be released). 

Some of the new colors are really cool, but as with everything beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but it's really nice that to some degree they've gone "wild and mild", making some louder (some may think obnoxious) paint schemes and some paint schemes that are subtle (some may think boring).  One the louder end of the spectrum there is the Epic Evo R, which someone that really likes how it looks thinks it looks like a hot dog stand, it makes me think more of a Belgian flag,

and the Epic Evo Expert in white, for those that like the white-Euro look.

On the other end of the spectrum it would be hard to find someone that would have a problem with either the Epic Marathon (it's hard to go wrong with black and a little silver)

or the Epic Expert Carbon (all shiny black, except for some hard to notice copper accents. . .which certainly don't fit, but you have to look for them to see them).

We also got in a 2013 S-works Epic XTR, in red. . .which I wasn't a big fan of on line or in the catalogue, but in person looks really good (assuming you like red).  Then again for $10,000, it better (well actually not $10,000 . . . $9,999.99, but whose really counting their pennies).

Requesting Pro License

I've submitted a request to USA cycling to upgrade my cross-country mountain bike license from a Category 1 to a Pro license.  I have very mixed feeling about this and whether I deserve the upgrade or not.  Early in the year (prior to my ankle injury) I was more than able to hold my own with the top Category 1 riders, my results were good although I think not quite as good as they could have been:  I blew up toward the end of a couple races and had some handling issues at the end of the races that didn't give me much time to recover from.

When I put things all together: my race early in the year at Renaissance and the Riverfront Classic (before completely blowing up with about 30 minutes to go and losing 3 or 4 minutes), I was able to more than able to hold my own and then some against Category 1 riders (and many Pro's).  On the other hand my results were a little all over the place and not worthy on the whole of upgrading.  Then unfortunately with my ankle injury I didn't have an opportunity to have more good results to make it clear based on my results that I deserve a pro license.  We'll see what happens and what USA cycling think.

Last summer series race

This post is quite belated, but wanted to share how my how my last summer series race went.  Four of us lined up for the start of the expert race.  Went into the woods 2nd behind Justin Brayton, Justin who is very high level pro motor cross racer, who always rides smoothly and chooses really good lines.  So I was very happy to follow him and was riding well.  After 10 minutes or so Justin started to pull away on the technical sections, I continued to ride well.  Unfortunately I hit a rooty step up, and got bumped off my bike, in doing this my chain dropped.  As I was working on my bike next to the trail Justin McLean, who had been slowly catching me, passed me.  Fortunately I was able to get my chain past the chain guide and get back on the bike quickly.  After that the race was pretty uneventful, I wasn't able to close down on either Justin, but also wasn't passed from those behind.  Overall I was pretty happy with the race, my handling and fitness were ok-good.

I surprisingly ended up finishing second overall in the series, behind a very deserving Justin McLean, and in front of Luke Sagur, Luke would have easily beaten me but he skipped a number of races to get ready for other races.  Given my ankle issues I was very happy with this past season, when I was healthy I rode faster than I would have thought possible before the year, and I was able to get back to riding well by the end of the year. 

Last Southern Classic MTB race of the year

This past Sunday was the last of the Southern Classic Mountain Bike races of the year.  It was also the last bigger races that I would be doing of the year where I could use the result easily to apply for my pro license.

I pre-rode the course after getting there:  a lot of climbing in the first 5 minutes (I knew wasn't going to feel real good at race pace), then a number of bermed switch back turns (I struggled with taking them with much speed, and assumed I would lose time through that sections), the last half was much more flowing and fast, while still had some climbing to it.

I had a good start going into the woods in second place, behind fellow BikeSource rider Bobby Bryson.  Got passed by by one of the Cannondale-Championsystems racers and by Jason Laxton (our wonderful Specialized rep).  They slowly pulled away through the technical areas and then towards the end of the first lap another rider passed me.  After that I pretty much rode by myself, with the exceptions of one of the really fast older (40+) Cat 1 riders.  I eventually finished 4th (I apparenly passed the Cannondale-Championsystems rider after he had crashed).

It's definitely a course where there is no where to hide.  If your fitness or your handling isn't up to par, it will definitely show.  And in my case it showed:  both my handling and my fitness wasn't great, I couldn't get through the berms fast enough and wasn't fit enough to handle the climbing.  After breifly following Jason and Bobby they beat me by 11 and 8 minutes respectively.  I felt like I got the most out of the race that I could, but it wasn't a result that was very good.

Totally Unexpected Win

Bike postrace:  It was a "little" muddy at North Meck

It's been a while since I've posted to the blog, I've been meaning to but it just hasn't happened in the last couple weeks.

My fitness has been coming around, still not where it was earlier in the year, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

This week's race was at North Meck.  I got there early enough to do two warm up laps (each lap is only about 15 minutes).  Felt really good riding on my first warm-up lap, both bike handling wise and fitness wise.  Just as I was finishing up my first lap it started to rain, so I headed to the car, then it started to pour, then it started to do whatever is rained harder than pour.  While it was raining hard, hung out in John's (BikeSource Manager and fellow BikeSource racer) truck during the heavy rain.  It let up and then started again, while it was raining really hard I stayed in his truck when it eased up I hopped back on the bike and rode around to keep warm.  So much for my two lap warm up. . . oh well.

The situation kind of reminded me of my year: fell really good at the beginning, then some unexpected issues, that get in the way of the plan, but in both cases I tried to make the best out of things, and stay as positive as possible (neither time I was completely positive, but did try to do my best to be positive).

By now the course had turned from dry, even a little slippery because it was hard packed with a little sand on top, to what I could only assume was a complete mud bath. 

Lined up for the start, it was Justin Brayton (a pro motocross rider and extremely good mountain biker, who will in all likelihood get his pro mountain biking license if he applies for on), Luke Sagur (pro mountain biker who just got his new regular race bike put back together, for the last few weeks he'd been using his single speed and was still fast enough on that to win the previous weeks summer series race). . . and me.  So while it wasn't a big field by any means, the other guys were very good.  Even if the conditions were ideal I still would have thought I would be third, but especially with the conditions the way they were I felt quite sure that I would end up finishing 3rd, unless someone had a mechanical or rash of falls.  Maybe not the best attitude to have going into the race, but it was realistic.

At the start I let Justin and Luke fight it out for the lead going into the woods, Justin ended up leading, then Luke, then me.  As expected it was muddy and slippery.  The three of us stayed in a line, riding fairly easily to start out with, I certainly wasn't going to argue since I was pretty much just out there to get a ride in and hopefully not crash.  About halfway through the first lap I locked up my brakes coming around a corner and spun almost completely around.  After turning myself around and getting started again I was down probably 20 seconds, I could still see the guys ahead when the trail turned back on itself.  I worked on catching back up to them, knowing that if I rode cleanly and they didn't pick up the pace I'd be able to catch back up, I just hoped they wouldn't pick up the pace.

Slowly, but steadily I was able to pull myself back to the other guys.  This doesn't happen all at once, especially in muddy conditions like we had, it's trying to pick up one or two seconds through corners or straights at a time; you can't just sprint back because you'd just end up on the ground covered in mud (well I should actually say:  more covered in mud, because I was already covered in much from it spraying up).  I was very thankful that they hadn't really pushed the pace. 

Still on the first lap, the the super sport riders started to catch us, they started a minute or so after us.  This didn't worry me, but I did let Justin and Luke know that we had company.  Things continued like this for the remainder of the first lap:  Justin, Luke, myself, and then some of the super sport guys.  After finishing up the first lap, Luke accelerated and took the lead entering the wood for the second lap.  I stayed in third, thinking that Justin would probably close the gap to Luke, if it was going to be a pace I'd be able to maintain.  As it turned out the gap between Luke and the two of us continued to stretch out, not too much at once, but probably to 20 seconds half way though the lap.  I was still feeling good at this point so I decided to pass Justin going up the one relatively long climb that each lap has and tried to pull Justin back. 

This is where things start to get a little fuzzy for me, I don't remember exactly when stuff happened, in part because I'm really bad at counting laps as I go along, I usually rely on looking at my Garmin to know where I am in the race, but unfortunately with the rain and mud I really couldn't see the Garmin clearly and anyway didn't want to take my eyes off the trail since it was so slippery.

At some point, I think, toward the end of the second lap the leading super sport rider, who as I would later figure out was Charlie Mullins, asked to get around me when there was an opportunity, shortly after I move over and let him by and continued behind him.  We were slowly, very slowly pulling back up to Luke.  On what I think was the 3rd lap of 4 going up the climb (which is about the only place to cleanly pass someone, except if they just let you by), I passed Charlie and surprisingly I was also to get up to and pass Luke. 

I stayed in front of the two of them, continuing to try and ride smoothly and not slide out in the mud.  Given how slippery it was I actually felt very comfortable and as much in control of the bike as much as possible, given how muddy it was.  I continued to lead through the end of lap 3, I never knew exactly  how much of a gap I had on Luke and Charlie was, because I was focused on trying to stay upright and couldn't turn back around to see where they were, but I knew they very close behind.  At some point, part way through the final lap Charlie told me that Luke had fallen down.  I continued my pace knowing that even though Luke had fallen, he's really strong and would catch back up if I let up.

With a couple minutes left to go I knew there was one rider not too far behind me, but I wasn't sure if it was still Charlie or if Luke had caught up and passed Charlie.  So going round a switchback I turned around to see who it was, I was kind of surprised to see that it wasn't Luke, but instead Charlie, this was very reassuring, that I had a good sized gap on Luke and assuming I didn't mess up that things were pretty secure.  But in doing this I almost rode off the trail, fortunately I was just able to stay on the trail and not get off into the leaves and underbrush.  And after that the last couple minutes were uneventful. . .thankfully.

After finishing I congratulated Charlie and Luke for having very good races.  Chatted with Luke for a bit and he was extremely complimentary of my riding and said that "I was back" I wasn't completely convinced (and am still not completely convinced I'm back to where I was earlier in the year): it was one race in really difficult conditions, with only two other guys in the race:  would that translate to a dry race with more people. . .I don't know.  But it's certainly a much better to maybe be back than definitely NOT being back.

Last week's race

Last week's race was at Renaissance, a place that with all my riding there this year I've felt very comfortable.  Got to the race and did half a lap to warm up.  When I got to the start there was only six of us in the expert field (Robert Fish: very fast, Justin McKean: very fast, Luke Sagur: very fast, Justin Brayton: very fast, a guy I didn't know, turned out to be Cliff Kenyon, who is from Connecticut, and myself).  I commented to Robert, a fellow BikeSource rider, that I'd probably riding by myself for a long time during the week, since I figured the four really fast guys would pull ahead and be fighting for the win, while it would be me and the new guy somewhere behind them.  I turned out to not be too far off.

Got a good start, let the really fast guys go:  they were going REALLY fast, trying to get into the wood first.  About 2 minutes after the start, new guy: Cliff, passed me, and I followed behind him, both of us were going right about the same pace.  Was pretty easy to stay behind him, but I wouldn't have wanted to go much faster.  Cliff had some kind of issue on an uphill and I was clean going up the hill and was able to get around him.  For the next hour and fifteen minutes I rode by myself, no one that I could see in front of my and no one (except for maybe one or two super sport guys) came up behind me.  My bike handling felt REALLY good, obviously my fitness is off from earlier in the year, but for the first time since my ankle injury I actually felt like I was handling the bike like I was earlier in the year.  Ended up finishing 5th behind the four really fast guys, Cliff DNF'd, I'm not sure if it was from the issue going up the hill when I passed him or somewhere else.  So I finished last among finishers, but felt really good about the race.

First run back

I saw Dr. Picklesimer at Eastover Foot and Ankle and he gave me a compression-like sleeve to go around my ankle and the go ahead to start "running" again.  I say "running" because I need to start by just running a mile slowly and very slowly build from there.  I was again surprised that I was ready for this next step, I thought running would still be a little ways off.  This past Thursday was my first attempted run, unfortunately I couldn't seem to run without limping (limping and pain were the two things Dr. P told me that should make me stop running), I only got about 150 yards or so from the front door before turning around.  I wasn't overly disappointed with this because I didn't expect to be running quite so quickly and that at this point all of my training is focused on 2013, my fitness fell off too much while my ankle was healing to have any races where I'm going to be at the level I was earlier this year.

I made my second attempt at a run on Saturday.  This time I was able to run without limping and with no pain (there was some discomfort, but no pain) and I ran all of 3/4 of a mile, probably at nine minute mile pace.  I was very happy to be able to run again, but it's a really weird to be happy about running less than a mile at 9 minute pace, when just two months ago I was able to run 12 miles at 7:15 pace.  But I do realize this is the way it has to be for now and the only way to come back is to come back, building back up slowly, even if it's hard to fathom being happy with a 3/4 mile run.