MTB EFTA - Pinnacle 40+
MTB EFTA - Pinnacle 40+
I was supposed to do Housatonic with Smudger and team today but my climbing spirit flew away at Killington and I just couldn't do it. I just read his race report, I think I made the right decision. With that said, Sweeney talked me into a "fun" MTB race. OK Pinnacle sounds great, except maybe the name Pinnacle should have been a warning. This was a sufferfest probably at least close to HHRR. 3 Monster climbs and 3 harrowing decents. I thought I'd pace myself on each climb and destroy the decents. I climbed better than I expected, decended ok but worse than expected. Lap 1 hurt a lot. I was around 10th on the hole shot, chasing Sweeney up the climb. He had a good pace going until he crashed hard. I rolled by him with a "are you OK" but was suffering so I just kept on going. Decended fast but really never recovered. Lap 2 was a complete haze as I climbed, crashed a few times, almost died off the side of a bridge going 20MPH into a bush, decended poorly, recovered and started lap 3. Amazingly I got a 2nd wind and rode pretty well with only one crash, getting run over and passed by a scottish guy (damn you smudger, I should have worn my socks). Decended like a banshee and passed a few guys on the downhill. Came in 11th in my first MTB race so I was happy. Chris should post for his 30+, but I'll say he was the most impressive MRC guy beating me by 10 minutes. He should race MTB more often. Todd came in shortly after me and Scott "finished admirably" while cursing the hardtail and licking some wounds. MRC had a solid representation overall. Looking forward to getting back on the road.
Re: MTB EFTA - Pinnacle 40+
It was an almost game-time decision yesterday to do the Pinnacle 30+ Sport, based largely on the lack of rain Saturday and the forecast for Sunday -- not to mention all the positive comments about the Pinnacle course. My mountain bike doesn't get much love these days, in fact the only time I'd ridden it since the 2010 24HOGG was twice at night over the winter. Pulled it down yesterday and gave it a once over. Replaced the brake pads and adjusted cables, put air in the tires, then headed to the Jimmy Buffett concert with some friends of ours where I drank and ate junk food for 6 hours. Pretty much like back in college which, coincidentally, was the last time I was serious about mountain biking 
It was good to ride up w/ Scott and Jeremy, it almost made violating the "drive time to race time ratio should be less than one" worth it. Had a decent warmup, almost too much actually as I was midway through a warmup lap and realized the race started in 15 minutes. High tailed it back (now I'm really warm) and made it to the start line with about 3 minutes to spare but missed the pre-race instructions (more on that later). Decent start, decent first climb, led for a while but took a small wrong turn into a swamp and gave up the lead. Slotted in to second place, but first place just eeked out a lead that put him out of sight. Third place passed me near the top of the climb (it's basically 3 miles up followed by 3 miles down per lap), and I tried to maintain contact, but yo-yo'ed just out of sight of him as well. Railed the downhill to end the first lap, happy to have rear suspension on that course. To start the climb on the second lap, 4th place is pressuring me -- on my wheel for 15 solid minutes. Right near the top I put in a dig, dropped the 4th place guy and in the process caught and passed the second place guy. Cool. I timed my attack to correspond with cresting the climb so I could then pull away on the downhill
I looked to turn right and start descending at the same spot as last lap, but oh by the way if I had heard the pre-race instructions I would know that on the second and third lap, we don't turn right, we actually keep climbing for another 100 or so vertical feet. Oops. Third place dogged me for the next lap and a half, right on my wheel, just waiting for me to bobble or such. On the third lap, about 3 minutes into the climb, he starts to fade ever so slightly, so I turn the screws for 2 or 3 minutes and that was the last of him. Sweet.
I thought I could set the cruise control at that point, but I noticed a specter of a new kit gaining on me about halfway up the climb. It was a guy who looked remarkably close to 30 years old and had a number within 4 digits of me, so I had no idea if he was in my 30+ class or not. It was a great finish to the race because it forced me to not let up. This guy could clearly out climb me but I would catch and pass him on anything downhill or flat & technical. We swapped positions no less than 4 times, but in the end with the final 10 minutes being downhill I dropped him for good. Rolled through the finish for 2nd place in the 30-39 Sport and 6th place overall Sport. I was surprised to learn the 1st place guy in my class was only a minute and a half ahead. It's amazing the power of "out of sight out of mind".
Podium shot, recovery beverage (thanks Todd!), McDonald's take out (followed by 3 hours of sad belly), and home to spend the rest of Father's Day with the crew. All in all a good day.....
It was good to ride up w/ Scott and Jeremy, it almost made violating the "drive time to race time ratio should be less than one" worth it. Had a decent warmup, almost too much actually as I was midway through a warmup lap and realized the race started in 15 minutes. High tailed it back (now I'm really warm) and made it to the start line with about 3 minutes to spare but missed the pre-race instructions (more on that later). Decent start, decent first climb, led for a while but took a small wrong turn into a swamp and gave up the lead. Slotted in to second place, but first place just eeked out a lead that put him out of sight. Third place passed me near the top of the climb (it's basically 3 miles up followed by 3 miles down per lap), and I tried to maintain contact, but yo-yo'ed just out of sight of him as well. Railed the downhill to end the first lap, happy to have rear suspension on that course. To start the climb on the second lap, 4th place is pressuring me -- on my wheel for 15 solid minutes. Right near the top I put in a dig, dropped the 4th place guy and in the process caught and passed the second place guy. Cool. I timed my attack to correspond with cresting the climb so I could then pull away on the downhill
I looked to turn right and start descending at the same spot as last lap, but oh by the way if I had heard the pre-race instructions I would know that on the second and third lap, we don't turn right, we actually keep climbing for another 100 or so vertical feet. Oops. Third place dogged me for the next lap and a half, right on my wheel, just waiting for me to bobble or such. On the third lap, about 3 minutes into the climb, he starts to fade ever so slightly, so I turn the screws for 2 or 3 minutes and that was the last of him. Sweet. I thought I could set the cruise control at that point, but I noticed a specter of a new kit gaining on me about halfway up the climb. It was a guy who looked remarkably close to 30 years old and had a number within 4 digits of me, so I had no idea if he was in my 30+ class or not. It was a great finish to the race because it forced me to not let up. This guy could clearly out climb me but I would catch and pass him on anything downhill or flat & technical. We swapped positions no less than 4 times, but in the end with the final 10 minutes being downhill I dropped him for good. Rolled through the finish for 2nd place in the 30-39 Sport and 6th place overall Sport. I was surprised to learn the 1st place guy in my class was only a minute and a half ahead. It's amazing the power of "out of sight out of mind".
Podium shot, recovery beverage (thanks Todd!), McDonald's take out (followed by 3 hours of sad belly), and home to spend the rest of Father's Day with the crew. All in all a good day.....
Re: MTB EFTA - Pinnacle 40+
Great result Chris.
Re: MTB EFTA - Pinnacle 40+
Lots of mistakes:
#1: I decided to upgrade to from Novice to Sport.
#2: I didn't warm up, and instead blew up.
#3: Didn't cut my bars down far enough, and subsequently hooked them on a tree during the first lap descent. This sent me flying over the bars, and flung my bike as well. My fall was cushioned by a nice large rock.
After that big crash, I was considering pulling out at the end of the lap. I had bashed up my leg, and hip, making pedaling with any kind of serious effort a very painful prospect. This pretty much ended my "race". In the end I decided to tough it out, which all things considered was probably mistake #4. Fatigue, and a general lack of riding skills, led to several other less severe crashes. The cumulative effect of which left me looking like I was mauled by a bear. Amazingly I wasn't DFL, 16/17, with 3 DNF's. I was a solid 40 mins behind Chris though
#1: I decided to upgrade to from Novice to Sport.
#2: I didn't warm up, and instead blew up.
#3: Didn't cut my bars down far enough, and subsequently hooked them on a tree during the first lap descent. This sent me flying over the bars, and flung my bike as well. My fall was cushioned by a nice large rock.
After that big crash, I was considering pulling out at the end of the lap. I had bashed up my leg, and hip, making pedaling with any kind of serious effort a very painful prospect. This pretty much ended my "race". In the end I decided to tough it out, which all things considered was probably mistake #4. Fatigue, and a general lack of riding skills, led to several other less severe crashes. The cumulative effect of which left me looking like I was mauled by a bear. Amazingly I wasn't DFL, 16/17, with 3 DNF's. I was a solid 40 mins behind Chris though
Re: MTB EFTA - Pinnacle 40+
Wow nice job guys in what sounded like a super tough race. Chris, sounds like you had a monster race.
I don't think I will be jumping in any MTB races like Jeremy...I think I would be that DFL or DNF as I would probably have 10 wipeouts in one race...
I don't think I will be jumping in any MTB races like Jeremy...I think I would be that DFL or DNF as I would probably have 10 wipeouts in one race...
Re: MTB EFTA - Pinnacle 40+
My official Race Report:
Two years ago when I started mountain bike racing, Bauer and I drove up to the Pinnacle in the pouring rain. It was a miserable time on the tough course. His chain blew up and he luckily had to walk off the course. Myself? After slipping, falling, bike-pushing, tree-hooking and having celebrated a friend's 40th birthday party the night before, I bailed. I vowed to return, though.
This year everything was different. It was dry, the ambient temps perfect. But The Pinnacle was still a sufferfest. There's no faking mountain biking by sitting in and the Pinnacle is a tough one because if you're not scrambling up the side of a mountain on single track - loose in spots, you're descending fast over rocks, pine needles and the descent takes your full concentration and even balancing out of the saddle. The only flat section is the 200 meters at the bottom of the mountain.
The start was typical: lots of people sprint off for the hole-shot like its the start of a CX race forgetting there's a 750-foot climb awaiting. I've learned, keep it steady and smooth and no need to blow up (like I did at Weeping Willow). And as a result, I got to pass a few people gassed on the first climb.
The climbing pretty much killed me, causing all sorts of back spasms that I'm not accustomed to. Though, it was only 2K of climbing over the course of the race, it hurt so much more than my 4K climbing workouts on the road bike. I'm pretty sure it's related to the rearward pressure you need to put on the bike to keep the traction when it gets loose -- in this sense, I wish I my hardtail 29r had gears, it would have been great on this course. At the top of the first lap, I caught Deitch's wheel just in time for the descent. Knowing he's a great technical rider, I anticipated following his smooth lines down the mountain. After a couple near misses with trees, however, I thought better than to keep on his wheel and hit him with the old-man power on the next climb.
For the second lap, they re-routed us down a different section of mountain at the top and made us do some traversing. I was hoping that it was the last lap. I could imaging going up that climb for a third time. But no matter how much I wished for there not to be a third lap...there was one more to go, and I focused on thinking about how much fun the descent was.
At one point on the last lap, a 50+ singlespeeder with a rigid fork passed me. I was impressed. We chatted for a bit while he sat on my wheel. He said he's thinking about going 1x9 for races like this, that's he'd getting too old for the one gear. Lessons learned: road climbing is not a good substitute for climbing on single track, and it's definitely not about your equipment.
Anyway, I'm pleased with how I rode. I managed to navigate a lot of tricky rocky sections without crashing once. My bike handling was pretty dialed in, even though I was slower (cough, more cautious) on the descents that I probably should have been. And despite back spasms for the last two laps, I still finished. VICTORY!
If I don't go to West Hill MTB in Putney, VT this weekend (I hear it's got a bear of a fireroad climb), I'll probably do the HOrror at Harding Hill in July - which doesn't really have a hill on it. My kind of course.
Chris killed it with his motocross bike handling skills combined with his roadie power. Jeremy had an awesome first race on the MTB, especially for only being on his MTB a few times this year. You guys should ask PJ what a nightmare my second ride was earlier in the year. It's not easy popping off of the road bike and trying to race a MTN bike.
Two years ago when I started mountain bike racing, Bauer and I drove up to the Pinnacle in the pouring rain. It was a miserable time on the tough course. His chain blew up and he luckily had to walk off the course. Myself? After slipping, falling, bike-pushing, tree-hooking and having celebrated a friend's 40th birthday party the night before, I bailed. I vowed to return, though.
This year everything was different. It was dry, the ambient temps perfect. But The Pinnacle was still a sufferfest. There's no faking mountain biking by sitting in and the Pinnacle is a tough one because if you're not scrambling up the side of a mountain on single track - loose in spots, you're descending fast over rocks, pine needles and the descent takes your full concentration and even balancing out of the saddle. The only flat section is the 200 meters at the bottom of the mountain.
The start was typical: lots of people sprint off for the hole-shot like its the start of a CX race forgetting there's a 750-foot climb awaiting. I've learned, keep it steady and smooth and no need to blow up (like I did at Weeping Willow). And as a result, I got to pass a few people gassed on the first climb.
The climbing pretty much killed me, causing all sorts of back spasms that I'm not accustomed to. Though, it was only 2K of climbing over the course of the race, it hurt so much more than my 4K climbing workouts on the road bike. I'm pretty sure it's related to the rearward pressure you need to put on the bike to keep the traction when it gets loose -- in this sense, I wish I my hardtail 29r had gears, it would have been great on this course. At the top of the first lap, I caught Deitch's wheel just in time for the descent. Knowing he's a great technical rider, I anticipated following his smooth lines down the mountain. After a couple near misses with trees, however, I thought better than to keep on his wheel and hit him with the old-man power on the next climb.
For the second lap, they re-routed us down a different section of mountain at the top and made us do some traversing. I was hoping that it was the last lap. I could imaging going up that climb for a third time. But no matter how much I wished for there not to be a third lap...there was one more to go, and I focused on thinking about how much fun the descent was.
At one point on the last lap, a 50+ singlespeeder with a rigid fork passed me. I was impressed. We chatted for a bit while he sat on my wheel. He said he's thinking about going 1x9 for races like this, that's he'd getting too old for the one gear. Lessons learned: road climbing is not a good substitute for climbing on single track, and it's definitely not about your equipment.
Anyway, I'm pleased with how I rode. I managed to navigate a lot of tricky rocky sections without crashing once. My bike handling was pretty dialed in, even though I was slower (cough, more cautious) on the descents that I probably should have been. And despite back spasms for the last two laps, I still finished. VICTORY!
If I don't go to West Hill MTB in Putney, VT this weekend (I hear it's got a bear of a fireroad climb), I'll probably do the HOrror at Harding Hill in July - which doesn't really have a hill on it. My kind of course.
Chris killed it with his motocross bike handling skills combined with his roadie power. Jeremy had an awesome first race on the MTB, especially for only being on his MTB a few times this year. You guys should ask PJ what a nightmare my second ride was earlier in the year. It's not easy popping off of the road bike and trying to race a MTN bike.
I'm 20PoundSkull at cyclowhat.com.
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onegeardoug
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Re: MTB EFTA - Pinnacle 40+
Makes me wish I chose to to Pinnacle over Housatonic....
Nice job guys.
Nice job guys.