Treasure Valley Rally
Posted: Sun Jun 17, 2018 6:59 pm
Expert 40+
This one made me really nervous, because on paper, I had a chance of doing well. The 7 guys that kicked my
ass at Secret Squirell weren't signed up, and I thought I could beat Vlad and Ian if I didn't screw up.
The Scottie's westport guys weren't all that fast and I could cross my fingers and hope that some ringer
wouldn't drive down from Vermont and Day-of and crush my dreams like 2 years ago.
So it was mostly down to how I'd do against the only serious competition, the other guys from MRC.
All of whome claimed they were just doing the race for "Fun" When has cratty ever ridden a bike for fun?
How would Briana do now that he had a full suspension bike? Just how much did Cratty shut it down at
Secret Squirrel 2 weeks ago when he knew he had the win at his last sandbagger race? Could I put enough time
into Jackson to keep him from running me over on Jamie's descent? Just how motivated was Oscar when his kids
told him 2nd place was first loser?
The start was a mess with us negotiating with Brett to have:
1) separate starts by age group
2) send the 50+ off first
I lined up in the 2nd row behind Cratty. Greg was behind me to the left. Brian had a good spot, nobody had
seen Oscar in a while. They started us and Greg barged forward, knocking a couple of the scotties' guys over
into my line. Fortunately he wasn't wearing MRC kit so we can just complain about the jerks from cleveland.
I was about 10 back as we went over the first bridge, then moved up, passed cratty before the 2nd singletrack.
The guy ahead of me flubbed the big tree roots and jammed me, which caused me to break check Cratty, sending him
off into the woods with a long tirade that started with "BUSICK!" and ended with the sound of crunching leaves and
branches.
I picked off one more guy before entering the loooonng single track around heron pond or swamp or whatever.
I was behind a group of three with Brian A, but was struggling to maintain contact. Watching the fly by
I was 7th. Then we hit the climb out of the single track and I saw a group of 3 ahead with Greg looking back at us.
I got around #6, but Brian made it around Greg, which put him into 3rd. Eventually #5 and I passed Greg
and I passed the other guy moving me to 4th. I had no idea I was that far up, I thought there were more
up the road. I was held up by the viking SS dude on what should be a fast downhill and Brian got out of sight
ahead of me. Finally I got past the viking and managed to reel Brian in by the powerline rock garden which
we both cleared, but then brian stumbled on the rocks climbing out of the garden and graciously let me past.
At this point we heard Josh Anthony behind us saying he was the 19-39 leader, so we pulled over and let him go
since he was flying. Cratty caught up to us soon after and we had a nice MRC group ride going.
Josh Anthony' green jersey disapeared ahead and I settled in a little on the climb thinking I was somewhere
around 5th place (actually 3rd) and best I could hope for was to win the MRC battle.
Then I saw a skinny guy in a Fritz jersey on the side of the trail who I assumed was ian and we started to
reel in yet another skinny guy in a green c-dale/riverside jersey. I assumed this was Josh Anthony, and so
sat on his wheel for a while, but I could hear cratty closing in on us again, and after green jersey flubbed
the 3rd rock garden in a row I was gettin impatient. I knew the climb to the bubble was where I had to put
time into people, and I was wasting it watching him flounder. Thinking he was still some guy from
another category I said: "Dude, you got to let me go, I got people coming up behind me and you are holding me up!"
He said something I didn't pick up, but moved over and I took off, nearly crashed trying to grab a cup
of water from the table at the bubble, lowered the droppah and attacked Jamie's Descent. (Turns out this was
Vlad, who at the time was winnning the race, but what did I know?)
At this point I thought I was possibly in 3rd, but in fact I was in 1st. I kept drilling it, wondering
where I would get a chance to drink some water. I chugged from my bottle at each fireroad, and finished it
just before picking up another bottle by the beach. Katie yelled something about me doing really well when I went by,
but I couldn't figure out my position from what she said. Then ate a gue as I went by the cheering section
at the MRC tent, chugged some more water and started lap 2.
Looking back on the fire road I saw Brian pulling a riverside guy behind me and gaining. Looks like I lost some
time drinking and eating at the end of the lap. By this time I was
starting to get suspicious that it was in fact Vlad, but Brian was convinced until the finish that it
was the 19-39 guy.
Knowing Brian wasn't cracked yet kept me motivated and I kept pushing. A couple times I could hear Brian
talking behind me. I realize now it was him and Cratty talking, but I couldn't imagine that since I was
convinced I'd cracked Cratty for good on the climb up to the bubble on lap 1.
As I got close to the Bubble I saw Segunchuck ahead on his singlespeed.
Damn, it took me a long time to catch him, but I wanted to get ahead of him before the descent, then I ran
out of forward momentum on the 2nd to last kicker before the top, failed to unclip and went tumbling down
the rock pile, twisting my seatpost to the left. I took a couple quick steps to jump back on the bike but my left calf cramped up and
I made a pretty poor remount and took off after Steve.
Steve was flying on the descent, I was barely making up time on him, then we hit the downhill fireroad and
he actually opened up a bit of a gap. What the hell gear was he running that I couldn't catch a SS on
a downhill? When it leveled out he looked back, saw me and I went by him on the right.
Now I didn't want to embarrass myself by not being able to hold off a single speed in the tech so I
squashed the dropper after the field rotary and plunged into the woods saying to myself
"ride like Greg is chasing you!" I hit the next fireroad picked off some novice traffic and hit the
final single track along the lake, still drilling it to keep Steve from catching back on.
I held him off to the finish, was surprised by how small the group of riders was hanging around and went
to the tent for some shade and something cold to drink.
Turns out it was a good thing I pushed so hard to stay ahead of Steve, because by the time I got to the tent
Vlad went by soon followed by Cratty. Holy Crap! Cratty nearly caught me after all that.
I thought I was probably 3rd, but Don checked the results and, nope, not 3rd, I won the race!
How early is too early to go to bed?
This one made me really nervous, because on paper, I had a chance of doing well. The 7 guys that kicked my
ass at Secret Squirell weren't signed up, and I thought I could beat Vlad and Ian if I didn't screw up.
The Scottie's westport guys weren't all that fast and I could cross my fingers and hope that some ringer
wouldn't drive down from Vermont and Day-of and crush my dreams like 2 years ago.
So it was mostly down to how I'd do against the only serious competition, the other guys from MRC.
All of whome claimed they were just doing the race for "Fun" When has cratty ever ridden a bike for fun?
How would Briana do now that he had a full suspension bike? Just how much did Cratty shut it down at
Secret Squirrel 2 weeks ago when he knew he had the win at his last sandbagger race? Could I put enough time
into Jackson to keep him from running me over on Jamie's descent? Just how motivated was Oscar when his kids
told him 2nd place was first loser?
The start was a mess with us negotiating with Brett to have:
1) separate starts by age group
2) send the 50+ off first
I lined up in the 2nd row behind Cratty. Greg was behind me to the left. Brian had a good spot, nobody had
seen Oscar in a while. They started us and Greg barged forward, knocking a couple of the scotties' guys over
into my line. Fortunately he wasn't wearing MRC kit so we can just complain about the jerks from cleveland.
I was about 10 back as we went over the first bridge, then moved up, passed cratty before the 2nd singletrack.
The guy ahead of me flubbed the big tree roots and jammed me, which caused me to break check Cratty, sending him
off into the woods with a long tirade that started with "BUSICK!" and ended with the sound of crunching leaves and
branches.
I picked off one more guy before entering the loooonng single track around heron pond or swamp or whatever.
I was behind a group of three with Brian A, but was struggling to maintain contact. Watching the fly by
I was 7th. Then we hit the climb out of the single track and I saw a group of 3 ahead with Greg looking back at us.
I got around #6, but Brian made it around Greg, which put him into 3rd. Eventually #5 and I passed Greg
and I passed the other guy moving me to 4th. I had no idea I was that far up, I thought there were more
up the road. I was held up by the viking SS dude on what should be a fast downhill and Brian got out of sight
ahead of me. Finally I got past the viking and managed to reel Brian in by the powerline rock garden which
we both cleared, but then brian stumbled on the rocks climbing out of the garden and graciously let me past.
At this point we heard Josh Anthony behind us saying he was the 19-39 leader, so we pulled over and let him go
since he was flying. Cratty caught up to us soon after and we had a nice MRC group ride going.
Josh Anthony' green jersey disapeared ahead and I settled in a little on the climb thinking I was somewhere
around 5th place (actually 3rd) and best I could hope for was to win the MRC battle.
Then I saw a skinny guy in a Fritz jersey on the side of the trail who I assumed was ian and we started to
reel in yet another skinny guy in a green c-dale/riverside jersey. I assumed this was Josh Anthony, and so
sat on his wheel for a while, but I could hear cratty closing in on us again, and after green jersey flubbed
the 3rd rock garden in a row I was gettin impatient. I knew the climb to the bubble was where I had to put
time into people, and I was wasting it watching him flounder. Thinking he was still some guy from
another category I said: "Dude, you got to let me go, I got people coming up behind me and you are holding me up!"
He said something I didn't pick up, but moved over and I took off, nearly crashed trying to grab a cup
of water from the table at the bubble, lowered the droppah and attacked Jamie's Descent. (Turns out this was
Vlad, who at the time was winnning the race, but what did I know?)
At this point I thought I was possibly in 3rd, but in fact I was in 1st. I kept drilling it, wondering
where I would get a chance to drink some water. I chugged from my bottle at each fireroad, and finished it
just before picking up another bottle by the beach. Katie yelled something about me doing really well when I went by,
but I couldn't figure out my position from what she said. Then ate a gue as I went by the cheering section
at the MRC tent, chugged some more water and started lap 2.
Looking back on the fire road I saw Brian pulling a riverside guy behind me and gaining. Looks like I lost some
time drinking and eating at the end of the lap. By this time I was
starting to get suspicious that it was in fact Vlad, but Brian was convinced until the finish that it
was the 19-39 guy.
Knowing Brian wasn't cracked yet kept me motivated and I kept pushing. A couple times I could hear Brian
talking behind me. I realize now it was him and Cratty talking, but I couldn't imagine that since I was
convinced I'd cracked Cratty for good on the climb up to the bubble on lap 1.
As I got close to the Bubble I saw Segunchuck ahead on his singlespeed.
Damn, it took me a long time to catch him, but I wanted to get ahead of him before the descent, then I ran
out of forward momentum on the 2nd to last kicker before the top, failed to unclip and went tumbling down
the rock pile, twisting my seatpost to the left. I took a couple quick steps to jump back on the bike but my left calf cramped up and
I made a pretty poor remount and took off after Steve.
Steve was flying on the descent, I was barely making up time on him, then we hit the downhill fireroad and
he actually opened up a bit of a gap. What the hell gear was he running that I couldn't catch a SS on
a downhill? When it leveled out he looked back, saw me and I went by him on the right.
Now I didn't want to embarrass myself by not being able to hold off a single speed in the tech so I
squashed the dropper after the field rotary and plunged into the woods saying to myself
"ride like Greg is chasing you!" I hit the next fireroad picked off some novice traffic and hit the
final single track along the lake, still drilling it to keep Steve from catching back on.
I held him off to the finish, was surprised by how small the group of riders was hanging around and went
to the tent for some shade and something cold to drink.
Turns out it was a good thing I pushed so hard to stay ahead of Steve, because by the time I got to the tent
Vlad went by soon followed by Cratty. Holy Crap! Cratty nearly caught me after all that.
I thought I was probably 3rd, but Don checked the results and, nope, not 3rd, I won the race!
How early is too early to go to bed?