The Wah Report

How do you compete with the DNA of Davis Phinney and Connie Carpenter?

http://www.bikecamp.com/connie.html

I think my parents may have the V02 Max of Jack Black

The Salida Omnium opened up with the beloved TT. The night before I tried to install the dusty aero bars that I found in the basement, but unfortunately they didn’t fit my new over-sized bars. I rolled to the start of the 7 mile wonder with spanky TT disk wheels, pimped TT bikes, craze aero helmets, etc. all over the place. I looked like a total amature.

The beep, beep, beep go… I roll out instantly hitting 188, then 190 HR. Not good, I try to get into a rhythem. But, being the 2^nd TT of the year and maybe the 8^th I’ve ever done, I have no idea how to pace myself. I try to stay under the LT, but it’s a challenge. 5 mins from the start my 30 second guy rolls by. Whoosh whoosh whoosh… those disk wheels do sound cool. 8 mins my 1 minute guy goes by whoosh whoosh whoosh……. 12 mins go by whoosh whoosh whoosh 90 second guy goes by…. I roll in at the back of the pack. Note to self… quit doing TTs or get dialed in and start training for them.

Saturday came the 7200ft, 72 mile road race. This was going to be an epic. Temps at the start were reaching 80 and it was only 8:00am. The gun goes off and we do a neutral 7 mile roll-out to the course. Once we hit the course the first climb was a killer. 38x23 all the way up. Riders were dropping like flies. 20 or so made the selection, I didn’t. So, I got into a small chase group… we worked together and caught the pack ½ way around the 1^st lap….. Hit the nasty climb again and the field shattered again… chase group formed and we caught the main pack on the back side. Ditto for lap 3…… Not for lap 4… it blew up… I started to blow and got into a small chase group for lap 4&5 me and two teammates from another team. Lap 6 the final lap.. the group that I was in one guy dropped his chain on the climb.. I kept going and his teammate waited… I rolled solo for the last lap. I felt like I was crawling I was so cracked. I hit the last climb and dropped it in the 38x25 and had to stand and crank out 30-40 RPMs to get up it. I tried to sit at one point, but it was too steep and the legs were toast. I rolled in to the finish totally shattered. I’ve never been in a race that hard before. 72 miles in 4 hours 15 mins or so. I roll in 30ish… 1/3 or more of the field dropped out. Average speed 17mph, 3,000 calories burned. I felt a little like Floyd during the race… they had neutral water and everyone was pouring water all over themselves because the temps were rockin 90. The worst part about the race was that we had to ride the course one more time to get back to town… 15 miles to town… I didn’t think I would make it home.

I awoke Sunday with the worst hang-over in years… and I didn’t have any alchohol Saturday night. The race had taken a huge toll on me. But, Sunday was a crit and I love crits so I rolled back down to Salida with temps again rockin 90. Basically hill interval crit with a downhill finish. Prior to the start the 4s were just finishing and they took someone away in an ambulance who crashed into the last corner. I line up front row with Brent and we rock out of the start of the figure 8 course.Brent is deternined today. I never see him leave top 10… 10 mins in they call a prime and I make my way up to the front just to stay safe and make sure that nothing gets away. 2^nd to last corner I give it a little gas and open a gap. Roll though the last corner still have a gap and open up a sprint… I roll though and get a $25 bike shop gift certificate to a local shop. What am I’m going to do with that??? But, I had to at least get a little glory today… Lap after lap I go from top 10 to mid-pack.. The heat and the pace take its toll on the field. I look back at one point and I think we have lost 1/3-1/2 of the field. 5 to go and the pace heats up.. I see Brent still at the front just killing it today. Some how 3 guys get off the front. 4,3,2 laps to go roll by and I fight my way to the front. 1 lap to go I get with in striking distance but can’t close the deal and roll in 15^th as Brent wins the field sprint.

Things of note… If you are going to have an omnium, then make everyone do every stage… People could pick and choose which stage they wanted to do. Oh yea…. The gene pool. Taylor Phinney, son of Davis and Connie took the omnium. He has the body of a seasoned pro, but the face and braces of a teenager. I don’t even know if the kid has his drivers license.

Coming off of Wednesday's win and hard effort, the rest of the week I was still feeling the after-effects of the "go or blow" affair.

Saturday was the Blast the Mass/Mountain State Cup Colorado Off-Road Championships in Snowmass. My lady and I rolled out of town Friday night because of an 8:00am start time on Saturday. We arrived and all the down-hillers, or Super D's whatever they call those yahoos who can't ride their bikes UPHILL were drinking beer and carrying on till the wee-hours of the night. I woke up at 2:00am to hear screaming and belly-flops into the pool below our hotel room. I usually like to eat a good meal 3 hours prior to a race. I searched for some food Friday night in the village and there wasn't anything to speak of. I set the alarm for 5:00, but hit the snooze till 6:30. Downed a Cliff Bar and 3 gels and hit the start line. Someone said it would take less then 1.5 hrs so I wasn't worried about my lack of nutrition. The guns goes off into a long dirt-road climb, similar to Wednesday's race, but the legs are not super today. At the top of the climb I'm sitting in 2nd or 3rd, then comes the dreaded single-track sketch section, 6-7 miles of this with no place to pass, even if you wanted to. Not that I could, as my roadie skills are not transferring well to the off-road bob-sled runs. 5-6 people pass me on the single-track. We hit a long grinder up-hill single-track and I pass 3-4 guys. There are so many people on the course that you have no idea who you are passing and if they are in your class. Finally hit the final downhill and 100 yard granny uphill to the finish and pass another guy on the climb. Roll in for 4th.

We spent the rest of the day hanging with the beautiful people in Aspen and then rolled home over Independence Pass (super cool road that is only open in the summer).

It only takes one or two wins to keep the dream alive year after year. Yesterday was the Copper Mt. Melee. Course description 2.5 mile dirt road climb to the top of the mountain, drop into twisty turny single track, repeat twice.

I told my wife prior to the race that I was going to go from the gun and drill it on the climb. I'm either going to explode or win. If you have read my previous mountain bike reports, I've been passed on the downhills every race after leading on the climbs. The gun goes off and another guy seems to have the same race plan as I do. He opens a gap of 20-30ft and I keep him in sight as we both drop everyone else in the group. 1/3 of the way up, I finally catch him and put in an attack and open a gap. I put the heart rate between 175-180 and pass tons of people who have started earlier. Hitting your lactate threshold, mine is 175, is such a cool feeling - if you like the feeling of pain and lactate filling your legs. As soon as I hit 176 I could feel my legs filling. But, I was determined to put in a huge effort on this hill and continue to open the gap. On the semi-flat sections I get out of the saddle and hammer. I finally reach the top and hit the single-track section - a slight grinder climb and I hold my position. Then comes the sketchy downhill. It has been raining for the past two weeks so some spots are a little greasy. 1,2,3,4,5 people pass me. I continue to roll and hit a greasy spot at speed and nearly miss a tree by an inch. Images of a broken collar bone roll through my mind. I roll through the start/finish line and hit the climb again. The guy that I was battling with on the 1st lap roll by me and opens a gap. I see his hairy legs and that gives me a 2nd wind. I refuse to get beat by someone who doesn't shave their legs. 1/4 of the way up I grab his wheel and, once there I put in an attack and go back to the lactate threshold cruise interval and open a huge gap. I hit the final downhill single track and hold on for life and am determined to not let anyone catch me. I hammer on the non-technical sections, hold on for the sketchy sections and roll in for the win with nobody coming by me on the downhill.

Rain, rain and more rain. The double dip of rain. I read a quote from some lady in VeloNews who just retired. "If you are scared, then it is time to quit" After the double rip of crashes a few weeks ago and taking 3 weeks to heal I'm a little gun shy of crashing these days.

Saturday was a crit in Boulder. I drove down to Boulder Saturday and watched some of the 1/2 race. When I got there the 1st aid guy was cleaning up someone, then I saw 2 others with ripped kids, then I saw a guy break his collar bone, then 10 mins later watched 2 guys go down in one of the corners. I put my bike back in the car and went home. This was the first time in my life that I bagged a race. If I was in MN I would have done it because I know the riders and their abilities. But in CO it is a crap-shoot and I don't know who to ride with or not ride with.

Sunday I rolled down to Golden early because they said it might be OK in the morning, then showers in the afternoon. I thought I could do the 35+ race and avoid the rain.... Nope.. It rained during the entire race. But it was fun racing with those guys. They don't take any stupid risks like the 3's. The pace was totally manageable. I got into a couple breaks that didn't stick - made a couple patented Wah attacks, then ended up 13th.

My wife and I signed up for our 1^st adventure race. Bear in mind that she has been a professional ballerina her whole life and has never rode a mountain bike or done anything “adventurous” due to her dancing and contracts. We signed up for the Copper Chase. It was supposed to be a good race for first timers. When we showed up though, other participants must not have read the flyer. People were talking about this adventure race and that. The thing about an adventure race is that you have no idea what you are going to do. They don’t tell you until they say “go”.

Saturday: 1^st task 5K run with “challenges”. We line up and they hand us hoola hoops and tell us that we have to both hold on to them the entire run. We hit the run and encounter a few “challenges” (rubics cube, untie a rope with one hand and a memorization test). I had the fitness, but without my wife I would have never been able to get the “challenges”. 1nd task (obstacle course and high ropes course). Only half the participants got through the obstacle course, we were not one of them. It was super hard – the ropes course was super cool. 50ft off the ground walking a tight-rope with boards attached all the while grabbing rope to rope hanging on for dear life. Yea you had a harness on, but you did not want to “test” the system.

Sunday: Bring your mountain bike was all they told us. 3^rd task run around the village with one person riding the mountain bike. I decided to run and Peggy rode. We hit some technical singletrack and switched.. hit a road section and switched again and ended up at a chairlift. They said runners get on the chair and riders get in line and go up the life with your bike. We hit the top of the mountain and it is a race down. I start running and am totally worried about my wife rockin the sketchy downhill and know I’m headed for divorce when and if she catches me on the downhill. 1/3 of the way down she comes by smiling. Nice! We play a little leapfrog and switch off with the bike. The biker would take off and ride down a little ways and drop the bike and the runner would pick up the bike and so on to the bottom. My legs were screaming. I have not run since last cross season. We make it to the bottom and are directed to the Mud Pit. You have to hug and roll through the 20ft long 2ft deep Mud Pit. After rolling through it we are covered head to toe in mud and sand and leave the bike there and both continue to run to the next challenge. We are handed a life-jacket and told to swim across this bitter cold snow-fed lake. We both get across and shed the mud that we acquired from the pit and get out and run for awhile and hit the go-carts. We both do two laps on the go-carts and continue to run again to a 10ft V shaped challenge. Climb to the top slide down and get to the other side, which is caked in crysco oil. We hook up with a team and help each other over the top. We hoist the two women up, then the two women grab my arms and the other guy literally climbs up me to the top and pulls me up. To the finish. 4^th task – treasure hunt through the village of copper. We got some help from another team and rolled to the finish. The next day my wife says “how can I get faster”… That’s what I’m talking about. I give her an interval work-out and she rocks it a day later. We didn’t rock top 10, but had fun.

I had Monday to recover from the Copper Chase and my legs were still in pain from running two days later, but I had signed up for the Firecracker 50. A 50 mile mountain bike race with 11,000ft of climbing. This would be the longest/hardest race of my life and I was excited to see how the body would feel. We started at the beginning of the 4^th of July parade and there were probably 400-500 people in the race. We rocked down main street Breckenridge and kids had their hands out wanting us to slap their hands as we went by. It was awesome. Thousands of people lined up on the street for the parade and they were cheering us on like we were in the Tour de France. But the mellow roll-out soon ended with a 15 min climb. I decided to go hard from the gun and see if I could get some time on the climbs because the single track and downhills would cost me time. I opened a gap about 5 mins into the climb and just hammered. We hit a dirt road and I went into roadie mode and drafted moved up and drafted again, hit a grinder climb to some singletrack to a sketchy downhill – I got passed by a couple guys back to more climbing, single track, downhills, climbing, etc for 25 miles. At the end of the 2^nd lap I got passed by a couple more guys down this sketchy downhill and somehow lost my granny gear.. This is going to be a problem with 5,500 more ft of climbing. I figured a way to get it in there by throwing it from the big ring all the way down to the granny. Thankfully, but it was kind of a pain going from Middle to Big to Little with an upcoming grinder. 2^nd lap up the 15 min climb I continued to rock and passed the guys that got by me on the downhill, we hit the dirt road section and I had to relieve myself. At this point I’m 3 hrs into the race. I take a 10second break and hook-up with a single-speeder (yea those guys are nutts) and we trade pulls through-out the road section and make up huge time and pass tons of people who either don’t understand the draft or can’t keep our pace. 4hrs in and I’m getting delirious as I’m in the little ring and the 34 in back crawling up these insane climbs. Thankfully everyone is going the same speed with the exception of the Team Riders. You had the chance to ride as a 2-person team and switch after the 1^st lap. These guys would rock by and all I could do is watch. 4.5 hrs in and we hit the last double track climb of the day and I give it all I have because I know there is a sketch downhill to the finish where I was passed by two guys in my class and I have to get as much time as I can. Thankfully a Team riders comes by and I hop on and he tows me the last half of the climb. We hit the technical downhill and all I’m thinking is “hold on and don’t let anyone pass” I flew down that thing faster then I ever thought I did… I roll into the finish just under 5 hrs and take 4^th place… 11 seconds from the podium. Pros came in around 3:45. For those looking to test their climbing and looking for an awesome mtn bike race, start planning ahead. This was the best run race I have ever done. Aid stations every 6 miles with Water, Gatorade, gels and bars. In 2 weeks is the Breckenridge 100. A 100 mile mountain bike race… I don’t think so. 10hrs in the saddle may be a bit too much for this guy. Winner beats me by 9:43