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NOVA Desert Classic |
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Team Bikeman -
Race Reports
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Written by John Burns
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Friday, 06 April 2007 |
NOVA Desert Classic
NORBA NCS #1
Fountain Hills, AZ
3/30/07-4/1/07
Semi-Pro Stage Race
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The 2007 mountain bike season has started early for me. It’s been a while since I last checked in. The winter has gone by fast. Maybe too fast. This race almost snuck up on me. I usually spend a lot of my time cross training in the winter but I am really trying to up my performance level this year. That means spending lots of time on the trainer in the basement after work when I can’t get outside.
As always, I have been skiing hard on weekends. Yes, it is hard to make it through the winter on the trainer, but I will give you the secret. IPod and Iron Maiden. Lots of Maiden. Throw in some other favorites; Faith no More, Tool, Chevelle, Life of Agony, Sabbath, Bad Religion, Social Distortion, Metallica, System of a Down, the list goes on, and 3 hours of going no where is not so bad. If you don’t like any of that music, well it is your loss, and you can check out teammate Jason Mahokey’s "The Soiled Chamois” for other flavors.
I caught my flight out of Boston Wednesday after work with Brad Perley and his mom Jody. I am now officially a Jet Blue fanatic. It’s pretty cool not having your knees hit the seat in front of you. Throw in good prices, Direct TV, satellite radio, and you have icing for your cake. Wednesday night turned into Thursday, and by the time we got the rental car drove to the hotel, it was about 1:30am AZ time.
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Thursday morning Brad and his mom drove back to the airport to pick up his bike, which somehow ended up in Buffalo, and my roommate for the trip, fellow Bikeman.com rider Andrew Freye. Thursday afternoon we headed out to pre ride the course. We took one lap on the 10 mile XC course and one lap on the 6 mile TT course. This was the first time riding in the dirt since before Christmas and finally riding in shorts. Riding with multiple layers of tights was starting to get pretty old.
The courses were top notch. Zero pavement. Pretty much all narrow, twisting, rocky singletrack lined with Cactus and small bushes. Shade is nonexistent. Both courses were more or less up or down with almost uncountable loose high speed turns. Some turns had big brake bumps. There was one tricky drop off the TT course. The XC had a rocky step-up, some short rocky climbs, and a rough rocky descent. I managed to smack a cactus with my arm and had to pull a few needles out. We hit up the Safeway for groceries on the way back to the hotel. More than enough “Toasted Oats” to go around. We had a sweet suite (yes I know sweet/suite). Mini stove and oven, sink, fridge, and dishwasher.
Since Mrs. Perley was volunteering at the race, Andrew and I decided to ride from the hotel over to the race as a warm up for the TT. The TT went so so. I did not ride that great. I had never ridden one before and I was kind of unsure how hard to go. I started out pushing way to big a gear before finding a better rhythm at a slightly higher cadence. I have been working on riding at a higher cadence this winter and I guess my brain reverted at the start. I blew a couple corners and I definitely could have gone much faster. I also hit my arm on the same cactus as Thursday, but only a few needles stuck on so no big deal.
Saturday brought on the Super D starting at 3pm and the twilight crit under the lights in downtown Fountain Hills. We got to the race venue in early afternoon and Andrew and I took another lap on the XC course with Jeff Hall from the Salsa team. On a rocky section somewhere in the middle of the lap I banged my rear derailleur/hanger on a rock and was having ghost shifting problems. I tried to get it dialed back in, but I didn’t have time before the Super D. Or so I thought. So instead of pre riding the Super D, I just road the 3 miles up to the start. The flier said the Super D was going off with Pro Men, Pro women and then Semi-Pro at 3:20. When I got up to the start I found out things had changed and they were just running age groups after the Pro field. So I sat in the shade of a pickup truck for about an hour until my Super D start. The Super D was barely down hill and had some climbing. Mostly it was loose fire road with some loose high speed turns. My ghost shifting problems did not go away and I could not keep my bike in gear. My time wasn’t completely horrible, but would have been a lot better if I didn’t have the ghost shifting issue. After the Super D, we drove back to the hotel. I grabbed a quick shower and new kit for the crit. Andrew had an extra derailleur hanger and threw it on for me while I was in the shower since he wasn’t going to race the crit.
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Every crit/STXC should be at night. The course was a long straight away on the pavement turning 90 degrees into loose dirt with fist size rocks, a few hard corners and a couple of dirt mounds you had to jump over. The rest is just like any other STXC, going really hard for 20 minutes plus 3 laps. I got an ok start and then had to almost completely stop to get around a guy who had crashed in the dirt. I was still having some minor shifting problems but not bad and I managed to finish on the lead lap in 19th.
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Sunday brought out the heat. Temperatures had been pretty nice the past few days. High 70’s to low to mid 80’s. For the XC on Sunday, temperatures hit the low 90’s, but hey this is the desert. With 40 miles of racing ahead, I decided to go with my CamelBack. The XC race went off fast. There is not much space until you funnel into the singletrack, and the guy I was behind got forced into the cactus. He literally had to pull an entire thumb size bulb of cactus out of his arm. He then proceeded to throw it down on the ground in front of me forcing me to steer hard to avoid it. I backed off a little on the first lap because I wasn’t sure I could handle the pace in the heat. The heat was taking its toll and I wound up finishing my 100oz CamelBack before the end of the 3rd lap. I then put down another 2 bottles on the 4th lap. This however, was not enough. I had some bad cramping, and my left leg actually locked out a couple of times. The last lap was not pretty but I made it through and finished 35th. I was a little disappointed with my time, but a lot guys got pulled and I didn’t. The Pro field struggled just as much after us as well and that made me feel a little better. Looking back, I probably didn’t hydrate enough after the Short Track Saturday night. It’s hard to drink enough before going to bed after that though. As soon as I crossed the finish line I went straight to the Gatorade tent for some shade, fluids and to get my shoes off. My feet swelled so much during the race that they were killing me. I was having a hard time walking because my feet hurt so much. I finished 20th overall for the stage race.
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After the race it was back to the hotel to clean up and pack up the bike for the red eye flight back to Boston. My friend from work picked me up at the airport and we got into work around 9:15am on Monday. Yes, that’s a really harsh thing to do to yourself after racing 4 times in 3 days, but vacation days are very valuable things.
So that is about it. The trails were great, fun in the sun, went faster than some of the Pro Pro’s and all that. Some ok results in the Short Track and the Overall. It is not where I want to be but it’s the first race of the year and there is plenty more action waiting. Getting the saddle time in the dirt was especially good. Special thanks to Mrs. Perley for driving us all around, working the feed zone, and scoring us a deal on our hotel room. Up next is the Root 66 race in CT on 4/7.
Race note: This was my first time racing and riding on Stan’s No Tubes ZTR Olympic rims, yellow rim tape, valve, and sealant. ZERO FLATS. ZERO ROLL OFFS (Panaracer Fire XC Pro 2.1 @ 38-39psi). There were a lot of people dealing with flats out on the course. I am feeling very comfortable with this setup. More time is needed for full report, but so far five Bikeman heads.
JB |
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