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April - Early May Recap |
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Team Bikeman -
Race Reports
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Written by John Burns
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Wednesday, 16 May 2007 |
April - Early May Recap
Pro/Semi-Pro Hopbrook Dam
Semi-Pro Greenbrier AMBC
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After dealing with 90 degree heat out in Arizona at the Nova Desert Classic, I raced the next weekend down in CT at Hopbrook Dam for the opening round of the Root 66 New England MTB series. Temperatures were low, but the sun was in and out of the clouds which helped out a little. I wound up racing in a long sleeve jersey and leg warmers. I don’t think I have ever lined up for a MTB race with my legs covered before.
The course was in pretty good shape. It had some good rocky sections of single-track and only short sections of mud and water. As soon as my feet got wet going through the muck, they got super cold. I was wishing I had gone with booties as well. The first 3 or so laps I was sleep riding. I was still in a funk from the 4 races out in Arizona and the red eye flight home the previous weekend. The last two laps I seemed to wake up, and I started to make some ground. I went by fellow Bikeman.com rider Mike Joos, who was fixing a flat. Mike caught back up to me and I jumped with him for a little. I lost contact though, and I rolled into the finish in 8th. Not too bad, since my technical skills are still a little rusty from the winter. I didn’t have too much fun as my feet warmed back up, but it was my fault for deciding to for go the booties and leave them in the car.
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I hung around the venue for a bit after the race and watched other Bikeman.com rider Steve Morse, put the hurt on the field in the sport race for a lap or two. The day after the race was Easter Sunday, and I put in a great ride with my buddy and teammate Zach Magoon at F. Gilbert Hills in Foxboro, MA. We got an early start and crunched our way through some frozen mud. Dawn patrol in the woods or mountains on technical single-track with friends, is pretty much a perfect day.
I spent the middle of April putting in some hard training hours. I got some quality time in the dirt and my bike handling skills started coming back around. Work was a bit stressful, but I managed to make it through without pulling my hair out.
Work derailed my plans to start heading down to Maryland for the Greenbrier on the Friday night before the race and stay at my parents’ house in NJ. Instead, I wound up leaving on Saturday morning and decided to just stop in NJ for lunch so I could make it to Greenbrier in time to pre-ride the course. Congestion on I-95 was heavy. I was angry at the world, work, and other cars and I was developing some serious road rage. I scared myself a bit. So when I got to NJ, I decided it was best to just eat lunch and bust out a couple hours on the bike at my old NJ haunts. I road the MTB on the pavement out to Lewis Morris park in Morristown for some single-track. I was ripping the trails like the old days and really riding well. Rage issues resolved. I was getting ready to ride back to my parents’ house when my rear X-9 derailleur blew. Not the most comforting thing at 5pm the day before a race. I managed to limp it into town. The shop only had a Sram X-7, and I made a couple of quick calls around to see what else was available. No one stocks anything but X-7. So, without any other real choice I bought myself an X-7 rear derailleur. The guys down at Marty’s Reliable Cycle were cool and installed it for free.
I made it down to Maryland around noon Sunday. I met up with Bikeman.com teammate Josh West, and he gave me the low down on the course. The course had steep climbs, fast single-track, and a technical descent down an old stream bed. There was some mud, but it wasn’t a factor.
The Semi-Pro field was about 20 strong. I got a good start. I got gapped a little in the first technical rocky section since I had not pre-ridden the course and dialed in my lines. I settled in and put down a pretty good first lap. I was ridding with a guy in a Bianchi kit. He tried to drop me on the climbs with a few accelerations, but I wasn’t having any trouble matching them. He bombed the descent at the end of the lap, but I managed to bridge back up on the climb after the feed zone. My last laps did not go that well. I fell victim to not drinking enough and my lap times really dropped off. I was having some crapping issues and I got caught dealing with lapped traffic at the end. I finished in 9th. Not great, but not horrible. Physically I should have been able to hold the pace of the first lap throughout. In that case, I might have been fighting for the podium. The top 3 guys were way out in front, but after that it gets closer. My times still would have put me on the lead lap in the Pro field and not in last, so that’s good. All in all, good times riding sweet trails at the Greenbrier. I grabbed some dinner with Josh and some of his Philly crew before heading home.
Well May is here and I am still not riding much without some kind of leg covering. Knee or leg warmers seem to be ticket, but at least it has been pretty dry and sunny. May 6th brought some more dawn patrol to get to Maine by 9am to ride and work trail crew at Bradbury Mt. State Park. I put in about 2 hours on the mtb with teammate Andrew Freye and Todd Wheelden. Andrew and I grabbed some quick lunch, he had the jelly, and I had the Peanut butter. His jelly however, was a bit expired, and it turned into just Peanut butter sandwiches. We then met up with teammates Anders Larson, Alyssa Gagnon, and the rest of the trail crew to work some drainage issue on the single-track. We actually got a lot accomplished. Bradbury Mt. Sate Park is extremely dedicated to providing a playground for mountain biking. The trails are topnotch. Remember to thank the park rangers for all their hard work, the next time you see them.
After we finished working on the trails, I met up with Zach Magoon, who was itching to try out his new Campeon. We hit the pavement on the road bikes for about an hour and a half. Along day, but it was a good one.
What do you do Monday to keep the action rolling? You get up at 6am again, and spin a few minutes down to the harbor for the years first day of rowing. It actually went really well for the first session. It’s amazing how everything returns after that first couple of stokes. The water was glass, and we wailed on the oars for an hour. Also on the rowing front, we had a great clinic with former national team member Siaya Remmler.
So that sums up some of my early spring action. Next up I’m throwing myself into the fire for some UCI Canada Cup racing on the 19th and 26th. Should be cool.
JB |
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