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KOB MTB Time Trial |
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Written by Brian Pierce
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Tuesday, 15 April 2008 |
King of Burlingame MTB Time Trial
Charlestown, RI
April 6, 2008
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This weekend was the my first race of the season, The King of Burlingame mountain bike time trial in Charlestown RI. Last year I was crowned King of Burlingame with the best time of the day at 30 minutes 38 seconds. This year the pressure was on thick and competition was high. I convinced a couple of my race buddies to join me this year and in the end I felt like a painted a bulls-eye on my back.
To be honest I was trying hard not to get too worked up over the race. The whole month leading up to the race was filled with moments of excitement and pre pre-race jitters. The day before the race I convinced myself to set a goal to beat last my time from last year and not worry about the convoy of racers trying to beat me.
A lot has changed in my life from last year. I’m the proud father of a wonderful 7 month old boy and anyone with children knows your free time evaporates rather quickly. So with the meager 5-7 hours a week of training allocated to me I set upon a training plan of quality not quantity. The idea of a 2+ hour ride is a rare luxury. The days of riding my 4+ hour loop out to Wachusett Mountain and back are now a distant memory. To sum up a typical day : Wake up at 4:45AM, catch the commuter train at 6:AM, work from 7:15AM to 4:PM , get home at 5:30PM, play with my son Ulric till it’s time to give him a bath at 7PM, read him 2 books and put him to bed, Jump on the trainer at 7:30PM and ride till 8:30PM…Repeat. Oh.. wait.. add the long “Stuff to do around house” list while I’m at it. After all is said and done the best moment is coming home to my family.
This year I also switched over to a 29er. I picked up the highly popular 2008 Gary Fisher Superfly. This bike is amazing. With a few weight weenie parts I have a 29er rocket weighing in at 20.5lbs. Due to some major bad mojo mechanicals a few weeks ago I decided to drop the SRAM XO drive train and go with my existing 08 XTR groupo including the new 2008 XTR trigger shifters, crankset, and XTR Shadow RD, The disk brakes are stock AVID Juicy Ultimates with Stan's aluminum rotors (160/140). I replaced the big knobby stock tires with my personal favorite, the Crow. The Stan’s NoTubes Crow tire is a large volume 2.0 tubeless super soft sticky rubber semi-slick tire (whew). The new XTR triggers have instant shifts and the XTR Shadow RD tucks up nice and close to the frame. The new RD is great for New England riding and with it being closer to the frame you can worry less snaking through tight rock sections.
Back to the race. This years’ course was the same with the exception of its’ condition. The recent thaw and heavy rains made for a fun course. The first ¼ mile was muddy, rooty, and rocky. Just the way I like it. I’ll be honest, I’m not the “Power Course” type of racer. Throw in a bunch of technical sections and I do all right. They lined us up in the order of last years’ placing. I went first with Adam St Germain behind me and fellow Bikeman Steve Morse in 3rd, then the rest of the field. I knew Adam would be chomping at the bit to catch me since he came in 2nd last year. The race marshal gives me the 10 second count while holding my saddle, the 44t – 15 is loaded and I take off down the trail. All was well until I rode through the 2nd rock garden because something caught my Front derailleur and twisted is outward causing it to hit my crank arm when in the big ring. How does one twist a FD while racing? With my 44t out of commission I resort to using my 32t the rest of the race. The downward facing sections I looked like something out a cartoon while I pedaled at my personal max cadence. At the end of the first road section I looked back just before heading back into the woods and though I saw Adam’s bright blue bike but I couldn’t confirm in my oxygen deprived state. Back in the woods I dabbled in a section that cost me a few precious seconds but recovered and tried to regain my momentum. I hit the last road section has fast as I could remembering that once I entered to woods I was close to the finish line..except I forgot the really, really long straight away that seemed to go on forever. It was here that I started to lose steam and drag myself down. I didn’t want to burn out before the finish so I took it down a notch..well..honestly I had nothing left in the tank until I saw the finish line about 1 hundred feet in front of me. I then stood up and mashed down on the pedals with what little energy I had left. I crossed the line in 30:46, 8 seconds slower than last year. My time was fast enough to win my category but not fast enough to keep the crown. From what the promoter told me, the winner is a local who rode the course day in day for a year. Well his efforts paid off because he took us to school on the single speed bus with a winning time of 29:39.
Considering the conditions and amount of training I have in the bank I am happy with the results.
Next stop is the 2nd Root66 race at Winsted Woods. Hopefully I won’t be thrown out the back of my field.
Brian
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