Tuscarora Mtb Enduro - Dylan 2nd in first MASS series event of 2012

Race: Tuscarora Mtb Enduro, March 25, 2012

Rider: Dylan Johnson

Conditions: Rain and mud

Last Sunday, Dylan placed 2nd in a close finish at the Tuscarora Mountain Bike Endurance Race, a multi-lap endurance race.  Despite the rain and muddy trail conditions, there was a solid turn-out.

Prior to the start

At the gun

Dylan at the front

Dylan completed 6 laps and finished just under 2 minutes off first place overall to finish second overall.

Trail conditions were not ideal:

Post-race face

However, the trophies were unique.

A new hatchet trophy to take home

Congratulations on a great start to the MASS endurance series season!

Full results, including lap times, are available here.

We've also been doing some road racing as of late in preparation for the mtb season that's just now getting underway.  Aaron was 3rd in a criterium in Philly and I got 3rd in a circuit race in Maryland, 5th in a road race in Virginia and 7th in a criterium in Virginia.

- Jeff

Shootout on Angler's Ridge 2012 - Race Report

Shootout on Angler's Ridge
Danville, VA
Virginia State Championship
Results:
Dylan, 2nd Cat 1 19-29
Dylan, 1st Cat 1 Junior (Virginia State Champion)
Mike, 2nd Pro
Jeff, 3rd Pro

Last weekend (March 11) Mike, Dylan and I drove the 4 hours down to Danville from the DC area early  Sunday morning to race the Shootout at Angler's Ridge.  The pro prize list was huge and drew a great field.  The organizers also had great prizes for Cat 1 and 2 field (both senior and junior categories).  The pro field was fast with Jeremiah Bishop  (showing up just before heading to South Africa for the UCI World Cup opener), Master's World Champion Scott Frederick, Rob Marion, Ryan Fawley, Kevin Carter and Ian Spivak.

Jeff and Mike waiting for the start

Danville is nearly 100% singletrack with lots of twists and turns and short, power climbs.

This year's weather was similar to last year; the first real weekend of warm spring weather.  It was so good to get outside and not have to wear arm warmers, leg warmers, undershirt, vest, etc., etc.

Mike was on his new 2012 Scale 29er. It must be 5 pounds lighter than his training bike! (Mostly because he wasn't carrying all the gear needed for long training rides and switched to the Scale carbon frame, light wheels, tires and fork.)

The pro race started fast (as expected) with everyone following JB (as expected) for the three lap race.  The pace wasn't exceptionally high, but fast enough to split the field and I found myself in a group of seven, with two Champion System guys, two American Classic guys, a roadie from the DC area (Keck Baker) and JB.   

Bishop leading the group at the end of the first lap

At the start of the second lap, JB attacked and Keck started blocking.  I  bridged across the 10 second gap, latched onto his wheel and we rode away from the rest of the field.  

At the start of the second lap

At this point, Mike was picking riders off left and right and generally riding faster than just about anyone out there.  You can read his race report here: http://mikejoos.blogspot.com/2012/03/first-race-anglers-ridge-danville.html

I held JB's wheel for the next few miles and we rode away from the rest of the field.  I could see other riders trying to bridge up to us, but they were off in the distance.

I finally fell off the pace after being gapped on a flat section leading to a steep climb.  I sat up to recover and after a minute, looked back to see Mike coming up the climb behind me, following Keck.  Awesome!  And nobody else was in sight.

I waited up for Mike and Keck, then put in a little dig through a twisty singletrack section.  Mike eventually passed Keck on a steep climb, rode up to me and went flying by.  I don't think he was even breathing hard...

Mike pulled back time on JB in the last 3 miles and got within a few switchbacks of him on a climb, but JB saw him coming and turned the gas back on.  Mike finished second, about 40 seconds back and I came in 30 seconds later for third.

Mike finishing second

Pro Men Podium - Mike Second, Jeff Third

Pro Men Results

Dylan's start saw him getting into the singletrack last of 20 riders in the 19-29 Cat 1 field after a brief mechanical issue.

Dylan at the start

He picked off people left and right and worked his way up to second in the 19-29 field, finishing behind Connor Bell, who is on form for this coming weekend's World Cup opening event in South Africa. 

Dylan - Second - Cat 1 19-29

Dylan - Second - Cat 1 19-29 Virginia State Championships

Cat 1 19-29 Results

Dylan also won the junior Cat 1 race and became the Cat 1 junior Virginia Champion.  An awesome result given his start and having to pass so many other riders. 

Dylan - Junior Cat 1 Virginia State Champion

Junior Cat 1 results

Dylan wasn't even tired at the finish and proceeded to drag us (well, mostly me - everyone else seemed to want to ride more too) out on more singletrack after the race...

A great start to the season!

Also, a big thanks to Mike, Dylan, Ian Spivak and Kevin Carter for riding with me all winter.  It's great to have a group of fast riders for 5, 6, 7, even 9 hour rides in the dead of winter.

After the event, Mike and I went out to check out the cool trailwork that had been done this past year.  Most impressive were the bridges constructed over streams. Each had the trail name cut into it. 

I talked with the bridge builder after the race and he recommended a few things to make a good mtb bridge:

• Never have a bridge start downhill - all of his bridges were arched so riders were riding uphill as they got on the bridge.
• Use rounded, not flat, wood to construct the bridge deck and use a chainsaw to cut "sipes" into the wood to channel water and give grip to tires

If you want to check out some great bridge work, head to Danville to ride their trails.  And, if you want to learn how to build proper bridges, contact the SVMBA (you can see photos of the bridge work on their site) who can put you in touch with their top bridgework guy.

Here's race data from Strava:

Next up for me is a bit of local road racing.

- Jeff

Prestaratchet from Prestacycle

MTBR.com recently ran a glowing review of the Prestaratchet from Prestacycle.

This is a great tool to bring with you on your training rides or include in your kit for races.  You get just about every tool you can need in the field in a small, compact package, it weighs next to nothing, and it works.

Check it out!

http://reviews.mtbr.com/prestacycle-prestaratchet-review

Long Winter Training Rides Winding to a Close

Last Sunday (Feb. 26), Mike and I headed out to ride the Montgomery County Epic loop in a counter-clockwise direction.  With the very warm winter, some rain early in the week, followed by strong winds, the trails were in perfect condition - something I like to call "hero dirt" - where every time you should crash from pushing it hard into the corners, the slightly tacky dirt would keep you upright and moving fast.

We rode about 50 miles in almost 50 degree weather and traded off 15 minute pulls to keep the pace high.  Compared to the same ride in mid-December, we knocked nearly 45 minutes off our loop time.

This week, the skulls on the Seneca Ridge Trail were dressed in mariachi hats (compared to the Santa hats in December).  Maybe they were dressed for Mardi Gras?

We headed north and our dreaded river crossing wasn't too bad this week with lower water levels and warmer temperatures.

 

Luckily, the halfway point water fountain in Germantown was still turned on and we filled our bottles.

We saw tons of hikers, horses and a number of other riders (who we figured were riding the MoCo Epic loop in the clockwise direction).  Everyone was out enjoying the sun.

With about 3 miles left in the ride, Mike took a soft right turn while landing from a small rise in the trail and his front wheel folded.  It was an 8 year old Salsa rim that he's been using for training.  It was impressive the rim lasted that long, but the crash was pretty ugly, with Mike taking a full front flip into the woods.  With the huge Continental Mountain King 2.4 tires, Mike's wheel wouldn't roll through the fork.

Even beating on the rim failed to straighten it out.

So, seeing that the rim and spokes were a loss, Mike rolled home on a bare rim.  It was pretty awesome to see him riding through rock gardens, rivers, roots and singletrack and not much slower than our prior tempo pace.

Thankfully, Stan's No Tubes is continuing as our sponsor this year, and Mike will be riding on a set of ZTR Crest wheels that are arriving today.  After racing a full season on a set of Crest wheels, I love these wheels!

Here's the ride data from Strava:



I think we might get in one more long ride on the weekend before the season starts in force in two weeks with the Shootout On Angler's Ridge in Danville, VA.  This was a very fun race last spring to start the season and worth the drive.

- Jeff

First Race of the Season - Congratulations to Dylan!

Congratulations to Dylan on placing 4th out of over 450 riders at the season opening 50 mile Monstercross outside Richmond, VA.

He was pipped at the line by second and third after chasing in a group with the guys we've been training with most of the past winter (Ian and Kevin).  The next closest group was nearly 9 minutes back...

Results are available here.  A great way to start the season!

Thanks to VeloInk.com!

Awesome team frame stickers!

An evening of stuffing gear bags for the SCOTT PRO MTB Team

Sufferfest - Hell Hath No Fury - Tour of Sufferlandia

I finally got trapped indoors yesterday by weather and had to ride my trainer.  I've had a good run of luck this winter, riding outside most nights, even in rain because it's been so warm.  But, last night, I just didn't want to go outside in 40 degree temps and rain.

So, I loaded up the Sufferfest's Hell Hath No Fury video that I'd downloaded from the Sufferfest site.  Holy cow, that was hard!

Usually, cycling videos follow men's classics, but this video follows footage from the women's UCI World Cup to set up 2x20 LT intervals.  Plus, the video has a plot!  I've never run across that before - you're vying for the overall stage win at the Tour of Sufferlandia under Director Sportif Agony von Grunter...

From the site, here's the description:

"For almost two years, we’ve been asked by Sufferlandrians to do the classic 2×20:00 workout. We resisted. We simply couldn’t figure out how to make it interesting. But then we got our hands on a full year of UCI Pro Women’s racing footage from the World Cup. Emma Pooley, Evelyn Stevens, Marianne Vos…the stars are all there in races like the Tour of Flanders and the GP Plouay. And then we hit on the idea of doing an entire stage race in one single Sufferfest video. Using those 20:00 sessions to do a full race simulation. Now, “it gets interesting.” Cue evil laugh."

Awesome.

I've not run across a training video this good/this hard before.  It kicked my ass.

Check it out on the Sufferfest site (www.thesufferfest.com), along with multiple other crushingly hard training sessions.

- Jeff

Fairfax County Epic Round 2 - Full 90+ Mile Loop

Last Sunday, I met up with Mike and Dylan at 8:00am at Ian Spivak's house in Falls Church to take on the full Fairfax County Epic loop - Difficult Run, Lake Fairfax park, Fountainhead park, Laurel Hill park, Accotink park, Wakefield park, plus the Fairfax Cross Country Trail.  About 95 miles total with most of it on gorgeous singletrack linked by some road sections and gravel trail. Perfect for my Scale 29 RC.

The downside was that it was 23degrees F (-5 degrees C) and it had snowed the night before.  The high was only going to get a few degrees warmer through the day.  Our plan was to meet up with Kevin Carter along the loop and hammer out the loop in 10 hours or less.

Heavily bundled up against the cold

Dylan - ready to rip our legs off for the next 9 hours (with a smile, no less)

We started north and rode through the snow covered Difficult Run trails to Lake Fairfax where we found new singletrack built by the local mountain bike access and trail builders, MORE, last year. Most of the loop we rode was thanks to MORE.  I'm constantly amazed at how much good singletrack is located within just a few miles of downtown Washington, DC.

The temperatures were so cold that any water we rode through immediately froze on our bikes, legs, or wherever it landed.

A frozen covering on the feet

While waiting for Kevin to get his tubeless wheels set up with fresh Stan's sealant, we ran into ex-pro and all around good guy, Ryan McKinney, on the trails. He was out for a ride before a possible new house purchase later that morning.  In typical fashion Ryan was in high spirits!

Ryan

Kevin

We headed out with Kevin on the loop and I almost immediately had a flat from a sliced tire sidewall on some of the sharp rocks.  A quick fix and we were back on the trail, heading south on the Fairfax Cross Country Trail to Route 123 and our 10 mile section of road to Fountainhead.

Fountainhead was fun as usual with some great double jumps and excellently constructed new singletrack.

I used to avoid the park because it was so eroded, but now with the new trails, it's something I'm going to look forward to riding more and more (and I'm donating $$ to the rebuilding effort).

It had been a windy night and the trails had a lot of dead tree limbs on them. A large stick got caught in Mike's rear wheel and immediately snapped his derailleur hangar. Luckily, he brought a spare hangar and in 10 minutes, using a handy tree as a repair stand, he was fixed and we were back on our way.

 

Dylan and Kevin started drilling through the steep hills and we were all just hanging on - after 4 hours my legs were getting a bit tired!  We did one loop of the park just as it was starting to thaw out and headed toward Laurel Hill and a convenience store to get more water and fuel for the next 4-5 hours of riding.

Laurel Hill is another fun trail network built by MORE and its construction looks to be all-weather with gravel lined singletrack.  The grass-lined trails were great in the late afternoon sun.

We were all smiling, even after riding for most of the day thus far.  It seems as if the multiple weeks of 4-7 hour rides have gotten our endurance levels up fairly high.

From Laurel Hill, we headed north toward Accotink through multiple water crossings.  Ian whacked his calf badly on his pedal while crossing one of the streams and his leg locked up on him.  He was limping and obviously in pain and unable to pedal smoothly.  Not good as we still had 15-20 miles left to go.  Once we got near Accotink park, he and Mike decided to skip the singletrack and head straight back to Ian's house on the smoother trails.

Dylan, Kevin and I pushed the pace through the park at a threshold rate and after a regroup for more food and to top off Dylan's food reserves with some Jet Blackberry GU (my favorite flavor), we rolled through Wakefield park, past the dirt jumps and back to Ian's house.

Total distance was around 92 miles total in a bit over 9 hours of ride time.  Dylan rode an extra 10 miles to put his total closer to 10 hours and 102 miles.  A solid day for mid-20 degree temperatures in February.

I was not initially sure about moving over to a 29er and to a hardtail after racing the past 21 years on a 26er bike and the past 5 years on a full suspension Spark.  But, after putting in lots of miles on my new Scale 29er, I'm very happy to have made the move.  As John and Ross told me last year, this bike is a rocket.  The flat road sections fly by.  I find I'm able to keep up speeds close to what I'd normally do on my road bike, and in tight singletrack, the bike shines - it's the best of both worlds. And, the integrated shock dampening on the seatstays and Ritchey seatpost, plus 2.25 width tires take the edge off any roots/rocks and terrain. I can't wait to see what the new full suspension 2012 Spark 29er RC is going to be like.

Next ride is in two weeks.  Hope to see you out on the trails!

Here's the Strava map:



- Jeff