6hr Mini Angler

  My very first 6hr race ever, which will go down as a great and terrible race.  After my last incident at Danville I wanted revenge! Me and my teammate, Allen, signed up for the Angler's ridge 6hr race in Danville.  I've done events that lasted longer then 6 hours, but never done a lap based endurance race so this would be a learning experience. Even with this I told my wife I intended to get on a podium!

Blackwater tent setup and ready to go.

 Me, my wife and Allen meet up early in the morning to drive down and meet my dad in Danville.  The weather was way colder then we had expected but perfect for a racing.  I was on a test Epic from Blackwater Bikes since some upgrades to mine had gone wrong and were taking way longer than expected. I quickly did some seat/shock settings and do a quick test spin around the green way. Then it was time to line up!

And we're off!

Off the get go the top ten or so riders took off at a heck of a fast pace. I held back not knowing what my pace should be for a six hour race.  I settled in behind what would be the winning female rider and we yo-yoed back and forth for the first couple laps.  Seemed every time I would get ahead and have a bit of a lead on her, the chain on the front would jump off the outside forcing me to stop and fix it.  On the plus side the trails were dry even though they had gotten rain the day before.

The first four laps went good but I started to lose motivation as there were no rider in sight ahead or behind me.  I figured I was probably in 6th or lower place and figured that's where I would stay. As I came around to hand off my bottle to my wife she informed me that I was actually in 3rd place. Sweet I was on a podium! This lite a fire under me wanting to make sure I didn't lose that spot and hoping to catch second place.
       On lap six I spotted a rider ahead that looks like he might be the second place rider. It was hard to tell the solo riders vs those doing duo.  I was slowly making progress on him when he had to stop at the top of a hill for a break. I got ahead and knew that the race was starting to take his toll on him. He seemed to be able to stay with me after he stopped for a minute. I didn't want to slow down thru the start/finish area so he wouldn't get back ahead of me. This would turn out to be my undoing.

  My original hydration plan was the same as what I'd done in previous endurance events. A 70oz Camelbak of water and a bottle of infiniti drink mix only stopping every 3rd or 4th lap. After the first couple laps I realized it would be much quicker to just use the bottle. My wife was acting as pit crew for us and could pass a bottle off much quicker then me stopping to fill the camelback. Also by using mainly drink mix I could get all of my calories/electrolytes with worrying about eating. On the way down we had discussed how I suck at drinking from bottles while riding and the shock on the epic gets in the way when trying to get bottles back in a standard cage.  At the end of lap 6 my wife passed off a bottle to me like a pro. I took a drink and then tried to put it into the cage fumbling it into my foot. For some reason I brake, of course with the front since my left hand was the only one on the bars. Down I went straight into the course gravel and asphalt in the dumbest crash ever. I jumped up as quick as I could telling everyone running to help that I was OK. Ok is a relative thing, I could see that a big chunk of skin under my knee was ripped back and cuts covered my knee.  I was determined to not have another DNF in Danville and get a podium finish.

Bleeding but still rolling.

       My arm and knee were killing me and I could feel blood running down my leg but I kept pedaling.  The rider I had passed earlier had taken another break so I knew all I had to do was hold on for another couple laps and I would get my second place. The next couple laps were hard to focus but I pressed on being glad that the cutoff was 4:30pm and I wouldn't have to do another lap. I got my second place finish with 58miles in 5hr 38mins.

Yay a podium!

Allen came in 3rd in the Single speed class. They all were some crazy fast guys all getting in 9 laps.
















The "medic" on site helped me clean up the wounds on my knee and taped down the big chunk of skin that was ripped out. She said they probably couldn't do anything with stitches and should be ok. I had a feeling she didn't clean it out good enough and probably taping that skin back in was a bad idea. Sure enough two days later it looked terrible so I went to the urgent care place. It was infected and they cut the skin out and found gravel still in the wound. My knee is swollen and I'll be off any type of bike for a while and even longer before I'm back in the woods. Lessons learned, use side load cages and take my time. I have to give credit to my wife getting us bottles handed off so quickly. Without it I would have been 3rd or lower in the standings.

The shootout! Danville VA

     This was the first race of the 2013 XC season for me. At first, I didn't think I was going to get to race because of work. I didn't really do much training, thinking I had another month before my first race. At the last minute that changed and I tried to sign up.  This was a USAC sanctioned race and even though I had been told you could race expert with a one day, I was wrong! After some poking at the race director, by me and some of my teammates who wanted to race, they gave in and created an open expert category for expert racers like me that weren't interested in qualifying for nationals. Even though this race was the first of the year it was also the VA State Championship.  This makes no sense to me but it's the USAC, which I've learned makes very little sense.  What it did mean was that we would be racing some of the best riders around, including pro riders.
      Sunday morning my wife and I met my teammate, and shop owner, and rode together down to Danville. It was a beautiful day with temperatures hitting almost 70 degrees, major change from the 40s that I had been used to riding in.

My wife, Karoline, and teammates Davy and Allen

   We got to the race with plenty of time and watched the end of the SS/sport race. The race director came by and told us they were going to extend the expert race to 4 laps since one of the pros claimed an easy lap only took 23min. Not sure where he got that lap time, but there was no way anyone turned an easy 23min lap.  After some confusion with when the open experts were supposed to go, we were off.  I went ahead and fell to the back of the line knowing these were some crazy fast rider and usually start slow in races. 
   Lap 1 went well other then having to run up a muddy hill after spinning out. The course was fairly easy except for the number of tight turns. Lap 2 started off well and I even caught and passed a couple people. Then about three quarters of the way through the lap it all went wrong.  There was a small log that had rotted away, something that shouldn't have given any trouble at all to anyone, but I had to go and screw it up by trying to keep pedaling without slowing. My pedal hit something, and before I could react, I was flying into a log, chest first. After slamming into it I knew I hurt my ribs pretty bad. I regained my breath after a minute on the ground and dusted myself off. I noticed my GPS was missing and took a couple more minutes searching for it in the leaves. I was hurting but thought I was okay enough to finish the race, so I got back to pedaling.
   By lap 3 I could tell I was hurting and pulling on the bars did not feel good at all. A couple people caught back up to me, but I was determined to at least finish.  About half way through the lap, the crash caught back up to me and I suddenly couldn't breath or focus. I knew the race was over for me so I found the shortest route back to the finish line and called it.  That night and the next day I felt like I had been hit by a truck with my ribs, neck and back killing me. Now 4 days later things are being to feel better again, but mountain biking is still out of the question. 

Me post crash, I believe, but still rolling.

Next event??