50/50
50miles of technical mtn bike terrain (2 - 25mile loops w/~4k elevation gain per lap) and 50miles of road biking through Monument National Park with 5k elevation gain.
Trepidation
I had been curious about this race because most xc mtn bike races are rarely technical. They may be technical in short spots but not really sustained technical sections.(this is not to say xc races aren't hard - they are *super* hard - just not super technical) This was the 2nd year for this race - last year badass enduro racer, Dave Harris, shattered his collarbone on this course - you can read his race report here and see a pic of the collarbone here. Dave is an accomplished/talented rider so reading is blog post made me wonder if i was getting in over my head.
I had no plans to do it solo - but to do it on a 3 girl team - me doing the 6am(!) starting lap, Melanie doing the 2nd lap and Alicia doing the 50mile road portion. So I made the commitment and signed us up. :)
More Trepidation
Getting information on the race course proved to be difficult. All I really knew was the elevation gain and the course was "very technical".
I swung by the bike shop when I hit Grand Junction and the 2 guys there (they had that badass DH dude look) said - "yep - it's very technical. It contains the most technical terrain we have in these parts." I smile and gulp - "all 25miles of the loop??" they respond "probably a good 75% is very technical" hmm....at this point - all I'm looking at is surviving this thing - I'm just glad I have a good light!
I truck on down to the trailhead to get a 1 hour ride in. While riding (this was Friday afternoon ~5:30) it was getting dusky and the trails were fairly empty. I started getting paranoid about mtn lions so I only rode for 45minutes.
hmm....mtn lions like to hunt @ dawn and dusk and guess where I'd be @ dawn. Probably off the back and the smallest person in the crowd....yikes.
As I was loading up the car - some guy finishes his ride so I ask him.
me: "are they any mountain lions in the area?
guy: "maybe in 100 square miles around here"
me: "ok - i just doing that race tomorrow and I'll be riding at dawn and that's when they like to hunt"
guy: "I've been riding in the area for 10 years and I've never seen one"
me thinking to myself (well you might not have seen any - but I bet some have seen you) - but I didn't say anything.
guy: "besides if you are doing that race - mtn lions will be the least of your worries."
me: "??"
guy: " i heard it's a tough course so you'll probably just be focusing on riding - esp since you guys start when it's dark"
me: "gee - thanks!"
The bike shop was hosting a mtn bike film that night that i was on the fence about going to watch. it was only $5 and supposedly only a little over hour long. But the timing worked out where I had time to find a hotel and head over to the flick - hoping for some inspiration.
I get to the film after it started and find a place to sit. It was inspiring but also the stuff these guys do - are things I'd never had the guts to try. When the film ended some guy sitting a couple of tables down asked me if I ride.
me: "uhh...yeah - I ride that's why I'm here - I love biking"
guy @ the movie: "do you live here in Grand Junction"
me: "no - I live in Boulder - I'm here to do that 50/50 race"
guy @ the movie: "oh! I heard that's a really hard course - i guess you *do* ride!!"
me: "uhhh - yeah"
then he proceeds to tell me how he built up a SS to see what that was all about - but he didn't have the guts to go full on rigid. He was nice and friendly. I just smile and nod then say I got to get going as I have to get up @4am.
Change of attitude
So all week long I've been having a bad attitude about the race. all kinds of excuses are running through my head:
4am comes awful early
Not that it really mattered as i was so wound up I didn't sleep one bit. I wanted to get up at 4am to have time to eat and digest my food. Luckily for me - the temp wasn't too bad. Around 36degrees. I eat load up the car and drive to the race start. I get there at 5:30am and get my bike ready.
There weren't many people at the start. I guess there ended up being ~8 soloists (BIG respect to the soloists) and 5 teams(2-2 person teams and 3-3person teams). So 13 people at the start line - with 2 of us being girls - 1 girl soloist and me. I intentionally let everyone go and started in the back - I figured if I was faster than some people I'd pass them soon enough. And no - I wasn't worried about mtn lions. :)
Riding in the dark
For this race I rode the Dean Steel hardtail with a whopping 63mm of front travel - perfect for a technical ride, eh? ;)
Oh and my garmin 305 is broken again and I sent it back to garmin last week. So I had no idea during the whole ride how far I am into the course, how much elevation i've gained or my speed(speed being a relative term). Being a data geek that was a little hard for me.
We started up a grueling climb. I'm running a dura-ace cassette in the back with a 12-27 gear ratio. Normally mtn bike cassettes go up to 32t or 34t - but since I've been SSing - I like the gearing of a road cassette on my mtn bikes. The climb is steep, loose, rocky double track. I crank along and start passing a few people. I pass the total of 4 people on the climb. Then we start descending into a canyon.
Have you ever ridden the Amasa Back? You know that when you turn off the road that initial rocky descent - well the descent into the canyon was like that on steroids and much longer. Maybe it looked scarier in the dark - but there was no way I was gonna even think about attempting the first long, huge, droppy rock slab. Then there was some more rocky descending that was totally rideable but with my lighting - I opted to walk. And walk I did - i knew i was losing time but I'd rather be safe than sorry.
After the drop into the canyon - the route traversed a ridge that trended downward - it was off camber with major exposure on the left - interspersed with tricky technical moves. I'd get off and walk a tricky part and the get back on and then get off. Frustrating and time consuming - I could feel the minutes tick away. then a guy behind starts talking to me - "where are you from?" "how long have you been riding?" "what do you do for a living?" I'm thinking (what's the deal here? Is there a shortage of women in Grand Junction or something?)
Riding up the Ribbon
We hit the bottom of the Ribbon (which btw I think it's just *wrong* to ride UP the ribbon) and start up. It's gnarly - it's steep climbing with technical moves here and there - some I make and some I don't and some I don't even attempt. The Hospital drop is gnarlier than I remember and it's like a climbing move for me to get UP the thing. Then the rocky slab - great traction but it's a grueling and steep climb - granny/granny gear the whole way - i feel like i'm going 2mph. The sun is coming up at this point and i'm sweating hard - I stop and take off my wool jersey. (that wool jersey served me well until this point)
I FINALLY reach the waterfall and it must take me 5 minutes to get me and my bike up the thing - my sidis are slippery and there aren't any footholds so I crab-crawl up the thing on my hands and knees dragging my bike with me.
More grinding up the rocky slab and I FINALLY hit the 1st aid station - 12 miles from the start and I find out i've been on the bike for 2 hours.
Finally some downhill
I turn left on the road and descend for a mile - then I get worried I mis-heard the guy and was thinking maybe I should have turned right. I stop and look around and don't see anyone. I see a truck full of bikes coming up the hill and motion them to stop. I ask - "do you see a race course down that way?" they said "yes". So I take off down the hill again and see the arrow to go off into Bangs canyon. This section seems fast - a short ledgey rocky descent(woohoo!) and then climb back out - then right on some big ring ATV road with short power climbs intersperse. I hope I was making up time and would hit my ride target of 4 hours.
I hit Gunny Loop and ask some hiker for the time - I've been out 3:10 and i guess i have 7-8miles left. I cross my fingers and hope make it within 50 minutes. Gunny Loop was a BLAST. It was right on the edge of my technical ability - where I'd think "oh man - can I ride section that coming up?" Then I ride whatever it was and think "whew!" - I must have went through that thought process 20 times. then I dropped into steep descent - I'm in the middle of it and think "yowza this is steep". it was loose too and any application of the brakes induced fishtaiing - so braking wasn't a good option. I mentally shrug - let off the brakes and stayed loose on the bars. I was thinking "holy moly this is steep - i can't believe I'm riding this!" I found out later that section is called the "oh sh!t" section by the locals. I'm pretty sure I cleaned most everything on the gunny loop except 1 rocky switchback - but my memory may be a little faulty.
More up and down and i feel the minutes ticking away - I see a course marshall and he says 15 minutes to the finish. The finish is a blast with fun, tricky switchbacks (1 that i toe dab through) and then finally to the finish line. i was stoked to see melanie ready to go and hoped she hadn't been waiting too long. my ride time was 4:06. slightly embarrassing but I was in the mix with the other 3 person teams - one guy finished 5 minutes ahead of me and another guy was still on course. We were in 2nd place when melanie headed out.
Whew! glad to be done
Oh man - I was glad to be done. that was hard and fun. I had a great time. I threw my bike down and plopped down.
Also at the start/finish was the guy, Darrell, that guy i had the mtn lion conversation with the night before. I'm like "whoa! what are you doing here?" Darrell - "I wanted to come check out the race. I stayed at my sister's last night, I live in Pallasides, and thought I'd swing by before I headed home".
We chatted for a while - he's a super nice guy. We had an interesting conversation about how he went from a big freeride bike, quit riding for a year and then is now riding a hardtail and trying to keep biking in perspective.
I was very impressed with Darrell - so to all my single girlfriends out there - if you want to meet a nice, handsome, fit, biking dude (i'm guessing early 30s) let me know and I'll introduce you! ;)
I need to eat, shower and hook up with Alicia. I'm guessing Melanie will do the loop in ~3hrs.
I ask Darrell for a breakfast place recommendation as i'm hungry and realize I didn't eat much during my ride. ~25oz of water, a half an apple and 1 package of clif bloks. oops! I head downtown for breakfast, Alicia meets me there and then we go to the hotel to shower. I get back to the race venue ~1pm - thinking Melanie would be finished about 1:30
Alicia is ready to go and asked me to do a bottle hand off to her 15miles into the course. The 1st place team sent out their road rider around 30minutes before Melanie finished - so it would be almost impossible for Alicia to make up that time. Then the other team rider finishes around 10 minutes before Melanie. yikes - now we are in 3rd place. Melanie finishes a strong ride in 3:16. Alicia starts her ride 10 minutes behind the 2nd place team.
Alicia kicks butt
I'm driving the road course heading to the 15mile mark and around mile 10 - I see the 2nd place team road rider? Where's Alicia? I drive 2 more miles and see her. Man - she must of blasted past that girl. Alicia is standing and cranking on a climb (ala Dana-style) and I pull up beside her. She gasps out "I'm gonna need 2 bottles - with 1 scoop each of my powder". Holy moly - she's is flying. I'm hoping she doesn't blow herself up. I drive up another mile and do a bottle hand off.
By this time she's picked off 2 of the guy soloists that started a good 20 minutes before her.
Then she says "i need another bottle but put 2(!) scoops - 2 scoops of powder". I drive another 5 miles and get the bottle ready and about 10 minutes later after she passed another guy - she comes hauling ass and i do the bottle handoff.
Alicia had been hoping to do the 50mile - 5k elevation course in a sub-3hour time frame. i go back to the venue and wait. she rolls in @ 2:43. friggin' unbelievable! that means she averaged close to 19mph on that climby course. She bumped us back up to 2nd place - not bad for an all girl team, eh?
turns out Alicia had the faster overall road time. Even the teams that had fresh guy road riders - Alicia crushed. The closest time was 2:48. When they handed out awards - everyone was suitably impressed by Alicia's effort.
even more amazing
Was Ross Schell. I guess he's some pro-mtn bike dude that is from Grand Junction. He started out with a little petzel light. he reached the top of the Ribbon in 1 hour - his first lap time was around 2:08 and his 2nd lap was 2:12. Unbelievable. We chatted with him after the race and then ran into him at breakfast the next day. He is super cool, nice, down-to-earth and funny. He said he kept crashing because he was out running his light. i'm like - "uhhh....yeah - don't you think you should have used a *real* bike light". He's like "i didn't think it would be that bad" wow - to be that talented...
Official Results click here
1st Team Quest 10:05:04
2nd Team Cynthia 10:06:48
3rd B. Brains 10:32:49
overall verdict it was a GREAT time. That Grand Junction riding is the bomb! :D
anybody up for a trip to grand junction sometime soon?
Trepidation
I had been curious about this race because most xc mtn bike races are rarely technical. They may be technical in short spots but not really sustained technical sections.(this is not to say xc races aren't hard - they are *super* hard - just not super technical) This was the 2nd year for this race - last year badass enduro racer, Dave Harris, shattered his collarbone on this course - you can read his race report here and see a pic of the collarbone here. Dave is an accomplished/talented rider so reading is blog post made me wonder if i was getting in over my head.
I had no plans to do it solo - but to do it on a 3 girl team - me doing the 6am(!) starting lap, Melanie doing the 2nd lap and Alicia doing the 50mile road portion. So I made the commitment and signed us up. :)
More Trepidation
Getting information on the race course proved to be difficult. All I really knew was the elevation gain and the course was "very technical".
I swung by the bike shop when I hit Grand Junction and the 2 guys there (they had that badass DH dude look) said - "yep - it's very technical. It contains the most technical terrain we have in these parts." I smile and gulp - "all 25miles of the loop??" they respond "probably a good 75% is very technical" hmm....at this point - all I'm looking at is surviving this thing - I'm just glad I have a good light!
I truck on down to the trailhead to get a 1 hour ride in. While riding (this was Friday afternoon ~5:30) it was getting dusky and the trails were fairly empty. I started getting paranoid about mtn lions so I only rode for 45minutes.
hmm....mtn lions like to hunt @ dawn and dusk and guess where I'd be @ dawn. Probably off the back and the smallest person in the crowd....yikes.
As I was loading up the car - some guy finishes his ride so I ask him.
me: "are they any mountain lions in the area?
guy: "maybe in 100 square miles around here"
me: "ok - i just doing that race tomorrow and I'll be riding at dawn and that's when they like to hunt"
guy: "I've been riding in the area for 10 years and I've never seen one"
me thinking to myself (well you might not have seen any - but I bet some have seen you) - but I didn't say anything.
guy: "besides if you are doing that race - mtn lions will be the least of your worries."
me: "??"
guy: " i heard it's a tough course so you'll probably just be focusing on riding - esp since you guys start when it's dark"
me: "gee - thanks!"
The bike shop was hosting a mtn bike film that night that i was on the fence about going to watch. it was only $5 and supposedly only a little over hour long. But the timing worked out where I had time to find a hotel and head over to the flick - hoping for some inspiration.
I get to the film after it started and find a place to sit. It was inspiring but also the stuff these guys do - are things I'd never had the guts to try. When the film ended some guy sitting a couple of tables down asked me if I ride.
me: "uhh...yeah - I ride that's why I'm here - I love biking"
guy @ the movie: "do you live here in Grand Junction"
me: "no - I live in Boulder - I'm here to do that 50/50 race"
guy @ the movie: "oh! I heard that's a really hard course - i guess you *do* ride!!"
me: "uhhh - yeah"
then he proceeds to tell me how he built up a SS to see what that was all about - but he didn't have the guts to go full on rigid. He was nice and friendly. I just smile and nod then say I got to get going as I have to get up @4am.
Change of attitude
So all week long I've been having a bad attitude about the race. all kinds of excuses are running through my head:
- my fitness has been on the decline since my burn out 6 weeks ago
- I haven't been training and am out of shape
- it's cold @ 6am
- it's dark @ 6am - sunrise would be @ 7:30am
- there is no place to drop lights on course so I'd have to carry an extra 2 lbs the whole way
- I have no idea what to expect on course except it's hard
- looks like the people pre-riding are ~30minutes slower than the expert racer dudes were @ the FC50 - so it will be a long lap for me (i was predicting a 3:30 -4hr lap time for me)
- it's gonna be hard
- I love riding "new to me" trails - what a great opportunity to ride something I've never seen/ridden before. (when i first started mtn biking I wanted to be good enough to be able to ride the average mtn bike trail sight unseen - I feel i'm competent enough and I am at that point)
- I love challenges - so riding in the dark on a new trail will be very challenging
- How cool it is that I get to ride while the sun comes up
- I LOVE riding my bike and like pushing my comfort level (this race was gonna to that for sure!)
- I would get to ride 25miles with ~18miles of it being technical - my favorite kind of riding - how cool it that!
- I'm pretty lucky to have a opportunity to do this. :)
4am comes awful early
Not that it really mattered as i was so wound up I didn't sleep one bit. I wanted to get up at 4am to have time to eat and digest my food. Luckily for me - the temp wasn't too bad. Around 36degrees. I eat load up the car and drive to the race start. I get there at 5:30am and get my bike ready.
There weren't many people at the start. I guess there ended up being ~8 soloists (BIG respect to the soloists) and 5 teams(2-2 person teams and 3-3person teams). So 13 people at the start line - with 2 of us being girls - 1 girl soloist and me. I intentionally let everyone go and started in the back - I figured if I was faster than some people I'd pass them soon enough. And no - I wasn't worried about mtn lions. :)
Riding in the dark
For this race I rode the Dean Steel hardtail with a whopping 63mm of front travel - perfect for a technical ride, eh? ;)
Oh and my garmin 305 is broken again and I sent it back to garmin last week. So I had no idea during the whole ride how far I am into the course, how much elevation i've gained or my speed(speed being a relative term). Being a data geek that was a little hard for me.
We started up a grueling climb. I'm running a dura-ace cassette in the back with a 12-27 gear ratio. Normally mtn bike cassettes go up to 32t or 34t - but since I've been SSing - I like the gearing of a road cassette on my mtn bikes. The climb is steep, loose, rocky double track. I crank along and start passing a few people. I pass the total of 4 people on the climb. Then we start descending into a canyon.
Have you ever ridden the Amasa Back? You know that when you turn off the road that initial rocky descent - well the descent into the canyon was like that on steroids and much longer. Maybe it looked scarier in the dark - but there was no way I was gonna even think about attempting the first long, huge, droppy rock slab. Then there was some more rocky descending that was totally rideable but with my lighting - I opted to walk. And walk I did - i knew i was losing time but I'd rather be safe than sorry.
After the drop into the canyon - the route traversed a ridge that trended downward - it was off camber with major exposure on the left - interspersed with tricky technical moves. I'd get off and walk a tricky part and the get back on and then get off. Frustrating and time consuming - I could feel the minutes tick away. then a guy behind starts talking to me - "where are you from?" "how long have you been riding?" "what do you do for a living?" I'm thinking (what's the deal here? Is there a shortage of women in Grand Junction or something?)
Riding up the Ribbon
We hit the bottom of the Ribbon (which btw I think it's just *wrong* to ride UP the ribbon) and start up. It's gnarly - it's steep climbing with technical moves here and there - some I make and some I don't and some I don't even attempt. The Hospital drop is gnarlier than I remember and it's like a climbing move for me to get UP the thing. Then the rocky slab - great traction but it's a grueling and steep climb - granny/granny gear the whole way - i feel like i'm going 2mph. The sun is coming up at this point and i'm sweating hard - I stop and take off my wool jersey. (that wool jersey served me well until this point)
I FINALLY reach the waterfall and it must take me 5 minutes to get me and my bike up the thing - my sidis are slippery and there aren't any footholds so I crab-crawl up the thing on my hands and knees dragging my bike with me.
More grinding up the rocky slab and I FINALLY hit the 1st aid station - 12 miles from the start and I find out i've been on the bike for 2 hours.
Finally some downhill
I turn left on the road and descend for a mile - then I get worried I mis-heard the guy and was thinking maybe I should have turned right. I stop and look around and don't see anyone. I see a truck full of bikes coming up the hill and motion them to stop. I ask - "do you see a race course down that way?" they said "yes". So I take off down the hill again and see the arrow to go off into Bangs canyon. This section seems fast - a short ledgey rocky descent(woohoo!) and then climb back out - then right on some big ring ATV road with short power climbs intersperse. I hope I was making up time and would hit my ride target of 4 hours.
I hit Gunny Loop and ask some hiker for the time - I've been out 3:10 and i guess i have 7-8miles left. I cross my fingers and hope make it within 50 minutes. Gunny Loop was a BLAST. It was right on the edge of my technical ability - where I'd think "oh man - can I ride section that coming up?" Then I ride whatever it was and think "whew!" - I must have went through that thought process 20 times. then I dropped into steep descent - I'm in the middle of it and think "yowza this is steep". it was loose too and any application of the brakes induced fishtaiing - so braking wasn't a good option. I mentally shrug - let off the brakes and stayed loose on the bars. I was thinking "holy moly this is steep - i can't believe I'm riding this!" I found out later that section is called the "oh sh!t" section by the locals. I'm pretty sure I cleaned most everything on the gunny loop except 1 rocky switchback - but my memory may be a little faulty.
More up and down and i feel the minutes ticking away - I see a course marshall and he says 15 minutes to the finish. The finish is a blast with fun, tricky switchbacks (1 that i toe dab through) and then finally to the finish line. i was stoked to see melanie ready to go and hoped she hadn't been waiting too long. my ride time was 4:06. slightly embarrassing but I was in the mix with the other 3 person teams - one guy finished 5 minutes ahead of me and another guy was still on course. We were in 2nd place when melanie headed out.
Whew! glad to be done
Oh man - I was glad to be done. that was hard and fun. I had a great time. I threw my bike down and plopped down.
Also at the start/finish was the guy, Darrell, that guy i had the mtn lion conversation with the night before. I'm like "whoa! what are you doing here?" Darrell - "I wanted to come check out the race. I stayed at my sister's last night, I live in Pallasides, and thought I'd swing by before I headed home".
We chatted for a while - he's a super nice guy. We had an interesting conversation about how he went from a big freeride bike, quit riding for a year and then is now riding a hardtail and trying to keep biking in perspective.
I was very impressed with Darrell - so to all my single girlfriends out there - if you want to meet a nice, handsome, fit, biking dude (i'm guessing early 30s) let me know and I'll introduce you! ;)
I need to eat, shower and hook up with Alicia. I'm guessing Melanie will do the loop in ~3hrs.
I ask Darrell for a breakfast place recommendation as i'm hungry and realize I didn't eat much during my ride. ~25oz of water, a half an apple and 1 package of clif bloks. oops! I head downtown for breakfast, Alicia meets me there and then we go to the hotel to shower. I get back to the race venue ~1pm - thinking Melanie would be finished about 1:30
Alicia is ready to go and asked me to do a bottle hand off to her 15miles into the course. The 1st place team sent out their road rider around 30minutes before Melanie finished - so it would be almost impossible for Alicia to make up that time. Then the other team rider finishes around 10 minutes before Melanie. yikes - now we are in 3rd place. Melanie finishes a strong ride in 3:16. Alicia starts her ride 10 minutes behind the 2nd place team.
Alicia kicks butt
I'm driving the road course heading to the 15mile mark and around mile 10 - I see the 2nd place team road rider? Where's Alicia? I drive 2 more miles and see her. Man - she must of blasted past that girl. Alicia is standing and cranking on a climb (ala Dana-style) and I pull up beside her. She gasps out "I'm gonna need 2 bottles - with 1 scoop each of my powder". Holy moly - she's is flying. I'm hoping she doesn't blow herself up. I drive up another mile and do a bottle hand off.
By this time she's picked off 2 of the guy soloists that started a good 20 minutes before her.
Then she says "i need another bottle but put 2(!) scoops - 2 scoops of powder". I drive another 5 miles and get the bottle ready and about 10 minutes later after she passed another guy - she comes hauling ass and i do the bottle handoff.
Alicia had been hoping to do the 50mile - 5k elevation course in a sub-3hour time frame. i go back to the venue and wait. she rolls in @ 2:43. friggin' unbelievable! that means she averaged close to 19mph on that climby course. She bumped us back up to 2nd place - not bad for an all girl team, eh?
turns out Alicia had the faster overall road time. Even the teams that had fresh guy road riders - Alicia crushed. The closest time was 2:48. When they handed out awards - everyone was suitably impressed by Alicia's effort.
even more amazing
Was Ross Schell. I guess he's some pro-mtn bike dude that is from Grand Junction. He started out with a little petzel light. he reached the top of the Ribbon in 1 hour - his first lap time was around 2:08 and his 2nd lap was 2:12. Unbelievable. We chatted with him after the race and then ran into him at breakfast the next day. He is super cool, nice, down-to-earth and funny. He said he kept crashing because he was out running his light. i'm like - "uhhh....yeah - don't you think you should have used a *real* bike light". He's like "i didn't think it would be that bad" wow - to be that talented...
Official Results click here
1st Team Quest 10:05:04
2nd Team Cynthia 10:06:48
3rd B. Brains 10:32:49
overall verdict it was a GREAT time. That Grand Junction riding is the bomb! :D
anybody up for a trip to grand junction sometime soon?
Comments
jj