Biscotti Madness

Day before race, no ride at all. It seems to suit me better than a light ride the day before. I don't feel awesome today but I know that matters little when 10:00 rolls around tomorrow. I've never finished any better than 16th (ish) in the state of NY. I hope that trend doesn't continue. Last Tymor race I did I blew my chain.

Given the distance of the race I don't think we're going to have a lot of time for a pre-ride, probably 45 minutes at best, but likely only 30. I think we'll have to do just 1 lap of the beginner course and call that good enough. I'm a little concerned with the start of this because I'm not in a position to be able to blow it out from the door but at the same time the ST narrows down very fast in this course so if I sit back I may have too much to make up later. I guess I just need to see how I feel.
 
Norm said:
I'm a little concerned with the start of this because I'm not in a position to be able to blow it out from the door but at the same time the ST narrows down very fast in this course so if I sit back I may have too much to make up later. I guess I just need to see how I feel.
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It's quite a ways into the loop before you can get a good passing opportunity. I think maybe the small climb along the water right after that rooty singletrack is gonna be the first spot to pass without going off into the woods:popcorn:

-Jim.
 
jimvreeland said:
It's quite a ways into the loop before you can get a good passing opportunity. I think maybe the small climb along the water right after that rooty singletrack is gonna be the first spot to pass without going off into the woods:popcorn:

-Jim.
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Sounds about right, unless you get a CF in front of you and you can run/ride around a block of riders. If the people ahead of you don't make time, no big deal. But you can't assume that's going to be the case.

I may warm up a little hotter for this one and try to come out faster. It may work or I may continue my NY State misfortune...
 
So my wrapup. I didn't feel that great Saturday and I woke up not feeling amazing. I've gotten to the point that I know none of that matters. But still. it's nice to feel good as opposed to meh. I felt meh. Fred and I did a beginner lap, and it was probably much more valuable than a preride during the week because the conditions were bad. By far the sloppiest course I've ever ridden on. But I knew what to expect which was good.

I lined up next to TJ and off the gun he went out hard, really hard. I kept him in sight into the ST and then things got really messy really fast. We were the second grounp to start and we still had to pass a ton of riders. Coming out of the beginner loop and into the big climbs I could still see TJ, and I passed 1 of the guys I knew had started off the front. Into the climbs I was thinking I was 5th, roughly. 2 of the guys I know from the series were behind me on the climb. After the climb I dropped them both never to see them again.

From there on in it was me trying to track down TJ. I could constantly see him in front of me and I tried to close the gap. We would occasionally pass a rider here or there but I never really picked up any ground on him. At the end of lap 1 I saw Jim sitting there waiting to feed Fred looking kinda miserable. I came through the start/finish and heard some cheers, which was nice because I didn't know anyone would be there to cheer.

Into lap 2 I could still see him. At this point I thought I was chasing him for the win, and tried to reel him in as best I could. He saw me at one point so knew I was on him fairly close. I figured he would either be able to hold me off or he would blow trying to. I pressed as best I could yet tried not to make any dumb mistakes in the sloppy conditions. The end of that beginner lap was really choppy the second time.

Into the field and up the climbs he was still there, in sight, but I hadn't made up any ground. On the big climb I looked down at one point and was doing 1.9 mph, so I asked my self WTF was I doing and got off to walk. Up the hill and I tried to close the gap but I couldn't do much to catch him. In the final field I could see him, but he was too far out to catch and I cruised to the end and took what I could get.

Much to my surprise it turned out that he was 3rd and I came in 4th. Last race he had beaten me by 5:30 and this race it was about 50 seconds. So I'm happy with that part of my race. I'm also happy that I left everything out there - this race hurt much more than Wawayanda for whatever reason. I had nothing left to give in trying to track him down. He was off 2nd by about 20 seconds so that put me roughly a minute off the "win". I put that in quotes because the guy who won was a pro roadie who destroyed us all by 6 minutes.

In all I'm content that I got the NY State monkey off my back. Despite the fact that it was sloppy out there it was a good race and I felt pretty good all in all. Now I have to ride my SS for 2 straight weeks to get ready for the Stewart race.

I did get something for 4th, so that's 3 races in 3 states and 3 different things to bring home. At least I'm getting something back this year.

Race link:
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/8242664#
 
Awesome work Norm! As many of as could stuck around for you cat 2 guys to make the trip through. After my first race I know how much it helps just to hear someone yell at you coming through for the 2nd lap. It help keep me from quiting when I rolled through there honestly.
 
Murder train son!! Tymor did hurt a LOT more than Waywayanda. I think the mud just had you constantly working, albeit didn't seem to slow down Harlan at all:popcorn:

Good job Normie!!

-Jim.
 
Norm Power in da woods. OK corny.
Great job bro way to keep it together.
Considering checking with Tim for a ss MD ride this week. We can tie ropes together and you can pull us both around for training.
 
Norm said:
In all I'm content that I got the NY State monkey off my back.
I did get something for 4th, so that's 3 races in 3 states and 3 different things to bring home. At least I'm getting something back this year.
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Great Job!
Your confidence level as a competitive MTB racer has to be up there. Finishing in the top 5 in the last 3 races has got to feel good. I'd say there are no more monkeys or demons to contend with, just fellow racers. Your in it:getsome:
 
poor iggy said:
Great Job!
Your confidence level as a competitive MTB racer has to be up there. Finishing in the top 5 in the last 3 races has got to feel good. I'd say there are no more monkeys or demons to contend with, just fellow racers. Your in it:getsome:
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My confidence is higher, but I still don't believe that I'm an expert level racer yet. Apparently I've qualified to move up by doing 2 top 5s, but I'm going to hold off. I feel that I have a lot more room for error now. If I go out too hard and blow up, I'll recover and do fine. Last year that wasn't an option. If I STB in the racr start that was it for me. I did that at Stewart and ended up 16th - worst race of the year by 9-10 places.

So I started my SingleSpeed-a-Palooza Binge Training today at LM:
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/8259009

That's on a SS, only my second ride on that bike. Held a 10.6 average for the ride, including a little warmup and cooldown. Last year I did a 10.1 for the LM race. So I'm clearly getting faster. After an hour-ish I had done the last 2 race loops and had a 10.8 average for the ride.

I have to admit, I may be faster on the SS in this park and I'm probably going to consider racing it in the geared class just because the park is basically climb after climb and the lighter bike sure makes a difference. There are so few flats that I never thought to myself today that I needed gears. I'm not ready to go to the dark side just yet, but I may very well be racing this bike in 2 of the next 3 races. I need to get this thing tubeless though. Tubes is just asking for trouble.

Not sure if I'm riding tomorrow or not.
 
Norm said:
33-20, with the 33 being a rotor ring (of course, where was the bike born? You get 1 guess what bars are on it...)
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Salsa bars. ding ding ding. We have a winner.
Don't crash, I hear those things are fragile.
 
Norm said:
33-20, with the 33 being a rotor ring (of course, where was the bike born? You get 1 guess what bars are on it...)
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Oh, I remember checking that bike out before it was delivered to the original owner. You've got yourself a very nice tandem between that and your SIR. It's particularly cool to be able to set up your position so closely on the two bikes.
 
kush said:
What do you think of the rotor ring?
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I've had one on the geared bike for over a year. It may be in my head but I think I can feel the difference on the climbs.

mtbdawgJeff said:
Don't crash, I hear those things are fragile.
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So the story goes. 😉

ChrisG said:
Oh, I remember checking that bike out before it was delivered to the original owner. You've got yourself a very nice tandem between that and your SIR. It's particularly cool to be able to set up your position so closely on the two bikes.
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Indeed, and once we add that road bike I'm not sure how much room I have to add more bikes. I mean, there's always room but then it becomes a lot of money for a small upgrade.

I've been indifferent on the Ergon grips until today. I found myself gripping the ends of the bars on the climbs and the wide ends of those things work well, without the Tree Hook Effect.
 
damn, now i'm thinking i want to jump off to LM today and try the Q there.

on the ergons, i don't think i'd run them on a geared bike but on the SS you do a lot more standing so they become a nice thing to have.
 
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