H2H Race 6 "The Chain Stretcher"
- Thread starter wmbarace
- Start date
ytc100
New Member
Oh boy. Wet rocks. Have fun boys, be careful.
Precip totals show less than a half inch of rain in Peekskill, and it hasn't been raining for the past few hours, so the course should be fine... it's gonna be fun!
ArmyOfNone
Well-Known Member
My Bike Tried to Kill Me...
All was fine and dandy for I'd say the first half of the first lap. Then one speedy rocky decent washed me out sliding off into a tree. It wasnt a big spill. But prior to me going down there was two loud poping noises. I didnt realize the final spill till i returned to the car.
The front tire was super low on air and i was bottoming out on every rock i hit w/ speed. I stopped to throw some air in it and it was good for not to long. Pulled the stem and dropped a tube in, but something was still not right. It was really tough for me to control the bike while decending even on not so technical stuff. The real tech stuff forget about it. Ask Will, he saw me eat shit on a section that was rocky but nothing out of the ordinary. Thats when i decided to call it quits. Will and I limped back to the start finish, Will kept on and I headed back to the car. GREAT! Another DNF.
I rolled up to the van and getting ready was like DAMN! How you do that? He pointed to my fork which was full compressed. Ah! No wonder why i almost freaking killed myself. My fork blew the fuck up. Glad i decided to call it quits and not head back out. I would have died.
Whatever I say. I was feeling good and i was sitting in a really good spot b4 everything went down. The couse was really alot of fun. There probally was some of the most technical sections i have ever seen. They may have been easier if my fork was opertational. But it wouldnt have been a cake walk. IMO the course was to long for the difficulty of it. I think more will agree as well. But it still was a "hoot". Id love to head up for a ride in the future. It lived up to the hype.
I have not seen anything else posted up yet...BikenBen won SS Sport! w00t! Go Boy! First race of the year and he lit the place on fire. And bc he is such a great guy he sacrificed his winnings to get me a pair of bert and ernie socks! holy hell they are the coolest piece of bike gear I own.
http://www.bikesomewhere.com/bikesomewhere.cfm/productLarge/360/3179/17126?i=default
Although for me the race sucked the big one, i still had a great day cheering on the many great people I have met in this short time. All bc of a bike. Its super. I <3 U All
Ok im going back to my good friends...Jack and Coke.
All was fine and dandy for I'd say the first half of the first lap. Then one speedy rocky decent washed me out sliding off into a tree. It wasnt a big spill. But prior to me going down there was two loud poping noises. I didnt realize the final spill till i returned to the car.
The front tire was super low on air and i was bottoming out on every rock i hit w/ speed. I stopped to throw some air in it and it was good for not to long. Pulled the stem and dropped a tube in, but something was still not right. It was really tough for me to control the bike while decending even on not so technical stuff. The real tech stuff forget about it. Ask Will, he saw me eat shit on a section that was rocky but nothing out of the ordinary. Thats when i decided to call it quits. Will and I limped back to the start finish, Will kept on and I headed back to the car. GREAT! Another DNF.
I rolled up to the van and getting ready was like DAMN! How you do that? He pointed to my fork which was full compressed. Ah! No wonder why i almost freaking killed myself. My fork blew the fuck up. Glad i decided to call it quits and not head back out. I would have died.
Whatever I say. I was feeling good and i was sitting in a really good spot b4 everything went down. The couse was really alot of fun. There probally was some of the most technical sections i have ever seen. They may have been easier if my fork was opertational. But it wouldnt have been a cake walk. IMO the course was to long for the difficulty of it. I think more will agree as well. But it still was a "hoot". Id love to head up for a ride in the future. It lived up to the hype.
I have not seen anything else posted up yet...BikenBen won SS Sport! w00t! Go Boy! First race of the year and he lit the place on fire. And bc he is such a great guy he sacrificed his winnings to get me a pair of bert and ernie socks! holy hell they are the coolest piece of bike gear I own.
http://www.bikesomewhere.com/bikesomewhere.cfm/productLarge/360/3179/17126?i=default
Although for me the race sucked the big one, i still had a great day cheering on the many great people I have met in this short time. All bc of a bike. Its super. I <3 U All
Ok im going back to my good friends...Jack and Coke.
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So BikeNBen (Ben) and ArmyOfNone (Fred) get to my house at 7:20 this morning in Ben's minivan. By 7:30 my bike is on and we're out. Overall the ride up was more or less as planned except for the fact that it wasn't. We got lost, ended up hitting route 84, then had to turn around and figure out how to get there.
We pulled in the overflow lot next to Kirt and his family. Said our hellos and got all ready on the faster side. We got there at 9:40 and the race was to start at 10:30. All of us in sport, Ben and Fred sport SS, Kirt and I in 30-39 sport. Got ready with no issue, then rolled up the road to registration, which took all of 2 minutes.
I warmed up on the race loop for maybe 10 minutes and knew then it might be a tough one. Yesterday I hadn't felt that good on my short ride and last night a work "emergency" kept me up until 2:30 am. I warmed up a little, felt OK, and said it would be what it would be. Talked a little with Kirt and family then JimG rolled up about 10 before the start.
I started lethargic, as I expected. After 3 miles I was wondering how I was going to make it to 18. I was hurting, no 2 ways about it. I tried to do my best to cruise along and enjoy it, but the course relentlessly threw challenges at you. After those 3 miles I said in no way was it worse than Allamuchy. After 6 I understood the sentiment. There wasn't much in terms of "free" miles on the course and it really added up.
At mile 7 I went down hard, landed on my right knee and had to take a breather for that one. I got back on the bike but it was clear my knee wanted no part of that. I figured that was it. I just need to roll out the last few miles and get to the end. But after about 5 minutes it felt better and the course opened up a bit and I felt a whole lot better. I came in from lap 1 at about 1:20. Not amazing but I was content with it. I really had no desire to go for another lap but there was NFW I was going to take a DNF because I was tired after 1:20. So I rolled on, hit the first hill, and said to myself it was going to be a rough lap 2.
Lap 2 was indeed rough, to the tune of 1:35. I guess in hindsight that's not totally awful, just mostly awful. I was hoping to be able to pull the same lap time for #2 even though my legs and lungs felt like they were encased in mud. No such luck, and that quickly became apparent to me.
The lap was hard, not much enjoyment to be had out there at all. I was trudging up the hills as best I could, and doing my best not to hurt myself on the technical features. I tried to clean as much as I could with the exception of 1 or 2 gnarly rock sections. It just didn't seem worth it given that I was shaky after 1 lap.
At some point in there the cramps came and that just slowed things down even more. Dehydration finally started taking it's toll and muscles I didn't know existed started to tag me from time to time. After all was said and done and I got home and weighed myself, my estimate is that I lost about 10 pounds from start to finish. Insane.
I just tried to keep it spinning and for the most part that worked fine. It wasn't until after the race that I really started to cramp. Regardless, I made it to the end, a less-than-mediocre 2:55.
The course was cool, but someone had told me offline that I should skip this course as a race venue and I understand why. With so, so many riders gumming up the trails it's all you can do not to run into this guy, or be run over by that guy, or to pass someone. It's pretty hard to enjoy the trails in a race. This seems like an absolutely great group ride location.
As a race venue I learned more yet again today. This is a place where the start is more important than most. There is so much singletrack that passing people is just difficult. Add to that the general slop of the sport class and this was a bit of a tough one. The course was too long, an opinion shared by a few other people I talked to and overheard. I think you had some sports still rolling in over 3:40 after the start. That's crazy.
We stuck around for the sport ceremony because Ben won the SS class. Fred pulled the DNF because his fork went to the Big Fork House in the Sky (see above). I don't know how Kirt did. I saw him for a few minutes then he was gone with the family. We grabbed some pizza on the way home, got off course yet again, but after that had a good ride back to the house.
As for me I have no idea what's next, if anything. Ben and I were talking a little after the race about weight loss versus performance and I've probably got to choose one or the other right now. The Rumble in the Jungle is in 2 weeks which "seems" to be a short race, though by the time race day rolls around it will probably be a pair of 18 mile loops.
We pulled in the overflow lot next to Kirt and his family. Said our hellos and got all ready on the faster side. We got there at 9:40 and the race was to start at 10:30. All of us in sport, Ben and Fred sport SS, Kirt and I in 30-39 sport. Got ready with no issue, then rolled up the road to registration, which took all of 2 minutes.
I warmed up on the race loop for maybe 10 minutes and knew then it might be a tough one. Yesterday I hadn't felt that good on my short ride and last night a work "emergency" kept me up until 2:30 am. I warmed up a little, felt OK, and said it would be what it would be. Talked a little with Kirt and family then JimG rolled up about 10 before the start.
I started lethargic, as I expected. After 3 miles I was wondering how I was going to make it to 18. I was hurting, no 2 ways about it. I tried to do my best to cruise along and enjoy it, but the course relentlessly threw challenges at you. After those 3 miles I said in no way was it worse than Allamuchy. After 6 I understood the sentiment. There wasn't much in terms of "free" miles on the course and it really added up.
At mile 7 I went down hard, landed on my right knee and had to take a breather for that one. I got back on the bike but it was clear my knee wanted no part of that. I figured that was it. I just need to roll out the last few miles and get to the end. But after about 5 minutes it felt better and the course opened up a bit and I felt a whole lot better. I came in from lap 1 at about 1:20. Not amazing but I was content with it. I really had no desire to go for another lap but there was NFW I was going to take a DNF because I was tired after 1:20. So I rolled on, hit the first hill, and said to myself it was going to be a rough lap 2.
Lap 2 was indeed rough, to the tune of 1:35. I guess in hindsight that's not totally awful, just mostly awful. I was hoping to be able to pull the same lap time for #2 even though my legs and lungs felt like they were encased in mud. No such luck, and that quickly became apparent to me.
The lap was hard, not much enjoyment to be had out there at all. I was trudging up the hills as best I could, and doing my best not to hurt myself on the technical features. I tried to clean as much as I could with the exception of 1 or 2 gnarly rock sections. It just didn't seem worth it given that I was shaky after 1 lap.
At some point in there the cramps came and that just slowed things down even more. Dehydration finally started taking it's toll and muscles I didn't know existed started to tag me from time to time. After all was said and done and I got home and weighed myself, my estimate is that I lost about 10 pounds from start to finish. Insane.
I just tried to keep it spinning and for the most part that worked fine. It wasn't until after the race that I really started to cramp. Regardless, I made it to the end, a less-than-mediocre 2:55.
The course was cool, but someone had told me offline that I should skip this course as a race venue and I understand why. With so, so many riders gumming up the trails it's all you can do not to run into this guy, or be run over by that guy, or to pass someone. It's pretty hard to enjoy the trails in a race. This seems like an absolutely great group ride location.
As a race venue I learned more yet again today. This is a place where the start is more important than most. There is so much singletrack that passing people is just difficult. Add to that the general slop of the sport class and this was a bit of a tough one. The course was too long, an opinion shared by a few other people I talked to and overheard. I think you had some sports still rolling in over 3:40 after the start. That's crazy.
We stuck around for the sport ceremony because Ben won the SS class. Fred pulled the DNF because his fork went to the Big Fork House in the Sky (see above). I don't know how Kirt did. I saw him for a few minutes then he was gone with the family. We grabbed some pizza on the way home, got off course yet again, but after that had a good ride back to the house.
As for me I have no idea what's next, if anything. Ben and I were talking a little after the race about weight loss versus performance and I've probably got to choose one or the other right now. The Rumble in the Jungle is in 2 weeks which "seems" to be a short race, though by the time race day rolls around it will probably be a pair of 18 mile loops.
Hey Norm- good to meet you too, but honestly I don't remember much about our meeting other than hearing "Did I hear someone say Bogner- are you Jbogner?" from behind me. I remember thinking later as the group passed me "which one of these guys is Norm?" 
My thighs are still in pain from an end-of-first-lap crash on that rocky/rooty stream crossing on 2 Crew Live. I nearly DNF'd at the start/finish after that, but for some hard-headed reason kept going. Bad decision- it's 5 hours later, and I still can't lift myself up with my legs. Must have bruised those muscles up pretty badly in the crash. Was hurting bad through my entire second lap.
No one would have known that it rained up there last night. It was still dry and dusty. Go figure...
My thighs are still in pain from an end-of-first-lap crash on that rocky/rooty stream crossing on 2 Crew Live. I nearly DNF'd at the start/finish after that, but for some hard-headed reason kept going. Bad decision- it's 5 hours later, and I still can't lift myself up with my legs. Must have bruised those muscles up pretty badly in the crash. Was hurting bad through my entire second lap.
No one would have known that it rained up there last night. It was still dry and dusty. Go figure...
Thank You 2 All Who Raced
Thanks to all who raced. Our intent was to put together a grueling course and from some of the reviews I have read in the short time after the race I think we hit it on the head.
This was not suppose to be a easy course. It was meant as an about face to some of the Jersey courses. I will agree that it was a little long. Most of the people we spoke to liked it a lot. The Sports looked pretty spent after two laps as did the experts / pros after three. FYI the winning pro did 3 laps in 2:39 mins. That is cookin'.
Hopefully this race and this course will find a special place in the memories of most.
Good Race to All
Chris
wmbarace@yahoo.com
Thanks to all who raced. Our intent was to put together a grueling course and from some of the reviews I have read in the short time after the race I think we hit it on the head.
This was not suppose to be a easy course. It was meant as an about face to some of the Jersey courses. I will agree that it was a little long. Most of the people we spoke to liked it a lot. The Sports looked pretty spent after two laps as did the experts / pros after three. FYI the winning pro did 3 laps in 2:39 mins. That is cookin'.
Hopefully this race and this course will find a special place in the memories of most.
Good Race to All
Chris
wmbarace@yahoo.com
Harlan and Christian Favatta turned in a first lap of 48 minutes. By the second lap, Harlan had put 4-5 minutes on Christian, with Tim Dougherty (on his SS) two minutes behind Christian. We left after that, but yeah- 2:39 is insane. Awesome to see USA Cycling pro license holders coming up for more H2H races.
NYCMTB's Nate Kraxberger won sport men 30-39, with a 1:52? for two laps...
NYCMTB's Nate Kraxberger won sport men 30-39, with a 1:52? for two laps...
BiknBen
Well-Known Member
Here are the pics I managed to grab today.
Norm, Fred (AON), and I drove up together. I had some navigational issues but thankfully did not arrive too late. Kurt pulled in next to us and we got ourselves ready. I got a pic taken of me at the end to prove I was there. Anyone notice anything wrong with Fred's Headshock?
I had a good race and a good time. I also thought the course was way too friggin long though. It would have been acceptable if there were portions that you could just chill. There was none of that. You had to play your A game the entire lap. Good thing it was dry.
Norm, Fred (AON), and I drove up together. I had some navigational issues but thankfully did not arrive too late. Kurt pulled in next to us and we got ourselves ready. I got a pic taken of me at the end to prove I was there. Anyone notice anything wrong with Fred's Headshock?
I had a good race and a good time. I also thought the course was way too friggin long though. It would have been acceptable if there were portions that you could just chill. There was none of that. You had to play your A game the entire lap. Good thing it was dry.
Glancing Aft
Active Member
I just want to say, that Blue Mountain has by far become my favorite place to ride in the tristate area (this is hard to say from someone who grew up in ringwood). My preride yeesterday was amazing and I look forward to riding up there again very soon, however the race was hell.
They should rename it the chain destroyer. 3 Miles into the race I here a nice snappp... Busted chain, on top of that my three week old SRAM 990 Casset destroyed, 2nd gear is bent completely out and preventing use of 3rd, 4th, and 5th gear. On top of that the derailuer hanger bent and I couldn't get her back up into first. So from that point on I was riding in 6th, I felt like a SS riding a 28 pound tank. At first my left were doing great and I was powering up everything still but after another few miles now being able to downshift really started to take a toll on my legs.
I met up with Fred for a while and he definitely helped keep me motivated. I can't thank you enough. And I must say that tumble was one of the best I've seen in a while. Glad you're alright from it! Well I decided to go back out after my first lap I figured 60 points was better than 30 (since I'm already missing 2 races this year). Somehow I finished... To make my day all that much worse on my way home I had a blow out on the throughway (tire only has about 2k miles on it) UGGGGGGG...
My only complaint about this race was they started the 19-29 year old sport with the SS, I really didn't like having the mixed division start and by the size of the heats I'm not sure why this was done. What did others think? Anyways if you haven't ridding up at Blue Mountain do yourself a favor and get on it!
Nice seeing everyone and I'm looking forward to rumble in the jungle!
They should rename it the chain destroyer. 3 Miles into the race I here a nice snappp... Busted chain, on top of that my three week old SRAM 990 Casset destroyed, 2nd gear is bent completely out and preventing use of 3rd, 4th, and 5th gear. On top of that the derailuer hanger bent and I couldn't get her back up into first. So from that point on I was riding in 6th, I felt like a SS riding a 28 pound tank. At first my left were doing great and I was powering up everything still but after another few miles now being able to downshift really started to take a toll on my legs.
I met up with Fred for a while and he definitely helped keep me motivated. I can't thank you enough. And I must say that tumble was one of the best I've seen in a while. Glad you're alright from it! Well I decided to go back out after my first lap I figured 60 points was better than 30 (since I'm already missing 2 races this year). Somehow I finished... To make my day all that much worse on my way home I had a blow out on the throughway (tire only has about 2k miles on it) UGGGGGGG...
My only complaint about this race was they started the 19-29 year old sport with the SS, I really didn't like having the mixed division start and by the size of the heats I'm not sure why this was done. What did others think? Anyways if you haven't ridding up at Blue Mountain do yourself a favor and get on it!
Nice seeing everyone and I'm looking forward to rumble in the jungle!
ArmyOfNone
Well-Known Member
I think you could have put together a race that was as technical but 9 miles was a bit much. We would have gotten the point in 6 or 7 miles.
The place was a blast overall, lets make that clear. But what did you not like about the Jersey courses?
The place was a blast overall, lets make that clear. But what did you not like about the Jersey courses?
ArmyOfNone
Well-Known Member
Harlan
Im kicking myself in the butt about not saying anything to him. I pointed him out to someone earlier and they said "Yea, hes strong as hell, i think hes the strongest guy in the state." Yea no sh!t. They guy is awesome. I have been reading a bunch about him and following what he does. My fav pro xc rider by far. DAMNIT! sooo dreamy... :drooling: :drooling:
Im kicking myself in the butt about not saying anything to him. I pointed him out to someone earlier and they said "Yea, hes strong as hell, i think hes the strongest guy in the state." Yea no sh!t. They guy is awesome. I have been reading a bunch about him and following what he does. My fav pro xc rider by far. DAMNIT! sooo dreamy... :drooling: :drooling:
I'm with you on the man-crush thing... he even rides a 29er! But Harlan's from Philly, not NJ, so he's technically not the strongest guy in the Rock Garden state.
ArmyOfNone
Well-Known Member
Go Norm Go! Norm! Norm! Norm!
