The heat wave descended, and everyone ran for cover. A road race got cancelled, and there was talk of shortening the mountain bike course. What's the big deal I thought, just bring a bit more water and watch out for Puffy Exploding Tomato Head. But that was before I tried climbing The Wall twice in 100F heat.
The Oakridge Fat Tire Fest is a popular mid-summer race with great singletrack and a mountain-town atmosphere. With a 3-week break since the last race, I had time to bump up the training a bit in preparation. I was feeling good until 2 days before the race, whereupon I became steeped in Guilt. On Friday the heat wave was coming on in full force, and the cold beer was going down sooooo eaily. I was up to 4 or 5 by the time I crashed out, and was feeling slightly fuzzy the next morning. No problem, I'll just do a quick 1-hour prep ride and shake out the system. That seemed to work, but then one of those guilt voices started coming out with tidbits like : "Great, you trained hard all week, and then you negated it all in one night by throwing down all those beers - what a waste of time. Why do you bother training at all...", etc. etc. To make matters more difficult, today was the company family picnic. Nice relaxing time hanging out with mine and other families, but the umm beer was free.... so I had to have a few, being in the hot sun and all, and seeing as how others were quaffing as well. Now the guilt voice was having a hey-day, reminding me quite often about my transgressions. But what's done is done, so we'll see what happens on race-day.
Drove up the next morning, and by the time the race started at 10:30 am, it was already 95F. Seemed worse than Bend, probably because it was a bit more humid. We had a vote beforehand on shortening the course, but it was overwhelmingly in favour of doing it the long way. Yeahhhh! - insert chest-beating and yee-hawing here. So one long lap to the very top of the mountain, and a slightly shorter lap following. 'The Wall' is about a thousand feet of steepish logging road climbing. Nothing crazy, but it's a relentless grade and is out there baking in the hot sun. The first time up it, I'm spinning nicely in my lowest gear, and just railing up the climb. Being on a 29er with regular 26" gearing, that's the equivalent of 2nd or 3rd gear on a 26". The field gets spread out, and that usually means no one in your way for the awesome singletrack descent on the other side.
Start the second lap. Am by myself and kind of daydreaming, rolling along in the shaded singletrack before the big climb, when all of a sudden I realize I'm off course. How the f*ck did that happen - takes me a minute or so to figure it out, and then I'm back on it. A couple people passed me me - can see them slightly ahead when get out onto the road. I push a little harder, as is often the case, and as the grade increases on reaching the beginning of the Wall, I realize I am not feeling that great. It's 104F this lap, and the dirt road is radiating heat like a black-top parking lot. I start to feel a bit of Tomato Head coming on, and try to back off. But the problem is I can't gear down, being on the lowest gear already, and I don't want to walk, so keep surging ahead. Suddenly I'm not having fun anymore, in fact this is definitely torture ! I want it to be over, but I'm barely pass the half-way point on the climb. My limbs start to become jelly-like, and I think of all those adjectives they've been using on the Tour de France commentaries, like 'popped', 'cracked', 'blown'. "Yes, Fortier's popped, he's slowing way down now, the peloton will surely catch him".
Manage to stay on the bike all the way up, but yeah I'm blown. Can't say it's ever happened that badly before. I keep looking behind to see who's catching up, but no one is in sight. Probably they've all blown too ? The ensuing singletrack descent requires all my attention, as it is only with great effort that I manage to keep the rubber on the dirt, and not careening out of control down the embankments or into trees. The slightest short uphill causes pathetic wheezing and tightening and cramping of muscles. Eat and drink as much as I can, and in the last few miles to the finish I'm actually starting to recover - or is that just because it's flat ? I grab the last podium spot. Only 5 of the 8 starters in my class finish - plenty of DNF's all around. So next time, drink more during race ? Drink less (beer) before race ? Pop more of those electrolyte capsules ? I downed 1 before the race, but forgot about them after that. Maybe some patches on the sack - nudge nudge wink wink.
Monday, July 24, 2006
The BeerJammer Lives
The beast is finally built. Start with the Chromag Samurai frame I won in the 2004 GearJammer, mix in a bunch of parts from my Ellesworth Joker which was stolen in 2002 and recovered in 2005, sprinkle with bits and pieces from my 1997 Gary Fisher Joshua, and voila - BeerJammer.
There are many stories woven into the parts list on this Franken-Bike. First of all the frame, built in Squamish by Mike Truelove. I was endlessly needled by the local Squam-Folk about doing something with this frame. It moved with me to Bend, still in the pupae stage of being just a frame. Then last year, when I finally recovered my Joker from the cop-shop in Victoria, B.C. - a long process which culminated in some gracious souls taking care of packing it onto the bus to Squamish - and me showing up with some 6-packs of Oregon beer to reclaim it - I decided that many of the non-deceased parts of the Joker would migrate onto the Chromag frame. Alas, my first move in this direction was met with confusion and dismay, as fitting a standard rear hub onto the frame proved impossible : the spacing was only 120mm, well off the industry standard of 135. Conversations with the builder determined that 135 was indeed the original spec, and I can only theorize that in the journey to Bend in the moving truck, the frame got squished down to an unusable width. Yanking and tweaking it this way and that yielded another 5mm gain in width, still a far cry from what was required. The frame once again crept into a dark corner of neglect, and dust and spiderwebs were its only companions.
About a month ago, I mentioned the problem to Pat, a wrench at the Hutch's shop, and he said he'd worked on a few similar problems before, and could take a look-see. Not expecting much, I dropped it off, and a few days later received a call that it was done. Supposedly it took a few guys standing on various parts of the frame and pulling it, and we were back in business. They didn't even charge me - I really should drop off a 6-pack there :) Then boxed up the parts I'd pulled off the old Joker and Joshua, and took it down to Web Cyclery for the build up.
Other notable parts :
Shimano D321 downhill disk wheel : front wheel from the Joker. On the Freeride Tour trip I was on in 2001, we were doing some North Van trail in the rain - I think it was Lower Ladies or Oil Can or something - and I lost it bigtime down this rock chute - taco'd my RhinoLite. Bought the Shimano a few hours later. This is also why I've always had big patches of black duct-tape on my blue Goretex jacket : shredded it in the slide.
Raceface yellow cranks : from the Joshua. There was no problem really with my original cranks, but these were so shiny and yellow and went with the bike perfectly - I had to have them.
Front Hayes Mag orange brake : went to front disks on the Joshua. Got it from Tantalus - I think it was original equipment on a Rocky Mountain - special orange spec. For some reason it was on the Joker when it got stolen - glad it came back.
Slapped on the Geax Barro Marathon tires I won at the Outback Challenge a few weeks ago - front is a 2.3 - nice and meaty. The rear 2.1 looks about half the size. Dirtrag chainstay protector from same race.
Silver Chris King headset from Joker.
Rockshox Psylo fork from Joshua. Cracked my original Manitou fork on the BarberChair trail in Crumpet woods : that steep rock chute followed by a quick right hand turn. Didn't make turn, hit tree.
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
Race Report : Outback Challenge
Third race weekend in a row. This time it's in Lakeview, in South-Central Oregon, in an area known as 'The Outback'. The town is the highest in Oregon, and the race starts above 6000 feet. Only a coyote hair over a 3-hour drive from Bend, but it seems like I was the only one from here to make the trek. Of course this means no 'Bend-factor', allowing me to place up there in my age group - but conversely the category will probably be sparsely populated.
Do the scenic drive on Saturday afternoon, arriving at the race start area up in the mountains around 7 pm. Not a soul in sight, but plenty of whining mosquitoes. A quick scan of a hard-to-read map I printed out from the web-site, shows a camping area a few miles down one road. This is confirmed by the road atlas, so head that way. Lots of roads branching off everywhere, so accomodations should be easy to find tonight. Find the Twin Springs camping area, and cruise in. Hmm, just one tiny loop road, with one group of campers in there. See bikes, so stop and chat. They have a fire going to ward off the pesky flying critters, and a nice spot backdropped against some rocks, with a spring gushing some water out of a pipe. I decide to move in next-door, and commence camp setup.
The mosquito situation, which I had been warned of, was just plain out-of-control. Hundreds, perhaps thousands swarming all over you. I put on full coverage, spray myself down, and finally put to good use the bug head-net I bought a long time ago and never used. Cuts down on vision, but allows some sanity. Finally the tent is up, and bag, pad and pillow are quickly stuffed in with minimal zipper-openage. Grab a beer and head over to the other site to enjoy the smoke of their fire. It would seem the mosquito density is proportional to the square or cube of the distance from the fire. Forays off to a tree to relieve oneself are quick proof of that. I mooch a hot-dog, and hang out with this biking family for a while : Mom, Pop and Junior are all doing the race. Then back to my spot, where grab another cold one and build a fire. Tons of fuel around, I've got one blazing in a few minutes.
The night is peaceful, with only frogs and crickets, and no wedding partiers. One miserable moment during the night, as get out of the tent to pee, and am of course swarmed by skeeters. Brush off as many as I can before zipping into the tent, but several are able to piggy-back in, and spend some time executing them all. But of course in the morning I realize my kill ratio was not 100%, as fat little blood-gorged suckers are hanging out on the netting, waiting for me to release them so they can go forth and multiply. Splat! Not.
Another hot day awaits it would seem. And even in the blazing sun the bugs persist somewhat. The turnout is small - maybe 20 Sport/Expert/Pro riders are lined up for the 10 am start. We have just been briefed on the course - it is mildly confusing with a few key intersections to pay attention to. I listen carefully and commit it to [my faulty] memory, as don't want to make a wrong turn for the third race in a row. We set off, and I don't know if it's the altitude or what, but I'm hyperventilating 30 seconds in - probably the crappiest start I've ever had. We do one initial loop that's maybe 5 miles long, before heading to the main loop which everybody will do, and then Experts get to do half of it again. Manage to calm things down halfway through this first loop, and I'm riding along with TomC - who's in my class, and a Sport guy I know - JustinT who has caught up to me. We hit the first intersection, and Tom slows down to go left, but my memory actually works here and I advise we go straight. To add confusion, another rider is now coming back towards us, thinking he should take that left as well - he had gone ahead but freaked out thinking he went the wrong way. Tsk, tsk, don't these people pay attention ? :) I direct them all to go straight ahead. Wrong-way guy is in lower age group expert, and we converse a bit. He mentions it's only his second mountain bike ride of the year - he's a big road racer. We break away from the rest, and I guess that I'll probably drop this roadie on the first downhill or technical area. But surprisingly, he hangs onto my wheel as we drop around the other side of the first mountain, and as we finish that loop he's still there.
Start the main loop. Visibility is great up here with the lack of trees, and there's no one else in sight ahead. No incentive to race hard from the lack of other competitors in my class, but I'm determined to stay ahead of the Roadie, and also the Sport guy not too far behind. A long downhill at the Southern end of the loop allows me to gain a few seconds on Roadie, and Sport is no longer visible behind. Traverse a long section in open meadow, and do frequent head turning to check on Roadie's progress behind me. Slightly gaining I think, and as we start a long steep loose climb up to repeat the main loop, he's only 20 or 30 feet behind. Dammit ! But this gives me reason to push... The middle section is a dismount for me, and for him as well. Top third is steep, but smooth and rideable I think - yep. Reach the top, and my lead is now significant. Hit the downhill and the meadow, and no one behind me now. Pass many Sport racers. No idea when to initiate finishing kick, but estimate it OK with a few miles to go, and come in at 2.5 hours - fifth overall in Expert/Pro.
Am socializing around the finish area, when I realize I don't see Tom around - he couldn't be that far behind ? Mention it to someone and they start laughing - they know the guy, and they said he beat a hasty retreat after getting lost and pissed off. Apparently the second time he hit that intersection people were so confused about, he mistakenly went left, and ended back in the start area. Then had some wipe-out turning around, went back the way he came, and then a few minutes later he was seen riding back to his truck, throwing the bike in the back, and then peeling away in a cloud of dust. So I end up getting first in my class - the only one who finished. Cool medals were had by many people, and lots of great raffle prizes. Had some difficulty carrying all the loot back to the car.
Well I hope next year the race is scheduled without the numerous competing events that were happening this long weekend : there was another race at Mt Hood the previous day (gets the Portland crowd), some important road race, and a Mountain bike clinic in Bend. And maybe have it in August like last year - won't the skeeters be all dead by then ?:)
Do the scenic drive on Saturday afternoon, arriving at the race start area up in the mountains around 7 pm. Not a soul in sight, but plenty of whining mosquitoes. A quick scan of a hard-to-read map I printed out from the web-site, shows a camping area a few miles down one road. This is confirmed by the road atlas, so head that way. Lots of roads branching off everywhere, so accomodations should be easy to find tonight. Find the Twin Springs camping area, and cruise in. Hmm, just one tiny loop road, with one group of campers in there. See bikes, so stop and chat. They have a fire going to ward off the pesky flying critters, and a nice spot backdropped against some rocks, with a spring gushing some water out of a pipe. I decide to move in next-door, and commence camp setup.
The mosquito situation, which I had been warned of, was just plain out-of-control. Hundreds, perhaps thousands swarming all over you. I put on full coverage, spray myself down, and finally put to good use the bug head-net I bought a long time ago and never used. Cuts down on vision, but allows some sanity. Finally the tent is up, and bag, pad and pillow are quickly stuffed in with minimal zipper-openage. Grab a beer and head over to the other site to enjoy the smoke of their fire. It would seem the mosquito density is proportional to the square or cube of the distance from the fire. Forays off to a tree to relieve oneself are quick proof of that. I mooch a hot-dog, and hang out with this biking family for a while : Mom, Pop and Junior are all doing the race. Then back to my spot, where grab another cold one and build a fire. Tons of fuel around, I've got one blazing in a few minutes.
The night is peaceful, with only frogs and crickets, and no wedding partiers. One miserable moment during the night, as get out of the tent to pee, and am of course swarmed by skeeters. Brush off as many as I can before zipping into the tent, but several are able to piggy-back in, and spend some time executing them all. But of course in the morning I realize my kill ratio was not 100%, as fat little blood-gorged suckers are hanging out on the netting, waiting for me to release them so they can go forth and multiply. Splat! Not.
Another hot day awaits it would seem. And even in the blazing sun the bugs persist somewhat. The turnout is small - maybe 20 Sport/Expert/Pro riders are lined up for the 10 am start. We have just been briefed on the course - it is mildly confusing with a few key intersections to pay attention to. I listen carefully and commit it to [my faulty] memory, as don't want to make a wrong turn for the third race in a row. We set off, and I don't know if it's the altitude or what, but I'm hyperventilating 30 seconds in - probably the crappiest start I've ever had. We do one initial loop that's maybe 5 miles long, before heading to the main loop which everybody will do, and then Experts get to do half of it again. Manage to calm things down halfway through this first loop, and I'm riding along with TomC - who's in my class, and a Sport guy I know - JustinT who has caught up to me. We hit the first intersection, and Tom slows down to go left, but my memory actually works here and I advise we go straight. To add confusion, another rider is now coming back towards us, thinking he should take that left as well - he had gone ahead but freaked out thinking he went the wrong way. Tsk, tsk, don't these people pay attention ? :) I direct them all to go straight ahead. Wrong-way guy is in lower age group expert, and we converse a bit. He mentions it's only his second mountain bike ride of the year - he's a big road racer. We break away from the rest, and I guess that I'll probably drop this roadie on the first downhill or technical area. But surprisingly, he hangs onto my wheel as we drop around the other side of the first mountain, and as we finish that loop he's still there.
Start the main loop. Visibility is great up here with the lack of trees, and there's no one else in sight ahead. No incentive to race hard from the lack of other competitors in my class, but I'm determined to stay ahead of the Roadie, and also the Sport guy not too far behind. A long downhill at the Southern end of the loop allows me to gain a few seconds on Roadie, and Sport is no longer visible behind. Traverse a long section in open meadow, and do frequent head turning to check on Roadie's progress behind me. Slightly gaining I think, and as we start a long steep loose climb up to repeat the main loop, he's only 20 or 30 feet behind. Dammit ! But this gives me reason to push... The middle section is a dismount for me, and for him as well. Top third is steep, but smooth and rideable I think - yep. Reach the top, and my lead is now significant. Hit the downhill and the meadow, and no one behind me now. Pass many Sport racers. No idea when to initiate finishing kick, but estimate it OK with a few miles to go, and come in at 2.5 hours - fifth overall in Expert/Pro.
Am socializing around the finish area, when I realize I don't see Tom around - he couldn't be that far behind ? Mention it to someone and they start laughing - they know the guy, and they said he beat a hasty retreat after getting lost and pissed off. Apparently the second time he hit that intersection people were so confused about, he mistakenly went left, and ended back in the start area. Then had some wipe-out turning around, went back the way he came, and then a few minutes later he was seen riding back to his truck, throwing the bike in the back, and then peeling away in a cloud of dust. So I end up getting first in my class - the only one who finished. Cool medals were had by many people, and lots of great raffle prizes. Had some difficulty carrying all the loot back to the car.
Well I hope next year the race is scheduled without the numerous competing events that were happening this long weekend : there was another race at Mt Hood the previous day (gets the Portland crowd), some important road race, and a Mountain bike clinic in Bend. And maybe have it in August like last year - won't the skeeters be all dead by then ?:)
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