Idyllwild Spring Challenge Race Report

the race on saturday was a tough one...

i woke up early saturday morning and hit the road for idyllwild. it's about 90 minutes from my house and i still can't believe last wednesday was the first time i have ever taken the time to head out there and ride. i was stoked to be heading back to race and knew it was going to be a hard day on the bike.

pre-race was unevenful. ryan and sarah met me out there and i spent quite a bit of time talking with justin, allison, luke, and was stoked to run into matt before the race as well. a big part of the reason i am really stoked on the mountain bike racing right now is the people i get to race with and against. everybody just loves riding their bike.... we throwdown and go for blood from start to finish, but before and after the race it's all about having fun and good times.

it was pretty chilly out, the wind was strong, but thankfully the rain held off. i kind procrastinated and then had to rush to start warming up... and didn't end up warming up enough because i stopped early to try and adjust my brakes. my brakes are shot and new ones are on the way. i couldn't get the front brake to stop rubbing so i just went with it and headed up to the start.

the start line was mellow and relaxed, which seems to be pretty typical until the final countdown to the gun. the pros went off before (both men and women) and then also sent the "open" class out before which i thought was kind of odd. the "open" is anyone who wanted to ride the long course but is not a cat 1 or pro. it was a good size wave so we would definitely be working out way through them.

the start... i stole this from matt's blog!

as usual the start went out pretty fast before we hit the single track, and as usual I was DFL (dead f'n last... in case you didn't know) off the line. i blew it. my legs just weren't ready to fire. it was probably a mix of the cooler temps and lack of a good warm up. so i was off the back for the first couple of miles until we hit the first climb. I slowly started picking of guys one by one and the legs were feeling great.

hitting the single track... in last!

I kept pushing the pace and was continuing to move up on the climbs and was even staying away on the descents until I took a little spill in a techinical rock garden. I got stuck and couldn't get out of my pedal and went down. my top tube bashed into my knee and did not feel good! I was up and rolling but I had a knot in my knee that took a while to work out. On the next descent I was caught by a couple guys that I had passed climbing when I took another spill in a loose corner when the guy leading us drifted and then locked up his brakes. again... back rolling in seconds.

the we hit the "cyclocross climb". i rode this section very well, cleared a lot of sections that I had to hike pre-riding, and moved my way back up. i passed all the guys that got me on the descent and then got by the pro women about half way through the climb. once back on the fire road and climbing some more i was feeling good and glad that section was behind us.

after some more climbing, more fun single track descending, i hit the 3rd aid station right before the last, big climb up southridge road. justin was there waiting with a bottle (thanks dude!) and i couldn't believe the race was nearing the end... it was flying by. when we hit the climb i went for it. it is probably one of the hardest climbs i have ever done in a race. it's super steep but i knew it would be my last chance to really get any significant gaps before the finish. i was able to pass quite a few people and ride away from the guys that were with me at the start. I was stoked to reach the top and kind of wished it was longer because i was feeling good. time to descend.

the following descents were fast and technical... and the bottom line is i was riding like crap. i went over the bars 5 minutes into the long descent and proceeded to crash at least 5 more times before the finish. i was just riding really sloppy and really lost confidence in my front tire. it wasn't hooking up at all on the loose corners. before the finish i was caught by the winners of the class below (25-29) and above (35-39) me, but nobody in my class.

i am not sure what my finishing time or place (2nd or 3rd i think) was but it's right around 2:50 and i was definitely happy with that. we didn't stick around for the results beacuse we wanted to hit the road and get back to carlsbad before it was too late for some bbq action. the race was awesome. i'll be back next year for sure, but hopefully be more familiar with the course and have a better race.

on the way back we hit green flash... again. ryan and sarah wanted to check it out and I was stoked to go again and check it out... and even more stoked that beth met us there. we were having an awesome time and enjoying some fresh samplers when some super drunk guy knocked a fire extinguisher on the ground it started going off. soon the whole tasting room was filled with dust and they moved us out. After everything settled we were the only ones left. ryan and i helped the ladies move some tables and clean up a bit and they hooked us up with some free beer! after green flash it was back to our house for some more beer and chicken tacos. good times.



sunday. i woke up feeling pretty good considering the race and was planning on heading out to ride with beth and katya, but I also needed to run. I just went for it right away and knocked out 10.5 miles before riding later in the morning. the run went well and I am looking forward to this weekend's trail race.

the ride with beth and katya was fun. we cruised along the coast and then katya lead us on a route I have never ridden before. I just sat in and let the ladies pull me around. Then to cap off a great weekend beth and I had a killer, late lunch at Naked Cafe, hit the grocery store, and then lounged all afternoon on the couch and watched Slumdog Millionaire. yep. another perfect day.

beth riding away from me!


that' it. this saturday is the Xterra Malibu Creek 14 miler. it should be interesting.

totals for the week.

time: 18:34
road bike distance: 82.33 miles
mtb distance: 82.53 miles
run distance: 26.8 miles
strength: 1 strength/core session, 1 core only session.