Down and Dirty at the Knickerbocker

Yesterday was the Knickerbocker 50mile/8hr mtn bike race out at everyone’s favorite loop behind the fire station in Cool, CA. A welcome polar opposite to the last time racers visited the Olmstead Loop for a race back in May, conditions were about as dry as I have ever seen out in Cool. I didn’t realize that it ever dried out completely on this course, I was under the impression that Cool was one of those spots where you could find mud in the dead of summer in the middle of a drought. But, there was not a spot of mud nor a drop of water to be found along the course and where we had dragged our bikes through bogs and mud pits back in May, we found only deep pockets of dust which exploded into thick clouds as our tires tore through them. I’ll take dust over mud every time.

There was a slight breeze in the a.m. hours leading up to the race and arm warmers were in order for the first lap or two for most racers. A Lemans start caught a lot of people off guard, but change is good and it helped to break things up a little bit before we hit the single track. Thank God. Even with the running start, the second we hit the trail on the first lap, visibility went to about 12 inches and it was like riding blind. I was all over the trail, hitting rocks and roots which I couldn’t see, running over ruts and being thrown about by invisible obsticles hidden from my sight by a wall of thick dust. Luckily, the dust died down after the first mile or two and we were free to breathe deeply once more.

I brought a trainer along with me in an effort to warm up a little before the race so that I might have a quicker start than normal. I have not competed in any XC events this season and any overdrive that I once had has almost completely disappeared for the time being. So, I figured that I could spin for a while before the start and maybe my first hour of racing wouldn’t be quite as misearable as it normally is. It sort of worked. My legs still cramped up pretty badly during the first lap, but I muscled my bike around the course and came through in 3rd place, which isn’t too bad for me and a first lap.

I worked hard to chase down a certain Mike Harrison on lap 2 and although I felt much better and infinitely smoother on my second lap, I only managed to shave about two minutes from my first lap time and I was still loosing time to Tinker. Dang, he’s freakin fast!!! I thought maybe I could limit my gap and try to pick it up in the latter hours at the slightest hint of a slowing from Tinker. Of course, it was entirely possible that he would just keep going faster and faster and faster and that I might not ever be able to bring him back. Either way, I knew that blowing up now would do me no good if I couldn’t ride strong seven hours from now. So, I tried to stay consistent and keep the lap times around the same times and I just hoped for the best. I was pushing pretty hard as it was and I wanted to have a little something left for the last couple of hours.

I love that course so much. I’ve ridden it quite a few times now and all of the small additions just make the course all that much more enjoyable. I think I like it because it’s a fast course without much technical riding, but it’s still super challenging because it has a pretty decent amount of climbing. You have to be careful on a course like that in an endurance race because there isn’t much out there that forces you to keep you speed in check, you can ride yourself into the ground pretty easily if you’re not careful because you can just flip the switch to “kill” and go all out.

For once this season, my race was relatively uneventfull. None of my components broke, fell apart, or sponeneously combusted; my legs felt pretty strong, and I was able to stay upright all day long. The only semi-mechanical occurance from the whole day wasn’t even realized until I finished and noticed that my seat had slid back about 2cms on the rails of my seatpost… I had been feeling incredibly stretched out towards the end of the day which I thought was a little odd, but hadn’t paid too much attention to. Well, I guess the saddle slippage probably had something to do with my laid out super man arms afterall.  The day was going so smoothly and I was having such a good time out on one of my favorite courses that I only wished I had brought my ipod along for the ride so that I could be rocking as I was rolling.

The schock of the day came when I was told by Pete Tipshus that Tinker had pulled out of the race! Pete was pitted next to myself, Mike, and Jay and was there to help out fellow fast guy Brad Cole. Pete really helped us all out a ton though and was giving me lap times, splits, and after a few laps, he was there to hand me a water bottle and some fuel as I came through on each lap as well. Pete could legally change his name to Super Man and I’m pretty sure everyone would happily agree that it was a fitting name for him. The guy is just plain amazing. Anyhow, Pete told me that Tinker had pulled out and I wasn’t sure how to react. I rode the next couple of laps completely convinced that at any moment Tinker would come sailing around me with a slight smile and a ‘hello’ as I was left gasping for air, trying to hang on to his wheel. But Tinker never came. I caught up to Brad and he congratulated me, I caught up to Jay and he asked if I’d heard about Tink, and so on and so forth and I started to believe that maybe he really did stop racing.

I was excited, but only part way. Part of me was dissapointed that Tinker was gone too. I race faster than I believe I can race when he’s around and it’s tough to keep putting yourself through that kind of hell if you’re not trying to catch up to someone like Tinker. Early on in the day I had wondered if I might be able to complete nine laps withing the eight hour time limit. Up until my sixth lap, I thought I stood a good chance of making it happen, but my legs began to rebel on that lap and I had to back off just a little. That lap took about five minutes longer than I had hoped and with that, my chances at nine were pretty well gone. I knew for certain that nine was out of the question as I set out on number eight and decided that instead of killing myself, I was going to enjoy my last lap of the race season and keep things pretty moderate. I allowed that last lap to go out to one hour and change and rolled through about seven hours and twenty minutes after Jim had shouted “Go!” earlier that day.

As always, it was great to see so many familiar faces at the race, thanks again to Jim and crew as well as Aurburn Bike Works for putting on another fantastic bike race; thanks to Pete for saving the day (Super Man) yet again, thanks to Cannondale and the rest of my wonderful sponsors for making bie racing possible for me, and thanks to everyone else out there on a bike for making the Leave No Trace Series so enjoyable. Time to get caught up at school and rest a little bit before the next adventure…