2011 Berryman Trail Epic

Oct 22 was the 4th annual BTepic. I wanted to do this race really bad last year so I was super stoked to do it this year. Bt epic is a 55 mile MTB race in the Ozark MTNS of southern Missouri. The course offers just shy of 6k feet of climbing with mixes of fast flowy benchcut style singletrack to all out "bigring" doubletrack. The race has a pretty big payout and even higher level of competition. This was without a doubt the most competitive race I've done all year.

So, I was fortunate enough to have the company of Craig Evans on the trip with me. Craig is a professional triathlete and Xterra athlete. Needless to say, he's a hammerhead. The insane thing is Craig has IM Florida in less than two weeks and decided to race the BTepic on a whem. Pro's can do that I guess.

We left late thursday after I got off work, Loaded up in Craigs baddass Audi and headed to St. Louis. We stayed the night with one of Craigs friends, Matthew. Matthew was super nice, thanks for the hookup dude! We woke up and made the drive together down to the race venue site where we had a cabin reserved that was ballin' out of control. Super cool.

This was my seat in the back of the car!! Damn, to be so tiny...!

This is Craig assessing how much luggage a man needs to bring for a mtb race, apparently its more than a woman needs!

Our cabin! Total summer camp style, it was awesome.

Matt, Craig and I wanted to preride the last 15 miles of the course. We drove to one of the checkin points of the race, ate lunch, geared up and rode a bit. It wasn't long into the ride that it became apparent this was going to be a very fast section of the course. There was a lot of leaf cover of the trail, it made some of the off-camber twisty sections difficult. And.... Not even 5 MILES into the trail I took a spill on one of those sections. After the crash I thought my race was over. I broke two spokes, bent my derailleur hanger and derailleur. The spokes breaking pushed into my tape and caused a flat as well. So, my preride turned into a 4 mile run! YAY! I wasnt giving up that easy. Back at the cabin, I was able to get the bike rideable for the short track race that evening. I was having issues with the threads on the derailleur being compromised but luckily it held up for the race that evening.
Here's a pic of Craig and myself before the short track race...

The short track didn't receive as many riders as I was expecting, but it was a freakin blast. 15+ riders would have been a mess on that course anyways. A crash in the second lap pretty much caused a break of 3 guys in the lead consisting of Craig, some pro dude from Colorado and myself. Garth Prosser of Cannondale almost bridged the gap back to us but came a little shy... must have been the 8 hour drive straight to the line up of the race that did him in! I haven't done alot of high intensity training in a while and the short track hurt so good. Craig and I fell into the green on the race with a 1-2 finish, we worked together perfectly and I learned alot during that race.

Later that night we had some s'getti for dinner and rested our legs. I was able to change my rear wheel so that I wouldn't have to race the epic on a wheel with 2 broken spokes, so I was very happy about that.

We woke up to a very cold Saturday morning. We knew it would warm up quick but freezing at the start is no fun. I overdressed and regretted it later in the race. I think there were around 300 racers totally. The start to this race was a 2.5 mile gravel road that dipped into missouri's best singletrack. The gravel road climb start saw alot of accelerations due to the $75 prime for first to the singletrack. No joke, this was the fastest start to any race I have ever been in, faster than any XC race, anything, period. I was happy with my position going 7th into the woods and felt that was optimal for trying to secure a top 10 in the race. Craig was 9th into the woods and quickly made it to 8th right behind me, so it was off to a perfect start. All until we come to the first climb(always the real deciding factor of any race)... I was still having shifting issues due to my wreck the day before and my chain got caught in between the spokes and rear cassette. I worked like hell to bridge back up the lead group and made contact to see only another climb with the same issue. It was here I realized my top ten wasn't going to happen. Due to my bent hanger and derailleur I wasn't able to use my lower gears and saw issues of my chain popping under heavy pedaling. I was able to finish the race but I was forced to walk the steep climbs... basically making my strength my weakness. Everyone that knows me, knows I love to climb. Midway in the race, I was still sitting top 20 and a group I was in made a wrong turn onto a fire road causing us to lose a total of 20 mins. I thought I had it bad, but later found out some guys lost 30. The race was marked well all but in this one spot. Craig finished a solid 9th with a few flats slowing him down. I limped in with a 23rd finish in the time of 5:01... All of the negatives aside, the top 30 racers all could have and should have broken 5 hours. That's one hell of a race and why I will be returning next year with a vengeance!! The same things you hate about MTB racing are some of the things you have to love. Racing is character building, to hang on, fight and never give in. Even being held back by things you have no control over, you put your head down and hammer the sections you can! Until next time, cheers!

Next time i'll remember nipple cream.

Yesterday Josh Butler and I did the 12 hours of the Canal loop mtb race. We left late Friday night and camped right at the trail head. Joshes GF Katie joined us and was a HUGE aid to our survival in the event. We camped right next to some guys from St. Louis. One of them was a SS guy, learning he does NUE events and endurance events alike I was already sizing him up as stiff competition. The event didn't pull as many participants as I thought it would, so that was a bummer. We awoke Sat morning and got out breakfast on, I generally eat a light breakfast before racing. I ate some yogurt, a clifbar and some fresh fruit. I set up my pit station and before we knew it 9 o'clock came and time to race! Peat(SS guy from St. Louis) was riding a homemade steel frame 29er SS and rigid. Peat is a badass, he had a suspension seatpost and oldschool San Marco rolls saddle. The crazy thing is he wore a white button down and jorts(jeans cutoff shorts). You dont show up to a 12hr race in this attire unless you mean business. The race started "lemond" style and they had us run up hill for a ways. Peat was first to his bike and first in the woods. I was probably sitting top 8 overall headed into the woods. Endurance events like this are always exciting because anything can happen, you're racing for 12 hours and no matter what happens you're never out til it's over. Within the first lap I worked myself up to top 4 overall right behind Peat. Instantly on a climb I noticed he had a bigger gear than me, so I accelerated past him to see if he would grab my wheel(which he did), we started chatting a bit. Peat was running a 32x19, not much bigger than my 32x20. However, hours into the short and steep climbs the course offered the SS starts to wear on you! I punched it again on the last climb of the 11.7 mile loop and Peat was dropped. I decided to hit the first lap hard and set my rhythm once I got my gap. I like being 1st, I like having control. I was timid about the weather, it rained here and there during the start and some during the 1st lap but turned out to be a beautiful day. I think my first lap was around 55 mins, after the 3rd lap I was feeling great and had it on cruise. Katie was working the pit for Josh and I and notified me that Josh was increasing his lap times. I was super impressed, this was Joshes first 12 hr, I told him to go out hard, get a gap and set a rhythm afterwards, he decided to do it his was. Easy-peasy, increase his pace and pick off stragglers. My only problem with that strategy is no matter who you are, 12 hrs in the saddle, you fatigue and can't increase consistently. I decided to up my rhythm a little bit for the next few laps. During my 7th lap my stomach started to feel a little strange and I think mostly due to Accelerade. I love this stuff, It seems to work well for me, but if I overdue it and dont drink a bottle of plain water here and there it gives me gas(yup!). On my eighth lap I grabbed a Coke and a bottle of hammer perpetuem. Perpetuem is a life saver, the Calcium really helps settle the stomach. It became obvious that if I could hold my consistent lap times, I was going to take the overall win. My gap back to Josh was increasing and Peat was gaining on Josh and eventually passed Josh. I was the only Solo rider to make the cutoff to start a 12th lap. It wasn't needed for me to secure my win so I passed, ha. Final report was 129 miles in 11:31. Peat did 11 laps as well but a little over an hour longer than me. Josh did amazing, 10 laps in 11:25. The event was a blast and 12 hrs of racing is always a challenge. Muscles fatigue that you never even knew you had. All in all my first SS 12 hr was a success, no mechanicals and no flats. I think riding SS has its advantages and disadvantages. Its easy to gauge your efforts being you only have one gear. The last couple of laps climbing some of the short and steep hills were taxing and super difficult. I was super happy, I never walked. I fought through the climbs and charged the downhills. And off to my favorite part, recovery and sitting on my ass the day after! lets eat.

Monkey Bell Classic XC

September 11, I participated in the 2nd XC race since I have lived in Tennessee. The race was hosted at Montgomery Bell state park in Dickson, Tn. This venue was awesome and the race directors did an A+ job hosting the event. I recently bought a Niner one 9 frame and couldn't wait to test out my new steed at race pace! I am gearing up for some long fall/winter races, so I entered the SS race as well as the Cat 1 race and raced the Cat 1 race SS as well. My poor Orbea will be in pieces for awhile while I recover from a 1000 detuctible due to a car accident(doh!).
So to the race... The fun thing about moving to a new area is everything is foreign to you. I am just now learning who the local badasses are... and obviously i'm gunning for them! I planned to go all out during the 2 lap SS race and cruise at an endurance pace for the Cat 1 race. The local badass SS guy is Travis Book, I believe he is a professional musician and def one hell of a cyclist. He went out hard from the gun and I knew it would be him or I to take the win. I followed him into the woods and was amazed at how smooth his lines were. I def used some of his lines the rest of the day being I was doing 5 laps, Im all about conserving energy. Coming into a techy uphill section called "tommys revenge" Travis rode this section ridiculously smooth, I didnt get much preride in at the trails so I was skeptical of this section, knowing it would split the group if we were all together. We both cleared it like champs and after riding his wheel through this I was beginning to worry that he was gonna have an edge as a local. I thought I would test my legs so on the longest climb of the course I punched it hard at the base and Travis didnt have much response. Travis is a natural, he doesn't get to train as much as alot of other people he has to race, and god help us if he could. I ended up taking the win in the SS race and got dead last in the Cat 1 race. I wasnt too worried about the second race, I knew I wouldn't be a threat to anyone... I hung in there for about half a lap and tinkering off for the last two and put it on cruise control. Overall, it was a good time and I'm really enjoying my time in Nashville. Everyone is super nice and hopefully moving here will only make me stronger! Next up is 12 hours of the canal loop in Kentucky on the 24th. Stoked. Never done a MTB race of this stature SS so I'm pretty excited to see how I do. If all goes well, Im contemplating doing my 24hr in Nov SS as well.