2010 MTB: Sisters Stampede Race Report and Bike Review!

2010 Cross Country MTB: Sisters Stampede Race Report and...

Bike Review: Specialized Stumpjumper Marathon 29er Hardtail!

May 30, 2010

by Elaine Bothe

New new new! Shiny and new. (OK, not so shiny any more.) New race, never before. Who knows what the course will hold. Flat? Hilly? Probably not too muddy, being Central Oregon. My guess: dusty, swoopy with some tricky rock gardens. Rolling hills, nothing too sustained up or down. A fast 27-ish miles through the sage, scrub oaks, Ponderosa pine and rocks.

I was right on all counts.

And, a new bike! Finally my bike matches my kit. A Specialized Stumpjumper 29er hardtail loaded with the new Sram XX mmmm mmm mm mm mmmm! New shoes, new saddle. Specialized DFW, both. (Nice. Comfy!) New tires I’ve never run. New pedals. (Time Atacks, the non-carbon fiber ones. Cheaper, and the weigh almost the same. I like.) New cleat position on my new shoes. Ward at River City Bicycles helped dial in my SJ and shoes with a super pro fitting and the shop guys set the fork up for me AND showed me how to adjust it. Thanks! It worked great!

I’m still getting used to the bike. The position is very comfortable but a lot different than what I’m used to on a bike too small for me. This race being just my fourth ride on the SJ (two of which were super easy fit testing rides) I discovered, apparently, the beefy bottom bracket is about .75 inch lower than what I’m used to and I clonked my new pedals a LOT and my foot once (ow, that was my little toe!) on rocks and stumps I thought I had cleared. I knew the handlebars are a tad wider, but that still didn’t stop me from bar-banging a tree. No crashes though.

Aside from that, the bike is light (sub 21 lbs! depending on accessories), fast and responsive, a bike I’ll grow into as I get more time on it. The geometry rewards an active riding style, responding to weight shifts and countersteering in sweeping corners and dirt-bike style point-and-shoot riding for switchbacks. The big wheels rolled through those rock gardens all by themselves, I just chose a general line, looked down trail and the bike ended up there with style and grace! I cleared stuff I’d have walked on my old bike. The bike pops up little rises and blasted out of the corners without planning ahead, just a couple of hard pedal strokes and the power goes directly to the ground. Big grins, what fun!

The only downside to the bike are the stock Fast Trak tires. They are fast over hard pack and gravel in straight lines and impressively grippy over rocks but the front tire offered only vagueness and very little confidence around dusty or slippery corners. Even after dialing in the fork. I ran as low a pressure as I dared… with a tube, and myself a very light rider, 20 psi at the front still didn’t provide better grip. I felt like the front end was in a perpetual state of almost washing out, and, I even saved two or three front-end crashes during the race.

I think I’ll mount up my personal favorite Specialized The Captains at least on the front for a more positive and familiar feel and take the weight hit.

Oh yes, the race. I got a lousy start, still getting used to my new cleat position further back on the ball of my foot. But my mistake kept me out of some shenanigans, as three or four riders almost took each other out! A fun and busy course, hardly had time to take a mental break or even grab for food. A two-hour short track race is what it felt like, more mental than a lot of cross country courses. Narrow, not many places to pass or be passed. I lost a lot of time waiting for some of the faster men to get around me, not so much fun.

I rode very well for me, though, taking into consideration all the new toys. I stayed with the pack for almost half the race, instead of being booted off the back ten or fifteen minutes in. And, it was non-technical and mostly flat for the first part! I was thrilled! The riders stayed the same size instead of shrinking into the distance. I was even working my way through them. But after fading big time, getting passed back then finding a good rhythm and dealing with traffic, I still finished only 9th out of 10.

Well, at least not last! But I’m thinking ahead to short track, my specialty, (and hopefully a Cat 1 Masters category next year!) where half this xc race would be more than a whole short track race. My new SJ will be a very potent weapon indeed.

2010 MTB: Spring Thaw Race Reports

2010 Spring Thaw XC and Downhill Race Reports

May 15-16, 2010, Womens Category 1

by Elaine Bothe

Cross Country on Saturday.

They did not remove the gravel road climb but I had a good xc race on Saturday. I shaved 30 minutes!!! off my last years time! I still finished last of the Cat 1’s, which was a regional group of people, not the usual suspects. Northern CA, Nevada, Seattle were all represented. But I was only 20 seconds behind the next finisher --- a much closer gap than Mudslinger race.

The Spring Thaw is not a course that favors me... 21.5 miles uphill on gravel road, then only 2.5 miles of highly technical downhill. Not enough hard stuff to make up ground on super talented and fit riders, but I was still was proud of myself. Michelle finished 5th, even after crashing once and and employing other heroics to get down the hill. My whole race was clean, no crashes, no injuries, boring war stories (sorry!!) and I rode up and down stuff I walked last year.

“Hardtail Pride!”

The downhill race on Sunday was even more fun, which is really the whole excuse for the weekend! I shaved a whole minute (total this year was 6 min 45 seconds, over a 1.7 mile course) off my last years time for 4th place, Cat 1. I really should have run the masters Cat 2 in this one, I'm still a minute off the cat 1 pack pace!

Oh well. I had the only hardtail of the bunch (to shouts from the crowd “Hardtail Pride!”) and it slowed me down through the washboards and jumps. My bike, not the crowd’s calls. Still a hoot and I had a blast.

Photo credit: Melissa Boyd.

2010 MTB: Mudslinger Race Reports

2010 Mudslinger Weekend Race Report: Super D and XC

May 1-2, 2010, Womens Category 1

by Elaine Bothe

Two races in one weekend. Countless learning opportunities.

The Super D, a mountain bike downhill race but with some uphill action to keep the hardcore downhillers from stealing the show, took place on Saturday. We get two runs on a 6 or 7 mile course, half of which is uphill on gravel roads. No previews whatsoever. The final time is cumulative of the two runs.

I collect my number plates and I rope my nemesis/friend Michelle Hannaford from Team Dirt into it. Her team’s hosting and helping the organizers with the weekend. She’s running registration and didn’t think she had the time to do the race.

Lesson #1. Make friends but don’t invite them to compete against you...



First Run. I’m flying but held back by the fact that this is a preview run (and I didn’t get much warmup) even though it counts. I sail over logs, around the corners and the steep rooty downhill sections no prob. Feeling good, and confident in the double track I’m cutting track to track to decrease the arcs, saving as much time as I can. This is my kind of time trial! Even though it’s downhill, my heart rate is as high, if not higher, than my Cherry Blossom TT.



Lesson #2. Be careful when you’re flying.



I start across the double track and notice, too late, hidden by the tall grass, there’s a 4 inch height difference than the tire track part... my front wheel catches and down I go, a repeat performance of my CB fireworks! same side and all.

Except this time, I was going faster. And, I had on pads! so I wasn’t hurt except for a bruise and rash on my hip and a hole in my almost new leg warmers and sleeve.

 I still finish first out of the 4 women. yay!



Second Run. We’re seeded according to finish, I’m 6th or 7th out of 20 or so, including all the guys! Off I go even faster than the first run because now I know where the corners are. Clear and clean over the first log. the second, too. 



Lesson #3. Bring tools and tubes to ALL races no matter what. Even if you run tubeless!



My front wheel lands not exactly the way I expected then POP!sssssflapflapflapflap. No crash, just extreme disappointment. I do NOT want a DNF (“Did Not Finish”) for a race I entered for fun and practice. Especially one I had a good chance to win! I weigh the options, and start running down the hill. Stop. Michelle and several others race by, one guy, Josh from Peak Sports bike shop in Corvallis stops, he has a tube but the wrong pump.

Oh well, thanks anyway. 

Cars are closer at the top of the hill, it’ll be shorter to head back up. So I go up. At the top, maybe ten yards from the start (only about a half mile) somebody has a spare tube! and a pump, we undo my wheel, yank out the tubeless valve and shove in the new tube. I didn’t see any rips or punctures, I still didn’t know what I hit... I think I just landed hard on another stump or branch and popped the bead.



Lesson #4. Ask for a restart. Sometimes this is possible. I did not know this.



The tube seems to hold air, I put everything back together, thanking everyone profusely for the impromptu emergency tubeless clinic (it’s not hard despite all the rumors) and I head back down the hill, though more conservatively. A finish would still mean second place in the Cat 1’s.



Lesson #5. If you even think you might need new tires for whatever reason, you probably do. Change them.



I try different lines, just previewing the course for tomorrow’s race. I still don’t have full confidence in my tires though, they’re old, they’re not gripping like they did last year and I still didn’t know what killed the front.



Lesson #6. Don’t stop racing. Ever. Well except to render aid....



There’s a kid on the gravel road, standing over his bike, head on his hands on the handlebars. He’s just really tired, we're only about a quarter mile out but it’s all up hill. I slow way down, checking on him and shouting encouragement. He remounts and starts riding. “Pretend there’s a rope attached to my bike and I’m towing you up the hill!” I yell, that seems to help him a lot and he makes his way up the hill.



Finish line. Michelle is there. “I just got here!” she says. whaaaaa? !?? “I took a wrong turn and rode an extra four or five miles!” No way, we are both laughing. What a race.

 She edges me out by a little and wins the Cat 1. I came in second.

But, the best part is that the winner of the men and the winner of the women each get $75. There were two other women, both Cat 3, Jackie from team Dirt who broke her collarbone at the Cherry Pie road race earlier this year and is just now getting back on her bike, and Melissa, queen of the masters! Jackie gets the money, Melissa came in 2nd overall, Michelle, 3rd, and me, 4th!! What fun!



I win a tire in the raffle, to the cheers of everyone who all know the story. And Michelle invites myself and Teammate Sarah, who drove up after the Eugene Roubaix, to stay at her house. We were planning on camping up there but were thrilled abut the offer. And a shower.



Lesson #7. Double check tire sizes.



Since I won a new tire, a Specialized The Captain, my favorite mud tire, I figure I’ll drive back into town to see if the wizards at Peak Sports a) have another matching tire and b) can mount them both up for me. Yep and yep. Double-yay!



I drive to Michelle’s house and take my bike for a quick spin in her driveway to help spread around the sealing goo. Wow, said Morgan, Michelle’s boyfriend, those are big tires! I look again, and, sure enough, they are the 2.2’s not the 2.0’s I originally had. Same tread, different sizes. Well, I said, they should be good in the mud. Spoiler alert: they are.



XC on Sunday. Sarah and I warm up on the gravel road, coating ourselves with mud splatters before the race even started. Eventually, we start. Michelle chases the pros up the hill, I’m in back. My legs feel like lead, even though I had a good warmup. I stalk Brooke from Bicycle Atty’s up the hill for a while but can’t hold on. Solo ride through the beautiful coast range mists and mud. I’m last. 



Dead leg last. 



Oh well, I enjoy the scenery, get a good training ride in, I’m still tired from Cherry Blossom and used up whatever I had in the Super D race. oops. Plus, these bigger tires are bigger, heavier, collected way more mud than I could imagine (but still had great traction—don’t ask me how!) I stopped a couple of times to clear out my front deraillieur and around the brakes (non-disks). Mud tires, they are, faithful though it is, mud bike, it’s not.



I keep my heart rate as high as I can (which isn't very high today, it turned into a nice endurance ride) and attack the obstacles and technical sections with glee. I’m still riding as hard as I can--oh, wait, I really have to pee. So I neutralize myself for a pee break.



Otherwise, I’m still racing as best I can. I’m remembering Lesson #6, Don’t Stop Racing. I still come in last, (6th I think) but CONTROVERSY! Michelle doesn't think some of the women listed ahead of her ever passed her. There was a tricky cutoff where the cat 2’s go one way and the Cat1/Pro/Singlespeeders go another... Melissa from Team Dirt did that, fessed up and took her DNF. (She had pedal problems at the start, too!) I don’t know one way or the other, so I can’t advise, but maybe it’ll all get sorted out. who knows.



That cutoff, by the way, led to some glorious and spectacularly twisty, muddy, rooty descents, Sandy Ridge x 8 or so! I went down them all, though not with grace. This makes Cat 1 so fun, the “secret” trails even if I’m not on the podium. It’s still a fabulous challenge.



Lesson #8. Rescind Lesson #1. It’s great fun racing against friends and being supportive, teammates or not. Especially when they don’t ride well when they usually do, and same with you, so you get a great story out of it!



Sarah did great, for her first mtb race in a while, 3rd one ever... 4th in the masters Cat 2!! Yay! It was fun playing and I’m thrilled that she had a good time too.



Fun time, memorable weekend. And, if you need a bike shop in Corvallis, I highly recommend Peak Sports!

Photo credits: Oregon Velo.

Road!?! Cherry Blossom Stage Race

Road Report: Cherry Blossom Stage Race

April 23-25, 2010. Women’s Category 4.

by Elaine Bothe

Cherry Blossom. A festival in The Dalles, Oregon, where one of my teammates live. There’s a road bike race associated with the festival, an epic three-day, four race extravaganza. Our Sorella Forte team hosts the event along with the promoter. It’s a fundraiser for us, as well as outreach and a general good time. Even though I don’t race much on the road, I figured I’d have a go at it to support my teammates and to test my fitness and race smarts.

I sign up for the “beginners” road racing category, Women’s Category 4, since there isn’t a masters group and I’m new-ish to road racing. Beginners at racing, maybe, but that doesn’t mean they’re new on bicycles or in fitness. These women are strong. And most of them have some pretty nice equipment to ride… the latest and the lightest, gorgeous bicycles, one for the road and another for the time trial. Or at least, aero handlebars and wheels.

I dust off my cyclocross bike and put some bigger chainrings up front and slick tires on and call it a race bike. It’s the lightest bike in my fleet, and it’s pretty comfortable so what the heck. It’s heavy compared to the competition however, and not nearly as aerodynamic. But it’s mine… run what ya brung as the saying goes.

Stage 1. Road course, two laps, approx. 40 miles. Even after getting all fired up with talk of tactics and working together as much as we can, none of us Sorella Cat 4’s really know how to employ any of the tactics, or if our fitness would even allow us to think about it. Our default tactic was to provide a show of force early across the front without any dramatic moves which might tire us out for the long haul. I think all of us did a great job of working hard, working smart and challenging ourselves. My goal emerges on the fly, to stay with Alanna, probably the strongest cat 4 of our team, and the lead pack for as long as I possibly could.

At the start I position myself four rows back, within the first third of the pack. The first couple of miles are pretty easy but I brace myself for anything. There’s some shuffling around at the front as the speed picks up and I match every surge. I watch teammates peel off one by one as we climb the big hill to the feed zone on Lap 1. The view forward from my place in the peloton stays the same… butts and freewheels… I look back once and there wasn’t anyone there! We’re now a pack of 15 or so, splintering from the group of almost 40. Alanna and myself are the last Sorellas in the lead group. After the hill Alanna is a little ahead of me, so I worked my way up to see if I could be of some assistance. I say hi, and she seems happy to see me hanging on valiantly.

Lap 2, I stay in the group sucking wheel for all I’m worth, working my way to the leeward side of the peloton, far right, then far left, full on survival mode, as the wind direction changes, just keeping myself protected. At that same big hill on Lap 2 the pack finally grenades into small pieces, two, then three, then I’m not quite sure but now I’m alone. I think all I did to help Alanna was moral support, as she seems to be doing just fine motoring on past up the hill with the leaders. I latch onto another wheel for a bit but can’t hang. Maureen (ex-Sorella, now Hammer Velo) catches me and we work very well together, the two of us, nice short pulls for the last half lap. We pull off into the wind providing a wee bit more protection for each other on the descent. As the course flattens out, her pulls last longer than mine… I’m fading. I’m giving it everything I have but I don’t have a sprint to save my own life. I tell her I won’t challenge a sprint because I don’t have one to spare and because she’s doing most of the work.

I survive, in 16th place, just under 3 minutes down from the leaders. Wow. Oh yeah, my chain fell off three times during this race but I managed to feather it back on without upsetting the group or even losing my place. Not bad, for a mountain biker!

Stage 2, five laps, just under 30 miles. My goal for this race is to stay with the lead pack again, for as long as possible. The peloton is three columns wide. Teammates Christine, Tonya, Leigh and myself make a nice sturdy block in the first third of the pack, and I think Alanna is just to the left of us, well protected from the wind. Apparently she was having troubles with her cleat and fell off the pace right away. Booo!!! Eventually, Tonya, Christine and Leigh peel off the group, Tonya, too, had to quit with a mechanical. Rats!!

But I don’t know any of this yet and I just work really hard at staying up with the lead group. I work my way to a bolder position toward the front, doing a little more work windward side and second row, but I still didn’t venture any proper attacks. I match surges along with everyone else. I notice Alanna is nowhere to be seen, and the lead group is now only seven of us. By Lap 3, the two on the front are surging frequently (what, they want to lose the rest of us?) and the rest of us struggle to answer. Three or four of these, and they make a slow break, oozing away. Five of us, I’ve never met any one of them before, all on different teams, try to organize a pace line in the heavy crosswind section through the top of the orchards. It’s not working very well, and between a big gust of wind, and trying to avoid other rider’s wheels overlapping mine and I end up off road, in the gravel.

OK, I’m a mt biker, this is a cross bike, I should be able to handle this. I almost make it safely back to the pavement twice, but then my wheel catches a deeper section of gravel or something, I’m still not really sure what happened, and I go down. I’m not going very fast, and no one else goes down with me, thankfully! But I hurt my finger and skin the heck out of my knee, along with some other miscellaneous bruises and scrapes. Owwww, it hurts to shift but I don’t think it’s broken.

It doesn’t occur to me to stop racing. But by the time I’m back aboard, blood streaming down my shin, the other four pull their act together and I see a nice neat pace line fading down the hill. I hit the nitro boost and ride as hard as I can but I can’t catch up to them. All alone in the wind, it just isn’t going to happen. I’d say I TT’d it for a full lap by myself, but since I’m definitely not a TT’er, I’ll say I just rode hard. A group of three catch up to me, and we form a pace line. I rest for a bit as we go through the rotation, then I take a pull and we drop two of them! So then Anna from Bend and I work together nicely for a lap. Three more catch us, Maureen, one of the Canadians and somebody else. We all work together for the last half lap and attempt a sprint up the finish hill, and, again, I can’t find one. But I pull a 13th place finish out of I don’t know where.

Stage 3, TT time. Ten miles total, out and back, hilly out. No aero anything, it’s freezing cold, I figure just because it’s a Time Trial (my least favorite bike discipline) I don’t have to be completely miserable. I have on leg warmers, a long sleeve base layer and I wish my shoe covers would stay zipped because they’d also keep my toes warm. I rip those off fearing they’d catch in my chain or something. But the road is fun, I impress myself with my effort. I stalk and catch Susan who started 30 seconds in front of me. I wave to the oncoming teammates, start noticing the scenery then Susan shows me a wheel. I decide, oops, I have a job to do so I gun it and drop her like a hot potato. I catch one more rider, and the only two to pass me are the two women (including Maureen) who started 30 seconds and 1 minute behind me. 20th place. On a cross bike, I’ll take it!

Stage 4. Criterium! 25 minutes of guts and glory. Way more fun than a TT but I’m really nervous. There was a big crash last year and some pretty gnarly injuries... like punctured spleens and broken pelvises. (Pelvi?) I want to go hard but be safe. I preview the course spotting all the bumps and holes, even riding over them to see what would happen. Not too bad. Nice open corners. I start my warmup slow and on the inside, picking up speed and figuring out the faster lines. If I was all by myself there would be only 2 wide sweeping corners (not 4) that I could pedal all the way through, no brakes, and accelerate hard out of.

I want to be near the front, jockeying for position on the front line for the start. I get the hole shot… then decide I did NOT want to be on the front because it would fry me. Two Ironclad riders seem to be jonesing for the front anyway, so I back off and let them have it. I lose more space than I anticipate but I bridge the gap and hang onto 3rd place for a few laps, matching surges, anticipating sprints for primes and sprinting myself just enough to not get dropped. I’d rather survive the race near the front rather than drop off after a big prime effort. It’s plenty hard just staying near the front, five or six riders in front now. I hang on, and end up 11th and with the lead pack, my best finish for any of these stages.

13th overall in the General Classification, about 8 minutes back… not bad! All in all, I had a blast. What a weekend, what a challenge, riding with friends, making new ones and generally having fun.

In addition to all our team, a huge thanks to Team Captain and Coach Anne, for being a fabulous inspiration by winning the Category 3 criterium!! A triumph for our whole team.

And Hubby Mark made his debut as a volunteer driver, driving the lead car for the men’s masters race as well as my Cat 4 races in Stages 1 and 2. It made me smile every time I caught a glimpse of our car because I knew he was inside it. Read his report here.

Am I getting a road bike now? Are you kidding… I still think I’ll stick to dirt!

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Photo credits for this post: Bob Rueter