Last Sunday, after I registered and got my shirt, I went out and pre-rode about 1.5 miles of the course. It was muddy, really, really muddy. The trail was rocky and rooty, but there was still muddy everywhere. This was a pretty big race for the Junior category; there were nice racers. After the start, I entered the singletrack near the back. The other juniors were sliding around and almost falling a lot on the muddy grass on the way to the singletrack. On the first downhill, they all started to bunch up. Soon after that, I started passing some of them on the first climb. For the rest of the climbs on that first muddy, slippery lap, I passed the other Juniors until I was in second. For the second lap, I kept up my pace and stayed in second. I rode most of this lap with a Marathon rider who flatted earlier in the race. I crossed the line in about an hour and 10 minutes. Pedaling through 9 miles of mud felt as hard as biking 20 miles on the road. I was happy with how I did, I felt pretty good overall and beat 7 other people. Hopefully the rest of the races will be more like Rhett's Run and have more than one other Junior.
Last weekend was the 11th annual Rhett's Run Mountain Bike Race in Columbia, MO. The days leading up to the race had a lot of rain and I knew the 4.5 mile course was going to be muddy. When I stopped in at Mesa on Friday, Dave Breslin said to have mud tires on the bike for the race. I took his advice and got some better tires. I got a 2.3 Specialized Eskar in the front and a 2.25 Maxxis Ardent in the back. Both are more All Mountain tires, but they were a huge help in the race.
Last Sunday, after I registered and got my shirt, I went out and pre-rode about 1.5 miles of the course. It was muddy, really, really muddy. The trail was rocky and rooty, but there was still muddy everywhere. This was a pretty big race for the Junior category; there were nice racers. After the start, I entered the singletrack near the back. The other juniors were sliding around and almost falling a lot on the muddy grass on the way to the singletrack. On the first downhill, they all started to bunch up. Soon after that, I started passing some of them on the first climb. For the rest of the climbs on that first muddy, slippery lap, I passed the other Juniors until I was in second. For the second lap, I kept up my pace and stayed in second. I rode most of this lap with a Marathon rider who flatted earlier in the race. I crossed the line in about an hour and 10 minutes. Pedaling through 9 miles of mud felt as hard as biking 20 miles on the road. I was happy with how I did, I felt pretty good overall and beat 7 other people. Hopefully the rest of the races will be more like Rhett's Run and have more than one other Junior. The Greensfelder Challenge Mountain Bike Race was the first race near St. Louis since March 14 that hadn't been rained out. I typed up a mcuh more detailed recap on the Mesa Racing site. You can read that here: http://www.mesacyclesracing.com/2010/05/greensfelder-challenge-recap/
On Saturday, I started my mountain bike racing season at the River Trails MTB Race in Lawrence, Kansas. The race was held at Riverfront Park on the banks of the Kansas River. The race course was a tight, twisty 4.7 mile loop. It was mostly flat with lots of short, steep climbs and descents. It was so smooth that one racer rode his cyclocross bike. My race started at 10 with one other racer in the Junior men category; we were started with the two Junior women racers. After a short, grassy field, I entered the singletrack fourth. Within a mile, I had passed the two junior women and started to chase down the other rider in my class. Around two miles in, I caught him. In a field, I passed him and a racer in one of the beginner classes. We rode together for the rest of the first lap behind another racer. At the end of the first lap, I passed two racers ahead of me in the field at the finishing area. About a mile into the second lap, I couldn't see the other racer in my class anymore. For the rest of the race, I just kept riding at a pretty fast pace. I was passing quite a few other beginner racers. One exciting moment came when I rode around a corner pretty fast and found a three foot long black snake slithering across the trail. I came up on it so suddently that I just ran it over. I finished the race in about 44 minutes and got first in my category. I beat the other rider in my class by 1 minute and 45 seconds. For the race, I biked 9.4 miles and averaged about 13 mph. After I picked up my medal, we headed to downtown Lawrence, KS to eat lunch at Wheatfields Bakery.
Today, I picked up my new road bike from Mesa Cycles. I ended up getting a Specialized Tricross Sport. I really like because I can ride it a road bike during the spring and summer. Then when fall comes around, I can race cyclocross on it. Right after I picked it up, I took it for its first real ride. I rode from Mesa up Clayton Road to Forest Park. I rode around the outside loop of the park twice. Wow, the road bike is so much faster and easier to pedal than my mountain bike. I rode a total of 15.66 miles. I don't have a cycling computer on it yet, but I'll be getting on soon. Now, I can do a lot more riding on the road. That'll get me in a lot better shape for mountain bike racing. Since the Lost Valley Luau was postponed, it looks like the River Trails Mountain Bike Race in Lawrence, KS on April 10th.
Today, my mom and I drove down to St. Joe State Park to pre-ride next weekend's race course. I think we finally got riding around 11:20ish. We set off from the Pim Day Use Area following yellow survey ribbon. The trail that is the race course had evidently had some illegal motorcycle use and they had left ruts. To avoid the worst of the ruts, the trail has been rerouted. These little reroutes haven't been trimmed yet, so they were just a little bit better than bushwhacking on a bike. After about three miles of reroutes, we weren't liking the trail so much, but then we crossed the paved bike path. After that crossing, we went downhill on a really fun, nice trail through a pretty pine grove. Down in the valley the trail went through a lot of little creeks and then came to the Tubes. The Tubes are three steel culverts that go under a paved bike path. The trail went through the far right one. We both walked our bikes out the end because it dropped into a really rocky creekbed. The trail continued in the valley crossing some more creeks and making a long climb back to the bike path on the ridge. After the climb, the trail went though a cool savannah area. Very soon after the savannah, my mom rode up to me and told me I had a flat. It was my rear wheel, too. Both my flats have come on my rear wheel, and both times its taken me forever to get the tire back on the bike. It took as long to put the tire back on the bike as it did to change the flat. On the positive side, I used my CO2 cartridge without wasting the whole thing. After the flat, we somehow followed orange ribbon and biked in a circle. After a little backtracking, we got back on the right path. After maybe a mile more of riding, we got back to the paved path and followed that 0.6 miles back to the trailhead. Biking through the pines Here I am dropping into one of the creek crossings. This is picture of the savannah right before I got my flat. Recently, I got into mountain bike racing. It all started about a month ago. My mom and I went to Greensfelder Park for a Specialized Bikes Demo. We got to ride $8,000 full suspension, carbon fiber mountain bikes. After our ride, Adrienne Murphy, the owner of Mesa Cycles, came up to me and talked to me about joining the Mesa Junior Racing Team. I decided to try out mountain bike racing. On September 12, I had my first race, a race at Castlewood State Park. The course was a 5.5 mile loop on the Stinging Nettle and Cedar Bluff Trails. The race was part of the Midwest Fat Tire Series. They race in a format where beginners have to race around the course as many times as they can in an hour. There is a mass start for the Beginners 19 and under. There were about seven people in my class. I was the youngest. The trail started out as a wide gravel path before quickly narrowing down to twisty, bottom land single track. About half a mile after the start, the trail made a steep, rooty plunge into the lower bottom lands. The course made a hard left onto the Cedar Bluff Trail and dipped in and out a a dry creek bed. The course went under the railroad track in a dark, wet, narrow tunnel from 1927. After emerging on the other side of the tracks, the trail climbed slightly before making a steep dip into a gully. The trail swooped downwards, but soon climbed into an old farm field. The trail made a steep switchback climbing to the left. The trail rolled gently on the side of a hill before climb up a very steep, rocky switchback up to the right. Just before the switchback, I passed Auggie, another Mesa Junior Racer. When I was riding up this switchback, I passed another racer who was in my class. The next quarter mile was a long, but gradual ascent. The climb ended at a bench constructed as an Eagle Project. A short descent on a ridge led to another bench. Right after this bench, the biggest descent on the trail started. It was a steep, rocky downhill with some big roots to ride over. After the steep part ended, the trail wound through some ruts and re-entered the farm field. The trail made a beautiful, fast descent thorough the field before dipping into the creek again. The next quater mile was a slow ascent though some ruts with tight trees and large roots in some spots. The trail climbed up though two switchbacks and began its final descent. The last half mile of Cedar Bluff was a fast, rocky downhill on a wide trail. Right before the railroad tunnel, there was a mandatory dismount for some large rocks. We went through a another tunnel and followed the Stinging Nettle half a mile to the area with the big dips. The race course went across one of the dips and followed close to the Meramec River. The trail meandered away from the river for a mile before come back near the river. About two miles from the dips, the course turned away from the Stinging Nettle and followed the Rockaway Connector back to the starting area. I went around on my first lap in about 36 minutes. I went out for a second lap and did that one in about 37 minutes. In the end, I finished fifth out of my age group. I was pleased with the race and I really liked mountain bike racing. Today, was the fourth annual Greensfelder Challenge. This is a mountain bike race on the Dogwood Trail at Greensfelder. The course laps would be about 4 miles this time. Since it had rained the night before, the trail was muddy in spots and the roots and rocks were slippery. Because this race course was all single track, we started about a quarter mile from the registration area. The race started on the gravel road to the Roundhouse. After about 200 yds. on the road, the trail dove into the woods and passed the registration area. Right after the Muckerman Shelter, the trail went back into the woods and went down a narrow rocky connector to the Dogwood. The race course went counter clockwise on the Dogwood Trail. The Dogwood Trail is my favorite trail at Greensfelder. The first two miles of the Dogwood are rocky, and flowy. The trail is gradually descending. There are three gradual switchbacks on the Dogwood. The first is about a mile in between where we first got on to the Dogwood. The first mile is a rocky, flowy trail with one small tree to ride over. There are several fun little plunges into small drainage's. The first switchback is a long, smooth, dirt turn that was really fun. On this downhill, some of the faster marathoners passed me. The trail is still the same but has some challenging rocky sections before making another switchback. This switchback was challenging because of the mud on it. After the switchback the trail crosses a challenging drainage. This drainage has a large, white rock placed on the climb out. With all the mud today, the rock was pretty slippery. The trail dropped off a small ledge and made its final switchback down to the left. The trail made a lot of steep dips into drainages and climbed out steeply on the other side. During this section, I passed several riders who had passed me on the downhills earlier. After dropping off a small root and crossing a small creek, the trail made its one long climb out of the valley. The hill was steep at first, but leveled off soon. After climbing thorough a tight switchback, the course rejoined the gravel road and returned to the Muckerman Shelter. I did the four mile laps in about 25 minutes. Today, I got to do three laps. I finished the race about an 1 hour and ten minutes after I started. I placed fifth again with about seven people in my age group again. Greensfelder was a much harder course than Castlewood. Castlewood had two miles of more technical riding, the rest was easy bottom land single track. Greensfelder was a rocky technical trail the whole way. The mud and slippery trail only made it a little more difficult. Though the races were different, I like mountain bike racing. Here is a picture from the Rockaway Cut Trail at Castlewood. Here I am racing on the Dogwood today. |
AuthorMy name is Ben. I love to read, hike, backpack, mountain bike, rock climb, and mountain bike race. Since there are so many great hikes in Missouri, I decided to make a website to describe them. The Mountain BikeI ride a 2010 Specialized Rockhopper Expert 29er. I've upgraded all the original parts, went 1x9 and dropped 5lbs from the stock bike.
My Road BikeI have Willier Izoard for road riding and racing.
My CX BikeI ride a 2010 Specialized Tricross
2010 Race ResultsRiver Trails Mountain Bike Challenge (Kansas)
1st Junior 15-18 Tilles Park Crit 5th Juniors 10-18 Delmarvelous Crit 5th Juniors 15-18 Greensfelder Challenge 1st Juniors 15-18 Rhett's Run 2nd Juniors 15-18 2009 Mtb. Race Results
ICCC Castlewood Race 5th Beginner 19 and under Greensfelder Classic 5th Beginner 19 and under Burning at the Bluff 3rd in Burnin Virgins Category Archives
January 2012
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