Annadel XC, 11th Masters 50+

[Dave Benjamin]

This was my second attempt in the Annadel race, having first raced last year.  I have ridden the trails in Annadel State Park a handful of times and each time I have come away with various bumps and scrapes.  Leading up to yesterday's race, I tried to keep a positive outlook on my chances of having a clean race, despite the rocky trails.  

  With only my Santa Cruz Highball hardtail to ride, I set it up with the Fox Transfer dropper post in hopes a lower center of gravity on the descents would keep my upright and make me faster.  I ran a Bontrager XR3 2.3 at 21 psi up front and a WTB Nine Line 2.25 at 23 psi in back.  The majority of racers in my category were on full suspension bikes, although the eventual winner, Roger Bartels, was on a hardtail.  

   Our wave lined up with the usual stacked Masters field, including teammate Greg Alsterlind, Roger, Eric Risley, Mike Warren, Marc Kirberg and Javier Sanchez.  We started out fast in order to take a good position going into the first rocky climb with only one good line.  Unfortunately, I was unable to keep up with the first ten or so riders and was swarmed by the rest of the field as we tried to ride up one line going four wide.  A few elbows (water polo flashback) and foot dabs later, I made it out of the scrum ahead of the swarm.   I pushed hard to get a gap leading into the technical downhill of Cobblestone.  I caught a rider part way down Cobblestone who was unclipping at every rock feature, bringing me to numerous track stands while he cleared out of the way.  Once on the pavement of Channel Dr I was able to get around a couple riders and watched another rider blow right by the blue arrow directing us onto the trail.  I felt good on the single track and was putting in a gap on the guys behind me.  Just before the last jump out to the pavement, a zigged when I should have zagged and cracked my shoulder into a tree.  Somehow, the force of the hit drove my head down to my stem, taking a good whack to my mouth.  I slowed down to take inventory of what hurt the most.  The pain in my shoulder made it hard to hold the bars and I spent the next 1/2 mile waiting for the pain to ease up.  Just as I turned onto Warren Richardson fire road, I looked down at my Garmin and saw that it was gone, thanks to my face plant.  While not having the Garmin is kind of liberating, I was still pissed I may need to buy a new one - Annael bites again.  Luckily, my gap off Channel Dr was good enough to not have anyone around me up to S. Burma.  Just as I turned on S. Burma, teammate Mark Ingwersen caught me from his Expert field.  Once he skipped out of view, I had a pretty free run down Burma with no one on my wheel, which was a relief.  It seemed the lead 7 or so riders were already far ahead and the only people passing me were the Experts.   Once the experts cleared by, I rode by myself in the now familiar "tweener land", not fast enough for the lead group, and just a bit faster than the main field. The descent to Lawndale allowed 3 guys to pass me from the main field.  This finally got my racing juices flowing again and I chased and eventually past  them on the Pig Flat to Ridge uphill, knowing I needed space if I were to hold them off on the loooong downhill to the finish.  The rocky downhill came and sure enough, the three guys flew by me as a picked my way down to the finish.  Overall, I was 2.5 minutes slower than last year and dropped one spot to 11th.  It wasn't as bad as it could have been and I actually enjoyed the middle part of the course.  Another positive was a hiker found my Garmin!

   Team Acme bikes once again had a strong showing, way to go everyone.