Howarth Park Dirt Crit

[Jim Hewett]

Hello.  It's been awhile, but this is a race blog and I have not been racing since Sea Otter.  Work, family, life - they all got in the way of training and racing my mountain bike.  It happens.

I've been getting some decent hours in for the last 6 weeks or so and I am finally fit enough to show up for a race.  I have always enjoyed the Howarth Park Dirt Crits in Santa Rosa, and I figured a 20-30 minute race like this would be a good chance to see how the fitness is progressing.

The course has not changed much.  Over the years they have removed the small ramp near the finish line and now there is a larger jump option to straighten a corner in the last single track section (I don't know if it is faster, but how can you resist!).  Otherwise it is pretty much a sub 3 minute lap that begins with a little climbing to a flat section to a small rocky climb to a flat section to rocky downhill singletrak and do it again.  It seems like they have decreased the amount of laps, making the finish time under 24 minutes for my 8 lap race.

I chose to ride my Superfly geared 1x10 (35x11-36) with my brand new Niner carbon rigid fork.  I ran Ikon EXO rear (24 psi) and Schwalbe 2.25 Snakeskin Racing Ralph (21 psi) in the front.  This setup is awesome for the climbing and the flats, but you lose a little speed in the few very rocky sections without a suspension fork.

There was a relatively large turnout for the A race, about 12-15 guys.  Shane Bresneyan, Michael Hosey, Riley Howard, and some other fit guys that I didn't recognize.  I figured I would just keep at the front for as long as I could, attempting to remember what is was like to race bikes.

The pace was not too fast off the start, so I moved to the front and stayed there.  I could feel an attack come on at the second climb, the short rocky one, and I accelerated to stay in the lead for the single track descent.  I knew someone was close behind, but there is no good opportunity for passing until after the start/finish line and I came through on the first lap in the lead.  Lap two was pretty much a repeat, and I gathered from the cheers of bystanders that Michael Hosey was the guy on my wheel.  I felt the attack again on the short climb and stayed in front for the singletrack.  Another lap passed the same, and I got the feeling that Hosey was sucking my wheel and saving his energy for an attack to get around me before the rocky descending, where his front suspension and experience from racing this course all season might allow him to open a gap.

On the fourth lap, Hosey made his move on the flat double track just before the rocky descent and got away a little.  He kept on the gas through the start/finish and got a little more ahead.  Just then I realized that there was another attacker, a young NorCal guy I didn't recognize, coming on strong.  He also got around me before the rocky descent, putting me in third.  I rode the next lap with this guy in sight and attacked pretty hard on the lap after to win back my second place.  I could tell as I passed him that his earlier effort had cost him a lot and left him with no "kick" and I was able to keep a gap into the rocky descent and final singletrack.

Heart rate was nice and high each lap, close to max a few times.  My legs felt heavy in the warmup, but overall I think it was a successful first race back and definitely good training.  The last race in this year's series is next Wednesday, and I hope to make it up for that.

Here is a link to my Strava ride stats:

 

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