Keyesville Classic 2012 - All Mountain Stage Race

[Jim Hewett]

Last year I raced the Pro All Mountain stage race at the Keyesville Classic in Southern California.  The race consisted of an XC race, a short track race, and a downhill race.  All Mountain racers did all three events on the same bike and results were totalled to crown the overall winner.  I raced a carbon hardtail, definitely set up XC style at under 21 lbs, and pulled off the win, despite a rather weak downhill result.

This year, I decided to show up with a bike that would be more capable on the downhill, especially since the downhill results have more weight than the XC or ST.  I received my Santa Cruz Tallboy a week before and had just enough time to build it and ride it a couple of times before I headed south.  I opted for a 1x10 drivetrain, with kind of light wheels and heavy tires (WTB Wolverines).  The bike weighed 24lbs. 3 oz., but I knew it would allow me to go faster on the downhill with less fear of breaking something or flatting.

I showed up a day early and spent a little time pre-riding the downhill course.  It was different this year than in 2011.  There was some fast fireroad, with a bit of pedalling, and a rocky section known as "The Snakepit".  Nothing very technical, but negotiating the rocks and loose fireroad sections at max speed would be the challenge.  I worked out a good line through the snake pit and tried a couple of fast runs, coming in at about 2 minutes 50 seconds.

Saturday would be the first event, the Keyesville XC race, and the weather was beautiful.  This is a rather long course for an XC race, 4 laps of 8 miles each.  Times were well over 2 hours, and this did a good job of softening you up for the next day's racing.  Quite a few friends were there for the start:  Tony Smith, Will Curtis, Tim Olsen, Max Houtzager, Derek Yarra, Colby Pastore, and Micheal Zannetti are all NorCal racers that made the trip.  I figured Tony and Will would be strong, but they were not racing the All Mountain, only the XC.  I made a decision to try to focus on repeating my All Mountain win, which meant wasting no energy on Saturday chasing anyone that was not in the All Mountain competition.

We blasted off the start line and I made my way to the front right away.  I was eager to get to the singletrack first and break up the field a little before I settled into a more sustainable pace.  After about 20 minutes of going pretty hard, Tony, Charles Jenkins, and I had a gap on the rest of the field.  Tony made his move to the front and pushed pretty hard.  I didn't try to stay with him and Jenkins came around me not long after.  Charles was in the All Mountain competition, but I wasn't able to keep his pace and he got away, as well.  Charles was on a 650B hardtail, which made me long for my carbon hardtail 29er on the steep climbs.  I was feeling the weight of the tires and the relative inefficiency of the full suspension, but still committed to the reasoning behind this choice.

I rode in no man's land for awhile, and eventually I saw 2 racers gaining on me.  Tim Olsen and Romolo Forcino caught up with me and I fell in third wheel.  Tim was driving the pace, and Romolo was "sitting in", true to his style.  We rode this way for a lap or so and Tim fell off a little.  I again rode at the front, with Romolo sitting in, and we slowly pulled away from Tim.  Tony and Charles were far enough ahead that they were out of sight and no riders were visible approaching from the rear.  While I don't like riding around with someone sucking my wheel, at least I was in control of the pace.  I slowed quite a bit to conserve energy and I got the impression that Romolo wouldn't take the lead, even if I got off to walk.  We cruised around for the third and fourth lap this way, and I hammered the last little climb to get a small gap on Romolo and come in third place (second in All Mountain).

We got a little rain that night and the next morning was much cooler.  I warmed up for the short track, trying to work out the stiffness from the day before's effort.  The Pro short track race was pretty much only racers that were competing for the All Mountain, maybe 11 or so of us.  We started fast on the short course and I found myself in fourth.  Max, Charles, and another racer were hammering hard at the front, and a gap developed between them and the train I was pulling.  We got into lapped traffic pretty quickly, which was annoying.  Tim Olsen came around me for a few laps and then fell back.  Again, I found Romolo sucking my wheel, but I didn't have the gas to burn him off.  Zannetti tried to come around a few times and I fought him off.  In retrospect, I probably should have relinquished the lead for a few laps, but I felt too threatened to lose any positions on purpose.  On the last lap, Romolo and then Zannetti came around me and I finished in 6th.  While dropping those two positions, I had the distinct feeling that I was losing the All Mountain competition.  I gave it everything I had, but it wasn't enough.

After an hour rest, we rode and hiked up the hill to the start of the third and final stage, the downhill.  Charles Jenkins was the man I had to beat, and beat by many places.  I was confident in my ability to put down a good time on the course, but it would come down to how many racers placed between me and Charles in this stage.  Nothing I could do at that point but go as fast as I could and hope for the best.

My run was pretty clean and the fastest I had done at 2:43.  I circled at the bottom with the other finishers.  Charles and Romolo both felt like they had a decent run, though their bike choice of hardtail surely limited their speed in the rougher stuff.  Max had a mechanical issue and lost some of his shifting.  Tim Olsen flatted and ended up walking down.

The races were over, and we waited as the final results were tallied.

I finished third overall in Pro Downhill, which justified my choice of a full suspension with beefier tires.  Charles Jenkins finished quite a bit back from me, finishing 6th or 7th in the All Mountain finishers.  Though the downhill results carry more weight than the XC or ST, Charles still finished first in the All Mountain stage race, and I came in second.  Romolo took third place.

 

[Ryan Gibson]

Good write up...and well done. Nice to read your insights and strategy, especially as I am curious about all mountain challenges (e.g. Downieville) and may try it out sometime.

[Paul Montgomery]

Nice work...as always!

[Carl Sanders]

Go Jim!