SoNoMas 2012

[Jim Hewett]

I took a week break after Lemurian and then went back to a month of base training.  Lots of hours, but not much intensity.  The idea is to come to a good race peak around early August for the Downieville All Mountain World Championships.  I made my return to more intense training by racing the Bikemonkey race around Lake Sonoma. 

I raced SoNoMas last year much later in the season.  I had cut my season short and this was my first race back before I started training for 'cross.  I placed fourth and learned a little about the pacing of this climbing-intensive singletrack course.  This year I looked to improve on my 3hr 12min time, but I figured I would not be able to beat a few of the guys that are racing strong right now.

The race starts early, at 8a.m.  This is great for avoiding the sun at the hottest time of the day, but it also meant a 4:45a.m. wake-up call.  I met Carl and we rode up together, getting there with more than an hour until the start.  As I assembled my bike, I made a pretty horrible discovery - I had left my 15QR thru-axle at home!  Of course, no one had a spare Rock Shox thruaxle laying around.  The event organizers volunteered a demo bike for my use, which had a Fox 15mm TA fork.  To my surprise, the Fox thru-axle threaded into my Rock Shox fork and I decided to give it a try.

I got a little warmup and then lined up for the start.  Lots of fast guys were there:  Claassen, Timmel, Hosey, Astell, Will Curtis, and Mark Weir.  We started up the steep paved climbs to the dirt, digging pretty deep and stretching the pack behind us.  I stayed with the front 5 and went into the singletrack not far behind the leader.  Hosey and Timmel took off, but Will and I were held up by a Strava racer that wasn't very confident on the loose corners.  We got around him and made our way back to the front, but the steep climbing kept coming.  Claassen came around me and then Will, as we made a right on the pavement again and rode for a bit.  I couldn't see anyone behind me for awhile, as our pace had been pretty fast for the first 40 minutes.  I made the left turn back onto dirt and started down a very steep and loose fireroad section.  I gave into the temptation to let it go on this section, and I came into the s curve at the bottom with too much speed.  My only option seemed to be to straighten this curve by going into the high grass.  I hoped that there was nothing concealed there that I couldn't handle, but I was unpleasantly surprised.  I went down very hard at high speed and slid on the fireroad for a ways.  I was up right away and back on the bike, trying to assess the damage to my bike and my body as I rolled.  The bike and I were covered in dry grass, which made me look like a scarecrow (if I only had a brain!).  I was very scraped on my right knee, elbow, and forearm and I had taken a hard hit to my left leg under my knee, but body and the bike were able to continue.

I quickly came upon Claassen with his wheel off and, later, Will with chainsuck issues.  That put me back in third place, chasing Timmel and Hosey.  I rode the singletrack at less than a very urgent pace, and Bartels caught me.  I let him pass and stuck to his wheel, a welcome incentive to snap out of it and race.  We stayed together for awhile until we hit a long, loose climb.  Bartels slipped right in front of me and we were both off of the bike pushing.  Just then, I looked back to see about 4 guys just behind us.  I quickly ran past Bartels and remounted, now climbing faster, and pulled away from the whole group.   I rode with some inspiration for awhile, and eventually caught site of Timmel ahead.  I slowly caught him on some climbs and pulled away, again riding by myself on the dry and winding singletrack.

At the 2 hour mark, Claassen appeared abrubtly behind me on a climb.  I let him by, sensing that he was able to go faster than I was, and he moved out of site pretty quickly.  For the next hour, I cruised around the lake, up and down on the singletrack and through the feed stations.  I passed Michael Hosey, who had moved from first to last with a broken derailer hanger.  This moved me into second by default.  I zoned out a bit, my pace slowing unconsciously.  I didn't have a lot of snap left, but I wasn't cramping, either.  In the last 20 minutes, I was caught by Nitish Nag and Will.  Nitish was looking solid, so I let him by.  I held Will off for a bit and got away a little, but I couldn't close the gap to Nitish.  At this point, cramps were starting to become a danger, and I tried to be conservative on the climbs.  I was able to keep from cramping until we started the steep paved descent to the finish.  My right leg cramped pretty badly, but I kept the bike upright and stayed aero to cruise into the finish uncontested for third place.

 

Not a bad training ride, and I shaved a couple of minutes off of my 2011 time.

[Ryan Gibson]

Nice job Jim! I learned a great lesson the hard way...one I will not forget soon...too much sodium is a very bad thing. I was fite, conditioned (30 miles and 6000' less than a week prior felt great) and hydrated, but too much Goo, Roctane, etc. gave me full leg cramps at mile 20. Mile 2 and I was feeling tickles. Hard even walking the bike. Took the boat back at mile 29 ;( Gotta rehab for a week or so and then start building again...hope to peak around Downieville.