TBF MTB Madness

[Jim Hewett]

Training has been moving along steadily in preparation for my first priority race grouping in April.  Today, I travelled to Roseville to race on the Granite Bay course for the first time.  It was another miserable winter day in Northern California - 75 degrees and sunny.

I arrived early to ride the course a little and familiarize myself with the terrain.  It was fast and flowy, a lot like the Ft Ord CCCX courses.  I could tell from past results that we would be doing about 32 miles in around 2 hours.  That is a pretty fast average speed for a mountain bike race.  The climbs were not very long and the descents were fast, plus there were a couple of paved and gravel road sections.  I assumed there would be some drafting involved and I planned to sit in for a lap or two to get the lay of the land and feel out the other racers.  I didn't see many familiar faces at the start, but I did recognize Clint Claasen, a racer from the area that knows the course well and has raced very well for the last couple of years.

The event registration was well organized and the race started right on time at 9:00.  I stuck to Clint's wheel as we made our way down the start/finish straightaway.    A couple of guys made their move and took the lead as we entered singletrack.  We snaked around and entered the paved road section, where a little bit of gas burned off everyone but Clint.  So much for sitting in with a group for a couple of laps!  I stuck to Clint's wheel as we climbed and descended the course, weaving through the rocks and sandy bermed turns.  The pace was steady but not too strenuous as we made our way back to the start/finish in under 30 minutes.  I took the lead for the second lap and was kind of surprised to find Clint falling back on the paved road.  I opened a small gap and kept it for the whole lap.  Clint pretty much matched my pace about 20 seconds behind.

I intended to put the hammer down on the third lap and increase my lead.  This plan might have worked well, but I missed a turn early in the lap and didn't notice it for a bit.  By the time I was back on course, Clint was ahead by 15 seconds or so.  I dug pretty hard to regain the lead and we ended the third lap about like we had ended the second.  I knew Clint was suffering a little, but he was often in sight behind me for the first half of the fouth lap.  He was very familiar with the course and would narrow the gap a bit on the descents, but I kept up the speed and hammered the climbs.  Most of them were short and twisty, and the berms allowed me to keep a lot of speed going up as well as down.  We maintined our seperation all the way to the finish straight and I came in first with Clint about 20 seconds behind for second.

It was a nice, fairly steady 2 hours, with a lot of time in zones 5a and 5b.  I was happy to see the high heartrates, even after a couple of weeks of intensity training.  Looking forward to Cool next weekend after a rest week!