Xterra World Championships

Dan Hugo - Flume Trail, Lake Tahoe, Nevada

It is time for Xterra World Championships on Maui in Hawaii. Now I have my predictions on how this race will unfold but being Maui it is full of outside factors that are virtually impossible to plan for. You can put in place your best strategy for technical malfunction but the course offers a buffet of obstacles that can break the best athletes preparations.

Dan Hugo has been the revelation of the 2008 USA Xterra Series. He placed 2nd overall in the series and 2nd in all the races he entered except for the final in Incline Village where he finished 4th. Dan goes into the World Championship as one of the clear favourites for the overall win and with that the possible start of a new era in the sport. Conrad Stoltz, a longtime friend, is the master of this event and he will always be the man to beat on any given day but even more so on Maui. Conrad has won this event 3 times, more than anyone in history, and will be wearing race #1 for tomorrows race. He wants a 4th win and he has the ability to win this race by minutes.

To tune into the hype tomorrow go to www.xterraplanet.com for a live feed of the race and to learn more about my two favourites: Dan Hugo www.dghugo.com and Conrad Stoltz www.conradstoltz.com.

Fall in the air

Truckee River

I remember starting this blog and my first entry was about the beginning of spring. Now it is the beginning of fall. Time just seems to fly by. The colors are beautiful at the moment, the air is cool and the trails are perfect. Fall brings evening log fires, well gas log fires, curry and red wine.

Fall Curry

Lake Tahoe Road Race

Cyclepaths/Wildcherries Cycling Team members Gary Mandy (front), Conrad Snover and Nate Freed (back) compete in Saturday's 72-Mile Ultra Bike Race. Freed captured the top spot with a time of 2 hours, 59 minutes, 08 seconds. He did it with the help of the team, which led the way so he could draft off the pack and conserve energy.

As cliché as it sounds, the “no-I-in-team” strategy worked out beautifully for the Cyclepaths/Wildcherries Cycling Team in Saturday’s 72-Mile Ultra Bike Race.

“Basically, we got together the night before and set two goals: We wanted to win, and we wanted to break the record, sort of in that order,” said Nick Schaffner, one of seven local team members who helped execute the plan.

Schaffner actually did more than just help. He was the mastermind behind the scheme, which included working together as a unit to propel one teammate to a first-place finish — and in less than 3 hours to establish a new record in the sixth-year Lake Tahoe Marathon Week event.

“To do that, we had to keep two (cyclists) protected so they didn’t have to do any work, with the idea that they could break away at the end for the win,” Schaffner said, adding that they would have to average 24 mph around the lake. “The other four of us were just out to hammer ourselves into the ground. ...

“But we totally pulled it off.”

The chosen one was Nate Freed of Tahoe City. And he fulfilled his end of the bargain.

Conserving his energy on the heels of his Truckee teammates, Freed — who celebrates his 27th birthday today — split from the pack about two or three miles before the Spooner Summit finish line. A highly competitive field of cyclists, many of whom claim local residence, followed in pursuit. But none would catch Freed, who finished first in 2:59:08 to shatter the record of 3 hours, 1 minute.

“I broke the record, but I couldn’t have done it without those guys,” said Freed, who placed fifth on his own last year and second in 2006. “They set the pace up front while I conserved energy. Without their efforts, I would not have been able to break the record.”

Freed finished in 3:06:32 last year and 3:04:49 in 2006.

Schaffner said the Cyclepaths/Wildcherries team — which has 12 members all together and was formed in November 2007 — appointed Freed as their anchor because of his fitness level coming off a busy race season.

“He has a big engine. I knew he could do it,” said Schaffner, whose teammates on Saturday also included Conrad Snover, Matt Chappell, Gary Mandy, Ramsey Etchison and Andrew Scott — who won’t be an official member until next year, Schaffner said.

Like any good plan, however, the Cyclepaths/Wildcherries crew had a backup.

“We definitely had a plan ‘B,’ which was me,” said Snover, who sat back with Freed before helping him launch his attack on the final stretch. Snover’s role was to surge ahead for the win if his teammate failed.

“Conrad is our best sprinter, so if Nate wasn’t able to pull off his solo attack, Conrad would zip around everyone at the end,” Schaffner explained.

While it didn’t come down to that, it was far from a blowout victory.

“They were definitely gaining on me,” Freed said of the other cyclists. “Another half-mile and I would not have been able to hold on.”

In fact, 13 cyclists broke the previous record. Several were from Cyclepaths/Wildcherries Cycling Team, although Snover and Schaffner said the top-10 results posted on the Lake Tahoe Marathon Web site on Tuesday were inaccurate.

Either way, their man won. And he couldn’t have done it alone, Freed said.

Which begs the question: How could a competitive group of cyclists concede individual victory, even to one of their own?

“The selflessness came easy,” Chappell said. “We all wanted to win the race and knew we could do it if we pulled together. ...

“Going into this race it was clear that our best option was to utilize the overall strength of Nate Freed in the event that he could break away from the peloton to take the solo win, which eventually played out perfectly.”

Indeed. Look out for the Cyclepaths/Wildcherries Cycling Team in 2009.

Tahoe Sierra 100

Here is my response to Matt Chappells questions on the Tahoe Sierra 100...

What was your most memorable experience during the TS 100?
The last mile.......after a grueling 104 miles in the saddle the finish line was the end of an emotional battle which was getting the better of me.
What was your feed strategy and what will you change next year?
My strategy was eat consistently and drink all the time. I never did eat properly. I drank well and that was no issue. I was battling all day to get food down. I will most likely experiment with HIGH calorie pre-race drinks and train on them in the summer and actually do some long training rides on my mountain bike (that might help) as opposed to the road bike.
Did you make any last minute changes to your bike/gear setup and was it helpful or not?
I was going to race SS and in hindsight I think I should have. I never had any bike issues other than a major leak from the tubeless valve on the front wheel. That was easily fixed with a tube. However I realised after the race that I had not put the wheel in properly and also failed to check this by doing a simple wheel spin before carrying on and rode 99 miles with a bad brake rub. After the race I spun the wheel just out of interest and could not get a half rotation out of it. Nice Job!
Did you see Tinker Juarez? Did he say anything to you?
Yes, I saw him with his bike upside down and I think he was crying really hard, oh and by the way he is really really skinny!
How was the event?
Very well organised. A small error by myself and a bunch of others (leading women) took the arrows that sent us on the start of another loop. After 2 miles of heavy descending I realised that this was not right and turned around. Turning my race into 104 miles. Otherwise this was one of the best managed races I have done. The aid stations were incredible! I camped out at the 69 mile one for a while. For those wanting to know, my ride time was 9:28 and my course time was 9:59. That is 29 min at aid stations, they were that good or I was that messed up!
Just say no to single track? Thoughts?
100 miles of jeep track at altitude is hard, 100 miles of single track at altitude is very very very hard and 100 miles of either one is insane when you have completely blown your wod! I think Breckenridge might be the real deal, lets see in 2009.
How about Lance Armstrong? If he was at the TS 100 would you give him a run for all of his money?
Yeah for the first 30 sec's then I would have dropped him!

I woke-up shortly after having that dream.

Single Speed World Championships 2008

SSWC 2008

My team-mate Conrad wrote in his recent blog on cwcracing.org about the culture of the race. True indeed, the only thing that really flies is how whacky you can make yourself and the less serious you take it the more fun it is. I only found out the day before that it almost mandatory to wear some sort of fancy dress. With no time to re-plan my get-up I settled for regular riding gear but I must admit I felt somewhat out of place.

As far as equipment goes, I was very stoked to get a 20 tooth sprocket from White Industries which suited the course far batter than the 18 tooth I had on my bike originally. It helped a bunch on the climbs which were pretty frequent but was not very useful on what flat riding there was, which was not much. The compromise was well worth it.

The race kicked off at around 9am and it was a le mans start which made for some good laughs with guy's running around the first obstacle (cattle pen) in both directions. If that was not a challenge enough, the biking started by trying to ride through the 400 odd running mountain bikers charging for their bikes. We started the first loop by going straight up a 2.7 mile climb which at the summit was where the first hike-a-bike was and that was not the last. The group in front quickly settled and there were only a few changes throughout. Carl Decker (winner) and Mark Weir (2nd) controlled the race from start to finish leaving everyone else the race for the rest. I had a good first lap but took it easier than I probably should have but perhaps the plan was good in the end. Team-mate and friend Conrad "Connie" Snover was just ahead of me and I could see his yellow fur around the odd corner but his gap stayed pretty much constant throughout the first lap (10miles). At the beginning of the second lap I picked things up a bit and caught Conrad about halfway though. We rode together for about 2 miles when just after a rocky dismount section I hit a nasty root head and lost all the air out of my front tire. As quick as I could I charged it with a full can of big air but managed to loose most of that with a leaking valve. Air was escaping from the tubeless valve at the base because I pushed too hard getting the Big Air valve onto my valve and it lost it's seal. I tightened the valve and salvaged what air was left (15psi). It took about 30sec to get that sorted out and by the time I got back on I had been passed by two guy's and my team-mate was gone. I chased hard and on the final switchback descent I misread the closeness of the first 180 degree turn and blew right through it, hitting the brakes hard to try reduce the consequence and had a big crash into the bushes. With that behind me, the 15psi still intact but with the rim now bent I had to nurse what was left of my front end and hold onto what position I was in. The low pressure in the front tire made for some interesting corners and on more than a few occasions I think I scared some photographers with the glare of white coming from my eyeballs. I got nabbed at the line by one more guy and finished in 12th place. Conrad held onto 8th place. I am completely stoked with my result being only the 2nd single speed race I have ever done. Bring on SSWC 2009 Durango, Colorado.

SSWC data on Garmin Connect

SSWC photo gallery

Single Speed World Championship Course

Yesterday Whit Raymond and I went out to preview the course for this weekends SSWC. We did the 1st lap of 3. The first lap is 9 miles which includes an additional climb and descent that is not on the 2nd two laps. As you will be able to see there is absolutley no flat riding on the entire course which in a way is what SS riding is all about. SS bikes do not run well on flat terrain so with the course the way it is for the race will produce a SS rider that is both a climber and a good technical descender. All the climbs for the main loop are single track and include tight switch backs and rocks with an average gradient of 14%. There are a few sections where you have to hike-a-bike and some that are just too rocky and steep to pedal. The descents are much the same although dismounting is not really required unless it is involuntary. I will be tking data during the race and will post the result post race. Team riders taking part this weekend are Conrad Snover, Rich Blanco and myself.

For the course preview on Garmin Connect please click on the link if the jersey link below.

SSWC Course 2008

Bali 2008

We have just returned from our trip to Bali. This year seemed so much more special than any other holiday we have had there. Perhaps it was the time of year or perhaps the more we go there the more we appreciate what we have created for ourselves. 

We were blessed with perfect weather, perfect surf, fantastic staff at the house and the food as always was outstanding.

Here is a link to more pictures of our trip.

Bali 2008