RickySilk

This was a race of 1sts. 1st time starting on a road behind a motorbike. 1st time doing a course with over a mile and a quarter of road per lap (~6 miles total). 1st time being put into the woods by fellow racers (twice). 1st time being thoroughly cussed out during a race. 1st time finishing an mtb race in a 4 man sprint.

Got a crappy start. 8th into the woods. Thought I was 5th but it turns out 3 dudes quickly got 20 seconds off the front. I worked up into 4th. Getting by the Alex Bikes guys was nice and friendly, they were all gentlemen. Got to the road section and buried it but I don’t think I made up any time on the 3 big guys working together.

2nd lap is a repeat. I would get pretty close by the end of the trail then they would pull it out on the road.

I was starting to worry about cooking myself on the road cause I was putting in big efforts to minimize the gap. The 3rd lap I decided I would stop chasing so hard on the road and save it for a big push in the singletrack on the last lap. I really didn’t think I had any chance of catching the three. I was frustrated. The thought that kept passing through my head was, “that ship has sailed”.

4th lap I start digging deep on the trail and suddenly about half way through the lap I am on their wheel. The lead rider is going slooooooooow. I’m wondering why the other two aren’t going around him. I sit and sit and sit. Then figure all three must be cooked. When we get to the double wide sandy little hill that has become a hike-a-bike they all go single file up the left side and I start running up the right side. Out of nowhere the third rider pushes his bike over into me and almost pushes me off the side of the hill. Then he cusses me out for trying to pass. I mean it was the most hostility I’ve ever felt in a race. I’m remain chill and am trying to calm him down cause honestly he’s a lot bigger than me and he was really going off. In a nutshell he tells me there’s no passing on the trail.

That guy crashes and I move into 3rd. “I’m glad I got by that guy… whew”. So we come to a little up with an inside and outside line. We’re still going slow as molasses so I go for a pass on the outside line. Oops… got put into the woods again. He says I can’t pass there either.

I can’t understand why these three aren’t racing each other. Why are they letting this guy go so slow. They’re letting him dictate the race. He obviously wants it to come down to the road.

So we come out on the road. At this point the race is a joke to me. I roll up and say, “so here we are. guess I’ll lead it out”. Cause “f&#k it” is what I’m thinking and I have no patience for this cat-and-mouse-look-at-each-other bullsh#$t. This is a mtb race for chissakes. These big roadies are gonna take me behind the wood shed on this road sprint. I’m gonna get a bad case of the red ass getting spanked all the way down that road. Anyway, I go for a dig around a corner just to see if any of their legs don’t have the spunk. They all do. They attack. I jump on last wheel. We come around the corner and OH SNAP a beginner class is coming around the corner behind the motorbike and we’re in full on sprint mode. Cars line the road. There is nowhere to go. Dude in front of me locks up the rear wheel and somehow saves it. Right then I think, this s#$t is not worth it. Roll in 4th.

My passes were clean. Plenty of room. Mr Pace even has video of the same dudes going two wide up the very same sandy hike-a-bike that they told me wasn’t ok to pass. I don’t mind legitimately being beaten to the corner going for a pass but getting put in the woods is a little much. We all have our limits though. I thought Bob was joking on the start line talking about “watch out for these guys” pointing to half the guys in my class. Then one of them said, “You should be racing with them”. I laughed because I thought it was just friendly poking but I guess this bike racing is serious business…. to some people.

Dang, now I know how Andy Johnston feels…. except he’s faster than me. He’d probably get shanked if he raced in Florida.

Woke up early and rode down with Tim and Nancy on Sunday morning. Arrived to mud, humidity and bugs. First reaction was, “ah crap!”. I was ready to go though, no matter the conditions.

I got some valuable course info from Graham and David. That along with Tim’s knowledge of the course helped get my mind right. Tim and I pre-rode the first section which was steep and slick. We found a good line on the first little up but it was still a struggle to get up. The rest seemed faster to run. So I ride that first section through the ups and rocks 3 times and get it pretty good but I know I don’t want a bunch of other dudes scratchin’ and clawin’ at me so my plan is to get to the first up first and ride it or if I’m not leading dismount and run so I don’t lose momentum.

I get to the first drop riding 3rd wheel. Pass the holeshot wonder up the little climb so I’m coming into the first greasy up in 2nd. Let momentum carry me halfway up jump off run it up passing 1st then I nailed it to get a gap. Didn’t even try to ride the next 2 greasy ups just dismounted and ran trying to keep it smooth. I could hear carnage behind me. Dudes were getting frustrated. Kept it clean through the rocks then hit the first straight away and nailed it again.

Seemed like I had a pretty good gap so just went into flow mode trying to keep it smooth. I had a few close calls in the high speed greasy corners but kept it upright. Some roots were shined up pretty good and super slick. There was one long hike-a-bike up a steep rooty hill that caught me by surprise. I was counting that one down every lap cause it hurt bad.

Conditions were tough but I was having a good time. The steep ups got more ridable every lap. The stuff at the beginning of the lap was getting full sun so was ridable when I came back around on the 2nd lap. By the 3rd lap pretty much everything was ridable but the long steep rooty up. It was nice that the ups had traction but the downside was everything else got real spongy and felt like riding on deep carpet. The tricky thing was that every lap it seemed like new roots were getting shined up and emerging from the mud. A couple times I had close calls when I let my attention wander. The course changed a little every lap. I saw Cox laying on the side of the trail at the top of the tough hike-a-bike on the last lap. Tim gave him some water. I’m sure the conditions caused a lot of meltdowns.

I was wishing for less, bigger and more spread out knobbies on the front but my tire choice was decent enough. I ran lower than normal pressure considering the traction issue and low speeds. 20 front and 23 rear. I started out with the shock floodgate on because of the climbs out of the quarry but they were so bumpy I opened the shock up to smooth it out and ended up just leaving it open cause it was helping me on the rooty ups too. It was so hot hydration was key and Kent/Nancy made sure I got my bottles. That was real nice. It can be a little stressful trying to feed yourself.

1st in class, 3rd on the day 3 minutes behind Woodall and close to McCarty. That’s a real good day for me. Though I hate bike clean up the conditions made a normally ho-hum course fun.

The Setup

Even with all the rain the course was still good. The bottom half of the big climb was a little muddy and extra rocky. I guess all the rain had washed the dirt out from between the rocks exposing them more. All the culverts were full of water which had my drivetrain dry by the end. I even used the wet lube.

Saturday I managed to burp the rear racing ralph evo double defense on my mavic rim. This had a bad effect on my descending. It got into my head. I now know that the combo of standard tire bead on a ust rim is not a good combo and is prone to burp. I’ll be on stans rims next year.

The Race

A win is always good but it was still an off day for me. I wasn’t able to find that elusive feeling of invincibility.

I started racing 19-29 at this race last year because the way they start the waves it can be frustrating as a 35-39 racer trying to work through the 19-29 and 30-34 who start ahead of you. In 07 I raced my class and couldn’t believe how quickly I was catching the waves in front. Ended up catching all but 3 of the racers who started ahead of me. So last year I decided to race 19-29 so I could have a clear track. It worked, I had more fun even though I got 2nd and could have finished 1st in my age group. Didn’t matter though cause I’d rather
have fun. There’s also more payout in 19-29 though the money for 2nd in 19-29 is equal to 1st in 35-39.

The start was kinda slow. After getting into the woods I really wished I had gotten the holeshot. Then about halfway into the first section of singletrack I had a tachy event. It wasn’t to bad because the pace was low but as soon as we got to the first doubletrack I tried to attack and take the lead which pretty much caused my legs to shutdown so I pulled over, got off and assumed the position. I was kind of worried the 30-34 would come up on me but luckily they didn’t. Got back on and worked back up into 2nd by the top of the climb.

I tip-toed the descent after blood rock. All I could think about was not burping my tire. Andy and Shawn caught me from 30-34 at the bottom. Very disappointed. One of my goals was not to get caught by Andy. I snapped out of it and began having fun riding with them. I started wondering if I should have just raced 30-34. I wonder if enthusiasm for my opponents would make up for lapped traffic. I rode with Andy and Shawn til we began the 2nd lap. At that point I left them to fight it out and rode off to catch 1st in my class.

At the base of the climb I could see 1st. Even from so far away I could tell he was hurting. He was all over his bike standing and fighting with it. Wasn’t long before I caught him and left him behind. I was feeling good and felt fast. I still thought I might be able to get into the 2:18’s. Then I get another event descending after blood rock. MOTHER TRUCKER!! I was pissed off! Really super pissed. The dumb ass in me thought I could just ride it out. I’m doing the breathing exercise and the carotid sinus message to get it to go way before I get to the smaller climbs towards the end. No dice. I’m crawling up the climb just barely going faster than the sport women I’m catching. So I say FARK IT! Get off and assume the position. Several of the sport women go by and the mother trucker won’t stop. Seemed like it took forever. It finally stopped and I ride it on in with a sour feeling. Shawn and Nathan Sibley come by racing for the finish.

I’m generally optimistic and positive person but this was too much. I had nothing but negative thoughts. I knew for sure I wasn’t going to race again until I get this ticker fixed… again. I was pissed at the doctor for not getting it fixed the first time. I was pissed off at everything.

I took two weeks off after the race. Didn’t have much motivation.

So after writing all those strong feelings about this situation seems I’d have come right home and called the doctor but I haven’t. WTF?! I don’t know. I’m a big pansy. I’m going to call next week.

Went up to Thomaston, GA with Chris, Jim and Darren saturday morning to recapture my youth at one of my favorite race courses in the southeast. We met our insulin challenged friend Phil at the race course and thus commenced a classic boys weekend of camping, story telling, eating, drinking and racing.

I’ve been trying to go over in my mind what the course looked like. On a course this demanding the really hard parts stick out and everything else, while still hard, tends to get forgotten. There are several 100ft ascents that on any other course would be memorable but on this one with a 500ft, 400ft and and a couple of 200ft climbs they are forgettable.

I was worried the turnout would be very low and it was but the competition was pretty good since both Andy Johnston and Peter Joski showed up.

Everyone rolled off the line real easy. It was the easiest XC start I think I can remember. Phil and I took the front all the way down the flat, rocky, sandy and sometimes muddy double track along the flint river. I can’t remember if Phil or I was first into the singletrack but I remember Phil saying, “I can’t get out of my big ring”. That’s a big problem since the singletrack immediately goes up a technical switchback climb of nearly 500ft in less than a mile. He stops to take care of the problem. So I’m at the front and just try to keep in mind that I’ve got to do this 3 times and kept the pace under control. The climb takes about 8:45 and then it’s all the way down the other side on a slightly sketchy loose singletrack downhill. There was a couple spots where you come around a little curve and the trail splits around a tree but my bike always wanted to go right at the tree. I hit one of them on the preride but managed to avoid them on race day.

Once I was at the bottom the course doubled back along a creek and I could see up the downhill and saw Andy J coming. This was a soft muddy false flat with slick roots and a few logs to hop. After crossing the creek the second big climb came. It was a little technical at the bottom just because it was muddy but after that it was a pretty steady and non-technical 400ft gain in about 3/4 of a mile. This is about a 5:45 – 6 minute climb which dumped out onto a fast slightly downhill doubletrack. This is where Andy J made contact with me.

We say our hello’s and hit the second downhill singletrack section. Super fun seat-of-your pants kind of stuff. There’s a fine line between going fast/low risk and faster/dangerous on this stuff. I opt for the former and since Andy isn’t all up in my hind parts I figure it’s a good enough pace.

We dump out onto a smooth gravel road that climbs a little but nothing too crazy. We chit chat a bit. Mostly about KHS dropping the Cycle Youth team and why. Good to hear that GT has stepped in to help this junior devo team. I guess we slowed a little too much cause I look back and here comes Joski.

The three of us ride along together mostly silent now. It seems that Joski is rolling the flats and mellow grades good but suffers a little on the steep stuff. He’s a nice guy but decided I would try to shed him on the 3rd big steep climb that comes at about the 7 mile mark. I hit it pretty hard with Andy on my wheel. It’s about 300ft but less than 1/2 mile so it’s very steep. I get the gap and keep the gas on to the last memorable climb. It’s a short but very steep little leg burner with lots and lots of baby head rocks all over it. The key is holding momentum and picking a good line so you can keep traction. After that it’s a fast 30 mph rutted clay road to the last short section of singletrack that dumps out at the start/finish.

Andy takes the lead to begin our second lap. All is good except when we get to the switchback climb I bung the first switchback. He gets about 20 feet on me then I bung the next one too. I end up bunging 2 more after that. I don’t know if my rhythm was thrown off or what but I lost 45 seconds up that climb. I’m able to hold that gap the rest of the second lap.

Starting the third lap Andy was out of site. Thankfully I get my groove back and clean the switchbacks this time. I’m told at the top of the second big climb he has 1:15 on me. I saw Don Davis from the HG crew and said, “EMBRACE THE PAIN!!!!!”. Hah, I thought it was funny. I decide to take a gel 30 minutes into the last lap to avoid a meltdown on the last climb. Unfortunately it hadn’t kicked in yet when I got there and I was hurting bad. I see Darren on the climb and yells encouragement and tells me Andy just passed him. I’m hurting so bad though. Then I get a stick in the rear wheel and have to get off. I top the hill and I’m at the point that getting my bike to go where I want it to has become a chore. I bung a critical drop into a gully. It’s one of those momentum things where you have to make it or you’re losing substantial time getting up the other side. I went into survival mode just trying to concentrate on the trail and make my bike go where it needs to go. Suddenly I’m feeling good again. The expresso gel has kicked in. Hooray!!! I knew the race for 1st was over but I was really dreading going up the steep baby head climb all blown up so being able to finish out the lap strong was cause for celebration.

Lesson learned…. it takes me about 20 minutes for a gel to kick in… not the 10 minutes I thought. Not that I would have caught Andy anyway. I pretty much lost the race on the second lap when I messed up those switchbacks.

This is a must do for any mtb racer in the southeast. There really is nothing else like it around these parts. It kind of feels like I’m in an abusive relationship though because it just beat the crap out of me but I want to go back.

All of us got rocks for our efforts. Chris was 1st c-dale, Darren 2nd SS, Phil 1st Ex 19-29 and Jim 1st Most Loved. Don Davis ended up 1st Sport 19-29. That’s Jim’s rock on the left. It’s a little smaller. Official results here.

This race was about half as exciting as East Macon. My class having only 6 guys was disappointing to say the least. I’ll choose to believe the threat of rain was the reason for the low turnout. Any other reason would be depressing.

The course was fun with a good combination of short hills, tight singletrack and fast open singletrack. It was a little muddy and slick in the second section of singletrack but I enjoyed it as it was a good test of skill. I didn’t enjoy the bike cleanup though.

At the start I fell in at 3rd wheel with one other guy on my wheel. The four us separated from the other two (haha) immediately. Unfortunately a bio-mechanical came on only minutes into the race. I rode with it for maybe 5 minutes hoping it would stop but reality sunk and and I had to get off and do the ole squat and breathe. Lost about a minute but managed to chase back on to the leading duo who had dropped the other guy along the way. Rode with them through the second section of swoopy singletrack and started the 2nd lap riding 2nd wheel.

Not long after starting the 2nd lap I pushed the pace and got the pass just before the rocky switchback climb. I cleaned it and the crowd went wild. I think that was the highlight of the race. I kept the gas on but when I got into that first section of singletrack another bio-mechanical. I bring the pace down to barely pedaling and doing some breathing tricks. It lasts 4 minutes but at least I didn’t have to get off the bike. I get back up to speed and finish out the race. At one point I was easing the pace back but then I saw the top two 40+ guys dualing hard and coming up on me. My pride could not have handled getting caught by those guys so I picked the pace back up.

I’ve been running the shock a tad soft with some floodgate so the bike takes the big hits but doesn’t bob on seated sustained climbs. On this relatively flat course I kept the fork and shock both wide open with no floodgate at all. I was able to stay in the saddle and pedal through the bumpy stuff and really flow through the muddy and rooty sections. I did add about 5 psi to the shock to make up for not using the floodgate.

The Rocket Ron up front was hooking up real nice. I hadn’t ridden the tire too much before the race so I gained confidence in it throughout the race and by the end was throwing it into the corners pretty hard.

So the most memorable thing about this race is the bio-mechanicals… without a doubt. Very disappointing. I thought the diet changes I made had it under control. I’m positive I ate and drank the exact same stuff as I did before East Macon. The only difference might be that I drank a cup of coffee late saturday morning. I can’t imagine that caffeine would stay in my system that long though.

Funny I had my 1 year checkup with the cardiologist on the tuesday following the race. She wasn’t concerned and said for me it’s not life threatening because of my good health. As long as I can get it to stop it’s ok, but if I want to stop them permanently I’ll have to have surgery again. Ugh. Doesn’t seem like it’s been a year since the first time. Like my sister, I must have had two or more accessory pathways and one did not get ablated in the first procedure. Which is why I have these bio-mechanical’s less often than I used to. Maybe in the fall I’ll give surgery another try.

I wanted to win this one. It was a small race but that didn’t matter to me. I needed to break my streak of four 2nds. I am tired of 2nd.

It was so cold I warmed up for an hour and still didn’t really warm up.

We did a parade lap and I was 5th wheel into the woods. Justin, Floyd, Darrien, Mark, Me. Justin and Floyd opened up a gap and I was a little worried since a couple of dudes could definitely roll on up and out if they worked together.

When singletrack dumped out onto the gravel I moved up and Justin was waving me by. I found out later guy had his hip reconfigured not long ago. Floyd was still hitting it hard though. I caught him at the top of the double track hill and rode his wheel for minute then came around after the horse gate turnaround.

Started going pretty hard once we got back into Red Bug. I wanted to get a gap so I could just flow the singletrack then hit the climbs hard. I think I had maybe 10 seconds at the end of the 1st lap.

Kept the pace fast enough to hold the gap in the singletrack then jumped on it when I hit the doubletrack. That’s pretty much what I did from there on. Kept the mo flowing smooth and efficient where I could. I was riding Tallahassee’s Worst Singletrack really slow cause it sucks and I didn’t want to waste my energy on sucky singletrack. heheh. It was good recovery. Floyd was riding the singletrack pretty hard I think cause sometimes it seemed like he might be creepin’ on me.

I drank a 180 when I finished and it tasted good but a few minutes later I was shivering uncontrollably. Duh.

The Bikechain.com KHS fueled by 180 was runnin’ good sunday. I ended up keeping the floodgate off on the fork the whole time and kept it on on the shock. I turned it off on the shock on the 4th lap coming though the second section of Red Bug but it felt kinda mushy so I turned it back on. I’m having trouble getting the thought out of my head that the hardtail is faster. Not sure what to do about that.

I stole that picture from Cliff Leonard.

Next year I think we assign someone to a camcorder and give Terry a mic so he can just walk around and talk to people. Interviews and what not. Then edit it down to all the golden bits. That would be funny.

Well hello cross race. It’s been a long time. I forgot how brutal you are.

After a smooth 2008 I got all my bad luck out in these last two races. 1 flat, 1 handlebar mechanical and 2 crashes. I hope that sets me up for a trouble free 2009.

Bikeposse was in full effect. Kind of a mixture of holla’s and heckle’s.. yeah good stuff. I like the heckles. I saw some junior’s heckling Marino during the B’s. Something about a “slimy dog”. I told them to give me their best heckle’s but it had better be something more potent than “slimy dog”. Unfortunately I think they used their best material on Marino.

The courses were fun except for one particular sand pit with square edged concrete surrounding it. A flat in the first minute! Whoops! Shoulda run more pressure I guess. Shouts out to Ice Berg for giving me his wheel and Big Worm for helping get my bars fixed. Charge back up and almost make contact with leader on the last lap but darn those leaves! High speed grassy slide. Right then I decided to roll it in for second and race the A’s Sunday.

Sunday had the mother trucking VORTEX!!!! That was cool.

Oh this runup was beotch slappin me the whole race and like a good ho I kept coming back for more.

I call this one Hemorrhoid Hill cause I think I popped a few straining on it.

Mother trucking Martin Cocks slowly rode away from me leaving me in 4th. I hooked some tape with my right brake lever on a nice pebble strewn asphalt corner. Jerked me clean off. Just like the Lance in ‘03. That junk stoled some skins from me.

I think there are other photos of me on a camera somewhere doing my straining horse face on Big Worm hill. I know Cliff got a video of me bunging up the sand pit something awful and surfing my top tube. Luckily there was no testicle damage.

Looking forward to next year. VORRRRTEXXXXXXX!!!!!!!