Moab Ho-Down Super D: signed up!

[LaBelle23]

Thanks Particle. Not the news I wanted to hear, but to be expected this time of year.

Rideit -- nice costume! racing with a chainsaw on the back certainly takes it to another level

[rideit]

I would have crushed all y'all, but I had to stop and cut down a tree.

[deepsquat]

Heh, heh, heh. Bet you've been getting some mileage out of that costume, uh... uniform.

[rideit]

Ironically, that $9.00 costume top is now my FAVORITE desert riding jersey.
I am voting for it to be the official Bridger Teton National Forest volunteer trail day t-shirt...

[Particle]

A few pics from race day - I was racing so pretty limited. I was one of the last to go so was able to snap most of our crews' start times.

Pre-race shenanigans:


The cheering/mooing gallery:


Krispy start:


mwM start:


Mr. Altagirl start:


JoshP:


TheProf and JoshP lined up to start:

[AKbruin]

Nice job, folks. Sounds like a blast.

See you . . . in Ashland?

[monkeywrenchMoose]

Thanks Particle! I am definitely, definitely hooked on racing now, and will hopefully be doing as many regional Super D (type) races as I can next summer. I'd really like to do the Dark Hollow race at Brian Head as that sounds like a very similar course to the Ho-Down.


I can’t wait for next years Ho-Down, the whole weekend was a blast, I really enjoyed meeting so many maggots. I met Mr. AG, SkiJunky, Baby Bear, DFinn, and Beaterdit. I now know, by way of costume identification that RideIt was down there too. It was really, really neat to meet so many nice people. Hopefully, I'll see you all around at some point! Special thanks for Beaterdit for giving me a beer and a ride back to town after the race. I'll keep an eye out for you at the Bird this winter.


A quick race day report. The day started off with me waking up at 6:45 to meet up with a non-mag dude (Grahm) I had rode with the day before. I wanted to do a quick scout of the trail since we had only ridden the LPS section the day before. We got up to the Porcupine entrance around 8:30 and planned on climbing up the whole course and scouting it on our way back down. This plan did not really work out so well because we didn't really have very much time before we had to be back down at Chile Pepper in order to make the shuttle back up to the trailhead. (Don't know why we didn't just stay up there.)


Because of our time constraints, we were only able to make it up to the turn off from LPS where the course goes back towards Sand Flats Road. During our scouting run I was able to pick a couple of good lines on that second half of the course. Although I really would have liked to scout the whole course, only being able to scout the Porc Rim section proved to be very beneficial as that section was really the only one where line choice really mattered. Because that section was so wide, line choice could really help your time. On the upper section of the course line choice was not a crucial because it was mostly single track and there really wasn't much of a choice at all.


When I got up to the finish area/pre-race area I set my bike down and started to mill about and look around at all the nice bikes that people had. I wandered over to a friendly guy with a nice looking Ibis Mojo. I chatted with him about various parts and some of Crank Brothers shortcomings and generally found him to be a nice guy. I was introduced to his girlfriend and his dog Willy and found them to be pleasant as well. I did not find out until after the race that these nice and friendly people were self-proclaimed Internet nerds and the fellow Maggots known as SkiJunky and Baby Bear.
Soon enough a riders meeting was called and the competition became distinct from the supporters. As we piled up into the van that held the expert men category I began to second-guess my choice of race group. Being new to the race scene I was unsure of where to place my self when registering at Chile Pepper and ended up picking the middle category. However, on that longer than normal ride from the staging area to the start line I saw some people that I knew were fast. Hell, there was Particle who I had taken my training tips from and had personally seen riding the Spine at speed. And Mr. AG, the TGR legend whose race report I had read from last year, and even a guy I had seen working at Go-Ride (Krispy?). Surely I was in over my head and should have raced sport.


At the top after settling into that weird pre-race waiting mode I wandered over to talk to the only other fellow maggot I knew in real life, the man known as Particle. He introduced me to Mr. AG who I would be following during the race. I was not surprised to find that this man too was friendly and nice.


I watched as more riders took off after their starting count down and disappeared down the trail. Soon, Mr. AG was gone and I was next up to start. I took one more quick warm-up pedal up and down the road and spent only the last 20 seconds actually standing at the line. I had debated how to start as I had seen SkiJunky perform a very steady track stand that looked to be just the ticket for a quick start on clip-in pedals. However, when I got to the line, I decided that I did not want to end my first race before it began with a stupid fall trying to steady a nervous track stand. I elected to try and get my left foot clipped in as smoothly as possible after a powerful start. This worked beautifully as I was able to get my left foot in before I had even completed a full rotation of the cranks.


The first quarter mile of trail is a great twisty ribbon of sandy dirt that under normal circumstances would be the tits, but I was breathing hard before I knew it and really had to concentrate on keeping a good flow. Because I was pushing so hard so early in my first race I nearly blew out of a corner 5 or 6 turns in. Then 20 seconds later in a moment of frustration I over cooked a second corner and mobbed over/through a nice little bush, managing to keep it up right while telling myself to take it easy. After I got my first two close calls out of the way I was able to settle down into a good mix of flowing turns, airing drops and pedaling hard when I could. It began to feel much more like a pinned trail ride and less like a hectic, inefficient race. I was actually enjoying myself at this point. Breathing hard and riding fast, but not hurting.


Then came The Notch. Due to poor time management during the mornings scouting run, I was not able to even look at this from the bottom. From previous YouTube viewings and pre-race talk I knew that it would be gnarly with a crucial right turn half way down. I had told myself that I would get off and walk it when I got to it in order to have a clean race run, but when I arrived at the entrance I was feeling good and decided to go for it. I briefly touched the brakes and rolled right in. In hindsight I would have taken much less speed into it because when I arrived at the crux my wheels were bouncing instead of rolling and I was not able to slow down to make the turn. I emergency braked and dabbed a foot to save a fall and hopped off of my bike to get down the rest. At some point I lost the yellow lock on my CamelBak head and water was freely flowing onto the front of my shorts. I remember thinking that I was gonna want that water later, but I don’t think I would have had time to reach for the hose.


After The Notch, I powered up a short climb and was able to see Mr. AG through the trees. When we got to descending again I was following closely and slowly making up ground. As I rounded a corner, somebody yelled rider down and I saw him getting up from the high side of the trail. After confirming he was O.K. I continued riding fast. I found out later that he had flatted, bummer. At least he redeemed himself with a second place finish in the DH race.


The turn down from LPS onto the wider Jeep style trail of Porcupine Rim marked the beginning of the truly rough trail. This was the kind of terrain that Moab is known for; bike destroying, tooth-rattling rocks that are either loose and the size of small creatures or firmly planted but grouped 15 together but facing entirely the wrong way. Think of riding over 15 curbs, one after the other. Really takes away your speed. This was where the line choice really paid off. Luckily I was able to hit cleanly all the lines I had chosen earlier.


Unfortunately, I somehow caught my shorts on the quick release of my seat post which dropped my saddle all the way to the rails. Between all the ledge-dropping and rock-hopping my saddle got turned 180 degrees the wrong way and I inadvertently sat on my nuts. I did not, however, want to stop my otherwise clean run and managed to do a little mid-ride knee jig to get the thing facing the correct way. When I reached a smooth(er) section of trail I reached down and closed the quick release. At least now I had something to sit/land on when I got real tired.


I knew I was nearing the end of the course when I saw/heard the crowd on the side of the trail. Their cheering gave me a second wind and I rode the last downhill section with some gusto, aggressively charging drops, chunder and sand on my way to the finish climb. The final climb was absolutely brutal. I had been riding at race pace for the previous 21 minutes over some of the roughest terrain I had ever been on. At this point, the race was no longer enjoyable as my body was burning. I could not get any air to my lungs and even my arms were full of lactic acid. I was not thinking about anything else other than finishing strong. I pushed hard right through the line and went for a long spin trying to catch my breath up the slow grade past all the cars and people.


My finishing time was 21 minutes 57 seconds. Quick enough to put me into third place. As the next 5 riders came in, none of them put in a time faster than mine and I was able to hold onto a podium spot. Particle came very close to knocking me off as I believe he was within a minute of me (correct me if I’m wrong).


After it was all over and I was driving back to Salt Lake with my 3rd place pint glass, I had a shit eating grin and real sense of pride. After crashing big two times this summer and missing out on some great riding and racing, I had finally put together a solid month of training and had a fantastic first race. I think I have found a real good type of race to suit my set of riding skills and I will most definitely be racing a lot next summer.


Thanks again to all the nice people I met this weekend, it really helped me out to be able to sit and chat with people before the race.

[monkeywrenchMoose]

Woah. Sorry for the super long post, that turned into a first race diary sort of thing.

Hopefully that isn't too much of a wall of text.

[Particle]

Killer writeup! Thanks, now I don't have to do it... heh.

[DerJaeger]

Hopefully that isn't too much of a wall of text.

Hell, no. That was a great read! Might even persuade a few of the rest of us to join in.

[TheProf]

Your writeup was great and much the same experience for me. Like you I got my racing cherry popped and will be back for more!

I wasn't as adventurous (or as fast!) so I stuck to sport class. Had made an earlier run and thought I'd give the notch a go but at race time I just bailed and ran down it. I thought my heart was going to beat out of my chest and my lungs were going to explode a few times but kept plugging away, hoping that nobody would pass me since we started at 1 minute intervals. Missed a few of my planned lines both climbing and descending but managed to keep it together with no carnage or mechanicals.

Early morning work duties on Monday meant we had to roll before the DH was finished and couldn't hit the awards either. What an amazing day though: dirt was perfect, weather was beautiful, riding was wicked fun. Very cool to meet a bunch of you and catch up with others. Cheers!

[SkiJunky05]

What a most excellent weekend in Moab! Had a great time meeting some new people and getting some good riding in. Even saw a unicorn!

I've been going through my GoAmateur footage...and it is pretty unwatchable. The footie is really bouncy, which is weird, because these trails were totally buffed. Meanwhile, here is an entertaining clip from my super d preride on Saturday evening:

[beaterdit]

This just in: monkeywrenchmoose is a super D phenom.

Also, rideit edged out JoshP by a mere 1 second on a 26-minute race!

Such a fun weekend and race, thanks to everyone who made it so rad.

http://chilebikes.com/news/2010/11/01/race-results/

Damn, nice work guys!

And Dfinn took 2nd in the sport downhill.

I might have been on the [sport] super-D podium had I not headed down Fins n Things. AND missed almost all my planned lines from inspection. Oh well, that's racing, it's been a while.

Oh well, I won't go that way next year.

Awesome weekend overall, definitely be back next year.

[rideit]

If we run the numbers, I am guessing that 1/3 of the entire shebang were mags....

[SkiJunky05]

Hah, that's probably true, Rideit!

I'd also like to point out that BabyBear was one of the few women that stepped up to race. (I know AltaGirl was sidelined...) She took about 8 minutes off her super D time from last year and was just a few minutes back from the top girl (who was entered in Pro). She also smoked the ladies' DH, coming down with the fastest time. Yea!

[rideit]

Hard-Court!

[beaterdit]

Yeah Court would have taken the pro DH by 12 secs if she had entered that class!

[powderwhore]

Another year and another flat tire!

Was impressed with myself for almost riding the notch and for holding Krispy off for as long as I did. Felt as though I was riding well until the dreaded hiss of a pinch flat. Thanks to AG for the gear help! Need to figure out a tubless rim/tire setup that won't fail me.

Hope a few more races work with my schedule next year cause I really enjoy 'em.