2022 Maggot Bike Racing Thread

[Whiteroom_Guardian]

Fam goals!!!

[bennymac]

Family enduro I love it!

[altachic]

Serz that’s quite a fam shred!

It sure was! This past weekend will absolutely be one of the higlights of my life together with DTM and Sam. It's not everyday you get to race with your own family, have them cheer you on at the finish AND have Mom and Dad take first.
It.was.epic.

[Dantheman]

Results got posted online today and further review yielded some awesomeness. Turns out AC beat the women's Cat 1 winner (by almost 1.5 minutes, and she started before the hail!) and thus had the female FTD. Like. A. Boss.

It turns out another guy finished ahead of me so I got 6th overall instead of 5th. However, that guy was Crossfit legend and all-around bad ass Chris Spealler and I was only about 40 seconds behind him. Finishing 40 seconds off Chris Spealler, who said he "wanted to puke" at the finish, feels like a win to me.

BMX gold medalist Connor Fields was also one of the racers. He finished mid-pack, but he's recovering from a serious TBI in last year's Olympics. It was cool to see him out riding bikes and having fun.

[nortonwhis]

Couple of shots from some of our World Cup Wednesdays in the bike park. So fun/scary/anxiety fueling having DH racing back.

[babybear]

It sure was! This past weekend will absolutely be one of the higlights of my life together with DTM and Sam. It's not everyday you get to race with your own family, have them cheer you on at the finish AND have Mom and Dad take first.
It.was.epic.

Results got posted online today and further review yielded some awesomeness. Turns out AC beat the women's Cat 1 winner (by almost 1.5 minutes, and she started before the hail!) and thus had the female FTD. Like. A. Boss.

It turns out another guy finished ahead of me so I got 6th overall instead of 5th. However, that guy was Crossfit legend and all-around bad ass Chris Spealler and I was only about 40 seconds behind him. Finishing 40 seconds off Chris Spealler, who said he "wanted to puke" at the finish, feels like a win to me.

BMX gold medalist Connor Fields was also one of the racers. He finished mid-pack, but he's recovering from a serious TBI in last year's Olympics. It was cool to see him out riding bikes and having fun.

FKNA nice work!

Couple of shots from some of our World Cup Wednesdays in the bike park. So fun/scary/anxiety fueling having DH racing back.

where is this?

[nortonwhis]

where is this?

Whistler park.

[nortonwhis]

Couple more DH shots. So fun!

[Terrapin Ben]

How's the riding in Sun Valley? Pretty intrigued in this race this coming weekend 07/16: https://superduperd.itsyourrace.com/event.aspx?id=15323

Is it worth a 6 hour drive? Is there a dirtbag friendly parking lot/camp site in Sun Valley?

[evasive_MT]

Hey gravel nerds: check this out. It hasn’t gotten enough chatter because most of the local road team has aged out of holding events and they aren’t supporting it very well. A friend of mine is making it happen mostly because he’s really stoked on the route and wants to share it with as many people as he can.

This race has a $1000 purse.

September 11, Last Chance Graveler
Helena, MT

https://lastchancegraveler.com/

[Dantheman]

I bet this will be awesome: https://www.redwoodcoastmtb.org/mad-river-enduro

[Falcon3]

Anybody do the Butte100 today? I heard there were multiple sag checkpoints rather than just the time limit at the ~50 mile mark. I’m considering doing it next year but wondering what times I should be aiming for. Website isn’t specific other than the 50 mile cutoff

[jamal]

Yeah I did the 100. Had a good one- broke 10 hours and got 5th. It hurt a lot the whole time and I feel really bad today. Suppose I should unpack car and wash bike at some point.

For the 50 I think 7 hours is a pretty reasonable time, fastest guys are like 5.

https://competitivetiming.com/results/2022/2251592O

There is an aid station about every 10mi. So for the 50 you go through two before you get to the big climb to the continental divide trail and then two more before the finish. You can leave whatever you want in a gallon bag and then they have water and snacks and stuff at them. Aid station 9 had a pretty good setup yesterday with a a grill going and beers and music and stuff. Too bad I just filled bottles and crammed some gels down and left right away. But I was trying to be faster at the stops, strava shows my stopped time at only like 18min and that probably includes some bits where i had to get off and walk.

[Falcon3]

Killer job going under 10! I rode most of the south loop last year and there’s some difficult climbs in there. Thanks for the beta and congrats

[jamal]

Thanks, i still feel like shit. Doing the 50 I'd skip the first aid station (#7), then eat a snack and get bottle refills at the bottom of basin creek (8). 9 was well stocked and had a party going, then 10 you a bit more water, have a coke and a gel, and can make it to the finish.

Did a write up of my race for elsewhere so here'a a copy paste.

Did that butte race again, it was really hard the whole time.

At one of the friday night races my shock blew up and I finally got that back on Monday after playing shock musical chairs with a few of the lbs owner's bikes for a few weeks. In addition to the repair I had it revalved from linear to digressive valving, with the hopes that it would be more supportive under pedaling forces especially out of the saddle. Turns out yes. Feels great, I don't think I locked it out once yesterday, maybe on a paved road for a bit. So yeah monday I get my bike all prettied up, install the shock, pull the cranks and suspension linkages and clean everything out, new chain and chainring, go to coach nica and fucking crash. stick through the spokes at low speed sends me otb, broken shifter, bunch of new scrapes on frame, dent in helmet, torn glove, ripped up grips, wheels out of true. Cool. But generally everything is fine. apparently I can't make it through a July without crashing. I needed new grips anyway but that was a new poc ventral so I got to buy another one of those last week which was pretty annoying. Thankfully I get a good discount.

Fitness wise this has been kind of a weird seeming year for me. It feels like my riding and training has been pretty inconsistent but I've been seeing some decent results and some good strava segment times, have some good bunches of high volume weeks, some intensity although not as much or as structured as I'd like. Still mostly just riding a lot and not really "training." Went and rode my local trail climb as openers friday and set my fastest time on the hei hei without even really going for it. Also PR'd the xc course climb and a ~4min road climb somewhat recently. So I guess I'm pretty fit. I figured I could improve by a good amount since last year I had a bad crash in early july and then a mini blowup through the middle of the race. I finished 8th in like 10:50, and thought I could be a little closer to 10 hours flat and the podium.

This year to be faster at the aid stations I put drink mix in empty bottles at every one, so that I could just get it filled with water and be ready to go. Last year I had little ziplocks with it and that was kind of annoying and time consuming. I was able to just stop and be like, "please fill that bottle and this bottle thanks" cram a gel or something down my face, and keep rolling. I also skipped a few more this time. I went with tailwind so had about 150-200 calories in a bottle so I didn't have to try to eat quite as much and mostly relied on gummies and gels. I think I also took a bite of a skratch rice bar, had a honey waffle, a handful of chips, some coke, some gummy bears, and a pickle along the way. Plus electrolyte tabs and some ibuprofin.

6am starts are not my favorite. I camped at the start area but then didn't really sleep. Lying on the ground for 8ish hours is rest though right?



This race always starts out absurdly fast and once we got to the first climbing part I opted to not chase the fastest guys like last year and watched what seemed like 10 people ride away from me. No Tinker or Josh Tostado this year, and Max raced the 50 instead, but still a few pros lined up. I felt like I was going pretty good and actually got through the first 2 segments in about the same time as last year without pegging my HR (well not as high). So I was kind of surprised at how many people were in front of me, plus there were more breathing down my neck. At this point, at this speed last year I was sitting like 5th. I was going back and forth with this one guy for a bit who was climbing faster but going slower on the descents. I was never really being held up for long and he let me by once or twice but it's race of mostly trying to go your own speed so it's a little annoying to have someone around you and having to pass and get passed constantly. I caught him going into AS2, stopped for a refill and took off my vest, and then was back on his wheel like 2min later because it was downhill for awhile. So I got past, pushed a bit to stay ahead of him on the next climby bit, got on an extended descent, and was clear. Then could see the next guy in front of me and then passed him at aid station 5 by not stopping. First half is so sandy and mostly moto/atv trails so you're just kind of slogging along, have some annoyingly steep things, have to walk parts, and then trying to surf through sand at high speed on the descents. It felt extra sandy this year.

Got to start/finish/AS6 and was feeling pretty good, unlike last year, because I'd been a little more reasonable early on and had eaten and drank more. Took a minute to eat and refill and catch my breath then that guy rolled through without stopping as I was leaving and we rode together for a bit. We got to the next climb which is fairly mellow on singletrack, I'm behind him and comfortable, then he just kind of slows up and I feel good and can see the next guy so ok I guess I'll go by. Get by the next guy before the top, hit the descent, skip the next aid station, get to number 8 which is at about mile 67. Think, "huh I got here pretty quick," and trying to calculate how long the rest is going to take.

Still feeling good, clean chain, eat a little more, drink a little more, fill bottles, and now it's the shitty part where you climb up to the continental divide trail. I was there for awhile, get on the trail, see guy behind me roll through and not stop. I think, uh, that's not a good idea dude it's like 13mi and 3k feet and 2 hours to the next one. But it encourages me to keep the pace up. Start catching 50mi racers. Pass a guy walking, see a red 100 plate which means, oh, actually he's in my race. Legs start getting unhappy twinges. Get to next aid station, guy had got back on his bike and chased me and rolled in pretty much right after me so I hurry up and get out of there. It would have been nice to stick around for a bit- they had hot dogs and bacon and beers and a fun party vibe going.

This is like mile 80, and there's still a big section of climbing to do where you hit the high point of the course at about 8k feet and are on the CDT to the finish. it's fairly rocky and has various shortish climbs and decents along the way back to homestake pass. Legs are unhappy. This is hard. it's hot. I'm yelling fuck you legs, fuck you rocks, fuck you sun, have to walk up some things, but at least on the downhills I can kind of rest and go fast. Probably faster than I should given the level of fatigue but it's free time as long as you stay on your bike. A lighter hardtail would be nice on a lot of this course but on the last 20mi when you're tired and sore and the trail gets rougher the hei hei is perfect. Passing lots of 50mi racers. Looking at distance, time, avg speed, and realizing I'm really close to that 10 hour even pace. Keep it going, fly down to the last aid station, people are getting out of my way. Quick stop, one more climb before you descend to homestake and the finish. Pushing the limits of cramping, backing off, standing to use different muscles, actually breathing hard. Pass my friends Andrew and Mike doing the 50 and get out a "hi". Get to the top and it's like, oh shit this is going to be close. Like 25min to go 5mi, but mostly all downhill. Pushing the descent even harder, pedaling out of corners, out of the saddle on the slight rises. Ignoring my HR page, ignoring my legs, just watching the time get closer to 10 and the distance get closer to 100 and wondering what's going to happen first. And trying not to crash. Come out onto the pavement, sprint more, cross the line in what appears to be about 9:59:40. But got a chip time of 9:59:06 somehow. 5th overall.



https://www.strava.com/activities/7517578121/

Compared to last year my riding parts were definitely faster but not by as much as I though, especially the middle when I was feeling like shit and thought I was barely moving. Only a few minutes here and there across the board, but I suppose that still adds up over a whole day. Time difference was about half from stopping less, and half from going faster. I only had like 18 minutes stopped time compared to 45ish last year. Still felt like I was going way too slow on the climbs in the last 20mi and could barely handle HR over 145ish. So maybe there's more time in it with a few more calories and electrolytes and drink mix. Skipping aid stations meant I did not get a fresh bottle of mix at those and having some electrolyte tabs along early would have helped. REI had these saltstick fast chews which are kind of not really great, it's like a salty chewable multivitamin and I think i'd rather just have the pill format. But having two of those at all the last aid stations was definitely helpful. I also kept picking up gels and then not really eating them so I had like 5 of them stuffed back there by the end. It was also annoying that I couldn't get my standard salted watermelon shot blocks. The long sleeve format is a lot easier to eat while moving than the bags like skratch or gu, especially when you cut then in half and have two pre-opened sleeves of 3.

Winner was this guy Chris who is some sort of a pro that mostly races gravel and recently got 4th at unbound xl. 2nd was Carter, a pro mtb racer from bozeman, 3rd a guy Matt from Michigan who I don't know anything about but seems to have real sponsors and travels around racing, 4th Adam from bozeman who got 4th last year and apparently used to be a pro roadie and also does a lot of ski racing.

[Tailwind]

Has anyone on here done the Telluride 100? I'm signed up for it this weekend and I have not had time to pre-ride any of the course. Looks like a fast 100 mile course... with a lot of climbing.

[Shredeagle]

Good read and great achievement Jamal. Way to go man!!

[thefortrees]

Anybody racing BME@ Brian head? Rolling out there a week early to acclimate to the elevation and get in a few days of riding before the race. No idea what to expect. Any must-pre-ride suggestions?


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[east or bust]

Course released for MES Whitefish this Saturday!

This is going to be a fun one!


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[Dantheman]

Anybody racing BME@ Brian head? Rolling out there a week early to acclimate to the elevation and get in a few days of riding before the race. No idea what to expect. Any must-pre-ride suggestions?


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You'll want to do a day at the bike park, Dark Hollow, Blowhard, and maybe Bunker Creek if you can swing it. Wish I was doing it, should be awesome!

[thefortrees]

You'll want to do a day at the bike park, Dark Hollow, Blowhard, and maybe Bunker Creek if you can swing it. Wish I was doing it, should be awesome!

Guess we’ve got a few days of shuttling in our future! Thanks for the recommendations, elevation profile looks primo

[east or bust]

Whitefish marks my second race in the books. This one went a lot smoother than the Helenduro.

Practice was interesting, started off lapping the stage 1 track then went to the top to ride Runaway Train for the first time. Flatted on the first rock feature and couldn't get a patch seated. There must have been a nasty lurker hiding in that left line as at least 10 people flatted in the same spot on Friday. Hiked back to the top and downloaded thinking I'd be able to get it fixed at the mtn. Wrong. Lesson learned, always carry spare tires for races. Luckily my GF came with and volunteered to take my bike to town while I continued practice on her S2 Stumpy, which I was really [pleasantly] surprised with. At least got 1 practice lap in on every trail.

Race day went pretty well all things considered. A couple things learned/solidified...
1 - Might as well not watch the really fast riders dropping in front of you. Hard to tell how fast you look when you're riding and I think watching others is a good way to psych yourself out. Really tried to just focus on my runs from the previous day and keep it at a pace I could still remain smooth.
2 - It's a lot harder shifting gears over chop when your forearms are tired at the end of a run than one would think.
3 - Ride with tried and true gear. Had a bit of a wardrobe malfunction on stage 2 that cost me probably 15-20 seconds. Somehow my shorts came unbuttoned right at the beginning of Cyndi's Loppers and remained around my ankles for the rest of that stage. lol




Couple more courtesy of the lady
Stage 1

Stage 4




Big thank you to the MES volunteers for putting this race together. There was some limp dick energy coming from some of the riders about missing a turn or something on stage 2. The trails were signed and it was pretty clear in the email sent on Wednesday that it's the rider's responsibility to be familiar with the course. The sour grapes were a bit dramatic...

Looking forward to Rendezvous in a few weeks!

[evasive_MT]

Thanks- glad you had fun! I heard a few people slipped out of the racer meeting early to get a jump on the transfer to stage 1. They missed the part where the ends of stages 2 and 4 were described and actually pointed out, within 100 yards from where we were standing.

Whitefish can be a challenging course because there’s so many junctions, and there’s usually one or two each year who get off course and complain about it. This was one to remember, though. On the other hand, I talked to a number of people who rode it completely blind, first time at the park, who thought everything was marked just fine.

I’m looking forward to Rendezvous too. Always a fun weekend. Even when it snows.

[Norseman]

Had a bit of a wardrobe malfunction on stage 2 that cost me probably 15-20 seconds. Somehow my shorts came unbuttoned right at the beginning of Cyndi's Loppers and remained around my ankles for the rest of that stage. lol

Baha, sorry man. That is pretty funny

[Whiteroom_Guardian]

Nice work east or bust! Takes so damn long to learn all the trick of enduro.......I'm still learning and this would have been my 9th season racing enduro.

-Yep, always have spare tires in the truck. Even if they are old and worn out.

-Always wear shorts with some kind of belt and never trust buttons etc!