After Tsali, I had a few rides at home to continue tweaking the new bike. I got my tire pressure dialed down to the single psi with the tire gauge. When you really focus on tire pressure you can totally tell the difference between 1-2 psi, both in the amount of traction and in tire flex. That’s my only complaint about the Epic so far. The Specialized S-Works Fast Trak tires that come on it are very thin in the sidewall and I can feel them flexing through the corners, which has been a little difficult to adjust to. Since this is my first 29er, I have no stash of tires at home to pull from so I’m left to depend on the stock tires until my Maxxis tires for this season come in. They’ve been ordered, but have not arrived just yet.
Rainbow at the farm
It tried to become a double
I still felt very fatigued most of the week after Tsali. It has been a roller coaster of emotions lately between the happiness and stresses of getting this new house, the joy of the new bike, good races, bad races, work fatigue and dealing with a break-in. It has all taken its toll on me. My original plan was to stay home for my next race, catching two local road events with the Hell of the South Road Race and Cedar Hill Criterium, but when the end of the week came, I just wanted to ride mountain bikes. So I opted to travel to Conyers, GA for the third round of the SERC Series instead. I have always wanted to race Conyers, but have never been able to go. It was finally time to check this one off my list of places to go. The SERC Series overall was a priority for me this year, but after missing the first round in Florida, not scoring well at Tsali and planning to miss the Ft. Payne, AL round later in the year, it looked like my series hopes were already out the window. Conyers was the first round of the Georgia State Championship Series, which runs alongside the SERC Series for most of the season, so I began to turn my attention to this series.
The Georgia International Horse Park in Conyers hosted the mountain bike, equestrian and part of the decathlon events during the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. I was excited to ride the course used for the very first Olympic mountain bike event. We drove down Saturday morning and took all afternoon to pre-ride the course and explore some of the old trails around the park. I was a little disappointed to see that we were not racing on the trails used for the Olympics. Most of those trails are gone. The steep, rough hills now replaced by flowing singletrack. I understand that everyone wants flow now and that the Olympic trails weren’t really made to last forever, but I did really want to do some of the climbs that Bart Brentjens powered over on his way to the gold medal. The race course was a super fast 6.5-miles, made up mostly of flowing singletrack with only two short, steep climbs. After taking two laps on course, I was able to find some of the old Olympic climbs on the other side of the park. They were tough as expected, which is probably why that side of the park is not ridden quite so much. There was also an open rock area on that side of the park that was pretty fun to ride through. You could take any line you wanted as you navigated the rock slab.
Having fun on one of the ramps along the course
Fun turn on wood
Shannon descending down toward the river
Yellow River
The rock slab trail
Shannon on the rock
Dina on the rock
What's left of the wooden Olympic rings inside the Georgia International Horse Park. Time has taken it's toll on the wood. Still cool to see though.
Equestrian competitions were going on at the horse park
Dina went with us on this trip. She and Shannon rode almost three hours with me on Saturday before we finally called it a day. We had booked a room at the Hawthorn Suites right across the street from the race site. I usually won’t stay in a hotel that expensive, but I had some rewards points built up so we used them for a free night in a King suite with a full kitchen and Jacuzzi. I had never stayed in a room with a Jacuzzi so I was kind of excited about that. I felt some post-ride soaking about to happen. The full kitchen would be nice for cooking a real dinner. We had tried to check-in early before our ride. It was only 20 minutes before the scheduled check-in time and the hotel said they offered early check-in, but the lady at the desk would not let us do it. She was rude and said the early check-in is offered “but not today.” Of course. She didn’t even check to see if our room was ready. Shift change was right at check-in time so I think she just didn’t want to check us in. Thankfully, her replacement was much more friendly.
We get up to our room and it’s not what we had booked. It was a queen bed with half kitchen and no Jacuzzi. While I didn’t need a Jacuzzi, I was a little upset that it was not what I had booked. We had even called the day before to confirm this reservation and they said it was good. So we call the front desk only to be told they were full and this is all we could have for the night. That really made me mad. I feel like they bumped us down because we were using our points and not paying for this room. Buyer beware if you use Wyndham Rewards points. I would have been less upset if they had informed me at the time of check-in, but they tried to pull one over on me hoping I would not notice. They were not even apologetic about booking our room to someone else. It’ll be the last time I ever stay there, especially considering that you can camp at the race site for free. I was not aware of that and will be in a tent in that field next year for sure.
Besides the booking issue we had a good stay and got a lot of rest for the race. It was nice to be so close to the race. We didn’t have to move the car all weekend. I rolled out of the room on my bike and right onto the trail for my warm-up. You needed a warm-up for sure today. It was a chilly morning with the temp hanging around 40 at daybreak. By start time at 9:30 it was close to 50 degrees, still cold for an April race in Georgia, but cold starts seem to be the theme for this season.
I liked the course. It was going to be very fast for our four laps. It began with a quarter-mile dash down a dirt road to the trail. The dirt road was wide and gradually uphill, getting more difficult the closer you got to the woods. The initial singletrack was very fast and twisty, mostly covered with pine needles making for some slick corners. Then came some fast climbing, followed by a more technical descent that took you to the bottom of the first significant climb. This climb was the toughest on the loop. It was steep and lasted about a minute. It was just long enough that I couldn’t stand and sprint the whole thing, but I felt too slow when I settled into it seated. A fast descent followed the climb. Then the trail rolled around the back hillside along a small river before the second big climb, which was out in the open along a pipeline. Again, it was steep, but slightly shorter than the first climb so I could stand all the way up this one. It was followed by a fast, choppy descent and a few technical rooty sections before the trail dumped you out into a field for a long open stretch around the perimeter of the field to the finish area. There was a big ditch crossing to contend with just before the finish line.
I was a little nervous about the start with it being that long to get to the singletrack. I expected the pace to be just as crazy as it was a Tsali and I did not get to the woods in a good position there. I was surprised to see only four Pros on the start line and just five Cat. 1 riders. We did a combined start and it was fast as expected. I jumped to fourth wheel and just tried to hold the wheel in front of me. The rider that got the hole shot sprinted out of the saddle for the first minute, then completely sat up and swung off the front. I held the wheel in front of me and reached the trail in third. After the first section, we already had a gap over the rest of the group. We were not going that fast, but the pine needles in the corners were causing a split in the group.
Pro/Cat. 1 19-39 start. I'm fourth wheel and suffering!
photo by GoneRiding.com
About two miles into the loop, I felt my back tire getting soft. I opted to just throw a CO2 cartridge into it and hope the Stan’s would seal the leak. I stopped on the side, added the air and hopped back on just off the back of the last rider in line. But the air was coming out faster than I expected. Then I saw the hole in the sidewall. I had a big cut. There was no way Stan’s would seal this hole, especially not on the side of such a flimsy tire.
I had to stop again and put in a tube. My stopping point just happened to be where Shannon and Dina were standing so they got to witness a flat change. It was my first flat change using a thru-axle system, which took a little more time. It took some real effort to break the tire from the rim. I inserted the new tube and used a gel packet to patch the whole in the sidewall. Just as I put the last part of the tire back onto the rim, I saw my gel packet fall away from the hole. Dang it! I had to take the tire off again and reposition the patch. It was much more difficult this time with Stan’s all over everything making it extra-slick. By the time I fought getting the tire off and on again, and got my wheel back on, I had lost 11 minutes. It was awful. I will practice that and make sure I never lose that kind of time again. I knew my race was over, but I needed to hammer four good laps. Besides, you never know what kind of issues might befall the other riders ahead. There’s always a chance you can catch somebody.
Leaders come by Shannon and Dina. I was hooked onto these two before the flat
Pete Edmondson
By the time I got back on course, all classes from the Yellow Wave had passed me so I had a lot of traffic to get through. I was only the last rider on course for about a minute before I started passing the Cat. 2 Women. They were very nice and let me by quickly. Everyone had seen me on the side of the trail and knew I would be coming at some point so they were at least halfway expecting it when I came up on them asking to get by.
Nathan Haslick
Me back on course and chasing
My first lap was obviously slow, but my ride time was as fast as the leaders. I kept cranking it on the second lap and ran another good lap time despite heavy traffic . I crushed the pipeline climb every lap. I was passing multiple people up it which was just adding to my surge of adrenaline. My legs were starting to feel it on the third lap. The trail crossed the pipeline several times per lap, which made it easy for Shannon to watch the race and give me time checks. I was chopping off over two minutes a lap on everyone ahead of me except the leader. But you can do the math on that one. Two minutes a lap with three remaining laps race does not make up for an 11-minute deficit. I was pleased with my effort as I still had a little left the final lap and was able to run fairly consistent laps all day. While I didn’t catch anyone, I did get in a good workout. I even got in a little running after pinch-flatting on the last bit of singletrack just before the finish. I launched the last set of roots as you exit into the field and didn’t quite clear that last root. I had about a five-minute run to the finish. No DNF for me today despite all the flat problems. I cannot wait to get my Maxxis tires!
Alex Meucci took the Pro win
Meucci on the first big climb on the loop
Wild Bill
Dina decided to race today. It was her first race in many years. She was bitten by the bike bug this winter and has been doing quite a bit of riding. She’s having fun and losing weight. I didn’t know if she would race today or not, but she was on the start line when I ran across the finish line. I watched her start, then ran to the car to change my flat so I could get into the woods and watch her race. I missed most of her first lap, but got to watch her battle with Alyssa McClain the entire second lap, which is very cool because Alyssa is a young rider from our neck of the woods. She lives up in Benton, KY, which is not too far from us. They traded the 5th position several times during the race. Dina was a little better on the gradual climbs, but Alyssa would close the gap on the descents. Dina ran out of legs on the steep climbs near the end and was not able to open any sort of gap before the finish. They hit the final field stretch together. Both put in a few seated accelerations before Alyssa finally got a little gap on Dina and held her off by a few bike lengths to take the 5th spot. Dina did great in her first race back. They were a good ways off the winner, but the top three were in another zip code the entire race. They look ready for Cat. 2 with the kind of lap times they were turning. Two laps was a long race for a Cat. 3 Women’s race and I thought Dina did well handling that distance.
Cat. 3 Women start
photo by GoneRiding.com
Dina (513) just after the start. She looks way to relaxed!
photo by GoneRiding.com
Dina near the end of her first lap
Dina and Alyssa McClain together on lap 2
Dina had to walk this climb while Alyssa had the legs left to ride it
Alyssa McClain
Side-by-side on the last climb racing for 5th
Together in the last field section
Dina comes in for 6th after a good battle with Alyssa McClain
Video: Race clips from SERC #2 - Conyers, GA
Up above the Red River near Clarksville, TN
Stopping for trains happens often when riding around Adams, TN
Video: Running of the cows. This has happened every time I have ridden by this farm for at least 10 years.
The Bells Bend Time Trial Series in Nashville also kicked off in April. It’s a Wednesday night series with one race per month. I'm not a huge fan of road time trials, but I know they help me develop power so I do them to get better in my weakest area. I got over the first race late thanks to work, but had a good race despite very little warm-up. I ran a 31:31, which is my fastest ever time on this course. That's a 22.9 mph average speed. I’m racing Merckx class again, which means no aero equipment, so I’m not breaking any course records or anything, but I am setting PRs and that’s what matters to me. I’m hoping to work on my time trialing throughout the year and hit my goal of going sub-30 minutes on this 12 mile course before the year is out. The 31:31 landed me 6th place on the day in Merckx. My Dad and Dina also raced. It was good to be able to get them out to a mid-week event. Like I said before, I think Dina is hooked!
Me at Bells Bend TT #1
photo by Nashville Local Cycling
photo by Nashville Local Cycling
My Dad
photo by Nashville Local Cycling
He was obviously not concerned with being aero considering he wore baggy shorts.
photo by Nashville Local Cycling
Thanks for reading the blog and putting up with my very belated posts. It has been a crazy start to the year, but I am finally getting settled into some recent changes in life and will get caught up soon. We have had some good experiences this season that I can’t wait to share them with everyone!
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