Held Up

     The hunt for a new mountain bike got a lot more serious as the weather began to change. It was time for racing and I was very motivated coming off a good winter of training and the progress I have seen within myself over the past few months. I felt like it was finally time. I could justify spending the money for a new bike because I was working hard in training. I was meeting or exceeding my goals. I accepted the fact that sponsor help was not coming and it was up to me. So I worked my tail off all winter to save up the extra money.

     I had been set on a Trek Superfly, but Trek is no longer making the full suspension version of the Superfly tha I want. I found a few of the 2015 models still available, but still waffled around on whether I wanted to buy that bike without riding it. I spent some time trying to get my hands on a demo bike, but was unsuccessful. The reason I leaned towards that bike was that it has a similar suspension design to the Titus Racer-X I have now and love so much.

New lid for the race season. It's my first time ever owning a Bell helmet. This is the Bell Gage.

     In the meantime, a new roadblock came up. We had given up on finding a house after the last one fell through. The market has become very competitive in the middle Tennessee area over the past year and driven the prices up dramatically since we first started looking. The market has almost priced us out completely. It was not from lack of trying that we have not found a house. We have looked at many, but they just didn't feel right. My gut was right on most of them. Many of the houses we were serious about had some kind of major issue just after sale, like septic issues and roof leaks. They clearly were not the right ones for us and we did right to listen to our feelings. As we gave up all hope, I got a message from a friend who had decided to move. He knew we were in the market and wanted to offer it to us first.

     We quickly arranged for a visit to check things out. It had many perks. It's right down the street from my parents...which can be good and bad. It'll be good to be close to them and to all my weight equipment that I keep in their garage. I spend a lot of time over there so being so close will be nice. We just wonder how often my Dad will be hanging out at our house if we are within walking distance! Perhaps the biggest thing that caught my eye was that his property backs up to the property that our backyard trail is on. I would be able to cut a trail right from our back porch and connect into my loop. That will be awesome! No more driving needed to get to the trail. I didn't want to base my whole purchase on the trail though, so I was critical of the rest of the property, but it looked really good. It's a very nice house with a comfortable feel. There's a huge garage that will be nice for bike storage among other things. Another good thing is that I know most of the neighbors. They've known me since I was a kid. Maybe we can raise our family right where I was raised.

    We liked it so much that we put in an offer the first night. Their realtor gave us a bit of a hassle, but overall things went smoothly and our offer was accepted. We got a really good price for this type of property in the current market. I knew we could not pass on this opportunity. We got all the inspections done the next week and everything looked good. The house, like me, is about to be 30 years old and it's still in great condition. Nothing major to be concerned with out of the inspection. Finally, we may have found us a place to live!

    Chickasaw was a big race for me this year. It was the first race of the season and I was actually excited about it this year. The last few years I felt like I was not ready to race this early in the year. This year though, I felt ready. I was not as good as I want to be, not what I consider Pro-race ready, but I feel I'm as good as I can be with coming off yet another injury. Everything has gone well with recovery and I have worked hard, not missing a single workout. I've been setting new PRs on the local road climbs and able to repeat my efforts several times in the same ride.

I love seeing the buttercups each Spring. It's the first color that appears on the landscape and a sign that the warmer temperatures are not too far away.

Field of buttercups

    The week of the race was a rough one. I was busy with all the house dealings, going to inspections and signing papers until my eyes were crossed. Then I had a couple of rough days at work. I guess I have been doing too good of a job with the cookie dough lately. Now I'm getting sent places to unload the trucks by myself. You step up one time when somebody gets sick or stuck in traffic and then they think you can do it every time. I had a nightmare day with more lifting than I care to think about again. It was supposed to be a four hour day that turned into 10 hours of constant lifting and carrying. I was sore for a few days and it destroyed my legs. I couldn't believe how tired I was on Friday and even still on Saturday before the race. I did a ride at home late on Saturday to loosen up the legs and found that I actually had some good legs despite not feeling so great. I almost set a new PR on the backyard trail without even trying. And the trail still has leaves on it which really slows lap times. It was a good sign the day before the season opener.

     Sunday morning was chilly, but dry. This was the first dry Chickasaw Trace Classic I have raced in many years. We started early at 9am, so the temp was just breaking into the 40s when we took off for three laps on the 9-mile course. TBRA has combined the Pro, Cat. 1 19-29 and Cat. 1 30-39 classes this year, so we had a big start group. The change in classes was made due to low turnout, but this race was far from low turnout and we had nearly 30 riders making the dash down the grassy hill on the start. I had a feeling it would be crowded so I lined up early to ensure I got a front row start. The classes were combined for the TBRA points series, but we were still having separate payout provided by the Columbia Cycling Club.

Pro/Cat. 1 19-39 Start Line

Photo by Janie Wells

Start

    I got a good jump off the line and actually backed off before the first turn. I did not want to lead into the woods. I wanted to follow to keep myself under control so I wouldn't blow up on the first lap. My only question about this race was could I run three full laps at race pace? I wasn't sure I could last three laps, so the best way to combat that is hold back some early in the race. I got swarmed a little as we reached the entrance to the trail. I was on the far inside grazing the bushes, but someone came inside me. He had to be totally in the bushes. There was not enough room for all of us and he plowed right into me. His handlebar hit me in the back so hard that I shot past two riders and went into the woods in 4th. I had to take a look back to see who that was because that was a very aggressive move for this early in the race. The rider was behind me in the first section and came past me at the first opportunity. There wasn't much time to pass and he had to cut over before he cleared me. He hit my front wheel really hard and I almost went down. It was a crazy start to the race.

    The group stopped up on the first hill, which features some nasty rocks to negotiate. Carson Beckett made a good surge up the right over the worst of the rocks and roots, picking up several positions while the rest of us just tried to keep moving in the line of riders. Some gaps opened on the next section and then we regrouped on the River Trail, breaking a group of 7 off the front as we reached the first long field section. I was expecting the race to explode at this point, but nobody wanted to pull into the wind. That let another group catch up to us. Jeremy Chambers was in that group and immediately went to the front and on the attack.

Jeremy Chambers leading the group at the end of the River Field on lap 1

Kyle Tiesler leading a chase group

Zdenek Fiebinger

    The pace was high and quickly cut the group back down to less than 10. We were going fast, but I was comfortable. That's the most comfortable I have been on a race start in years. I was chatting with Carson on the climbs and just waiting for time to make a move. In the next field section, there were more attacks and two riders began to get a gap. The alarm bells started to go off for the two pre-race favorites, Cory Rimmer and Carson. They both shot by the Union College rider ahead of them on the first of the two big climbs on course and quickly bridged to the two leaders. I got held up behind the Union rider for a while, then gave up a few spots on the dump climb, which is the biggest climb on course. I didn't lose time on the climb like in the past, but several riders were able to outsprint me over the top and beat me to the descent. I gave up two to three bike lengths on the climb this year instead of the 20 seconds I lost last year.

Simon Lewis had a great ride today

     I was held up in line the rest of lap 1 and into lap 2. We were now over a minute back from the four riders out front. I was content to sit in for a while as I did not feel I had any shot at Cory or Carson. I was confident I could take a top five finish if I was patient and saved something for the last lap. There were five of us together through the River Trail, then Jeremy and another rider began to get a gap. I was last in line and figured it was finally time to go as my top 5 was riding away. I attacked near the end of the field section and thought I had ridden away from the other two, but then the Union rider, who was the one that had hit me twice earlier, came sprinting back past me. It irritated me because he had held us up so much in the last four miles. I did not give him any slack and we went side by side into the narrow bridge at the end of the field. I was hoping he would back off, but he did not and I had to grab the brakes at the last second to keep from hitting the rail on the bridge. Then he totally sat up and let the gap open up again. I asked him many times if I could go by and no answer. I tried to go by after the creek crossing on the Ravine Loop and he blocked me. I rammed his rear tire and gave him an earful up the next climb. I'd had enough! I couldn't get by even with several attempts. I was wasting lots of energy. I realized I was losing my rhythm because of my frustration, so I dropped back a few seconds and calmed myself down before coming back to him and trying again.

Jeremy on the Ravine Loop

Me behind my trail block

     A few more attempts to pass were unsuccessful. I destroyed my legs sprinting off the trail trying to make a pass. I was much faster in every area other than the climbs. I could hold his wheel, but I couldn't come by him to get the spot. He would sprint all-out through every open spot and over the top of each hill, then recover once there was not enough room for me to pass. It was a clever tactic that was working to hold the 7th spot, but it was really pissing me off. I was starting to think it was personal because he had let others pass him without putting up any sort of fight.

Still behind this guy. This is when I gave him some space to calm myself down a little

Kyle moved up through the field throughout the race

Still behind

     Kyle Tiesler was charging through the field after a slower start and he came up to us near the end of lap 2. Kyle was clearly faster and I was getting fatigued, so I let Kyle go by. Union guy also let him go, which killed me because I still couldn't get past him! By the time we ended the second lap, we had been joined again by the rider that started the lap with us. We were now four minutes behind the leaders and two minutes off Jeremy.

     The two riders with me seemed to be tired, so I attacked them on the grassy climb before the singletrack starting lap 3. This time they couldn't fight back enough to hold me back. The Union guy tried, but I beat him to the trail and quickly got away on the next descent. I gave it my all now to try to bridge to the three that were two minutes ahead. My legs were tired, but I had something left to push hard with. Dustin Burkeen and Bobby Jones were coming up behind us just 30 seconds back, so I had to get on the gas!

Photo by Ann Beckett

Cory Rimmer and Carson Beckett leading

Carson

     I gave my all across the river field and felt powerful, but Dustin and Bobby still came across to me. They had caught and passed the two riders I dropped, then blew my doors off. I tried to stay with them and managed to for a few miles. Bobby eventually got away from Dustin, then I fell back from Dustin on the last two climbs of the loop. I gave what I had, but my legs were shot at this point. I was hoping for a top 5, but I wound up 9th in Pro and 10th overall. I was very disappointed with that. I felt like I lost sooooo much time behind that one rider and then my legs just went out on me. I think the bad work week had a lot to do with my legs giving out prematurely. I really felt like I was doing nothing the first half of the race and I don't think they should have been that tired at that point. But that's what happens when you come into a race already fatigued.

Photo by Ann Beckett

Done

Photo by Columbia Cycling Club

    Congrats to Carson as he won the duel with Cory for the win. After the race, Carson persuaded me to take his Specialized Epic S-Works for a spin. He has been trying to get me to buy a new bike for a long time now. I could tell right away that I liked this bike! I was getting big air and ripping the trail without even having my feet clipped into his pedals. This was the first 29er bike I have ever ridden that I really liked. The Epic also has a similar design to my Racer-X. That test ride is probably going to cost me a lot of money!

     We have some video posted below, shot by Dina. She did a great job of running through the weeds with my Dad to give me time splits and shoot video. She even caught the moment when Union guy and I were having our little battle in the river field.

Video: 2016 Chickasaw Trace Classic

     We hung around for the later races in the day to see more good racing that led to several sprint finishes. I saw one of the hardest crashes I have ever seen out of one of the Cat. 3 riders. He went over the bars on the last downhill and slammed onto his back. I just knew he was hurt, but he got up and shook off the dust on his way to the finish line. There are pictures of those later races posted below. This race was a great way to kick off the race season!

Grant Wilson

Jon Harrison on his way to the win in the 50+ class

Rick Harris and Kenny Marshall battling on lap 2

Kevin Bohanon

Logan Luker destroyed the Singlespeed race

Sprint for 3rd in 50+, taken by Rick Harris over Kenny Marshall

     I had heard there was a truck floating in the river near the trail. I was too busy to see it during the race, but at the end of the day we walked down the trail and found it. The story was the guy had just bought the truck, drive-out tag still on the window, and forgot to set the parking brake at the boat ramp...

     Next up is a week off for Easter, then the season gets rolling with a double-header for me with Sunny King Crit. and SERC #2 in Tsali. Thanks for reading!