Maxxis delivery
I had not planned to race on the last two weekends of April, but the new tires had me curious for a test session at somewhere other than our home trail. I had to know just how tough these tires were going to be. I took them to Hamilton Creek in Nashville for the second race of the Trail Builder Time Trial Series hosted by SORBA Mid TN. Hammy is very rocky and rough. If my tires could hold up against the smashing they would get at race-pace on that trail they would be good anywhere.
It has been many years since I have ridden Hammy. My Dad took me there when I was younger. It was actually one of the first places I rode a mountain bike at, which is a tough place to learn, but I loved the rocks and the BMX track they have there. I have good memories of those rides as a kid, like when my Dad was going to show the kids how to jump the big triple jump on the BMX course. He didn’t make it. I still remember how hard Dina and I laughed when he ate dirt! I was maybe 10 and Dina six years old when that happened. Dina still laughs pretty hard every time my Dad hurts himself on something.
Another middle Tennessee rainbow. We have seen quite a few of these recently.
My track record for racing at Hammy is good. I was 1-for-1 going into this race after winning an XC race here around 2008 or so. It’s a good course for me with the tight singletrack and constant technical features. I had not ridden there since that race in 2008, but it had not changed much. We just rode the loop backwards for the TT. The guys at registration were having problems getting people signed up. Somebody forgot to print the waivers. I, along with several others, wanted to take a pre-ride lap to scope out the trail. We waited for them to get the registration line going, but after 20 minutes, we decided to go take our lap and come back after they got things ironed out. They were going to get rushed once they got things set up properly so a few less riders hitting them at once would probably help them out.
I took a lap with Jeremy Chambers. We found some good lines, got the body ready for a TT effort and talked about bikes, mainly about the Epics and things I had learned since getting mine. We came out of the woods about 10 minutes before the scheduled start time. They had registered everyone, so there was no line. But they were not excited that we came to the table so late. I thought we were doing them a favor earlier by doing a lap instead of rushing the table, but they didn’t really see it that way. As a result, the only two Pros in attendance got put to the back of the line when they made the start list. It was irritating that they did that considering the start list had not been made yet when we signed up, but whatever. I don’t mind passing a bunch of people as long as they don’t mind me passing them.
Grant Wilson just after the start of his TT run
Steve Moneymaker
Mike Taglio
Me early in my run
Jeremy Chambers
Race distance was 6.3 miles, all singletrack and all technical. I had quite a bit of traffic to go through, but the majority of them moved before I got to them and did not hold me up one bit. I really had a good ride and pushed it hard, especially knowing Jeremy started just 30 seconds behind me. My legs were not great, but luckily there is little climbing at Hammy. I was expecting Jeremy to come by me around halfway, but he didn't. That kept me pushing hard. Sometimes I rode too hard and made mistakes in the endless stream of tight, blind turns. Backing off slightly actually made me go faster as I was able to hit better lines. The best time in race #1 the week before was 35:00. Some of the locals said that time was better than any Pro could do so I was out to prove everybody wrong. I was hoping to go into the 33 minute range. I set the best time of the day at 32:29, which wound up being the fastest time of the whole four-race series. Jeremy didn’t catch me because he crashed while trying to pass a rider that was not quite so considerate as he was when I went by. In the crash, Jeremy’s handlebar and stem were damaged. On the next descent his bar came loose and the stem wouldn’t tighten up on it. His day was over early. It sucks more knowing that we really shouldn’t have had to pass so many people.
Video: Short clip of me during my TT run
Start of a three-shot sequence of me taking some rocks in the middle of the race
photo by Alison Dawant
photo by Alison Dawant
photo by Alison Dawant
Jon Harrison
Michael Edens rode rigid. He's nuts.
Grant Wilson
I got my second win of the year and kept my perfect record at Hamilton Creek intact. Most importantly, the tires did great. Not a scuff on them anywhere. I did not pick and choose on my lines. Whatever I was lined up for I ran it over. That’s the only way to go that fast and to really test the durability of the tires. They had good grip on the rocks too. I can’t wait to try them out in some different dirt at some of the SERC races.
It didn’t take long for me to get that chance as two weeks later we were in Winder, GA for the fourth race of the SERC series. In between that time, everything finally went through with the house and we closed! We have a house!
We got it on Friday just before leaving for Winder. The electric company gave us some troubles and cut the power off on us on Friday and refused to cut it back on until Monday unless we paid an outrageous fee, so we were not able to go in to start working or get ideas. It was too dark to mess with.
We also tried to log in some faster tandem rides recently, but have not been able to do any speed yet. We are still sitting around that 50 mile mark, which means we still have a long way to go to be able to make the CRAM 100 and only a month left to get ready. We attempted to ride with the local Tuesday night fast group ride, but we busted a wheel literally a minute before we met up with them. I am enjoying riding the tandem and the workout I get, but it sure has been a pain. It seems that something is always going wrong with that thing. I wish I could blame it on too much power!
Rain was in the forecast for the weekend at Winder. It made me nervous with a brand new bike, but excited at the same time as I always do well on a muddy course. I needed a good finish at a SERC race too. If it took mud to get me on the podium then so be it. My series hopes were all but gone after yet another low score at Conyers. SERC allows for two dropped races in the points standings, but I've had more than two blemishes already. I've now missed round one in Florida, missed the bonus points time trial at Tsali, bombed round two at Tsali with tired legs, and bombed round three at Conyers with a cut tire. My hopes for the Georgia State Championship Series (GSC) were also dwindling after the poor result at Conyers for round one and also missing the second round a few weeks ago in Macon, GA. With one drop race allowed in the GSC series I am still faintly alive. That covers my missed race at Macon, but I would still have to make up for Conyers. GSC is a combined Pro/Cat. 1 19-39 class for points, unlike SERC which is Pro only. So my 4th place finish at Conyers in Pro went down as an 8th for GSC points because I also got beat by four 19-39 riders. At least I did catch one 19-39 guy on my way back. Every point is valuable with just one point between each position, so that could mean something before the series is over,
Our venue in Winder was the beautiful Ft. Yargo State Park. Shannon and I got there in the early afternoon for a pre-ride on the 10.5-mile course around the park. The rain was expected to be here already, but it was sunny and dry when we arrived. Dark clouds were passing by, but no rain fell before we started our ride. I tried to judge the movement of the clouds as we started the ride and we looked to be clear for at least what I could see in the sky at that time. I guessed we had a minimum of an hour before we would have to worry about rain. Wrong! Twenty minutes into the ride and the woods got dark, it began to thunder and then the cool breeze began to blow. You could smell the rain coming.
Ft. Yargo Lake
At first it was a gentle rain, not really even getting through the canopy of leaves above the trail. Then the bottom fell out. We hid under some trees just before the first road crossing on the course hoping to wait it out. It was a full-on downpour and quickly beat its way through the tree tops and began to soak us with very cold water. Then came about five minutes of nickel-sized hail and wind that made the trees crack as they swayed. Lightning was precariously close. I was glad we had our helmets on as the hail pounded on us. The lightning stopped after about 20 minutes and we made a run for the car. We jumped on the road and sprinted back to the parking lot as the rain continued to come down. Our pre-ride was definitely over for the day.
The spillway for the lake on the backside of the dam. Rain was just starting to fall at this point as you can see by the raindrops hitting the water. The blackberries were blooming on the other side.
It stopped raining just as we reached the car, but we did not get much of a break as just a few minutes later another storm came in and I again found myself hiding under a tree as I had not been able to get my clothes changed yet. I never had a chance to change and wound up jumping in the car in soaking wet riding clothes for the drive to our hotel in Athens. We wanted to camp at Ft. Yargo, but they require a two night minimum stay now, even for tent camping. There was no way we could make it down on Friday with our house closing, so we were forced to get a hotel. It was nice to stay in Athens though. I like that city. It's very bike-friendly, but also friendly in general. And they have lots of good places to eat, like Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers, which is where we had dinner and a little custard dessert while we dried out. It wasn't the best pre-race meal, but it sounded good after running from the rain all afternoon.
It rained throughout the night as lines of thunderstorms passed through western Georgia. I decided I would race my old Titus Racer-X just to keep from destroying my new Epic. I had brought the Titus just in case the monsoon did come. The Titus felt very strange after riding the Epic so much recently. The handlebars felt so narrow and the wheels so small! I did not like the feel, but it was better than ruining my new bike. After a quick run of the trail, I decided to change bikes. It was not as muddy as I expected. The trail had really handled the rain well. It was good enough that I thought I would chance it and go with the Epic. The only thing that made me nervous on the Epic was the new Maxxis Pace tires. They are very low-profile and do not look like a good mud tire. With my only experiences with this tire being on dry trail, I had no idea what to expect. Hopefully the low-profile knobs would shed mud well and what little knobs I did have would still be able to hook up.
The Epic was in the trunk of the car, so I had to put it together to change bikes. That cost me most of my warm-up time. I like 45-60 minutes to loosen up before a hard race, but I got in only 25 minutes today. That did not seem to affect me though as I bolted off the line in the top 5 and stayed there the whole race. The trail was not what I would call muddy in 98% of the places, but it was slick and required more skills than a normal course. There was one area that was very muddy, but it was short and the soft kind of mud that does not wreck your bike. The only other problem area was a creek crossing that was flooded, but there was an alternate line that took us over a bridge along the road. I think swapping bikes was a great choice!
Yellow Wave lined up and ready to go
Me and my 13 through the trees
Cat. 1 40-49 start
Singlespeed start
Cat. 2 40-49 start line
Cat. 2 40-49 start
Cat. 2 50+ start line
Video: Start clips from Ft. Yargo, plus a clip from lap 2
So the start went well. I got held up a little in the initial piece of singletrack. Three riders got a gap before the first climb. I was following Simon Lewis on the climb and we were bridging the gap, but I felt good so I went by him near the top and bridged the rest of the gap on the following descent. That really motivated me because Simon has been smoking me on climbs this year and I have done no bridging of any kind to the lead group at any race in years. Simon did not follow me across the gap, so it was just four of us together up front, all riding Pro.
My goal was to make it through the first lap with the lead group and then just take it a mile at a time. There are several decent climbs on the Ft. Yargo loop, with the most difficult coming in the final mile. Michael Mace led the first lap and kept the pace high, but I was able to hang. My tires were hooking up perfectly! I felt I had better grip than my other three companions in the group. I was cruising the downhills behind them. Mace led us through to start lap 2, with Kyle Tiesler second, defending SERC Series champion Brad Pearley in third and me in fourth. Simon was not too far behind us still in fifth and leading 19-39.
Michael Mace leads on the first lap at Ft. Yargo
Brad Pearley and I running 3rd and 4th
Simon Lewis
Mace leads us on the bypass around the flooded creek
Me on the climb over the creek
Shannon snapped this from the car in a section near the end of the loop where we ran along the road.
Kyle picked up the pace on the second climb of lap 2, dropping Mace off the back and cutting our group to three. I hurt some on the climbs, but overall I was comfortable with the pace. Again, I felt much faster than everyone else on the downhills. Brad took the lead and picked up the pace with about 1.5 miles to go in lap 2. He took us into the final climb very fast and had me hurting before we even hit the climb. I couldn't hold Kyle's wheel up the climb and started to lose ground. I kept them in sight over the top and began chasing hard on the descent and through the start/finish to start the third and final lap. I didn't even take a feed and just hammered through the feed zone because I knew I had to close this eight second gap now! I chased hard, but didn't make it back to them and ended up blowing up before the first climb.
Kyle Tiesler leads on lap 2
Pearley and myself negotiate a muddy bridge
I had to throttle back and settle into my pace. I could see up ahead that Brad had popped Kyle so my goal became to catch Kyle for second. At the top of the first climb I felt a pop in my seat and suddenly I had movement between seat and seatpost. It wasn't a lot of movement, just enough to be annoying. At the top of the second climb it began to move more and I was forced to stop to tighten the seat clamp. I hopped off and pulled out my secret SWAT multi-tool from under the top tube. I fumbled around with it trying to quickly find the right-sized wrench. But the seat clamp wasn't loose. I didn't know exactly what the problem was so I jumped back on and kept pushing it. I was still in third, but Kyle was long gone now.
The trail was significantly drier on this lap and I was not able to gain as much time on the descent. My legs were also fading on me now. I could tell I was slowing down. I saw Mace coming up behind me. I tried to run from him, but he was all over me despite my efforts. He quickly caught me and zipped by. I had nothing in the legs to follow him. The seat kept getting worse and worse, moving around constantly. It felt like the junction of the underside of the saddle and the saddle cover had separated at the nose. Mace had gotten away, but Shannon was giving me time checks near the end of the lap and I began gaining on him again. That pumped me up and I gave it a little more in the last sections. I really wanted a podium spot today! But he had more left in the tank too and pulled back away from me on the final climb, beating me in by over a minute. Brad won the day by 1:23 over Kyle, with Michael Mace third, me fourth and Nathan Haslick in fifth.
Duane Leach
Pearley leading with a few miles to go
Kyle rode really strong to take 2nd today
Mose Howard passed everyone except Brad and Kyle on his way to the Cat. 1 40-49 win
Michael Mace surged late to take 3rd
Me limping in on my busted saddle
As I crossed the line my seat snapped off completely. It wasn't broken at the nose, rather both seat rails had broken at the clamp. I'm guessing it was over-tightened when I bought it because it broke right at the clamp site. It was a good result for me, but I sure hated missing the podium. The seat cost me some time, but I still don't know that I had the legs to hold onto third. I was just glad to have made it to the finish before the seat snapped off. I did not need another mechanical disaster.
Both carbon rails snapped at the seat clamp site
Both rails still in the clamp
I was down at the lake cleaning off when I heard them call me to the podium. I thought fourth was off the podium with only five riders in attendance, but they paid us all and I got to stand next to the box. I was in the process of changing and only had time to throw on one sock before running to the podium. You can see it if you look close at the podium shots. Shannon took a picture of my feet while I waited at the podium because she thought my sock tan line was so funny.
After the Pro podium, I was asked to hang around for another podium. I was confused as to what other podium I could possibly be on, but then Teri came over with the SERC leaders jersey. The previous leaders had not raced today so I was now the series points leader! It was a huge surprise and I was very happy to get the jersey, even though I did not feel I would keep it for very long considering the two drop races in the SERC points. I was sure those faster guys would be back at the next race and missing this one race would not impact them in the long run. But for now, it was mine! I got to share the points leader's podium with Kayley Burdine, who has been dominating both the SERC and GSC series in Pro/ Cat. 1 Women, winning every round so far this season. The leader's jersey is a really cool addition to the series and gives us something to work for all season long. It was also a good points day for me in the GSC series since I beat all the 19-39 riders. Maybe I have a shot at one of these series after all.
Pro Men's podium
Cat. 1 19-39 podium
One sock is how I do the podium
After the Pro podium, I was asked to hang around for another podium. I was confused as to what other podium I could possibly be on, but then Teri came over with the SERC leaders jersey. The previous leaders had not raced today so I was now the series points leader! It was a huge surprise and I was very happy to get the jersey, even though I did not feel I would keep it for very long considering the two drop races in the SERC points. I was sure those faster guys would be back at the next race and missing this one race would not impact them in the long run. But for now, it was mine! I got to share the points leader's podium with Kayley Burdine, who has been dominating both the SERC and GSC series in Pro/ Cat. 1 Women, winning every round so far this season. The leader's jersey is a really cool addition to the series and gives us something to work for all season long. It was also a good points day for me in the GSC series since I beat all the 19-39 riders. Maybe I have a shot at one of these series after all.
Pro SERC Series Leader's podium
I am excited to get working on the new house and get moved in by the end of May. Things are looking very good for us in life right now. We feel very blessed. The last time we went to the temple I felt like everyone we talked to really stressed how much you are blessed by doing the Lord's work and I have really seen it in our life the past few months with getting a house, racing well and finding plenty of work to keep the funds flowing. I am really excited to see where the rest of this year takes us. It has been a blast so far!
Yet another middle Tennessee rainbow appeared as we passed through Nashville on our way home from Winder
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