I had more legs tonight on the flat sections, but was lacking on the climbs. I pushed my heart rate a little too high before the turnaround and paid for it on the return. I never was able to get the heart rate up that high again and I dropped some time right at the end, finishing with a time of 31:59. That was my second best time ever, but still 28 seconds off my best time set back in April. I have two more chances to get closer to that 30-minute mark. I rode a lot faster than last month, but finished further back, taking 10th in the Merckx class tonight. Dina and Dad also raced the TT. Dina won the Merckx Women and Dad took 19th in Merckx Men.
Looking over the Cumberland River during my TT warm-up
Sprinting back up to speed after the turnaround
Photo by Nashville Local Cycling
Photo by Nashville Local Cycling
Dad at the turnaround
Photo by Nashville Local Cycling
Dina on her way to the win on my Dad's cross bike
Photo by Nashville Local Cycling
The new Bells Bend Short Track Series kicked off the night after the Bells Bend TT. The first race was scheduled for May, but was rained out. The trails at Bells Bend Park are very new and the rain turned them to deep, peanut buttery mud. So, the June round was the opener. I had to work so I couldn't go, but Dina and Dad raced. Dina took 2nd in the Cat. 3 Women and Dad took 12th in Cat. 2/3 Men. Dina was pretty excited to test out her new bike at this race. Upon returning from her trip to California she bought a Specialized Epic Expert Carbon 29. It's similar to mine, still a carbon frame, carbon wheels. It just has a few differences in the components. It's a stacked bike! I'd say she is officially hooked now. I'll try to post some pictures of her new Epic soon. She also bought her bike at MOAB Bikes in Franklin, TN. I'm trying to see how many bikes I can help them sell. I'm at two right now after Dina's purchase and also a fellow competitor felt the need to upgrade his bike after I got my Epic. That's an indirect sale, but I'll count it!
Cat. 3 Women's podium from the first Bells Bend Short Track
Photo by Tennessee Women's Cycling Project
Our original plan for the following weekend was to go to Tulsa, OK for three days of crits at Tulsa Tough. That race has been on my radar for a long time. Then we had to change plans due to a continuing education course for work. We had tried to get our company to get the course accredited for our other certifications, but they drug their feet around and never got it done. In the meantime, the class filled up and neither myself nor Shannon got to take the course. So we were home with a free weekend and it just so happened to be the double weekend at Montgomery Bell, which featured a mountain bike time trial on Saturday and a tough XC on Sunday.
After my tire issues at BUMP last weekend I had to make a change for this race. I decided to try out a different set of tires since this was a less-meaningful race for me. I sealed up the Maxxis Ikon on Saturday morning and set out for Montgomery Bell State Park, which is about 50 minutes south of where we live.
When I arrived, both of my tires were flat. I pumped them up again and hit the trail, hoping the rolling of the wheels would slosh the sealant around enough to seal them properly. In less than a mile my rear tire was flat again and I had to walk out. At the car, I met up with John Harrison, who had gone in for a pre-ride of the TT course just a few minutes before me. He had crashed and his right hand went into his front brake rotor, putting a deep gash in his thumb. He clearly needed stitches. Butch Carter helped him find an urgent care center in Dickson and we sent him on his way. That is why disc brakes in road racing can be bad.
I pumped my tire back up with a little extra air in it this time and took a lap on the 2.3-mile TT course. I love this course. It is twisty and fast with plenty of opportunities to make something out of nothing on the trail. By that I mean make your own berms, jumps and humps to pump over. You can really push the bike hard on this course. It starts with rolling singletrack that does not have a lot of elevation change on it and allows for some pedaling. Then comes faster trail next to a creek before a short climb over some roots. Then the course descends back to the creek where there are several fast turns, a bridge jump on a downhill and a few rocks before a slick creek crossing. Then it's uphill to the finish. You have to go hard the whole time on such a short course, but you have to save a little for that last climb to the end.
My tires felt a little low when I was pushing the corners so I added more air before my start. The tires seemed to be sealed. I had a different seatpost on today. I have had enough of the stock carbon Specialized post that came on this bike. I have had way too many problems with it and I am done. I pulled the Thomson post out of my cross bike for this race and I'll be using it until I decide what carbon post I want to get as a replacement.
They seeded me farther back for the TT than I had hoped. Pro and Cat. 1 19-39 are combined for TBRA races. To complicate things, the rider ahead of me decided not to start so they put a Cat. 3 rider in his place. I was on the start line chomping at the bit with a guy starting 30 seconds ahead of me that had never raced before...and he was scared to death. He asked me and Simon Lewis not to run him over when we came by. Simon was starting just 30 seconds behind me. John Harrison was also on the start line. That crazy man had taped up his thumb and was going to race. Shifting was going to be painful, but he wanted to race before he went to get stitched up.
I caught the first-time guy just over a minute into the race. I yelled as I was coming up to him and he quickly was out of the way. I felt bad that he would have to move over several times during his run simply because he was seeded in front of all the animals. I hope everybody was nice as they passed by and didn't put him in the bushes in his first race.
I pushed it hard a had a good run going. I love the tabletop bridge over the creek even more when I'm on the Epic. I can clear it with ease and come off the bridge with more momentum than I have coming into it. I hammered the first climb and flew into the descent. Like last week in the Super D, I was racing much faster than I practiced. The extra air I added was not enough. In the first fast corner I felt the rear tire going down. It never rolled and burped like it usually does when I push it too far, but it went flat. I tried to stand and keep going as it still had some air in it. Keeping your weight off the rear works for a while, but once it's fully flat, it's over. I stopped, put in my CO2 cartridge and took off. I was stopped for 38 seconds and then sprinted to the end. I finished 6th out of six riders, 34 seconds off the win. Do the math, my moving time, even with limping on the low tire for a few minutes, would have won the race. Oh well, not my day to win. I was pleased to see the highest heart rate values I have seen this season, hitting it twice, once before the flat and once after. It was a good sign for the XC the next day. The legs were good.
Dina and my Dad also raced the TT. Dad finished 3rd in the Cat. 3 40+ and Dina won the Cat. 3 Women! Dina and I rode an extra lap after the race to talk about lines we used during the race. I showed her a line I took just before I flatted. As I went through the line, I noticed there were a lot of thorns sticking out, something I didn't see during the race. As I came off the line, both tires started spraying Stan's sealant. They both sealed quickly, but that makes me wonder if thorns were the cause of my flat during the race. I think the thorns caused a leak, then I pushed the turns hard enough to break the seal and the bead once the tire pressure was lower.
I went to the garage Sunday morning to find both tires were flat again! This was becoming a sealing nightmare. I have no idea why this set of tires was so hard to seal. I sealed them again and then drove back to Montgomery Bell. The front was flat when I got to the race. I pumped them up and rode a lap on the TT course. They seemed to be sealed, but I took extra CO2 cartridges in my pocket just in case. I also ran higher air pressures today. I know I ride a trail like this really hard, pushing harder in the turns than most riders. I did not want to roll a tire and ruin another chance at a win. I like to run 23-24 psi in both tires at most races, but here I need to go higher just because of the stress I put on the tires in the technical terrain. I went up to 29 psi today, which made for a rough ride, but it was the safe way to make sure the tires stayed up. I made a few adjustments to the suspension and it almost took away all the roughness of the extra air. That's what I like about this bike. It has so many adjustments that you can work around almost anything that comes at you.
My air additions paid off and my tires made it through the race. It was a really hot day, the first awful hot, humid day of the summer. I got a good start, hitting the woods in third. Simon got the hole shot, but didn't want to lead into the woods. Neither did I, so we looked at each other for a moment and allowed Scott Marx to pass us both and take the lead. I wanted to follow the first lap, then kick up the pace on lap 2 when everyone started to feel both the terrain and the heat.
Scott Marx leads the Pro/Cat. 1 group into the woods
Marsha Williams was the only Pro/Cat. 1 woman today
We didn't change positions over the first half of the first lap with everyone staying together in one long line. A few creative lines by others saw me lose a few spots before the tough section of Tommy's Revenge. Tommy's is a technical climb-descent-climb combo. You come into it after a slick creek crossing and a few root wads. The climb is steep and has a hard left switchback near the top. Then comes a drop down a steep downhill over a perfectly curved bridge that launches you into a longer, steeper wall of a climb over rock ledges and big tree roots. It's a tough one to clean when you are fresh, let alone coming into it after four miles of racing. Those ahead of me made mistakes and we bottled up on the initial part of the climb. I got held up twice before the final summit, coming over the top in 4th. Dustin Burkeen and Zach Wilkins got a gap over the rest of us. I did not want to let those two get away. Both have been riding great this year. Zach was fresh off an amazing comeback at BUMP last weekend. Dustin always rides well. And they are teammates.
On the long climb up Charlotte's Ridge, I pushed on past Simon into 3rd, taking Bobby Jones with me across the gap to the two leaders, making it a lead group of four. I felt good and got across the gap easily. We stayed together the rest of the lap, slowly pulling away from the others. We had over two minutes on 5th after lap one of three. Simon dropped out after the first lap as he was not feeling well.
Jaron Wood near the end of lap 1
Simon Lewis had a tough day
Marx
Zdenek Fiebinger
Craig O'Neill
John Carr
Chris Cooper
Gib Morehead
I attacked to start lap 2. I wanted to push it hard on the start of the lap, which is my favorite section, the same section I ripped in the TT yesterday. I got a slight gap going into the woods. Dustin came after me and then immediately cut a tire in one of the first turns in the singletrack. His day was over. I had hoped he would go with me and we could work together for at least a lap. Two laps by yourself is a long way here. I made it difficult for Zach and Bobby to catch back onto my wheel, holding them at five seconds for a minute, then I started to pull away in the corners. I pushed it out to 20 seconds, then 40 seconds. By Charlotte's Ridge I had over a minute. I was on rails the rest of the lap. After lap two I had a 2:26 lead on Zach, with Bobby chasing at 2:57.
Me leading on lap 2
Zach Wilkins
Bobby Jones
Wood
Marx
Zach hammering near the end of lap 2
Cooper
Z
I tried to push it just as hard on lap 3. I kept prying open the gap as Zach faded. Bobby caught him early in the lap and took over 2nd. I had to back off some on the final few hills, as did everyone I think. It was so hot that you simply could not tolerate riding that hard. The first lap you could get feel coolness in the shade. The second lap, the shade was cooler, but not much. By lap three, there was no relief to be found anywhere. Just hot, humid air blanketing you, almost suffocating you at times. I slowed quite a bit compared to lap 2, but still had the fastest last lap, taking the win by 3:20 over Bobby. Zach finished 3rd at 5:11. Jaron Wood was the next through taking 4th at 10:34 back.
Bobby Jones on lap 3
Streaking through the final creek crossing on my way to the win
Bobby took 2nd
Pro/Cat. 1 19-39 podium
It was a good day for me. I had good legs and the bike held up. No tire issues and no seatpost issues! I was happy to get a win. This is a small race, but very well promoted. It's well organized and pays well. I actually made more money at this race than I did at BUMP last weekend. Props to Michael Edens who works very hard to make most of the races in the Nashville area happen. You are the man Edens!
After my race, I turned to spectating to watch my Dad and Dina race in the Cat. 3 event. They raced two laps on a shorter course that skipped most of the tougher climbs. It was a great course for a Cat. 3 race and them doing two laps made it possible for me to see a lot of the race. I jumped around the woods to see them at multiple places. Dad ran 4th most of the day, then cut a rear tire halfway through lap 2 and had to walk out to the car for a DNF. Dina rode another good race, battling Mary Helen Brown all the way to the end. That's the same rider she battle with at the Bells Bend Short Track just a few days earlier. Dina led the XC early, then Mary Helen put some time on her in the hills at the end of the first lap. Dina seemed to be holding back some, then charged near the end. She was closing, but still 40 seconds back with half a lap to go. She may have caught Mary Helen, but she had a lot of traffic to get through as they were picking off a lot of the men that started ahead of them. Dina had her in sight on the final climb, but Mary Helen had the legs to hold her off and take the Cat. 3 win. Dina was 2nd at 18 seconds.
Cat. 3 riders on the course
Dina leading early
Dad and Scott Chen in the woods
Dad
Scott Chen
Dad climbing out to end lap 1
Dina
Craig Battinelli won the Cat. 3 40+ class
Dad just before his flat tire
Haynie Branch, crossed several times on this race course
Mary Helen Brown crosses Haynie Branch
Dina in chase mode as she hits the creek
Dina climbs to the finish
Dad jogging out after his flat
Cat. 3 Women's podium
A little video I shot during the Cat. 3 races is posted below. Next up for me is Race #7 of the SERC Series at the Dauset Trails in Jackson, GA, which doubles as Race #5 of the GSC Series. More to come on that in the next post.
Video: Cat. 3 races at Montgomery Bell
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