Yankee TT

I raced on my Nickel in the Yankee Springs Time Trial today. It was my first mountain bike race, so I raced in the Sport category rather than in the Beginner. I just didn't feel like a beginner. It went pretty well, I guess. I didn't sign up until the last minute, so consequently I started last in the Sport Men's 40-44 age class. At 1 hour and 9.1 seconds, I finished 15th of 39 in that class, so I must have passed 24 riders in that age class alone. I got passed a couple of times, too. If I'd had that time in the Beginner category, I'd have taken first in my age group. If you're interested, the complete results are here.

I had a distinct advantage over many other riders: I was on my Santa Cruz Nickel with 5" of suspension travel front and rear, so instead of having to tip-toe my way around the course like those poor guys on their lightweight and delicate, plastic 29er hardtails, I could just hammer the fastest lines, rough or smooth, up or down! Really, though, most folks around here ride hard-tail 29ers (like our new black tandem), which means they have no rear suspension and have bigger wheels than the 26 inchers on my bike. The idea is that those big wheels are faster because of the lower angle of attack, and that on a smooth trail a hard-tail is faster than a bike with rear suspension because it doesn't bob and suck up energy. Both ideas are probably correct to some extent, but my Nickel felt just fine to me. I was glad to have that dual suspension when going up or down the rough stuff, even if it wasn't all that rough.

The time trial worked like this: Groups of racers started in clusters based on category. The top categories, Elite and Expert, started first, then Tandem, then Sport, and then Beginner. Within each cluster, or category, racers started singly or in pairs, every 10 or 15 seconds. Starting position within each category was in order of time of registration. So with number 409, I started almost at the back end of the Sport Category. The reason I rode Sport was because I didn't want to be stuck behind a bunch of slower riders in the Beginner category. As it happened, I was stuck behind a bunch of slower riders in the Sport category (if I'd realized that, I would have signed up weeks ago). That's OK, because if I hadn't been at the back, I probably would have ridden too fast, burned out too early, and finished with an even slower time!

This was the windiest day we've had yet this spring, with gusts that must have been at least 30 mph. The temperature was in the upper 30s around noon when I started, and snow flurries were being whipped around in the wind. It was quite chilly. I wore tights and a jacket, and was reasonably comfortable except for the numbness in my two outer fingers on each hand for most of the ride.

The course was about 11 miles of the 13 we did the week before. Rain yesterday had moistened and packed the sand, so the trail felt fast. I wore Cindy's Garmin Forerunner, so I should be able to review my race on the map, with speed and elevation and all that fun stuff. However, something happened when we plugged in the Garmin to upload the data; it locked up and we had to reset it, and now there are no activities on it all. A reset doesn't normally clear any records, but whatever happened this time took the watch back through the whole setup process. Oh well, so much for that. The map from last week's ride on the same course is available, here, only this time I did the loop a little faster.

Riding away from the starting line:



Nearing the finish line:



Crossing the finish line:



Quinn also raced today, too. He raced in the kid's race, for which a special loop of about 2/3 mile had been set up on part of the warm-up loop. It wasn't organized with quite the attention to detail that that was given to the full race. For some reason, they started the younger riders first in the kid's race, I suppose to give them a head start. Maybe five or six kids, the 6- and 7-year-olds, lined up in front and started first. One of them was fast, and he got in front and won the race by a couple of minutes. Some of the others could barely keep their bikes on the trail. Quinn's group, the 8- and 9-year-olds, went next and quickly caught up with the first group and were then stuck behind them on the tight single-track. We couldn't see the course, but Quinn said that at some point the course left the tight single-track and went through a wider grassy area, but the girl in front crashed when it widened and Quinn and another boy piled on top of her. Quinn quickly picked up his bike and finally got around her. After that he lead the pack for the rest of the race. He was pleased, and had obviously ridden quite hard once the field had opened up. At least one of us came home with a trophy!

Here's Quinn finishing his race: