Unravel the scratchgravels XC race report

 Went to Helena and raced the scratchgravels this weekend. This was the first mountain bike race I ever did, back in 2014, on my Kona King Kahuna. I think I won the cat 3 2 lap race, and remember getting lapped by Landon Beckner, who was a pretty promising young junior at the time. My laps were about 27min long and my average speed according to strava was 12.9mph.

I've since improved a little at bike racing, despite now being 10 years older. It appears my fastest recorded lap on strava was 22:10 in 2022, on my hei hei. the last two years I've done it on my procaliber, but the start got moved forward a bit so the first laps aren't getting counted on the strava segment.

Anyway, yeah, been going to this race for awhile now. it's on low elevation trails and double track on the northwest side of Helena, and is a great first race of the season in montana. It's also great for younger racers and beginners and i try to do a little promotion in Missoula to get people to go out to it. This year we had 3 of the team stampede kids but not too many others. Kalispell brought the usuals of Matt, Joel, Stella, Alan was there from bozeman, and I think they were fairly happy with the total registration numbers.

The start is uphill on a double track so it's a little narrow and at best you might get 5 wide on the line. I was on the 2nd row and at the start slotted into about 4th wheel on the left tire track. It took me about a minute to get a little impatient plus I noticed the guys in the track next to me possibly creeping up, so instead of staying there and getting boxed in and being in the bunch for the first downhill corner I picked up the pace and hopped over into the other track, then led over the crest of the first hill and into the turn. going into it first means I got a nice clean wide line and immediately created a little gap, leaving the others to chase me on the generally uphill but rolling double track, then there's an really annoyingly steep short climb into the first singletrack section.

I kept on it and had Matt and one other guy chasing me, just a few seconds back but never on my wheel through most of the 1st lap. You reach the low point of the course and then climb back up on doubletrack to the start finish and that was where Matt got the closest. he was essentially on my wheel but I really wanted to make him work for it since we were uphill into a headwind and he never quite got there. From there it was pretty uneventful- the gap kept creeping up and then I just kept up a steady pace and kept drinking my drink mix, and held on for the win. very cool to get that one and a nice start to the mtb season. Thanks Helena united cycling for putting it on.

Going to the strava data my overall time was over 4min faster than 2022 when I set that "fastest lap." but by selecting first lap it appears i was at least a few seconds faster. Was also about a minute and a half faster than last year on the same bike in similar conditions (cool, cloudy, some very light rain, a little wind). Average speed this time was 15.2, for 4 laps. 

Montana Gravel Challenge 2024

 I generally write up a little summary of most of my races but rarely post them on here. They just go in a dumb forum thread even though I could easily just copy and paste here too. So I'm going to try to do that more.

I did miss a gravel thing up in polson a few weeks ago I think because I was tired and felt bad and it was raining. This weekend was the 3-day montana gravel challenge, and it's raining. Friday we were out setting up the course for the afternoon time trial plus the Saturday course. Between this morning when I decided to shorten the TT a bit and when we actually raced it got a lot wetter so definitely good call to avoid the twisty descent that was already pretty fucked before it rained more.

Ivan won, followed by Will, another young person who is a speed skater from butte. The actual pro MTB racer was 4th. Then Dan, a damn junior, fucking Ben, then I came in 8th, but 1st in 40+. I think if I hadn't slowed down for a car at an intersection that was headed toward me really fast (but the course marshall did get it to stop) I possibly would have beat Ben and Porter but oh well. First time racing outside with a power meter and am ok with my numbers - 338 average and 361np for ~20min. I can average a higher HR for that amount of time and was asking myself if I should be pedaling harder some of the time but it's rolling and and uphill finish so having something left for that is good.

Rode my new orbea terra with road wheels and 34mm corsa n.exts at like 42/46 psi. Felt pretty decent on the slippery descents and corners. Going to ride same bike setup all weekend I think. Tomorrow is mainly road but with a few dirt parts and it'll be wet and there are potholes and stuff. One of the dirt sections might get cut out depending on how much it's raining. It was greasy this morning then will only get worse.

Then days 2 and 3 happened. Day 2 has been the long gravel stage of the race with 3 being a more road circuit. This year we didn't do the long gravel loop because it's a lot of logistics and probably kind of dangerous especially toward the end of the 1 lane gravel road where you're descending around blind corners. Anyway, 2nd day more pavement, with a few out and backs, one pretty gradually uphill for like 10mi, the next shorter with more climbing. The 2nd section was muddy and slick and I was out of position, went super hard chasing onto the lead group, then was almost immediately dropped up a short dirt climb near the end. Our 2nd group of 3 stayed away and Ivan won so at least there was that. So I think 9th overall but Matt beat me to win 40+. Was a little disappointed because I spent the race not really where I wanted to be, plus dressed for cold and rain which was forecast but didn't really happen, and by the time the hard pedaling began I didn't really have an opportunity to try to take off my gloves and jacket. Essentially my race summary could be "hot, flappy, bad tactics, bad positioning."

Day 3 was the "road race" with an out on dirt to a 10mi circuit that's mostly paved, with a climb on mud but thankfully the descent side was dry. This mud climb is a section I cut out of the TT on friday morning because it was a little iffy and it has only gotten worse over the last few days of periodic rain and cool temps. Andrew was there, who has some pretty good pro road and cx results, and with fresh legs, and definitely wanted the win. Ivan had the overall GC pretty locked down and just wanted a good result and a fun, hard race. We had a good team of like 5 of us, with Ivan's dad, Porter (the jr who beat me in the TT), Brian, and myself. Ivan's dad went off the front early with 2 others and we caught them at the top of the climb. 2nd lap, I find myself riding away with Cory and hold that for over a lap, and then I see a small group chasing us down on lap 3 (of 4). It's Andrew drilling it on the front, along with Will from butte who got 2nd in the TT, Carter the pro MTB racer, and Ivan and Porter. Awesome. I hop on and then Andrew goes up the climb super hard. I'm on the back behind Carter and he gets dropped so I guess I'm dropped too and a small chase group with Jake, Dan, and a couple other guys picks us up. Ok cool I get to sit in for the last lap. After the climb and descent on the circuit, which we took fairly easy, it's about 2k generally uphill to the finish. Things slowed down a bit and I went up the side, not attacking super hard, but getting a gap and going for it. Everyone had been working except me and I kind of blew things up, but Micheal (3rd in TT), got up to me and then another guy Shawn from canada put in a good dig too and just barely got me at the line for 5th. Andrew won, porter 2nd, ivan 3rd, and 6th for me is pretty good for the team. Then Ivan won overall plus I got the 40+ win.

I think I'm happy with my power numbers but also don't have a lot of "not zwift in the winter" numbers. Got an email from intervals.icu after every day of racing. Yesterday I had a pretty good but not good enough average power for the last 40min, today I had a normalized power of 305w for 2 hours plus a best 1min, 2min, and 5min for the season. Also yesterday morning I felt like garbage and my watch told me my "training readiness" was 14. This morning it said 7 but I felt better and had more sleep.

Next weekend is a mountain bike race in helena, then our wed night xc series gets started although I'm not sure what the plan is for that. Usually it's a whole thing for me setting up all the courses and gradually getting the pro xc ready but it's apparently a lot lower profile this year.

Also did a really good job of fucking up my bike. Really hoping the headset bearings are ok because guess where the brake hoses go. The bike, wheel, and tire setup was perfect all weekend though. The guy who hosts the race had bike wash stations in his yard so after every stage I hosed off my bike, put it in the stand and wiped everything down good, then put some silca super secret on the chain every night once it dried out. Even after the nasty slick mud section on day 2 my shifting felt good and drivetrain seemed quiet.

2023 butte 100 race report

 I did that dumb 100mi mtb race again. it was hot and I still feel bad. My 5th time going so i thought maybe the'd make me a little copper mug or something for the "500mi club." Steve has done this 9 times now and last year they gave him one with his name on it for doing 8. But first i did have to actually finish.

I need to figure out a better night before sleeping situation. I thought i had it figured out by driving up there before the race meeting to grab a spot down the road a bit away from the highway but it was all full. I also thought my new giant air mattress that barely fits in the tent was going to help. But then I wound up on the ground and basically not sleeping at all so welp, fucked that up I guess. Ate breakfast in my car in the dark at 5am, managed to poop before the start, and off we went. First climb is about 10-15min in and goes up for awhile, I found myself sitting in 3rd behind last year's winner who is a real pro bike racer and is going to marathon worlds and then Adam, who finished 4th ahead of me last year and used to be a real pro bike racer and is also a pretty good nordic ski racer. But Adam was in sight and I was comfortable. John, who won the helena race and is also pretty good ultrarunner was back there, along with some younger kids like Aiden from Butte and Elliot from team stampede who has moved up to racing in u23 and elite categories.

Then we ran into either a mis-marked part of course or someone fucking with the arrows, because we get sent up this like steep rocky thing that doesn't seem right and we're all walking and wandering around. Like a dozen other people are there and going up higher and I'm like no i don't think this is right and go back down and by ignoring the arrow I get back on track with some other people. There's a group in front of me now and I have no idea how far ahead Chris or Adam are and it cost about 10min. I'm going up the regular course and John comes out of the bushes so it worked out for him and we rode together for awhile. But I'm kind of thrown off, pedaling harder than I should because of the panicky "must catch up" feeling and am thrown off a bit but I guess we're all in the same boat.

Throw my vest at AS2, I didn't plan on stopping there and didn't really need to wear the vest and it makes it harder to get stuff out of your pockets. I had some snacks in cargo bibs plus about 500cal in my two big water bottles so I mostly just needed to drink them both and have a few shot blocks before AS3 at mi 25. Stop at 3, get two more big bottles of mix and cram two gels in my face. am now with John and another guy (matt?") who don't stop but catch back up to john and we're back riding together. 3-4 you descent some actual singletrack instead of endless up and down sandy moto doubletrack. I had generally been a little all over the place on the thunder burts in the sand. Rode off trail a few times but stayed upright. John is descending faster than me and that I find a bit annoying because he's a runner and on a hardtail. I'm climbing faster though and on the sandy slog up to AS4 I leave him behind and then go by Matt who is stopped there. Get to 5 and grab a quick splash of water and then see someone up ahead of me. Oh hey it's Adam, I thought he was gone. He kept pace and didn't want to have me just go by but I put in a little bit of effort up a moderate climb and get some space going into the start/finish. We leave together, then you descend down from the pass to the butte valley on this ridiculously steep doubletrack full of huge washed out ruts. I let Adam go first and then get back to him on the road. You climb through a neighborhood then up a trail then drop down to the highway and climb back up a bit to AS7. I leave Adam on the climb, another quick half bottle of water at 7, and I'm on the way to basin creek. By now it's over 90f and the course only gets harder.

At AS8 I get two more full bottles of mix, one insulated, plus a 3rd bottle of just water in my jersey pocket. I needed it. You climb like 3k feet to get to the next aid station and it seems endless. I had been carrying two bottles of mix up to here but kept one full of just water the rest of the way just to pour on myself. Legs are starting to feel unhappy and the heat is unpleasant. I get off my bike and walk a few times. Start catching the tail end of the 50mi race. Start getting some light cramping. Get to AS9 feeling not great wondering how in the fuck I'm going to get up the next climbs and to the finish. It's still 20 fucking more miles. Two more bottles and maybe a gel and some blocks or something, plus salt cap chews and a tylenol. Legs work a little better but right out of the aid station is steep as fuck and starts to get a little more rocky and technical. This is the highest point of the course on the CDT, generally over 7k feet, and fuck it's hot. I feel like I'm barely moving. Misery. I think my max HR for the last 4 hours was 153, so tempo-ish. Keep looking back, see no one. Tell myself if I feel this bad they all do to. Kind of have fun on the descents, hei hei is ripping through the rocks and the thunder burts are much happier on the packed dirt instead of sand (i also let some air out at the halfway point because of the heat, and ran my suspension a little softer than normal). Thankfully the rocks are all pretty rounded. At one point I clipped a rock with my foot/pedal and tensed up and my legs cramped so hard hard I couldn't move them for like 10-20s. But then you just try to pedal and ignore how bad it feels. Finally get past limekin hill and have a pretty extended downhill to the last aid station. Have a shot of pickle juice, have a cup of coke, get a bottle of water and a bottle of mix, and just have to make it the last 9mi. Again, you're climbing off the bat, but the grade is more reasonable. It's not exactly a continuous climb and then a continuous descent but it's close. Couple of breaks on the way up, couple of short rises on the way down. It takes about 40min to get to the point where you're generally on the way down. Then 20 more to the finish. I see the R1k crew from town, say hi, and yell "this fucking sucks." but seeing friends out there is a nice pick me up. I think I went through about 14 bottles, most with 200-250cal of tailwind in them. And then about only ate shot bloks and vanilla gels. I tried a bite of a honey waffle at some point, and did put a few bars in my bags, but it's just really hard to chew and swallow things.

Get to the finish almost 20min slower than last year. My goal was to be faster and I had the fitness to do it, but the early detour, slow and sandy conditions on the first half, and really fucking hot weather conspired against that a bit. Surprisingly from the bottom of basin creek to the finish I was only 8min slower over 4 hours compared to last year. That shit really sucked and I didn't want to keep going. But uh, I did get 2nd overall so there's that.

For some reason they didn't do awards or a podium and then ran out of food before like half the 100mi finishers were done which was kind of shitty. Maybe they'll mail me something.

Another butte 100

 Did that butte race again, it was really hard the whole time.

At one of the friday night races my shock blew up and I finally got that back on Monday after playing shock musical chairs with a few of the lbs owner's bikes for a few weeks. In addition to the repair I had it revalved from linear to digressive valving, with the hopes that it would be more supportive under pedaling forces especially out of the saddle. Turns out yes. Feels great, I don't think I locked it out once yesterday, maybe on a paved road for a bit. So yeah monday I get my bike all prettied up, install the shock, pull the cranks and suspension linkages and clean everything out, new chain and chainring, go to coach nica and fucking crash. stick through the spokes at low speed sends me otb, broken shifter, bunch of new scrapes on frame, dent in helmet, torn glove, ripped up grips, wheels out of true. Cool. But generally everything is fine. apparently I can't make it through a July without crashing. I needed new grips anyway but that was a new poc ventral so I got to buy another one of those last week which was pretty annoying. Thankfully I get a good discount.

Fitness wise this has been kind of a weird seeming year for me. It feels like my riding and training has been pretty inconsistent but I've been seeing some decent results and some good strava segment times, have some good bunches of high volume weeks, some intensity although not as much or as structured as I'd like. Still mostly just riding a lot and not really "training." Went and rode my local trail climb as openers friday and set my fastest time on the hei hei without even really going for it. Also PR'd the xc course climb and a ~4min road climb somewhat recently. So I guess I'm pretty fit. I figured I could improve by a good amount since last year I had a bad crash in early july and then a mini blowup through the middle of the race. I finished 8th in like 10:50, and thought I could be a little closer to 10 hours flat and the podium.

This year to be faster at the aid stations I put drink mix in empty bottles at every one, so that I could just get it filled with water and be ready to go. Last year I had little ziplocks with it and that was kind of annoying and time consuming. I was able to just stop and be like, "please fill that bottle and this bottle thanks" cram a gel or something down my face, and keep rolling. I also skipped a few more this time. I went with tailwind so had about 150-200 calories in a bottle so I didn't have to try to eat quite as much and mostly relied on gummies and gels. I think I also took a bite of a skratch rice bar, had a honey waffle, a handful of chips, some coke, some gummy bears, and a pickle along the way. Plus electrolyte tabs and some ibuprofin.

6am starts are not my favorite. I camped at the start area but then didn't really sleep. Lying on the ground for 8ish hours is rest though right?

This race always starts out absurdly fast and once we got to the first climbing part I opted to not chase the fastest guys like last year and watched what seemed like 10 people ride away from me. No Tinker or Josh Tostado this year, and Max raced the 50 instead, but still a few pros lined up. I felt like I was going pretty good and actually got through the first 2 segments in about the same time as last year without pegging my HR (well not as high). So I was kind of surprised at how many people were in front of me, plus there were more breathing down my neck. I was going back and forth with this one guy for a bit who was climbing faster but going slower on the descents. I was never really being held up for long and he let me by once or twice but it's race of mostly trying to go your own speed so it's a little annoying to have someone around you and having to pass and get passed constantly. I caught him going into AS2, stopped for a refill and took off my vest, and then was back on his wheel like 2min later because it was downhill for awhile. So I got past, pushed a bit to stay ahead of him on the next climby bit, got on an extended descent, and was clear. Then could see the next guy in front of me and then passed him at aid station 5 by not stopping. First half is so sandy and mostly moto/atv trails so you're just kind of slogging along, have some annoyingly steep things, have to walk parts, and then trying to surf through sand at high speed on the descents. It felt extra sandy this year.

Got to start/finish/AS6 and was feeling pretty good, unlike last year, because I'd been a little more reasonable early on and had eaten and drank more. Took a minute to eat and refill and catch my breath then that guy rolled through without stopping as I was leaving and we rode together for a bit. We got to the next climb which is fairly mellow on singletrack, I'm behind him and comfortable, then he just kind of slows up and I feel good and can see the next guy so ok I guess I'll go by. Get by the next guy before the top, hit the descent, skip the next aid station, get to number 8 which is at about mile 67. Think, "huh I got here pretty quick," and trying to calculate how long the rest is going to take.

Still feeling good, clean chain, eat a little more, drink a little more, fill bottles, and now it's the shitty part where you climb up to the continental divide trail. I was there for awhile, get on the trail, see guy behind me roll through and not stop. I think, uh, that's not a good idea dude it's like 13mi and 3k feet and 2 hours to the next one. But it encourages me to keep the pace up. Start catching 50mi racers. Pass a guy walking, see a red 100 plate which means, oh, actually he's in my race. Legs start getting unhappy twinges. Get to next aid station, guy had got back on his bike and chased me and rolled in pretty much right after me so I hurry up and get out of there. It would have been nice to stick around for a bit- they had hot dogs and bacon and beers and a fun party vibe going.

This is like mile 80, and there's still a big section of climbing to do where you hit the high point of the course at about 8k feet and are on the CDT to the finish. it's fairly rocky and has various shortish climbs and decents along the way back to homestake pass. Legs are unhappy. This is hard. it's hot. I'm yelling fuck you legs, fuck you rocks, fuck you sun, have to walk up some things, but at least on the downhills I can kind of rest and go fast. Probably faster than I should given the level of fatigue but it's free time as long as you stay on your bike. A lighter hardtail would be nice on a lot of this course but on the last 20mi when you're tired and sore and the trail gets rougher the hei hei is perfect. Passing lots of 50mi racers. Looking at distance, time, avg speed, and realizing I'm really close to that 10 hour even pace. Keep it going, fly down to the last aid station, people are getting out of my way. Quick stop, one more climb before you descend to homestake and the finish. Pushing the limits of cramping, backing off, standing to use different muscles, actually breathing hard. Pass my friends Andrew and Mike doing the 50 and get out a "hi". Get to the top and it's like, oh shit this is going to be close. Like 25min to go 5mi, but mostly all downhill. Pushing the descent even harder, pedaling out of corners, out of the saddle on the slight rises. Ignoring my HR page, ignoring my legs, just watching the time get closer to 10 and the distance get closer to 100 and wondering what's going to happen first. And trying not to crash. Come out onto the pavement, sprint more, cross the line in what appears to be about 9:59:40. But got a chip time of 9:59:06 somehow. 5th overall.

https://www.strava.com/activities/7517578121/

Compared to last year my riding parts were definitely faster but not by as much as I though, especially the middle when I was feeling like shit and thought I was barely moving. Only a few minutes here and there across the board, but I suppose that still adds up over a whole day. Time difference was about half from stopping less, and half from going faster. I only had like 18 minutes stopped time compared to 45ish last year. Still felt like I was going way too slow on the climbs in the last 20mi and could barely handle HR over 145ish. So maybe there's more time in it with a few more calories and electrolytes and drink mix. Skipping aid stations meant I did not get a fresh bottle of mix at those and having some electrolyte tabs along early would have helped. REI had these saltstick fast chews which are kind of not really great, it's like a salty chewable multivitamin and I think i'd rather just have the pill format. But having two of those at all the last aid stations was definitely helpful. I also kept picking up gels and then not really eating them so I had like 5 of them stuffed back there by the end. It was also annoying that I couldn't get my standard salted watermelon shot blocks. The long sleeve format is a lot easier to eat while moving than the bags like skratch or gu, especially when you cut then in half and have two pre-opened sleeves of 3.

Winner was this guy Chris who is some sort of a pro that mostly races gravel and recently got 4th at unbound xl. 2nd was Carter, a pro mtb racer from bozeman, 3rd a guy Matt from Michigan who I don't know anything about but seems to have real sponsors and travels around racing, 4th Adam from bozeman who got 4th last year and apparently used to be a pro roadie and also does a lot of ski racing.

2019 CX season - Rolling Thunder

Montana CX season ended with "rolling thunder." It's at a brewery, the beer is free, and things start at like noon with the juniors and get faster as the day goes on. The "elite" mens field races at 8pm and there are lights set up all over the course and tons of spectators. Going up the hill, down the off camber, and up the run up it seems like both sides of the course are lined with people screaming your name. It's awesome.

I decided to do the mtb race as well as the night race because it was only 3 laps. Pretty fun, there were around 25 people out there and the full suspension bikes got a head start, so I was at the very back like a minute behind. I caught the two fs bike leaders near the beginning of the last lap, had a battle up and down the hill, and won. Got a 6 pack and a free dinner at Cafe Dolce. That race was at 5:30, which was kind of weird timing with racing at 8 as far as eating and recovering and warming up goes. I pedaled around a bit, ate a little, and then we were lining up.

They called up almost everyone, but behind the first row, things were kind of a free for all. I was like, uh, hey, you guys want to try this again because no one is where they are supposed to be but then looped back around and Cory stuck me in front of him. I was supposed to be 3rd row, but some guys weren't there, but some people got added late, and anyway I wound up on the 2nd row, on the inside edge, behind Dan and Rob. Who were originally supposed to be on the 2nd row. But I think we were all in about the right spots. Had a good start- found my pedal, stayed up there, made it through turn 1, barely, because Rob got loose and almost took out himself and Dan (and i probably would have been the first guy into the pile). I was somewhere around 8-10th out of 54 racers and pretty happy with that. The first part of the course goes into the backyard/concert venue at the brewery, and is a little tight and narrow, so things are strung out single file and there isn't much room to pass. Then you get out around the edge and go up the hill and it widens out. Being up there let me not worry about fighting for position or trying to move up, and instead try to find a reasonable pace.

Next lap Ian comes by me and I'm like, oh, this will be a good wheel to follow. But I couldn't hang onto that and he went on to finish 9th overall and ahead of Rob and Dan, so good work Ian. I meanwhile, was beginning the backward slide. Guys were catching me, sometimes I'd follow for awhile, and then I'd get dropped. I just didn't seem to have it. Laps like, 3-5 I was behind the guy who won the masters race. He was pedaling really fucking hard up the hill and I was dying, but I could go a little bit slower and catch up on the way back down and through the 180s at the bottom. Once we got up the hill for the last time I could ride his draft down the back straight and through the start/finish and then it was back in the tight corners through the grass. But this going harder than I wanted up the hills and then slower down them and through the corners was not an ideal situation, and after like 3 times up that hill (we go down and back up it 4 times in a row each lap), I couldn't do it anymore and gave up on sticking with him. My 6th lap was like 30s slower than 1-5 and then I was just waiting for it to end. There were 9 laps. A few more guys caught me, including a teammate who was a favorite to win the masters race but got a flat and missed the start. Charlie was in the lead of that race (and is our masters state champion) for about the first half until that guy went by him up the hill like he was standing still. Charlie was coming up behind me with like 2 to go but crashed on the downhill off camber. He got back up and finished but I think hit his head pretty good.

I feel like I had a better race in me than that, and rolled in not very happy, but surprisingly got the last step of the cat 3 podium (5th). 1/2/3 and "open 4/5" all raced and started together, and they said they weren't doing a cat 3 podium, but they wanted to give a cat 3 state championship and there were over 20 of us so they figured they might as well. And I didn't get lapped by the winner (Kevin Bradford Parish, who has been racing world cups this year). Ivan was 2nd and only 8 seconds behind at the end, but KBP might have just been riding with him to make it fun. Andrew, who won this race last year and has also been in some pro fields this year, got a flat early on and then crashed a couple times so not a good day for him.

I never seem to race as well as I'd like at this one. Maybe it's because it's november in montana and fitness is on a downhill slide, maybe I went too hard and blew up, maybe I'm just that slow, maybe it's because the race doesn't start until 8pm. Or maybe I shouldn't have done that mtb race at 5:30 (but I got good prizes so totally worth it).

Wed night I was surprised at how far the tire pressure dropped after getting out on the course and things were fairly smooth and fast, so I was considering starting on the higher side. But that grass field warmed up during the day and turned into slick, greasy mud that I could barely stay up on during the mtb race, there's the off camber downhill, and the corners on the hill are fast and off camber. Thankfully the slick parts mostly hardened up and I was actually going too slow sometimes in there, just expecting to start sliding. I can't remember if I started at 25/27 or 26/28, and I didn't check them after, but I assume I was a little lower during the actual race. They felt good, had plenty of grip, and stayed supported on the paved chicane going into the start/finish. I've spent a lot of time racing at 27/29 or higher and they're definitely better when the course lets you go below that. Still glad I went with these as my one set of tubs for the last two seasons. Andrew had one up front with a grifo rear, Ivan was on terreno wets, Toby (3rd overall) was also on Baby Limuses.

There are a lot of pictures thanks to Myke Hermsmeyer and John Sieber

https://www.facebook.com/rollingthu...146986016686213

https://www.facebook.com/pg/rolling...25&__tn__=-UC-R

https://www.facebook.com/pg/jsieber...0&__tn__=-UCH-R

https://www.facebook.com/pg/jsieber...0&__tn__=-UCH-R

https://www.facebook.com/pg/rolling...55&__tn__=-UC-R

https://www.facebook.com/pg/rolling...35&__tn__=-UC-R

https://missoulian.com/news/local/p...Bv4o8gRT2O05A#1

2019 cx season - wed week 6

Wed cx week 6. The last one. This race is out at big sky brewery since our big race is there Saturday. I was out there Sunday mowing the ditch around the sand pit, and then Monday was a snow storm, and Tuesday was really cold. Which meant all the course setup happened kind of at the last minute yesterday. I got the back yard of the brewery setup while Dave and Cory worked on the hill. This is the 4th year racing out there and I've helped set things up before, so we have things mostly figured out, but there's some new stuff this year, mainly that the road between the brewery and the big hillside we use is getting closed so the street is the start/finish straight. The previous issue was that the course was a little short, laps being low 5 min for the fastest guys. Now we're using more of the hilliside plus the street and it's longer. Our laps last night were over 7min and we didn't have to get too crazy with stuff like constant back and forth through a field.

2019 CX season - wed week 5

After the "bike ball" Friday night, I was really useless saturday, actually did a solid ride/workout sunday, and then have felt like garbage all week. I was really on the fence about racing, but figured if I felt bad enough I could just dial it back, take some handups, or even quit. I had some motivation to show up though because there is a series overall podium with pretty good prizes. Dan and Robert are very firmly in 1st and 2nd, but the points are best 5 out of 6 races and Andrew, Ivan, Toby, and Kory have all missed at least 2 races so the 3rd spot is going to Charlie, Shaun, or me. My worst race was 9th on week two, so my goal was to do better than that, and finishing ahead of Charlie and/or Shaun is a bonus. Charlie wasn't there tonight, but Shaun was. He missed week one, finished ahead of me weeks 2 and 3 (week 3 was a sprint finish), and I beat him last week. Charlie and I are also 2-2, and one of those I only got because his chain kept coming off.

2019 CX season - Wed week 4

Just making it to wed night cx was kind of iffy after bozeman. I stripped my bike down sunday and was pretty annoyed with how fucked it was/is. BB bearings wouldn't turn, shift cable wasn't moving well, wheel bearings don't feel great. Thought, well, maybe I'm just done for awhile and left it hanging up in pieces until tuesday. Then figured I should try to get it working and race. But my LBS never seems to have bb30 bearings in stock and I didn't feel like getting bearings from a different shop and then going down there and asking to use their stand and tools. Popped off the seals, flushed them out, repacked them, and they seem turn well enough. Also ran some ptfe spray lube and compressed air through the cable housing, repacked the jockey pulleys, scrubbed the cassette and brake tracks, and tried to get the shifter a little cleaner. It's a little sluggish, and for some reason it goes into the biggest cog and then just clicks right back out, but it works. Maybe this weekend I'll do bar tape and a new cable.

2019 CX season - Bozeman Grand Prix

Went to Bozeman last weekend to race their cross race. This year the Wild West series didn't happen, the Flathead didn't put on a race, and Helena cancelled theirs. I was planning to attend at least one of those, and with nationals happening fairly nearby there was definitely a demand for some usac sanctioned races in the state. But rolling thunder is going to be the only one. The inland NW series, happening in the N ID and Spokane area, are done through USAC and some people I know have been heading out to those. In fact, I was getting text messages Saturday on the drive back from Bozeman about carpooling to Sunday's race in CdA.

2019 CX season - wed week 3

Week 3 was at the golf course. Thick grass is hard, and it was cold out. 27f. Andrew and Ivan didn't race because they were going to Boulder, and at the start things seemed fairly civil. I didn't have to work very hard to put myself 5th wheel behind Shaun going into the first bottleneck, where you go up a narrow driveway off the street. Robert was in the lead with Dan and Charlie behind him. The start of the lap takes you on a narrow track around a pond, then in front of the clubhouse, around a few tight corners, over the barriers, and then down the driving range. Or rather up, because it's a slight climb. Did I mention it's also thick grass? This was the most miserable part of the course, and by the time we hit the end of the range, there was a gap from Shaun to Charlie, and a gap from Charlie to Rob and Dan. I was fairly comfortable when it started opening and probably should have tried getting to Charlie before it got too big. But at the same time I'm thinking "don't be stupid and blow up on lap 1" and I was happy with where I was. Dan and Rob rode away, Shaun and I stuck together, and Charlie stayed out there, just out of reach. Looking at the times, he got about 16-17s ahead and then we closed to like 9 at the finish. Parts of the course were fast enough where there was drafting, and it was also nice to be riding with another person. We kind of figured out where each of us were better and took the lead through those sections. Without being on Shaun's wheel through the sand and over this set of logs and down a bank, I would not have even realized I should have been going faster there. Going into the last lap he's ahead of me, and there's an uphill section on cart path, then some off camber tight corners, then the finish line. My plan was to attack up the path and get in front, but there were some other racers kind of in the way that we were lapping, so I didn't get by, and there wasn't really a good way to get around in a sprint. Plus Shaun is a better sprinter than me. So 5th, but also 4 guys who finished ahead of me last week weren't there. The other 4 were, and still did. But being with Shaun and almost Charlie definitely made me feel better.

2019 CX season - wed week 2

Last week, a couple of the regular fast guys weren't there, and I generally felt pretty good the whole race. This week had better turnout and I wasn't really at 100% going into it. Same gravel section off the start, but last weekend's rain packed it down pretty well and the large dumpster was gone, so much more manageable in the group at high speed. Turn two was a hairpin on loose gravel though. Despite feeling like I had a pretty good start, there were a lot of guys, and a lot of fast guys, and I was probably 8-9th wheel or so once we got through the tricky bits. But, no gaps for about the first half of the first lap. But then there were, and I couldn't stick with Toby through the technical bits when he passed a couple guys who were falling off, and the front of the race was gone. I got passed by a couple guys, passed a couple guys, and had some fun back and forth throughout most of the race and then with like 3 to go was by myself again. This time in 9th place though. And the leaders of 40+ caught and passed me on the last lap but sticking on their wheels to the finish line was actually pretty easy. I tried to ride the run up about half the time today, it wasn't faster because you had to take a longer route vs running up, but there was a crowd up there. I made it twice out of I think 4 attempts, on one of the missed ones I took a whisky shot.

2019 CX season - wed week 1

Another season of cyclocross racing is underway. Half over for me, actually. I've done 3 wed night races and went to Bozeman, and have 3 more wed night races and then Rolling Thunder.

Anyway, here's what I wrote about week 1

Philipsburg 2019

I had a pretty busy last couple months of racing - 4 of the Wed night series, the mullet classic climb, and Spirit Bear in Kalispell. Nothing really went that great for me, but I did get 4th a the Blue mountain race and due to actually going to them all was 3rd overall in the series, so that was neat. Spirit bear was a little disappointing though, with a 9th place finish. I have some words about most of all that written down elsewhere so maybe I'll copy/paste it here eventually. Anyway, this post was to talk about Philipsburg.

After all those other not really great results, I've been a little less confident in my fitness. I'm also slightly heavier than I'd like. On the plus side, June was all big weeks, racing, and hard efforts for the "Pete Mitchell Inverted Enduro," and I've been doing alright at Wed Worlds.

Bearmouth Road Race 2019 recap

Bearmouth was brought back last year, and is pretty much the only road race in the state. MSU does still put on theirs, and this year there was a UM crit the same weekend, but I didn't make it out in the open field for either. I do wish I'd gone to the road race, it looked like a great course out by Lewis and Clark caverns.

One thing I am starting to appreciate for road racing is a fully paved course with minimal traffic. At bearmouth, we basically have the roads to ourselves. The first out and back is a nice, rolling frontage road along the river and interstate from Drummond to Bearmouth, the second out and back goes over a pass to Helmville. No one has much of a reason to drive on those roads.

On to the race, there were about 25 in our open field. There's a long 1/2/3 race, and a short 4/5 race. But because of the difficulty of getting a road upgrade around here, an "open 4/5" category was added, which means anyone can race in the big race if they want. I managed to actually get myself a cat 3 upgrade last year but there are a number of really fast, experienced racers around who still are 4/5s on the road.

Oh right winter is over

Lot of snow and cold days this winter. I didn't get outside on a bike until march 19th, which means not a lot of miles this year. Thankfully I did not let myself get too fat or out of shape over the winter and have a couple of good weeks in my legs. We've had a few Wed worlds rides, and I went to the death ride, which was a miserable, cold, wet day (in a fun way though), but hadn't done a real race until yesterday.

Philipsburg 46 MTB race

It's been awhile since I put something up here, and June has been a pretty busy month of mountain bike racing. I"m going to skip ahead to the last race I had on the schedule since I already wrote it.

Bearmouth Road Race

I was going to start this post by talking a little about the state of road racing in Montana, but it was getting a little long and I figured I'd just skip right to the race report and make that another post.

This year, Alex Gallego and Missoula Bicycle Works decided to put on the Bearmouth Road race. It's a course that has been used before, and is generally a pretty nice ride. If you're going to do it on your own, start at Bearmouth, ride to Drummond, and then up the pass. You can just go to the top, or all the way into Helmville (the Copper queen is a decent lunch stop). The race works a little differently as Drummond makes a better start/finish location, so first is an out and back to Bearmouth along the frontage road, which is quiet and rolling and about 15mi each way, then goes up and over to Helmville and back. It's around 20mi from Drummond to Helmville and in total the race was 74mi for the long race, and in the 50s for the shorter, just to the top and back race.

One of the problems with road racing in Montana under USAC is that so many fast guys are stuck in the lower categories due to the lack of races. They might be on the group ride every week and cat 1 CX and MTB racers, but when it comes road they are still 4/5s. So for this event, you could sign up in the "open" category and race in the 1/2/3 field. There was separate scoring for 1/2 and 3, and then an overall "open." So if you were a cat 4 that finished behind all the 1/2/3s, tough... but if you were on the overall podium, you got recognized (and prize money)

Anyhow, turnout was decent with about 25 in the field, although with so many categories mixed together I wasn't sure who I was racing. At the start, some guy I didn't know rode away from the group, and then Kevin Turchin went up to join him. We were crusing along at a good pace with little effort out to bearmouth and I figured that with the headwind on the way back they wouldn't get too far ahead. Unfortunately the pace on the way back was really variable and a lot of guys woudn't go to the front. In a big field, I get that, but when no one has teammates and there are only a dozen guys it's just slow and annoying. Like just ride tempo for a minute if you're going to be there. I took some turns and wasn't too worried though as the climb out of Drummond is a big one, at about 1000 vertical feet total. I figured that was where things would split up for good and was mostly worried about not getting left behind there.

photo by Jesse Carnes

Montana Gravel Challenge

For years, the spring race to do in the area was the Rocky Mountain Roubaix. But a few years ago the Cycling House started up the Montana Hell Ride, and then moved it from fall to the spring after a cancellation caused by wildfires. Last year they were on consecutive weekends and shared some of the same roads, so it kind of made sense to combine them into one event.

The Robaix used to start in Frenchtown, and the Hell Ride started out on Mullan near Kona Ranch rd the last two years, but Bjorn, a founder of Big Sky Brewing, is a big sponsor of cylcing in the area and offered to host it at his house in the Huson/ninemile area, where the old courses passed anyway. That meant a place to camp if you wanted and free beer all weekend (although I waited until after the event was over to have any).

Unravel the Scratchgravels XC

I seem to be getting a little behind on posts here. I have some more gravel routes to post since that seems to be all the rage these days despite the fact that it is really nothing new for us in MT. I also haven't said anything about the Montana Gravel Challenge yet. Maybe I'm tired of gravel, and would rather ride road, or mountain bikes on actual trails? Or maybe I just need a "gravel" bike.

Anyway, Scratchgravel XC is a mountain bike race out in Helena. It takes place down in the valley so it can happen earlier than most other races in the state. The downside is that you aren't really climbing up anything long or steep (or is that an upside?), and a big portion of the course is pretty smooth double track. That does make it a good start to mtb season though.

Rolling Thunder Cyclocross 2017

Rolling Thunder tends to mark the end of the season, and not just for racing, because winter usually shows up not too long after. This year we got cold weather and a big snowstorm a few days later (although it's been nice since and I've been out riding a bunch).

Like last year, I made sure to get out and help Shaun with the course. Thunder takes quite a bit more work than the standard Wednesday night series. Mostly it just comes down to driving in stakes and running tape but there is some other stuff that needs to happen too. Without any help Shaun would end up doing all himself and I had free time, so really it was about the least I could do. There is also a really nice benefit of helping with the course and that is being able to get very familiar with it before the race.