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Brad Nelson KY race
KY by Brad:
This weekend I did the Elizabethtown, KY mountain bike race. It was the KY series opener, and had a time trial and short track on Saturday, and a xc race on Sunday.
I felt great at the beginning of the weekend. The course suited me, it was 15miles long with tight twisting single track, some fire roads, some very rocky technical sections, and 2 enormous climbs that took about 15-20min to climb. The time trial consisted of a 5mile course,and the best of your two runs counted. I posted a 19:58 first lap putting me in first, but later in the day a 19:37, 18:58, and 18:51 were posted. So I had to run again, and this time the course was in perfect condition. I posted a 19:00 and ended up third in expert. The short track was 30min and I got in a break away first lap. The group consisted of me and first and second. I sat in the group and the lead man seemed content to pull the entire race, and at the sprint I edged the two out for a first place in expert.
Sunday started off below freezing, and throughout the day the course got really slick and muddy from the freeze/thaw the night before. The start was a repeat of the short track, us three broke away from the field on the first climb and never looked back. We later dropped the third guy and I rode with the other. I kept him in site, but he was awesome in the rocky sections and got a little gap on me. After the first lap he had 20seconds on me. The second lap I kept him in site, but wasn't able to close the gap. And when I got to the last and biggest climb I lost some time on him, and didn't recover from the climb to gain my lost ground. I ended up 2 and 1/2 min off pace, and beat third by 3min.
I also stumbled into the KY KHS rep, his name was Jason Holzworth. He was really happy to see me on the KHS, and gave me all sorts of stickers to put on the truck and so forth.
The bike worked flawlessly, and earlier this week I converted to stans. I was carving around the turns, and have the bike dialed in. I feel great and can't wait until next weekend. -Brad
Grenbrier Challenge, MD
NRC level 2 event
In the southeast our NRC events have been limited to level 4 events. Last weekend Brad, Tristan and Andy headed up to Maryland to compete in a level 2 event, The Greenbriar Challenge. National ranking points were more valuable at this event which will give Andy much needed points, but importantly give Brad and Tristan points towards Worlds Team selection.
The race went perfect with Brad winning the Junior Expert class and Tristan winning the Senior Expert class (both are aged 18). Andy finished the day with an 8th in the hotly contested pro field.
Not knowing exactly how the whole team selection works this year Brad and Tristan raced the class which they thought would give them maximum points. That's a whole other story all together to tell about USAC's lacking in communication.
Tristan raced Sr Expert confident he could win, and Brad signed up for Jr Expert, just because he is a junior expert.
They both won their class, so hopefully both get the points they were after.
Andy raced the pro class and did not have to worry of such matters.
Andy finished 8th in a class of nearly 30 that included eventual winner Todd Wells and local favorite, or national favorite, Jeremiah Bishop.
The course was rugged and had a lot of climbing. For Brad the course had a lot of slow people. The Jr Ex class started 7th in the expert waves. Brad had to contend with racers always walking up the climbs, which made it very difficult for him to ride. Walking is much slower and took a toll on him.
Over-all this new event for us was great.
Dauset Trails, GA
More Red, Blue and Yellow
The podium was again full of the now familiar colors of Team KHS/Kenda at the weekend's round 7 of the SERC event in middle Georgia.
above: 1st Brad, 3rd Seth and 4th Ethan.
In the morning race Brad takes the win in the Senior Expert followed closely by teammates Seth and Ethan. Seth suffered a bend der hanger thanks to a stick, ran 5 minutes, decided to fix it and still made podium.
Brad has been traveling to most of the SERC events in the southeast from his home in Indiana.
In the pro race eventual winner Ryan got away and established a gap before the contenders could weed through the early traffic. Andy and Tristan rode closely together through the tight twisty single track to take 2nd and 3rd. "There were not many places to make time on the course."
Todd and Mike did not find their form today.
The 2nd heat saw Jansen take 2nd (Jr Sport) while Axel (4th Jr Sport) nipped at his heels, Dustin (6th Jr 15-18) had to run/roll in with a broken chain.
On our other planet, or Arkansas, Jesus won the Junior Expert (Joe Martin Race) by enough to motivate him to start racing the Senior Expert class from here on out.
see report by Jansen
Bump n Grind, Birmingham, AL June 3
Youth go one-two at BUMP
Tristan and Seth take the top spots in the SR Expert class at this NRC level 3 event, while Ethan wins the Jr Expert class. Andy only held the 2nd pro spot for a lap while being chased by a train of 4 pros, but finished 5th. Mike rounded out the pro class with a I-need-to-train finish, but Todd had a good day finishing 9th in SR expert. Mark Baldwin got to try out his new ALite frame, loving it, but flatted out in the Ex Masters race.
Back to the juniors-
It's funny because the race's officials were not going to let Tristan and Seth race the 19-29 age group because they were too young. When asked if this official normally officiated at road events he hung his head in shame and mumbled something. The riders had to show him in the rule book where it is permitted (and normal) for any aged rider to race the 19-29 age class. It might be that these official's licenses are gotten with their bubblegum snack these days.
Otherwise the race went off smoothly.
above: team pit at Bump n Grind
12 Hours of Yargo. Winder, GA 4-5-07
Read report by Everett Lindner
Sea Otter Classic by Jesus
Joe Martin Stage Race by Jesus
4-22, IN - Brad's
This Saturday I raced in northern Indiana in the season opener of the state mt bike series. The course was a 9.3 mile loop with about 4 miles of tight technical sections, and the rest fast flowing single/double track. The forecast was calling for rain all day, but we lucked out and the trails were perfect. There was no rain, and gobs of traction at every turn.
I raced in the pro class (a new class this season in Indiana) and we had 10 people in the wave. Of these people were the 2005, 2004 state champions, and 2 pro locals (Don Galligher being one of them). I got a great start; 2nd into the first section of single track, and then attacked with Galligher about 2 miles into the race. Galligher led the lap, and I fought to stay on in the tight stuff. He knows the course like the back of his hand, and I had to sprint to close gaps after many of the turns. This took its toll on me but I tried to hang on. I completed the first of three laps on his wheel, and on the second I made a mistake (I over-shot a turn) and he got a gap on me. I tried to close it down but was getting tired. he had 1 min on me after the second lap, and finished 2.5 min ahead of me in the end. I finished the day 2nd in the pro class.
I was also able to have a faster third lap, usually I start fast and throughout the race gradually get slower. This time I did a 40min first lap, 42 second, and 41 third.
-Brad
Sea Otter 2007
by Jesus Martinez
It was kind of a crazy trip, because up to last Sunday we had decided that we were going to drive to California and I was just going to do the Mt Bike Race. Then, on Monday my dad found some plane tickets for Wednesday and we decided on Tuesday that I would do the Road Race too. We got to Laguna Seca on Wednesday, and I registered for the road race.
On Thursday the junior road race was at 9 a.m. I started out fine. No one tried anything at first so we all stayed in a group for the first few miles. Then on a climb some people started attacking, it was all a little confusing. In the confusion I stayed with a group of about 10 guys. There was a group of 5 in front of us, so the people in the group I was in started pushing it trying to catch them. On the second lap I was feeling a little tired and in a little climb my left leg started cramping up. I had to completely stop and stretch my leg for a few seconds. I shifted to a low gear on my bike and started spinning lightly. I was by myself now and the truth is that I was very seriously thinking about DNF'ing the race, but I decided to just finish at my own pace.
I started feeling better and when my dad told me that there was a small group of riders about 45 seconds in front of me, I decided to try to catch them. When they were no more than a 100 yards in front of me on the 3rd lap my right leg started cramping up and I had to stop again and stretch it for a few seconds and then started spinning lightly. At this point I was by myself again and I decided that I would DNF as soon as I got to the place where my dad was with the car; I have a mtb race soon. When I was really close to that point on the 4th lap, a group of 2 riders started catching up with me. When I saw them I decided to let them catch up with me and then I would ride with them. The 2 were riding pretty fast, and almost at the end of the 5th and last lap we caught the group I was riding with at first. This group was riding at a very moderate pace and this allowed me to recover a little.
At the end on the last climb there were about 10 of us in the group. 3 guys made an attack when there was about 500 meters to the finish line on a kind of steep climb. I followed them, but when there were only about 50, meters to the end they dropped me. I finished right behind those 3, and the chase group didn't catch me. I finished 9th, but I was pretty contempt [content] because it is only the 2nd road race I have ever done, and it's the 1st one I have ever finished.
The next day (Friday) I slept until about 10 a.m. Then we went and watched a couple of races. At 5 p.m. we went to our tent, assembled my mt bike and then just laid and read for the rest of the day. On Saturday we woke up real early because the weather forecast said it was going to rain and I wanted to pre-ride the course before it rained. I rode at a modest pace. When I was in the middle of the course It started raining. After 5 minutes it was pouring down pretty hard. The course was really muddy and completely flooded, plus the cold wind made it even worse. I finished pre riding at about 12:00 p.m. At this time I was seriously thinking about not doing the race. I then washed me and the bike and when it stopped raining me and my dad went and watched a couple of events.
At about 5:00 I was getting everything ready when while finishing cleaning my bike I realized that the back break was touching the disk and made the wheel super hard to turn (Other than cleaning the cables of the bike I know next to nothing about bike maintenance, so I was in real trouble). All the booths had been emptied and there was nobody in the festival area. My dad then remembered a guy, who had a bike shop about 45 minutes from the race track, he had met during the road race. We decided to give him a call. At 8:30 pm, he kindly received us at his workshop and one my bike was ready at about 9:30.
The day of the race I woke up at 5:00 a.m. I had 2 scrambbled eggs with sausage [not on the plan], a banana, an apple and some orange juice. As soon as I was done, I fell asleep again. Then I woke up at 6:30 and started getting ready. My race started at 7:35 and we were staged with the 18 an under guys. It was nothing like the road race, everyone started sprinting from the start. I kept up with them for about a mile, then on a little climb the group stretched out an I was left almost by myself on the middle. My confidence at this point was pretty shaken. People started passing me and I just tried to keep up with whoever passed me for as long as I could.
The rain from the day before had actually helped make the course smoother on some parts were there were ridiculous amounts of the kind of sand you would find at the beach. However, I was still feeling pretty beaten (not tired, but every time I thought about still having another lap to go, I would just wonder "what the heck am I doing here"). By the end of the first lap, just like in the road race, I wanted to quit. Then as I was passing trough the starting line, for my second lap I thought that I hadn't gone all the way from Arkansas to California to just DNF the race. At that [point] my goal shifted from winning to just finishing the race. From this point on I just decided to keep up my pace and finish the race. During the second lap there were already about 1000 people on the course, because the Spot category started at 8:30.
For some reason passing other people during a race, makes me feel better and I think that passing all those Sport people gave me a boost of confidence. To tell you the truth I have no clue when or where it was that I passed the guys from my category. There where only 2 places where my dad could see me go by and these where about 1 mile apart from each other, plus he hadn't been with me at the start of the race, so he wasn't sure about who was in my category. That left about 17 miles of not knowing who was in front or behind me. It wasn't until the awards ceremony that a couple of guys from my category told me that I had passed them in the middle of the second lap. At the end of the race I was exhausted and could barely walk, yet I felt pretty good at having finished the race.
Jesus
Joe Martin Stage Race (road)
by Jesus Martinez
Hello,
This weekend I felt in good shape, but I was a little disappointed because I could have gotten a much better result.
On Saturday for the road race I stayed with the group for the first 11 miles, then on the longest hill of the race, me and another guy from the team tried to make an escape. We didn't get to far before the group caught us. For the rest of the race there were very moderate escape attempts and we rode at a moderate pace. I kept in the front for most of the race. I wasn't actually working, I just tried to stay up around the top ten in case someone made an attempt to escape and so that my chances of being involved in an accident was not so high.
When there were only a few miles to go I was at the front, but with less than a mile to go one of the spokes of my wheel popped out (I guess I hit a bump or something) and the rim started rubbing against the brakes. I tried to stay with the group, but when they started picking up the pace, I started getting behind. Luckily my dad was driving behind the group and we quickly changed the wheel and then I rode alone for the last kilometer. Over-all I lost 29 seconds with respect with the whole group and I was in 42nd place
Right after the race I ate and rested at the hotel. In the time trial I started out hard and then slowed down a bit. When I saw the one mile to go mark, I kicked it up considerably and I kind of blew up a few meters before the finish. However, when they posted the results I was surprised to find that I had a time of about 10:30, which gave me a fourth place in the TT. I was pretty glad because that got me up to 13th place.
For the criterium I stayed on the front because, even though I had to work a little harder, I felt much more secure since there were many downhill turns that were hard to make with the whole group. Plus when the group turned, they stretched out and you had to work to get back in a pack. When there were only 2 laps left I tried to make an escape. However, the group quickly caught up with me, so I stayed with them for the remaining of the race. It came down to a sprint, but I didn't have the power, and I just stayed with the pack.
At the end I got 11th place on the over all classification. Yet, I was disappointed because since I didn't learn about the rule that says that if something happens to you on the last mile of a race you get the same time as the group, I got 29 seconds added to my time. If I had told them about the wheel in the 15 minute period after they posted the results I could have gotten the same time as the group and that would have gotten me 4th place.
Anyway's, I was still glad because apart from the TT I did at the camp last year, this is the first TT I have ever done.
