Sunday, September 26, 2010

Big Bear Single Track Epic - Thank you!

On a crisp and clear Saturday morning up in Big Bear, about 40 riders gathered to take on the first ever Big Bear Single Track Epic. Nobody really knew what was really in store, but in the end, everyone manged to survive the challenge.

Bike For Bender
This was the first ride of the Bike For Bender series: a set of fundraiser events we are hosting to help our teammate with his fight against cancer. You can learn more here. To our surprise, Rob and his whole family actually showed up to help support the event. They even offered to manage the aid station half-way through the ride, which each and everyone of us appreciated more than gold as we rolled in later in the day!

So at 9:00 AM, we lined up and we were ready to go! Here are some of the highlights of the day.



The Goal
Regardless of the course, 25 miles of up-and-down single track at 7000-8000ft is challenging for any rider. Our goal was to get everyone around the course and back in one piece. The short loop was lead by my fearless wife Katrina along with Russell and Margaret from the Don's team. Jimmy Johnson and the other boys were also lending a helping hand. I lead the more advanced riders on a longer loop, and to face the ultimate challenge - "Bender Mountain".

Section "Unknown"
Both groups started out together and formed a giant peloton as we headed eastward. This area had some of the most challenging and least traveled trails in the area.

It consisted of a short fireroad climb and then transitioned in a tight single track that was a ton of fun. At the top, the short loop riders road down a killer single track towards Bear Mountain and the advanced group went on to take on the mountain.

Bender Mountain

Every good ride has something everyone remembers for one reason or another. For this one, if you were an advanced rider, it was "Bender Mountain". Even though I spent hours raking and preping this part of the course, this proved to be one of the toughest hill climbs in the area.

Keep in mind that these were some of the best riders in SoCal and every single one them had to push or carry their bikes up the hill climb. We all suffered for a short time, but the top offered one of the most spectacular views in the area. We took a quick snapshot by the "B" and descended off the back through a secret canyon trail. Everyone was smiling.


After a unanimous vote, we started the climb across Bear Mountain. This section included a painful set of granny gear climbs or simply pushing your bike up the hills.

By the end, most of the "men", including me, were reduced to "mice". After that, we managed regroup and powered up fireroads to next single track. Our goal was to catch the other group by the water station.

Half-way, well sort of...
When we hit the water station both groups merged. Despite a few flat tires and a few crashes, everyone in the first group was still smiling when we rolled in.


Rob and his family set up the pits in a great spot with lots of shade. They had water, gatorade, oranges and thanks to my wife, an assortment of cookies for everyone to munch on. As usual, Rob was walking around (still smiling) and helping people fix their bikes. Right Cy?

At this point, I could see that everyone was pretty much spent, and it was getting late in the day, so we brainstormed and decided to shorten the course. We came up with a plan that allowed us to get some of the best trails in but still get back at a reasonable hour. So in just a few minutes, we got everyone together and were off.

Here's a quick snapshot of us coming off some more secret trails on way back to Town Trail. Only a couple of riders actually cleared the whole decent.

The Raffle
So after over 4.5hrs of slugging it out, everybody made it back to the restaurant just fine. Our volunteers had everything set up and we gathered under the patio at the back of La Montanas.

It was time for the raffle!

Thanks to our sponsors, we had over $1000 of prizes to give away including everything from a set of 29er American Classic rims, helmets to $25 and $50 gift certificates. So between a barage of beer drinking and burrito eating, we managed to get our tickets sorted and the raffle began.
In the end, almost everyone walked away with something. It was awesome!





A great ride, for a great cause...
At the end of the day, the whole event was huge success. Like we said at the beginning, the course would definitely be challenging, and it was, but everybody made it back in one piece and everyone seemed to have a great time. That was the whole plan. The interesting thing is that nobody actually finished the whole course, so the good news is that there's still miles of untapped single track out there for next year...

The Challenge
Although we all faced a challenge today, it's nothing like the real challenge Rob and his family are facing right now. Through every one's support and generosity, we were able to raise over $1400 at this event. That was totally awesome and we thank everyone. Rob's dad also thanked us (and everyone that came out) over and over again. At the end of the day, it brought tears to every one's eyes.

So on behalf of the entire Don's Team, we'd like to extend a huge thanks to the whole mountain biking community for making this such a success. Big thanks go out to all of the sponsors, volunteers, and special thanks to Rob and his family for coming out and supporting us.

AL

If you missed this one, be sure to mark your calendar for the other Bike For Bender events coming up! The next big one is the SART Hell Ride - 30+ miles of single track from South Fork to Redlands!

1. Big Bear Single Track Epic
2. Orange County Adventure (TBA)
3. SART Hell Ride - Oct 23
4. 12hrs of Temecula - Nov 13 (sign-up in the "Bike For Bender" category at the race)

PS - If you are wondering what happened to the Intense Tazer frame, we decided to give people more time to buy tickets and extend the raffle across all events. The final draw will take place Nov 13th at the 12hrs of Temecula. If you can't make the event, the winning ticket number will be posted online and valid for 7 days.

Sunday, September 19, 2010

8hrs Solo at the 24hrs of Adrenalin

Well, all I can say is this was one of the toughest races I've done in a while. Even though I'm no newcomer to endurance races, I always seem to learn something new. Here's what I learned this time.

Pre-race Tire Issues
Since Kenda just happened to have the tire I use on my 29er, I decided to swap my rear and go tubeless. Naively, I agreed to try Jimmy's secret concoction of Slime and Stans mix. The tire beaded easily but after 3 tries airing to 40 lbs, it just wouldn't hold air for more that a few minutes. 10 min before the race I decided to swap everything back and go with a tube in the rear. Not things you should be doing before a race!

Minutes before the race, we though we heard a starting gun and I thought the race started. When I looked over, Jimmy was holding his rim in one hand and his tire in the other. His tire had essentially exploded off his rim and stans/slime were everywhere. Nice! He ran back to the pits where Rob and his dad dialed him in with a tube. Not sure what happened there, but nonetheless, he had a major tire problem too just minutes before the race.

Lesson 1: Don't touch your tire configuration the day of the race.

Lesson 2: Don't trust someone else's voodoo recommendations without testing them first!


Start
After all that, I barely arrived in time for the start and had a terrible gate pick for the run. After a 20th place start, I pushed hard on the first lap to get into 3rd overall. 3/4 of the way through I blew my rear tire - yes, the one I was messing with earlier!

Lesson 3: Lesson 1.

Tire Swap
In an avalanche of sweat and panting like a race horse, I managed to get the tube swapped and I was off again. At this point I had waisted tones of energy and lost a tone of time. Dozens of riders passed me, so I was back to square one again. Oh ya, I also used the only two CO2 canisters I had, so I had to ride the rest of the race with a big old manual pump in my pocket.

Lesson 4: Don't be a cheap ass; bring an extra Big Air!

Pacing
At this point I was riding at more of a XC pace than an endurance pace. Not good as it was blistering hot and everyone was suffering badly. Either way, by the third lap I had caught back up and was in first place again. The problem was I was pretty much spent and I had 5 more hours to go!

Lesson 5: It's an 8hr endurance race idiot. It's better to pace yourself and make up time over 8 laps instead of 3!

Nutrition
As the race went on, racers were dropping like flies due to the high temperatures and relentless climbs on the course. I started to cramp up badly behind the knees and in the inside of my hams. I managed to keep turning the pedals and spin through it, but I was in serious pain. If you've ever pedaled through a cramp, you know what I'm talking about!

At that point, I knew I was seriously dehydrated, so I totally ditched the nutrition drinks and switched to electrolytes. From lap 5-8, I basically drank nothing but electrolytes to try to replenish what I lost earlier in the day; something I've never tried before. I also grabbed a few orange slices to get some fast sugar energy. It took about an hour, but my muscles finally started to un-cramp and I was back in action. Plus, the temperature dropped 30 degrees so everyone was feeling better at this point.

Lesson 6: Nutrition drinks are essential, but without electrolytes, your body will still cramp!

Beer Lap
On my last lap, I was about 30 min ahead of the next guy, so I decided to have some fun. I stopped at this spot on the course where some spectators (more like hard core partiers) had been cheering for us all day. These guys had a couch, ez-up and a full bar. You had to see it to believe it. They offered me a beer and I gladly accepted. We shot the shit for a few minutes, I thanked them for their hard-core fan support, chugged my beer, and headed off in to the finish.

I can honestly say that was the first time I've ever done something like that during a race, but after surviving that brutal day, I thought I deserved it.

Lesson 7: As Paul Romero would say, "Ride Fast, Take Chances...". So I did.

In the end, it was a great race, and with every event, I learn something new.

Huge kudos to Jimmy Johnson for finishing his second endurance event ever. He was seriously going to throw the towel in after lap 3, but pulled through, knocked out 4 more laps and finished 5th . Good work buddy!

And lastly, huge thanks to Rob and his dad for coming out and pitting the whole race. I couldn't have done it without them.

Until next time!
AL

PS - See you guys next week at the Big Bear Single Track Epic!

Monday, September 13, 2010

US Cup Bonelli Final / State Championship

Gerry Cody - 2nd place, cat 1 30-34
Jeff Stanners - 7th place, cat 2 singlespeed

Course was short (4 mile), but very challenging (short, but very steep ups and downs). Lots of fun out at Bonelli. Gerry held the wheel of Ty Kady for a good 3 1/2 laps but slowly fell behind on the 5th lap. Still put up the 2nd fastest cat 1 time of the day.

Complete Results

Bike For Bender - Big Bear Single Track Epic


Our first Ride for Bender is scheduled Sept 25th and is called the Big Bear Single Track Epic. It's a fundraising event and it's free for everyone to sign-up. You can RSVP on Facebook or just show up. The format isn't any different than other group rides we've put on in the past e.g. SART Hell Ride, except all proceeds from the party/raffle afterwards will go to Rob and his family.

See full details here.

The Ride: We've spent a lot of time stitching the course together so I guarantee you it will be fun. I've basically ridden over 50 miles of best single tracks in the area and put together a nice continuous (but challenging) day of riding. There are definitely some hard sections and there are a number of bailout options, but my goal is to have everyone finish the whole ride. There will be a 25 and ~40 mile option.

My wife will be leading a group as well so all women riders are welcome to join in!

Here's a sneak peak of the course and "NO" you can't have the track!

So I would like to extend this invitation to the entire Socal community to come out and show our support for a fellow rider. Plus, you'll get a chance to ride some of the best single track trails that Big Bear has to offer! You can't go wrong.

Spread the word.

See you there!
AL

PS - Feel free to hit me with any questions.

Saturday, September 4, 2010

Bike For Bender

If you haven't heard the news, our team has recently put together a campaign to help raise money for our teammate Rob Bender.

Rob was recently diagnosed with a rare form of cancer and he has been undergoing treatment for the past several months. As you can imagine, this treatment is very intensive and costly.

In order to help support Rob and his family, we have come up with a number of ways that we can all contribute. This includes everything from donating online to signing up for local group rides and races.

Here's the short list:

You may have also noticed some people wearing Bike For Bender wristbands. This is our way of showing our support for Rob and his fight against cancer. If you donate or participate in any of our events, you will receive a wristband.

Lastly, we have to extend a huge thanks out to everyone that has helped get the campaign going:

Jason Ranoa - 12hrs of Temecula
Doug Andrews - Geoladders
Don's Bikes of Rialto


Thanks so much for everyone that has participated so far and although we are off to a great start, we still have a long way to go.

To learn more about Bike For Bender, please visit our website and stay tuned on Facebook as we announce more details about the up and coming events.

Once again, thanks for your support.
AL

Don's Bikes Team