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!

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.

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:

• Donate Online


• Donate at Bike Shops - make a $5 donation and received a wristband.


• Beer For Bender - a fund raising gathering at Jersey's in Redlands.


• Ride For Bender - a series of fund raising rides and races that anyone can attend.

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

Redlands Cyclery USA

Bear Valley Bikes

Cycopath

Rock n' Road Cyclery

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

Leadville 100

Good luck to Don's Team rider Gerry Cody at Leadville. The Leadville 100 is a 100 mile mountain bike race in Leadville, CO. It starts at an elevation of 10,000 feet and reaches a high point of over 12,000 feet. Lance Armstrong, Floyd Landis, and Dave Weins are notable racers who have been at Leadville in the past.

This year Weins returns looking for his 7th win. Also scheduled to compete are top pros Tinker Juarez, Manny Prado, Todd Wells, Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski, Jeremiah Bishop, and Levi Leipheimer. The ageless legend Ned Overend is also entered as are many of the other top finishers from last year.

Gerry returns for his 2nd Leadville after finishing 25th overall last year (out of over 1200 riders). You can follow Gerry's blog for more in-depth coverage of how he's doing.

http://bikeblood.com/

Fontana Backwards

It was a Wednesday in early March and we went out for our weekly night ride. This particular day was a little longer than usual and I ended up going 30 miles and about 3 hours. Well, at 4am the next morning I woke up with a shortness of breath. I get in with the doctor that afternoon and have some tests done and get an inhaler and some medicine. A few hours later the doctor calls me and says I need to go to the Emergency Room right away. My white blood cell count was more than twice the normal rate. Fast Forward 7 weeks (another ER trip, dozen other doctor trips, and more tests than I've had in my lifetime before now) and it turns out I am allergic to nearly every weed and grass out there and I have some kind of allergy induced asthma.
The last 2 weeks I've finally started to feel much better and have been able to breath almost normally. I started riding 2-3 times a week, but kept things pretty easy. This weekend I thought I'd challenge myself and race at Fontana. The May race typically has a very small turnout so I figured it be a good low-key race. I also decided, just to do something different, I'd race my singlespeed.

So I show up Saturday morning. Everything is setup like it always is and I'm ready for a typical Southridge race (they host a lot of races). Then at registration they announce they're running the course backwards. Backwards??? It took a little while to wrap my head around the idea. I've done well over 10 races there of 3 to 4 laps each, and the course has always gone in the same direction.

Things started off easy enough. Going backwards there's no real climb until you get around to the backside. Things got pretty difficult at this point. Riding up some of that singletrack that is always downhill was a major challenge, especially on a SS. But I have to say that coming down some of the sections we usually have to climb was a nice treat. Here I was racing at Fontana for the 5th time this year and it was like a whole new experience.

One small change.....when we hit the pavement, we quickly turned off and did the big National Climb backwards as well. All classes did this section. This climb was a great addition to the course. It was a very technically challenging. The only disappointment there was coming down the steep fireroad (ordinarily the climb). There was quite a bit of elevation gained there to be wasted on a steep fireroad.

This is a little downhill section of the National Hill

The bottom line - this definitely felt like a tougher course, but with a few possible changes/additions, it could be just as good or even better than running the course the regular way.

The GPS of my first lap - http://connect.garmin.com/activity/33408204

Super D
I didn't do any of the Winter Series Super D races, but I decided to give this one a try. They started at about the highest point on the hill above the DH start, and then mostly followed the backwards XC course. I somehow got entered as a beginner instead of an expert so I was stuck starting towards the end. I was told they'd just put me in the right class after I finished. Wouldn't have been a problem but I was starting behind the beginning women. With only a 30 second gap I caught both of them pretty quick. One was able to let me right by, but I caught the other in a bad section and there was no easy way for me to get around so I had to ride behind her for a bit. My best guess is that cost me 10-15 seconds and I ended up losing the race by only .36 of a second. Oh well.

My SD run - http://connect.garmin.com/activity/33408197


Other Things I heard

Mammoth - Last year the Golden State Final was in Mammoth. So far the schedule this year has said location tbd. They said they're looking to have it at Mammoth again this year, but there's so much snow up there they don't know if it'll all be melted by August!

New Course - Last week there was a fire that burned right up to the backside of the cross country course. Donny said that due to all the clearing of the brush from the fire he plans to cut a new section of trail.

Night Race - I also heard there are plans to possibly have a night race sometime in the fall. I wasn't sure if this was DH and XC or just one and not the other. But it could make for some fun times.

Sea Otter 2010

2010 Sea Otter Results

Gerry Cody
1st - road race, cat 4
1st - crit, cat 4
1st - circuit race, cat 4
3rd - Super D, open 30-39
10th - XC, cat 1 30-34

Lisa Crowe
1st - Super D, open 30+
3rd - XC, cat 1 30-39