LowCel 

The race this weekend was at Cooper's Rock, WV. This is about fifteen miles east of Morgantown, WV (WVU). It was around 60 degrees, the sun was out and it wasn't raining. Perfect day for a race. This race course is known as being rocky and technical. I pre-rode the course on Saturday and found out that it lived up to it's name. Rocks everywhere! I have never seen so many baby heads, this race was going to be responsible for quite a few flats.

I made it to the race around 9:45 am. The race was to start at noon. I registered, grabbed my shirt and just hung out with some friends until around 11:00. Then I checked out the bike, made sure my pedals were tight, changed clothes and then warmed up about 30 minutes. I pre-rode the two mile climb that started the race and then did about two miles of singletrack so that I could check out how the race finished. I went to the starting line a few minutes before noon warmed up and ready to go. That was when we were informed that people were still registering and the race would begin at 12:30. Why is it that people know a race starts at noon but they don't show up until 11:45????

Well now I am just there, not really wanting to just ride around anymore since the only real option was to continue riding that two mile climb. I ended up doing about half of it then just hanging around bs'ing with some friends. At 12:20 they had the pre-race meeting and we all lined up again. The experts were in line first, sport class second, beginners and juniors third. The horn went off and we all went. There was approximately 50 meters between each group.

The start went pretty smooth, everyone hammering right off. Within about half a mile I was already passing some of the experts. By the time we finished the two mile climb I was in front of about 1/4 of the experts, I had two or three sport racers in front of me. I was pretty much right where I wanted to be.

We went into the singletrack and had a nice flowy section for about three minutes then we started hitting a bunch of rocks, then more rocks and after that a few more rocks, a lot of variety. I went through the rocks and then a short climb followed by a long rocky downhill. I was doing pretty well through all of this then came a nice climb nicknamed "the wall". I put it in granny and went right up it. I was feeling good. After this we came to another rocky downhill. I went down it better than I expected. By this time I was in the lead and feeling awesome! Now it was time for the hike a bike and then some more rocks and a climb. I'm still feeling good and just going.

About eight miles into the race you come to a split, beginners straight, sport and experts go right. I took the right and started up a gruelling single track climb that went for two very long miles. On this climb I was passed by a rider on a bright green epic, he just went by me and kept on going. Come to find out he was in sport class. I'm not sure who he was but he was from Pennsylvania and a very nice guy. (I found all this out later) Another sport class racer (Chris Flick) was right behind me all the way up the climb, he did crash once but that only put one rider between us.

After the climb we started our second lap. About 1/4 of the way through it Chris passed me and took over second place. I stayed with him for a while but he ended up leaving me behind on one of the climbs. That is when I always start thinking about what all I ate wrong the months before causing me to not be 160 pounds, oh well, what do ya do. I just settled in and kept going. We did some more downhills, some more climbs and went over some more rocks. Then we started the big downhill again. On this downhill I was passed by about four racers, luckily they were all expert though. I didn't let it bother me too bad, afterall, experts are supposed to pass the sport riders right?

I was still feeling alright until that last big downhill. I made it down no problem but my hands were killing me. My right hand actually cramped up so bad that I couldn't move my thumb to shift gears. I had to start hitting my shifter with my palm. Luckily we came up to the hike a bike so I was able to "rest" a little.

I finally made it to the split again and by the grace of God I was able to go straight this time (experts still had one more lap). Now all that was left was a nasty, rocky 1/2 mile climb to the finish line. I just shifted down and started grinding with my bike drifting all over the place. About half way up the climb I looked back and saw another rider. That sucked, now I wasn't able to just take it easy and cross the line, I had to actually work. I wasn't about to give up after working so hard.

I ended up 45 seconds ahead of the chasing rider, however I was three minutes slower than the winner. I had finished third out of 20 or 25 racers. My second mountain bike podium for the season. I gave it all I had so I have no regrets. Third isn't bad but I am still looking for that first win. Hopefully it comes soon.

Thanks again to apclassic9 for the banana and the sandwich after the race. Those were lifesavers!

free_pizza

good job on the race lowcel. Any troubles with the pedal on this race? Were you using the new crank, or did you put the CF crank on?

dminor 

Great report, Lowcel - ahh, my quads almost felt the burn while I was reading! Great job on your third. Hey, podium is podium and it sounds like you didn't give up anything that you could help. Good job!

LowCel 

free pizza - No troubles with anything mechanical this race. I used my isis carbon pro crankset with a 20t granny this race. I was loving that little gear the second lap. I honestly hope I never have to use that new crankset, however if I do need it I will have it.

dminor - Thank you! My quads and hamstrings are still killing me. My hip is bothering me some as well. Not sure why but it was bothering me a little during warm-up as well. Hopefully it goes away over the next couple of days.

LowCel 

Here are some number's from the race.

3rd place
16.9 miles
1:42 total time
159 avg heart rate
2,520 feet climbing
14,976,573 rocks

zone 1 - 3:12 (not sure when this could have been)
zone 2 - 14:40
zone 3 - 8:50
zone 4 - 35:40
zone 5 - 38:50

dminor 

I've heard about those bike computers with the rock-counters

erhan

Well done LowCel! 2 podiums in 2 races, that's awesome.

apclassic9

Cai says you must have missed a few rocks.....and he only did one lap!

apclassic9

hey - thanks for the lid-lend! Talk about a life-saver!

LowCel 

dminor - Apparently my calculator wasn't that accurate. apclassic9's son is saying that it missed a few.

erhan - Thanks. That is actually two podiums out of three races. My first race was a dnf. However for the year I have 7 podiums out of 11 races including the road races.

apclassic9 - No problem, I'm happy I could help him out. I was getting ready to take my road helmet out of my truck before I left the house, glad I forgot and left it in there.

LowCel 

Pictures were posted from the race. This is courtesy of www.iplayoutside.com.

JagdNeun

Looking good, LowCel. Must be all that salsa you down.

erhan

nice helmet