Off To A Good Start : 12hr #1
Racing is all about ups and downs. Both outcomes are are part of what we all sign up in the world of bicycle racing. Sometimes you win some and wonder what you did to have things go so well. Other times, you get it handed to you and wonder what you did to have things go so wrong.
The latter was not the case this weekend at the 12 Hours of Temecula. It seemed to be one of those events where everything lined up and got a Troupe rider to the podium not once, not twice, not even thrice times – but four times! Indeed, four spots in the winners circle will be a daunting task to follow, but we’re up for it and welcome the challenge.
Most of the team arrived Saturday morning. And yes, just as the geniuses at weather.com had predicted, there was snow in the distant mountains. Our pit fort of three 10×10′s and a Sqivvy was set up, bikes prepped, numbers zipped onto the bikes, yada yada yada.
The course, thanks to the course miester Jason Ranoa was in tip-top shape, considering the torrential downpours that SoCal had experienced. Nary a rut or mud puddle really even existed until the final descent down to the timing tent which was visible to all team riders waiting to make their exchange. Our rider Jeff executed a fine display of how to tuck-n-roll in one of the deeper, soupier sections and gave the crowd something to cheer about. Just doing our job…..
This round’s loop was a greatest hits of Vail Lake’s trails. It was fast, with short, punchy climbs. All the favorite ridge-line descents and the infamous “Tunnels” trail where included to give the course a downhill fun factor of 12.
The rest of the race ran smoothly. A cramp here and there, but nothing that we couldn’t get under control to keep the laps coming.
12hr of Temecula #1, 2010 from troupe racing on Vimeo.
At the awards presentation, we put on our last clean jersey and collected our metal/medals:
4 women team, 1st place
Damon Mann, 1st – clydes solo
Jeff Resnick, 1st – 40+ solo
Mykyta Yurtyn, 2nd, sport solo
The 4 man team finished 9th in a tough field of teams. We also entered a team of Troupe Cadets made up of friends and family riders in the 3 man, who took an honorable 5th.
On the same day, in a different location, Ben was out racing XC at the Southridge Winter Series and where he took 3rd.
A solid day of racing for the Troupe!
Here’s my little story of the race.
I’ll begin by thanking Jason for all his hard work running the race and preparing the course. Course was in great shape, but it was alive and required constant attention. We are all used to seeing Jason on the course during the races encouraging riders, but this time we saw him with the drill fixing the bridges, with the shovel clearing the mud pits or filling the ruts. In addition, Jason also ensured the beautiful weather for the race day – I’m sure it was due to his efforts too. Thanks man, it’s always a great pleasure racing the events you run!
Despite great weather and great course race didn’t start very well for me. I’ll save your time and will not include long list of standard cyclist excuses on why race didn’t go as planned. Let’s just say it was ups and downs for me. Laps 1 through 3 were… pretty bad. Laps 4 and 5 were pretty good – best day laps. On lap 6 things started heading south quickly and on lap 7 I found myself barely moving. I noticed that in conversations with fellow racers I started whining about how tired I was and how cold it was getting and how muddy some spots were. Then there was some incoherent blabbing in place of thanks to encouragements. I couldn’t hold line on the singletracks and Tunnel of Love was not fun at all. And all that even before the sun started to set. At that point I decided to call it quits.
I rolled into pit after 7 laps and with 4 hours ’till the race end and told everyone that it was it. Well, that’s were I hit a little snag. It was easy to tell myself that I quit, but it was impossible to convince fellow Troupers. Everyone started encouraging me to keep going – I was told that I was in 2nd and I had to continue riding, there were many “you can do it”, “just keep moving”, “you have 4 hours to do 2 laps”, “just one more”, “you’re riding very strong”. So since I was unable to find motivation myself, my friends did it for me. I started preparing for one more lap – night lap. That’s when Jeff rolled in and said “we’ll ride next lap together”. It didn’t even sound like an offer, he simply state the fact, like it already happened. I should mention that Jeff was racing Expert 40+ and was in 1st with a decent lead, but with 4 hours to go he needed to be moving. I tried to convince him that he should be defending his 1st, that I will be slowing him down, but Jeff wouldn’t have any of that. We were riding together.
I quickly fueled myself with a can of soda and headed out trying to hang on to Jeff’s wheel. To my surprise it was not that difficult – while I was definitely slowing him down, we were moving at a decent pace, even passing some people. I rode all the uphills, and when the first downhill came I was having fun again! In one canyon – always the same canyon – the cramps hit a bit but I tried to spin them out and just keep moving not to loose sight of Jeff’s back. Moving and screaming in pain (if you heard somebody swearing loudly in Russian, it was me). Either spinning or swearing helped with the cramps. Tunnel of Love at night – it was so much fun! It was by far my best lap of the race. We finished my lap 8 in just over an hour, quickly refueled (one more can of soda) and headed out for another lap. Although a bit slower, it was yet another great lap.
Jeff held on to his 1st in expert 40+ and I got 2nd in men sport solo with 9 laps. But my podium spot truly belongs to the entire team. I lost my mental battle on lap 7, but the team won it for me. Thank you my good friends. GO TROUPE!!!