New Bike

I made the decision to switch from my full suspension Specialized Epic Expert to a hard tail (HT) Specialized S-works Stumpjumper.  My first experience with a HT was my Niner single speed.  After riding it I could tell I was more comfortable in the technical sections on a HT.  That's what got me thinking about the switch.  So I ordered the Stumpjumper last Tuesday and it came on on Thursday.  Even though it could have been ready for me to take to the second Snake Creek race, there was no way my first ride on it was going to be at that place.  So, on Sunday, I went out to Montgomery Bell for a couple hours with Karah (who was also on her brand new Specialized Fate) to give it a try.  All I can say is it's awesome.  The biggest difference I can notice is its climbing ability and responsiveness.  As soon as you turn the pedals it takes off like a rocket.  It's a little rougher on the descents and over roots, but this is something I'll get used to.  I'll take the trade-off of it being a little rougher over the increased climbing ability any day.  BTW - it weighed in at a little over 20 pounds with everything on it.  Crazy.

Snake Creek Gap TT #2

With all the rain we had the week before this race, I knew it was going to be muddy.  On top of that, they were calling for a 50% chance of rain during the race.  We got lucky and it didn't rain during the race, but the course was definitely muddy.  The first half had the most mud, and some of the sections were pretty challenging.  I had heard the first creek crossing was going to be waist deep, but I was pleased to see it was ridable.  Oh, did I mention that I decided to do this race on my single speed?  This was my first race on a SS and I didn't know what to expect.  It was different to say the least.  It was challenging in spots (especially the climbs) and it was fun in others.  There were some places where I had to walk either due to the mud, because someone on a geared bike was going too slow in front of me, or because I wanted to save energy for later in the race.  I was glad to see that I was able to ride some of the rock sections that I walked in the first race.  Due to the mud and being on the SS, my goal was to at least maintain the time I did in January.  I was happy when I ended up beating my January time by almost 10 minutes with a 4:15.  In March I plan to take my geared bike, and I'm really hoping to get my time under 4 hours.  I'll have to work extra hard in February to try and make it happen.

S-works Stumpjumper

I made the decision to upgrade from my Epic Expert to an S-works Stumpjumper.  I'm pretty excited about the change, especially the close to five pounds weight savings.  After I get a chance to ride it some I'll post a review.  It's supposed to be in before the second Snake Creek race - I guess I'll decide if I want my first ride on it to be the race. 

Snake Creek Gap TT #1

After hearing everyone talk about Snake Creek Gap all last year, I decided I had to do the race this year to see if it was really as bad as everyone said it was.  Of course I was going to do the 34 mile option because I need to take advantage of every opportunity I can to race at longer distances.  I decided to move to Cat 1 this year and the biggest challenge for me is getting used to the longer race distances.  This is a point to point race, meaning they load your bike up on a trailer and load you up on a bus to take you to the starting line.  Since it's a time trial, each person starts 30 seconds apart.  The race consists of six mountain climbs and some pretty tough rock sections, so my strategy was to ride conservatively to make sure I had enough energy to finish.  This was the first of three of these races (the others are in February and March), so I knew that I would have other opportunities to post a better time.  When asked by a team mate what how I thought I would do, I told him I was hoping to finish in under 5 hours.  He said he thought I could do it in 4 hours 20 minutes, which gave me a good confidence boost.  Still, I had to be sure to keep to my plan of being conservative.

After the first couple miles of the race the climbing starts and seems to go on for a while.  It seemed that when you weren't climbing you were going downhill.  I tried to keep my heart rate in check on the climbs and also be conservative on the decents to keep it on two wheels since the entire trail was new to me.  At the half way point I was still feeling pretty good so I kept following my plan.  I made it through the rest of the climbs without any problems and got to the really rocky last 7 miles.  I felt like I was walking the bike more than I was riding it on the rocks and was having trouble unclipping from my left pedal (which wasn't great on the rocky parts and made me walk more stuff that I should have).  I decided to take the time to fix it so I would feel more comfortable riding the rocks.  After fixing it I felt more comfortable and was riding more of the rock sections.  Everyone said when you see the cell phone tower you are at the end, and I was definitely not expecting it when I saw it.  Once I saw it I knew the rest of the race was all downhill.  Once I got on the black top section I went as hard as I could.  I looked down at my bike computer and saw I was doing 40 mph, which is probably the fastest I've ever been on a mountain bike.  I finished with a time of 4 hours 24 minutes, which I was very happy with.  I'm hoping that I can get under 4 hours this year, which may by unrealistic but we'll see.  I felt like I still had energy at the end of the race so in February I'll go harder on all the climbs and try to ride more of the rocky sections to see how that changes my overall time.