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wildone
climber
right near the beach, boyeee (lord have mercy)
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Topic Author's Original Post - May 1, 2006 - 10:07am PT
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So yesterday was a big day for me. I went and raced the Firestone-Walker classic, on the Firestone-Walker brewery/winery vinyard/ranch in Los Olivos. It was awesome, as there were about 1100 racers combined. Well, the standard cross country race there was to do a lap and a half of their 15.5 mile, 1000 feet of vert course, or fro the pros, two laps. The other event, the one in which I raced was the "Platinum Perfomance Endurance x-c event" which was five of the laps. Well, I've been riding a few hundred miles a week on my bike for the last few months, and going on some epics on the weekends, so I felt pretty ready. I entered the 25-29 age group (notoriously a hard bracket) and lined up near the front. At 7:50 AM, we were off. I jumped into the lead-out group and was fifth in a group of five blazingly fast racers from New Mexico and Colorado. Amazingly, three laps later, I was still in the lead out group, and we were thirty minutes ahead of the next group! This is when my goal of simply finishing changed to kicking some ass.
Well, that fourth lap was damn hard, but I was still in front of some pros and about 35 other very serious racers. That's when things changed for me. I flatted about two miles from the start/finish line on my fourth lap. So, it was a slow leak and I decided to ride as far as I could, give it a blast from my co2 inflator, and try to make it to my pit at the finish line. I get there, rip open my backpack, and to my surprise, I had left my tubes at home. So I patched my tube with a glueless patch, grabbed two co2 cartridges, and headed out fro my final lap..
By the end of the first climb was flat agian. I used half a cartidge to inflate it, and it looked like this was going to suck. I didn't have enough air at this rate to even make it a quarter lap. Then, I found a pump in the trail. Sweet. So, now I could afford to take off my tire, and patch my tube, thinking I had another hole. Wrong. Same hole, my patches sucked. Since my flat had been a pinch flat on the rim side, the rim was rubbing the patch into a wrinkle. I replaced the patch, put the tube back in and pumped up. Took off, and within a mile, was flat again. Now I was starting to get pissed. From stopping all the time, and not getting into a rhythm, my body was cramping horribly. That's when I saw that someone had dropped a tube. So I picked it up, inflated it and listened for leaks. None. So I put it in my tire, and as soon as I got it up to pressure, all the air pissed out. Bad valve stem. So I pulled my tire off again, changed the patch on my tube again, and started rolling.
Keep in mind, this is on the backside of their ranch, and I'm very far removed from people. No racers have gone by. No-one to help me, with a different patch or another tube. Oh-and one more thing, I don't think someone "dropped" the pump, more like threw it down in disgust. It was a huge Mt. Zefal from the mid eighties, that would barely make a seal, and pissed out as much air as you were puting in. The next 8 miles or so were pretty un eventful, pumping up my tire every quarter mile or so, swearing, etc. Then, with about four miles to go as I'm pumping it up, my valve stem shears off of my tube from the stresses of repeated pumping. Sweet. So I take out the tube and start walking.
It's now that I decide to vent my frustrations on that stupid pump. I figure I'll be walking in to the finish, so I throw the pump, hard, at a rock right on the trail. I keep walking. About three miles later, all the big top-list xc pros come by on their final lap of their two lap event. They are really moving. well, alot of them ask if I'm ok and I shout back at their receding figures that it my valve stem and I need a new tube...but they are in the money zone now, redlined and going for the finish, so I'm not expecting any of them to actually throw me a spare tube.
Well, what do I come upon in a few hundred more yards but a folded up, brand new presta tube in the middle of the trail! One of the pros, God bless him, dropped it for me, I'm sure of it. I quickly punch it into my rim, seat the tire, and use the rest of my co2 to inflate it. It's got about 10 psi. No bueno. Then, an endurance rider comes rolling up, and offers his pump. As he pulls it out, I notice it's the same one I threw a few miles back! I don't say anything, and quickly pump up, ride the last mile or so, finish, and have a time of 7 hrs, fourty minutes! My last lap was over three HOURS. But I finished.
So now, completely beat, I load up my bike, and almost as an after thought, decide to stick around, drink some beer, and wait for the awards cermony in the big barn. As I'm walking up, I hear, and in the 25-29 age class, for first place, ladies and gentlemen, after just getting in on an eight hour day in the saddle, Ben Montoya! I couldn't pick my jaw up off of the floor. I didn't go stand on the podium, because I didn't believe it. THere were two other dudes up there, and the empty top spot was for me (they had announced third place first, etc. When they started announcing the next category, I snuck to the side of the stage, and whispered my name to the awards guy. He handed me a pint glass with the race logo, and "First Place" etched into it, and a new pair of photochromatic Specialized sunglasses. Sweet!
I couldn't believe it. All that hard work paid off. A race I almost didn't enter for self doubt, and almost in frustartion, didn't finish, I had won. OH! And because I won my category, I earned Norba points, and I can race at a Norba National in the expert class, which you can only do if you have points!
So yeah, yesterday was pretty much the biggest thing that has ever happened to me. And if you are wondering, Raspberry cliff shots are tha SCHIZZ. Taste like the best raspberry sorbet you've ever had. I highly recommend them.
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can't say
Social climber
Pasadena CA
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wildone, way to go dude. I take it this was a mtn. bike race. But winning any bike race is a damned hard thing to do. Big props to you. One thing you might consider is throwing in a few paragraphs to separate your race report.
I raced a couple of crits yesterday, but wasn't on the winning side of either one of them.
Again, congratulations to ya.
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wildone
climber
right near the beach, boyeee (lord have mercy)
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Topic Author's Reply - May 1, 2006 - 02:35pm PT
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Thanks, can't say.
Yeah, big mtb festival, over 1100 racers between the downhill events (sat) and the x-c stuff on sunday.
As for the paragraphs, or lack thereof, I was cruising on some stream-of-consciousness vibe, after having awakened and realized it wasn't a dream.
here's the race website:
http://www.ridesb.com/firestone.htm
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maculated
Trad climber
San Luis Obispo, CA
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Hey! I finally know who you are now! MUWAHAHAH!
Agree with the Clif shots.
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wildone
climber
right near the beach, boyeee (lord have mercy)
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Topic Author's Reply - May 1, 2006 - 02:46pm PT
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Do I have a stalker?
Sweet.
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yo
climber
I'm so over it
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Cool TR. Everybody dropping and picking up gear everywhere.
Ah, but who among you has tried the Clif Shot Blocks? Yummy gummy snacks.
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wildone
climber
right near the beach, boyeee (lord have mercy)
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Topic Author's Reply - May 2, 2006 - 12:49pm PT
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Great. You know, I did notice a few exxon signs out there while I went by a couple oil pumps. Made me feel dirty.
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David Nelson
climber
San Francisco
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Great TR. Took a bit of guessing what sport you were doing at first, but fun and zany. Congrats! It is good to read other kinds of TR's, as we all do more than one sport.
(Me, I got elk tags for Wyoming this year, after trying for a few years to draw one, and I am so jazzed!)
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