Give this a chance - MTB World Championships live

by Ron... on Sep 5, 2007 5:39 PM EDT

I feel a bit like CN trying to sneak in a MTB news update...If you want to give MTB one chance a year, this is it.

This the MTB equivalant to the upcoming UCI Road World Championships.

The UCI MTB World Championship in Scotland will be on cycling.tv, September 6-9. Start times from their Race Calendar are:

Sept 6 - 2:50 pm Eastern, 11:50 am Pacific (lunch time!)
Sept 7 - same
Sept 8 - 1 hour earlier
Sept 9 - 7:20 pm Eastern, 4:20 Pacific

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Talking to the choir

I started out in the woods before switching to road.

I fondly remember watching Cadel win Sea Otter on OLN, back in the day when he was a skinny, knobby tire type.

"Weaseling out of things is important to learn. It's what separates us from the animals ... except the weasel. "

by Drew on Sep 5, 2007 4:11 PM EDT reply actions

I've kept my mouth shut about it because I really don't want to talk about my DNF, but I don't think I've ever had more fun at a race than with the Shenandoah Mountain 100 this past weekend (nor have I ever given myself more grief over a race, so . . .).

It was the last race of the National Ultra Endurance series. While the men's title was locked up by Chris Eatough (good for him, as he suffered a race-ending mechanical early on, and had blown off Worlds for this), the women's was in contention, and we had the added fun of Floyd Landis reaching back to his roots (remember that he started riding in PA dirt . . .).

Whether you're a strictly skinny tire guy or not, you have to give enormous respect to the effort it takes to ride a 100 miles (14,000 feet of climbing) of technical singletrack (and we're talking constant rock gardens and shale-laden descents) and burning fire road climbs. In just over 7 hours, no less, for the winner (and 15+ hours for the last person in).

by Sui Juris on Sep 5, 2007 9:11 PM EDT reply actions

So let's have it

What contributed to your DNF and how far in were you? There's no shame in not finishing, racing at any level is tough and you're to be commended for toeing the start line.

"Weaseling out of things is important to learn. It's what separates us from the animals ... except the weasel. "

by Drew on Sep 6, 2007 8:39 AM EDT reply actions

well

It was a pretty awful showing - I threw it in about 3/5ths of the way through (7.5 hours). I've had pre-rides of the course go much better than that. So what happened? I wish I could blame a mechanical or some unlucky encounter with a tree, but the truth is that I just failed miserably.

I didn't follow my plan. In a race like this, nutrition is very important. I'd spent the summer refining my on-bike eating - settling on the right combo of Sustained Energy/Hammer Gel/water, figuring out how much and when, etc. And I'd gotten pretty good at doing it right. But come race day? All completely out the window. I should have stuck with the "every hour, on the hour, no matter what" routine that I'd set up, but I did one of those "Okay, when I get to the top of the hill" and then, at the top of the hill "crap, I can't let him pass me, I'll get it at the bottom of the descent . . ." things. And before I knew it, I'm three hours in and had consumed less than an hour's worth of calories. The smart response, of course, is to consume your favorite anti-bonk solution (Clif Shot Blox, for me) and then get back on schedule. But this day? Oh, no, I decide to try and make up for it all at once. Yeah, bad idea. I'll spare the details of the result, other than to say that it kept me from trying to consume any more calories after that.

I also got incredibly frustrated by a chain suck issue that I thought I'd solved. But it stopped me dead a few times (and resulted in the first time I've ever picked up and thrown my bike).

I finally called it quits after I realized 1) that I was getting really unsafely sloppy on the descents, and 2) that I was almost certainly going to miss the cutoff at the next aid station, so, you know, f(@k it. I'm okay with the first half of that reasoning, but I'm pretty appalled about the second.

All that said, I did get some great riding in. I surprised myself with an excellent (for me, anyway) showing on what was probably the most technical climb of the day, and I did a damn fine job bombing down Wolf Ridge, which had previously given me trouble. Also met and rode with some very cool folks.

But in the end, I'm incredibly disappointed. I was never going to be in contention for anything (beyond the Lantern Rouge), but I'd really expected more (and could have delivered more, any other day). Nothing to point to but myself for screwing up what I'd intended to be my highlight of the year.

by Sui Juris on Sep 6, 2007 2:44 PM EDT up reply actions

Oh

don't miss Harlan Price's account of his day long battle with Floyd Landis in this race.

by Sui Juris on Sep 6, 2007 2:49 PM EDT up reply actions

That's a tough day at the office

my friend.

As you say though, live and learn. In any kind of long distance event I make sure I get at least one bottle of energy drink an hour into me, along with X number of gel food. Granted, this is harder to do during a mountain bike race than road, but it's a good rule of thumb to go by. It sounds like you had it planned out but got behind the 8 ball. Happens to the best of us.

You were smart to pull out before your muscles abandoned you on a downhill. Not good times.

"Weaseling out of things is important to learn. It's what separates us from the animals ... except the weasel. "

by Drew on Sep 7, 2007 2:48 PM EDT up reply actions