Shenandoah Mountain 100
this weekend is the Shenandoah Mountain 100
anyone who knows me or has walked within ten feet of me in the last few weeks knows that I am feeling apprehensious about this weekend’s event
a comment from the IF CHICKS said that my post on the 2005 Shenandoah Mountain 100 on my blog summed things up and contributed to their inspiration
hope to have as much fun this year as I had last year
maybe more
my fitness is different… but maybe more suitable to all the climbs
but I do not know as I have not done any long rides, long climbs, or long races
kevin dillard images
kevin dillard race images from cranky monkey at quantico
no beard
new DCMTB\City Bikes Uniforms
the center image is snaped before I give my buddy kevin the bird
Cranky Monkey: Quantico
Date: August 27, 2006
Location: Quantico Marine Corps Base, Quantico, VA
Website: http://www.ex2adventures.com/cranky-monkey.php
The Cranky Monkey is quickly becoming one of the best race series in the DC area. This year the series expands to 4 races at 3 venues, kicking off with the Wakefield cross country race on June 25th and concluding with the return of racing to Quantico. Series Dates:
- June 25th - Wakefield (Cross Country)
- July 30th - Wakefield (Dirt Crit)
- August 13th - Fountainhead
- August 27th - Quantico
Freaky Fast Fun at Fountainhead
by rickyd
Yesterday’s Cranky Monkey race at Fountainhead was a helluva lotta fun. Very tight in the beginning, but by the time the first half of the first lap was over, the singlespeed category was far enough ahead and behind that I didn’t see anyone else in my class. A few 35ers (guys that were 35+ category, who started behind us) had caught and passed me, but I tried to stay on top of my pedals so I wouldn’t have a situation like last week where I got lazy and softpedaled myself out of the top five.
As we got to about 3/4 of the first lap, I started to see a familiar jersey. It was Wayne, and I noticed he was hoofin’ it up the hills! Say what? At that point I knew I had to ride aggressively to get him within striking range. Whenever I got to an uphill, I could see him running and remounting his bike. The problem was when he got to the top, he’d be gone by the time I got up there. From the few races I’ve done this year with him, he’s faster than me, but I had him figured out for this one. The short steep hills of this place was his crutch. Maybe he underestimated these hills and overgeared? I loved them because I ran lower gears than most of my competition, and I rarely had to get off on the climbs. Yeah baby, it was catch and kill time.
I eventually got to the infamous Shock-O-Billy downhill and no one was in front of me. After negotiating the first two rock-filled steps, I let go of my brakes and flew down faster than I ever had before. I expected a wipeout as I tapped my brakes when crossing the little wooden bridge at the bottom - felt the front tire slide even - but managed to stay upright. Ahhh, life was good!
The rush of the hooting and hollering from the “crash and burn” crowd reinvigorated me so I stood up to hammer the beginning of the second lap. First thing after the downhill was a turn, then another longish uphill. I saw Wayne again, but he was already most of the way up there. I swallowed up a few other 35ers (I think), but again, as I got to the top, he was gone. Lucky for me, most of the hills were on the tail end of the course.
A 35er was on my tail, and sensing I was slowing him down, I let him pass. I look back briefly to see if any of my competition rode his train, then ride a little off the trail and get a thorny vine tangled in my pedals and drivetrain. I stop, yank it out, but not without leaving a few barbs in my fingers. “^%@#&^%@#!!”
“Eff this noize, it’s time to start hustlin’!” I stand and try to deliver. I catch up to the 35er, but he’s hurting my uphills when he drops it into his low gears. I slow down because there’s nowhere to pass on this skinny section of loose singletrack. “Whizz, whizz!” go the tires as they lose traction on the loose gravel. I catch myself from falling over and sprint as hard as I can for the rest of the uphill. I eventually get back around him and try to put distance between us so it doesn’t seem like the pass is in vain.
Wayne’s on the radar again as the hills come. I see him walking, and that makes me pump harder. I know if I don’t catch him on the hills, he’ll go bye-bye on the flats. As the hills come and go, I gain ground. Towards the end of the lap, the hills are bigger and longer. Closer…closer…he’s eventually right in front of me…then BAM! I swing around him and pedal my arse off. I’m afraid to look back. I’m pretty sure that he can’t be too pleased that I took his spot this far into the race with not that much left to go.
We approach Shock-O-Billy for the second and last time. I pass one slowpoke from another class, and I call out to pass another guy before we get to the beginning of El Shock’. Too late! We were both approaching too quickly and I can’t get around him on the downhill or else I’d be disqualified (or cause an accident.) Suckage, because putting him between Wayne and me would have made it easier to seal the deal. I was riding the guy’s wheel, bumming a bit about the situation, when I decide to do a little showboating by hitting a lip and catching some air.
Stupid. See the pics on the left. No air caught, and I shoot off the trail and almost into the crowd. I fully expect Wayne to be blowing by me, but I don’t even look back up the hill. I jump back on the trail and go anaerobic to finish off the short distance back to the line. Lucky for me the singletrack is a tight uphill to the finish where it’s relatively hard to pass. I still don’t look back, but everyone is yelling, “He’s right behind you! GO! GO! GO!” My lungs are on fire and my legs and arms are wobbly. I can hardly keep a straight line, which probably worked to my advantage. I was all over the place, probably (and totally unintentionally) blocking his passing zones. I can hear him breathing down my neck. If he wanted to get around me, he’d have to work it by taking the bad lines over the roots. I steadfastly kept my line through the fillet of the trail.
I see the paved section that leads to the end, and get out of my saddle to grunt. Jim the director is on a megaphone telling me to push it and that Wayne’s right behind me. I give it one last oomph, cross the line, and collapse on the ground like I’ve never done before. I’m seeing stars, but I end up with third in singlespeed!
AFTERWARDS: Wayne was 3 seconds behind me. On the other hand, Pierre and Pearce were at least four and a half minutes ahead of me. If you don’t know what that means in biking terms, it means they are in another league, i.e., they are varsity, while I (and everyone behind me) play in J.V. 
(pic by buddy Jason Stoner, the original Disco Cowboy)
Whistler
Mike and I and a bunch of friends just got back from 10 days at Whistler Mtn Resort in BC. For those of you who haven’t heard of Whistler’s Mtb park, let me fill you in. It’s awsome, definitly the best ridding I have ever done. They have around 50 lift access trails, as well as hundreds of miles of cross country trails. The lift access trails were so good, well worn in, fast and flowy, with well designed stunts and jumps which made it comfortable to really push yourself and improve. Probly their most well known trail, A-line, for air line, was one of my favorites. It was like a dirt jump trail for DH bikes, without having to worry about landing on shovels and rakes left between the doubles. Wide open, perfectly banked turns with big tabletops so that if you didn’t make the backside of the jump, landing on top was no problem. But of course after a few days of riding, hitting the backsides was also no problem. There were long technical trails which started from the top of the mtn near the glacier, short steep trails which wound between tight trees in dark pine forest, long steep rock slabs, and tons of wooden ladders and bridges. Of course you can get realy hurt there, in more ways then one. A friend of ours, disregarding the commonly accepted wisdom of taking it easy on the trails the first day, was riding too fast. He crashed and hurt his wrist pretty good, so he hung out for the afternoon and had some drinks. That night we all went out and the drinking continued. I left the bar by midnight, not being a drinker. Evidently at some point in the night he blacked out and wandered off. Some time during the wee hours of the morning he arrived back at the condo with a hugh gash and rock rash covering half of his face. He had woken up in a creek. That day he went to the clinic and had a cast put on his broken arm and stiches on his face. He told them that both were from the bike wreck.
We were there during the their Crankworks festival, the highlight being the huge invitation only Slopestyle competition on the last day. Top riders get huge air and pull sick new tricks like the back flip trail whip(think about it) in a huge dirt and wood park with some drops and gaps as big as 40 feet.
The village was also awsome. Huge, big enough to get lost in. Lots of really good shops and restaraunts, and of course my favorite, ice cream and chocolate shops. Nothing like taking a mid day break from riding to have a hamburger and ice cream cone while watching practice for the Slopestyle. Not to mention the Marky Mark sighting at a night club. There was also a kick ass swimming lake, complete with nude beach (on the other side)for anyone you really wouldn’t want to see in the nude. Highly recomended (Whistler, not the nude beach).
—Hillary Elgert
Cranky Monkey 1 & 3
Race report by Tris
The first cranky monkey at Wakefield went quite well. I lined up first for sport women and then by the time the race started found that all of the other women had crowded in front of me. Two of them crashed together at the start right in front of me, but that was really my only problem. I ended up at the top of the gravel hill in 6th (class of 10) and began riding the single track. About half way through the first lap, I saw another woman ahead of me and worked to catch up. Since I am not great at pacing myself, I decided to ride on her wheel for awhile, knowing that if I passed her, I was on the podium.
As we came up on the line to start our second lap, she ran out of gas, and I flew past her. The second lap was completely alone. I just went hard, knowing the course well and felt pretty good. Near the end I was passed by another woman. I don’t know where she came from, but I was upset about it. But I held onto her wheel and she took a stumble and I was able to ride around her and never saw her again. But I spent the last lap sure that she was right behind me, which helped me keep my pace up.
The cranky monkey at Fountainhead was not so good. Mike and I had returned from a 10 day vacation in Tahoe and Yosemite at about 10 PM the night before, so getting up at 7 was pretty difficult. We had done a ton of biking and hiking on vacation, so I was pretty tired and sore as well. But I decided to race anyway, which in hindsight may not have been the best decision.
As I warmed up, I could tell my legs were really tired. But I had already paid the cash, so I might as well go.
I guess the positive thing about this race is I did finish. I seriously wanted to give up a few times, my legs hurt so badly. As I was racing I knew that I was in 6th when I hit the single track, out of 7. The other woman never passed me but about half way through the second lap, a young kid came up behind me and told me he was the sweeper, and the other woman had dropped out. We chatted the rest of the way back, which really helped take my mind of the pain.
I ended up with a 6th place out of 7 starters. Another bad race at Fountainhead to add to my list, which includes my first bonk ever, 4 flat tires in one race and two broken chains in another (the only time I have ever broken a chain).
I am looking forward to Quantico and the SM 100. By then I should be recovered from vacation, and be able to reap the benefits of all that riding (another post sometime.)
Tires and Tubes – A Tale of Two Monkeys
Dave’s Race Report & Product Review
The Dirt Crit Cranky Monkey – Aug. 6
I’ve had a few semi-slick MTB tires gathering dust in my basement for years. They saw me through my first adult bike race, the 2001 Cyclocross Super Cup in Baltimore. I was riding a $300 MTB and had no idea what I was doing. The tires, however, did just fine. Last Sunday’s Cranky Monkey Dirt Crit seemed like the perfect time for the semi slicks to reappear.
The semi slicks raised eyebrows at the start, but performed great. I had no problems charging up the gravel hill at the start. (OK, no more problems than usual). They rolled well, gripped through the turns, and kept me in control on the big downhill. They even held tight on the edge of the trail as fellow 41-year old family man Chris Clarke lapped me on his road to victory. I wheezed out a 12 of 16 finish in the 35+ group. The fault was not in my tires, but in myself.
———
The Fountainhead Cranky Monkey – Aug. 13
One week later, I squarely blame my lackluster performance on my tires, not myself. For the technical trails of Fountainhead, I returned my semislicks to the basement and reinstalled my standard knobby tires, Panaracer Fire XCs I think. My 35+ race started well. I entered the singletrack slightly behind the lead pack and was starting to pass folks one-by-one. Just before the first steep, root-filled downhill I felt something was wrong. I pulled aside and found I had TWO flat tires. I don’t know what happened. I was riding relatively smoothly and not going for extreme air. My choice of 40 psi was a mistake. I watched EVERYONE pass me by while I changed both tubes. After another 10 minutes of riding, I saw the front tire wobbling all over the place. Part of the tire had rolled off the rim. No flat this time, but another stop to deflate/re-inflate my tire.
All of this stopping, starting, futzing and pumping had me flustered. I lost my mental race mojo. I was so far behind as I came down shockabilly hill, that the course marshal thought I was the 35+ leader. I had to slow down to explain that I REALLY did have one more lap to go. I regained a little composure on the second lap, and finished the race as many of the expert were coming in. BLECH. Now that my “bad race of the year” is out of the way, I look forward to a better day at the final Cranky Monkey at Quantico. See you there.
Dave
Cranky Monkey: Fountainhead
Date: August 13, 2006
Location: Fountainhead Regional Park, Clifton, VA
Website: http://www.ex2adventures.com/cranky-monkey.php
The Cranky Monkey is quickly becoming one of the best race series in the DC area. This year the series expands to 4 races at 3 venues, kicking off with the Wakefield cross country race on June 25th and concluding with the return of racing to Quantico. Series Dates:
- June 25th - Wakefield (Cross Country)
- July 30th - Wakefield (Dirt Crit)
- August 13th - Fountainhead
- August 27th - Quantico
Meeting This Monday…
just a quick reminder that this month’s meeting will be this monday (8/14) at 7:30pm at Temperance Hall - http://www.temperancehalldc.com. a couple of quick notes before the meeting…
- Jerseys are here, so please have money to pay for them if you haven’t paid yet.
- We’re going to do the next team parts order, so be thinking about what you need.
Long Drought Ends: Cranky Crit
For the first time since 2004, I finally won a bicycle race. Specifically, I won the 35+ race at the Cranky Monkey Dirt Crit on Sunday. Yippee.
A significantly smaller field than Cranky Monkey #1 lined up for this short course race. We were scheduled for 45 minutes plus one lap of the 1-1.5 mile mostly flat course. The weather was somewhat cooler than the first race but still unpleasantly hot and humid. I got a decent start and went into the single track around 5th. For a few laps, a duo from NCVC led the field. I moved onto the wheel of the lead NCVC rider after his teammate who had won Cranky Monkey #1 suffered a minor mechanical. I felt comfortable but realized that I needed to put in a big move to gap the leader. I was also worried that other riders were about to catch us up. When we hit the jeep trail, I dumped my gears and gave it as much gas as I had available hoping to build a big gap quickly and discourage hot pursuit. Apparently it worked. I never saw anyone behind me again. After another uneventful lap, I was delighted to see that there were only two laps to go and began to think that I could hold out until the finish. I kept the effort steady to avoid a last minute blow up or crash and rolled across the finish in first place.
Marc Gwadz finished 4th and Dave Vannier finished 12th to round out the DCMTB/CityBikes results in the 35+ class. Ricky D brought home 6th in the singlespeed category and Evan Ellicot and Matt Donahue were 2nd and 3rd in the big boy Expert class. Woo-hoo for the team.
Round three of the Cranky Monkey occurs August 13 and takes the course difficulty up a notch at Fountainhead.
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