Here are the pics, [url]http://www.team-pinnacle.org/gallery/view_album.php?set_albumName=bearbrook09[/url]

Now lets here some stories.

My race started well with a good hole shot. Held the lead for over half the first lap with a very reasonable pace. Did have one guy shoulder by for a bit, but he faded when the climbing kicked in and I went back by. Second time past the water station Todd Bearse, who has really stepped it up this year, went by at a much faster rate than I was riding. I picked it up to try and stay with him, but he was slowly pulling away. After round one with the stairs I shoot a gu, swap water bottles, and start an all out assault to try and catch up. It did not last very long though. I cut a corner to close, hooked a sapling which flung me back across the trail at a high rate of speed directly at a tree. Now this is the first time in a long time that I find myself fearing bodily injury, I actually had time to think about it before impact. Luckily the front tire missed the tree and the shifter assembly absorbed most of the impact. I ended up with a nice tattoo on my bicep and scratch on the forehead, but nothing serious. After getting the stem pretty much aligned with the front tire again the chase is back on. I know I had no chance, but it was still fun trying. Ended up back a couple minutes in second place. The course was, as expected, a ton of fun with some new singletrack this year making it even better than past years. And how cool was it seeing so much yellow and green out there? Nice job eveyone!
 
[img:7c60f52a7e]http://www.team-pinnacle.org/albums/bc_personal/120x90.png[/img:7c60f52a7e]

If quad cramps are any gauge of the amount of fun I had, I had a blast. Before the race I was thinking this is 25 miles, a long race and maybe I?ll just go easy and enjoy the ride. All seemed to change when the guy said ?GO? I really did intend to not bust my ass but I couldn?t help myself. Our group 50+ Masters was quite large Looked like at least 15 or more guys. As we rounded the corner before entering the woods I counted eight riders in front of me. On the road I moved up to 4th or 5th and after about one mile there were four of use riding together out front. It became quite frustrating as we started passing other riders and our group of four would get broken up. I moved up to the guy that seemed to want to lead and stayed on his wheel. Passing him a couple times but never putting anything on him. While out front I was shifting and lost my chain on the inside of the front ring. I fixed it and worked my way back to the group. About 15 min later it happened again when I was in front and this time my glove go stuck in the ring and I had to fiddle with it to get going again as I watch my group go on and a few other riders pass too. Once fixed I pushed hard and ended up finishing 4th. I feel that if I did not have the mechanical I could have finished higher. The ride was good I didn?t crash and rode the technical sections smooth and fast. The last half of the second lap was very hard most likely due to the stress of playing catch up and not drinking enough. I ended up not going through my water bag which is 2 ? bottles. Used about 1 ? which was not enough for the heat and effort. Congratulations to everyone CCD had a good day.

My first race of the season started with the knowledge that I didn't have nearly enough training miles in my legs. 25 miles? Should be interesting...and finally graduated into Vet1 so those guys should be slower, right? :wink: Anyway I figured it would be a good race to kickstart the fitness and get back in the training.

There were about 18 in Vet 1, we were all joking at the start line, and then Go and everyone got quiet and just went. It was entirely too fast of a pace, so I tried to settle in around 6th or 7th place and just hold a pace I could handle. However, by mid-way through the first lap I knew what the finish would feel like...but forget that because here comes the rocky descent - flew through the stairs, thought briefly about turning for home but sucked it up and back around for a second lap. On my first lap got passed by Mark, Dan, and Dana, all looking really strong.

Midway through the second lap the cramps and bonk feelings start coming on. Lost contact with most of the group I was pacing with, and Keith came up behind me so I paced with him for a few miles before losing contact. On the last technical section I had to hop off the bike and the hamstring erupted...took about 10 minutes to calm it down. I was out of water, but here comes a friendly bike medic asking me if I am OK. He recommended I drink more water, pulled out a bottle and took a long pull of it himself...and then rode off. Thanks Man!

Under control, back down the stairs and head for home. Finished with a smile on my face. Great seeing everyone there, 5 podium finishes and just a sea of green and yellow. At one point a guy asked me if there were 50 people from Claremont racing.

This was my first XC race ever, and MAN THAT WAS AWESOME!!! I raced in the Novice Senior II category. They started I's ,II's & clydsdales all at once (starting field of about 20 or 25 I guess). The common theme here that I've been reading is that our group was chatting and lauging all the way untill "15 seconds". Then things got dead silent. My "non experience" strategy was to just ride at my level (plus a bit) and stay with others that were about that speed.

GO

We tear out of there like a High School kegger when the cops show up! Every thing was going good, we had a couple people that crashed in the first few minutes that I was able to luckily ride around and then we caught the sport womens field. This was tricky as the single track is tougher to pass on than I had anticipated. Slowly working my way through the ladies and working my way through the guys in my own class I'm riding fast and feeling good!

There is a point about 50 minutes in where I start to think to myself, "Damn, this course is long!" and then start having conversations in my head with myself about staying focused and reminding myself how sweet these trails are which kept me going.

I knew that there were at least 5 other people in front of me because we all took turns passing each other, but I wasn't sure how many others may be in front of them. At some point in the race I get to a point where I'm riding behind someone that is "conserving energy" for their second lap and after several failed attempts to get him to pull over I end up passing him on one of the rocky downhill sections of the trail (have I mentioned yet how sweet these trails were?).

I get to the stairs and ride them to the bottom and think to myself that I know that the finish is very close. I drop a few gears and go as hard as I can for the rest of the race hoping to catch some of the guys in front of me. I end up passing 2 people who turn out to be novice guys but were Vets not Senior II, but when I get to the line I feel good and turned in a 6th place finish.

Key mistake: Next time I don't care if my grandmother is riding in front of me, I'm passing regardless! I think that I may have been able to move up at least 1 spot due to spending extended time behind a slower rider more than once.

It felt great to be surrounded by the sea of yellow and green at the awards and see some of you guys medal! Great job guys! This was a lot of fun, I look forward to the next race for sure!
 
www.masonracing.com
www.gtbicycles.com

Well, my day started off great, but that only lasted about 10 minutes. As I was getting my stuff into the Van to head to Bear Brook with the family, I realized my shoes were still sitting at the gym at work. This is bad since we really need to be leaving within the next 45 minutes to get to the course. I don't think I have ever made it to Leb and back so fast before. While I was gone, Tosh was getting the kids ready and the cooler packed. I got back and we were running behind, so I put the cooler in the van and we are off. I figure I will get to the course with about 10 minutes to get my number, get my bike and get to the starting line.

We get to Bear Brook at about 10, just in time. I'm putting my stuff on and realize that I have left my water bottles and gu at home, so the only thing I have to drink are regular bottles of water with twist-off-twist-on caps. Great, wonderful.

I'm now standing at the line, 30 seconds, 15 seconds, GO!! I was able to get into the woods in about 5th place and was able to quickly take 4th when the guy in front makes a mistake. I am able to stay there for awhile until I need a drink. I tried drinking while riding, but that isn't going to happen. Now I know that everytime I want to drink, I am going to have to stop, open the bottle, drink, close the bottle and then start riding again. I try to make sure that I drink as few times as possible so I don't have to stop very often, but it still slows me down every time. On top of having to take the time to stop, my legs go into relax mode within 15 seconds of stopping each time, so I have to get them going again which takes about 2 minutes. This just sucks.

Just a little while before the end of the first lap I think to myself, this is a long lap, but I come up to the stairs, ride them down and hit the second lap. A few minutes later I take the last drink off the bottle and get going again. Now, only 11 more miles and no more water. About half way through the second lap, my body starts feeling the lack of water and it is not very happy, but I keep pushing through it telling myself, the faster I finish, the sooner I can stop. I keep pushing and I think I am in the top 10 with about a mile to go. Here comes the finaly rocky section before the finish and I'm doing good. PSSSSSSSSTTT!!!!!! Flat tire. Wonderful. I get off the bike and watch the people fly by me as I'm changing. I get the tire back on the bike just to find the tube popping out the side. Luckily I had two CO2 canisters, so I empty the air out, reseed everything, refill the tube and I am off. I get stuck behind a bunch of slower riders till the end, but I am able to finish pretty strong.

I think I finished 12th, could have been much better, but atleast I have gotten all the bad luck out of the way for the year. Better luck next time.

It was nice to be there racing with everyone. I'm definitely happy to be back. Wish I could have been there a few minutes earlier to get in the team picture.

-- Ken
 
"If you brake, you don't win." Racer Mario Cipollini

CCD/TP turnout was great, I don't think I've seen as many as thirteen at a MTB race before. The course was excellent, I really enjoyed it. This was my first race on the Epic and my first time at Bear Brook racing (I've timed it four or five times around the turn of the century when it had the finish through sand pit up the short steep embankment). I have never seen so many sport masters in the last couple of years. The results showed at least 21 finishing as apposed to the normal 3 to 5.

I was totally not conditioned for the length of this race, particularly for the pace I set at the start. I think I was in the top ten by the time we passed the steps heading out for our first lap. Dan and the leaders quickly disappeared by the time we got to the little bit of uphills. The usual mistakes by some riders on the single track slowed the rest of us. In the open uphills I passed several riders who started before the sport masters. Through the first lap I passed quite a few riders especially on the downhills. As we neared the end of the first lap, the uphills started to wear on me, although in my mind I wanted to keep going hard. I was glad to see to rocky downhill section where several riders were off their bikes. I flew through there and was so glad to see the steps. Near the river I caught up to an expert woman on a pink bike, who would eventually finish two seconds in front me.

As we started into the hills my quads began to cramp and I barely stayed in front of her. On the next hill I cramped bad enough that I had to get off and walk it off, she passed me about half way up. I caught up and passed her again on the next set of downhills and didn't see her again till we passed the gravel pit where I cramped again after topping a hill and had to walk again. She'd pass on the uphills and I passed her the downhills for most of the second lap. When we finally reached the rocky downhill she of course was ahead me because I couldn't get up the hills as fast she could. However she was off her bike walking and I sailed by and thought that would I leave her behind at that point. Off the stairs, across the bridge, she was no where in sight behind me. I remember Mark saying that we should have taken single track back to finish on our warmup, I wished I had. Thinking that it was easy from there on in I peddled hard down the single track only to be surprised by one little dropoff. In wasn't that I couldn't have made it easily, the problem was that I had my head down as it suddenly appeared. I came to a screeching halt (not really, but it sounds good), put my left foot on the ground cramped so bad that I fell flat on face right a the edge of the bank. I must have laid there for at least a minute before I could attempt to stand. Once I did, my legs locked up and I was on the verge of passing out. I don't know how long it took me to walk down the little steep part and half way up the following hill. At that point, the woman on the pink bike caught up to me again, so I got on my bike and followed her. She asked I was OK and I told I was just cramping. She said she had encouraged another rider to the finish of her last race. At that point I followed her in and was content with letting her lead the way. In race time, I actually finished eight minutes ahead of her. I placed 18 out of 21 in the Sport Masters, but finishing became the ultimate goad once the cramping began, so I feel pretty good about the overall results.

Like Dan said, "If quad cramps are any gauge of the amount of fun I had, I had a blast," I agree with him I had a ton of fun in that case. This race showed that I have a bunch work to do to close on the top masters. This was a great warmup race, but I think The Pinnacle distance will suit me, as long as I pace myself.

results are up: http://www.efta.com/PDF/results/2009/bearbk09-1.htm

Finally a good mtb result I don?t think I have ever finished closer than 15-20 minutes behind in previous mtb races.

I had a great start 3rd to the first, short singletrack, when the course opened back up a mtbmind.com rider went off the front pretty fast, so I tagged on his wheel, where I remained for 5-10 minutes up the climb by the river and over the top where it opened up again. At that point, I went to the front put the hammer down and never looked back, at least for a while. I was passing people and not getting passed something that is new to me in the woods. I felt good and remained out front with no signs of the mtbmind.com rider for the whole race.

As I came upon the last 3 miles, I felt confident I was not going to be caught. But approaching a tandem, in a rocky portion where you had to thread a couple of boulders, I knew this wasn?t going to be good. Sure enough they went down, slowing me up. In a slight panic, I was trying to get around them and fall myself, hurry! hurry! hurry! I was telling myself.

Then as I approach the infamous stairs, yes-- I walked them sorry to let you down PJ, and it however would prove costly in the end. After a nice photo shot, I knew I was being chased and I got down the next singletrack and got a way for the moment. Then it was the drop/left turn with the water at the bottom, and again I jumped off ran down with m y bike ?mistake? --- b/c as I was throwing my leg over the bike I hear ?splash?------- I was caught, it was the mtbmind.com guy, With slight cramps and exhaustion I brought him back, but as the end was near I slowly losing ground, as I came out of the woods he slowing to make the final 180 for the finish. And???????. He beat me to the line 3 seconds --- 50 more yards and maybe? I have to say that this was one of my best but also worst. I think I would have rather lost by 5 minutes??? I gotta just ride that stuff its all in my head.


I had a blast, it was great to see much green/yellow at the race, much of which ended up on the podium. Congrats to all !!!

Tim

Tim, you need to come mountain bike with me.

I will either brake you or cure you or your stair concerns. :twisted:

I'm envisioning a new top secret training course. We'll call it "Pass - Fail" and it will have a scull and cross bones after Fail. Hmmmm...

Ryan