How I learned to stop worrying and love the granny gear (Gravel Grovel 2012 Race Report)

Turns out, I’m not an endurance racer. Not that I didn’t already know that as the 6 hours of DINO was a pretty clear shot across my bow. But after Saturday’s Gravel Grovel, I realize I need to train more to ever hope of competing in these races.

But, despite this gloomy intro, I was fairly happy with my race overall. This year’s edition of the GG had a change in start line from the Maumee Boy Scout Camp to the Midwest Trail Riders Camp. This venue was conveniently located right of 446 which made for very easy access from Bloomington. Also different from last year was the weather. Saturday was partly cloudy but with temps in the mid 20s, with a projected high in the 30s. A slight change from last year’s 50+ temps. The course also changed slightly but the mileage was still set at 62. 

A view of the riders behind me at the start. Not sure why I didn't take a photo in front of me as well.

My weapon of choice was of course my mountain bike, only with the cyclocross tires I have been using of late as opposed to my standard Maxxis Ignitors.  My primary goal was to finish the race in under 5 hours. Luckily, my knee issue form earlier in the week was a non issue for the entire ride.

The roll out was fairly orderly and I was in the front half until the course hit a hard left turn onto  a slight hill and the first of the gravel roads at which point everyone freaked out. A few people hit the dirt, while some weren’t in the proper gear and lost momentum in the gravel and had to hike out of the traffic jam. I was properly geared and I stayed upright but I still got caught in the jam and had to dismount for a short run.

 The first hill was at the end of Hunters Creek Road, a straight up paved climb. Not too bad, and I managed to spin past several people. Once up on level ground  (Tower Ridge Road) many of these people I had passed caught me and there was some more loose pack riding leading to a turnaround at Todd Cemetery.

Just before the next turn south there was a short downhill followed by a slightly longer uphill. I proceeded with caution due to my skinnier than normal tires, and upon hitting the bottom of the descent I began to get a little squirrely and found myself drifting to the far right and onto the shoulder. Kind of a controlled drift, but still kind of uncontrolled because you know if you try to correct the drift too abruptly you will crash. I recovered but had drained my speed and was starting to go uphill. However, while focusing on not flying off the road, I had forgotten to downshift, so I hit the climb in a terrible gear and was forced to stop halfway and run. I lost the pace line I had been in and was passed by a few other riders including a tandem.

 The route turned south towards Hickory Church and followed some generally rolling terrain until hitting a sizable climb on the eastern side of the Maumee Boy Scout Reservation. This was followed by some pavement, then more gravel which took everyone back to the Tower Ridge Rd. This was followed by a descent down to Maumee Bridge.

Around this time I began to hate my cyclocross tires. Maybe they were rolling faster but I could nto tell. All I could tell was that they were sketchy on the gravel, shaky on the descents, and the ride was terribly rough, even with the lockout off on my Reba. Next time I will use my Ignitors and save the cross tires for…cross races!

Just before Maumee Bridge I ran into a rider pulled off on the side of the road. Usually if I see someone stopped I will slow down and ask if they are ok. If they have a tube out or are otherwise repairing the bike I figure they can help themselves. This guy was just standing eating a power bar. I slowed and asked him if he was ok, and he responded with the quote of the day: “Yeah, I’m just sick of all this gravel.” Amen to that. Crossing Maumee Bridge leads to Combs Road, the most mountain bike-ish section of the ride which includes a brutal climb. Liberal use of the granny gear allowed me to conquer that hill without walking.



Gravel Grovel self portrait. Still early in the race since I'm not
gasping for air yet.



Following Combs was the climb up Elkinsville Rd. hill which was just as bad as it has always been. Upon declining on the other side I was heartened to see that almost every rider coming back from Story was walking their bikes of the hill. Good, I wouldn’t be the only one walking when I come back that way. 

After that downhill was a flatish/windy section over to the Story Inn SAG stop. Following up on my pledge from the 6 Hours of DINO, I availed myself of a banana since I had felt some cramping start just after Combs. As I expected, it was terrible. BUT, I had no cramping problems for the remainder of the ride.  While at Story I called my wife to let her know my progress, loaded up on some snacks, and made a quick bathroom break, and was off again. Save for the hike a bike up half of the Elkinsville Road climb, the route out of Story was fairly uneventful. After crossing the Maumee Bridge the route went south of the scout reservation and followed Polk Patch Road to an intersection just north of the metropolis of Norman, Indiana. There was one large, and several slightly smaller hills in this area. Nothing to worry about, except the Forest Service had just laid brand new gravel along this section which made riding extrmely difficult.

I had been riding with another guy for a few miles through the aforementioned new gravel hell when I heard a tinkling sound coming from the back of my bike. I remarked that I thought I had a broken spoke and after listening for a second, he seconded my diagnosis. I rode for a few more minutes but began to worry the spoke might get caught up in the chain and foul up my drive train. I pulled over, and sure enough, broken spoke. I had a spoke wrench but for some reason I could not unscrew the spoke. I wrestled with this for several minutes before in my desperation seeing if I could bend the spoke to loosely wrap it around the spoke next to it. It would still make noise but at least it would stay out of my drive train. I tighten the adjacent spokes a bit and took off. About 10-12 minutes had been wasted and I had been passed by about 5 riders.

Crossing my fingers the rear wheel would hold I continued and eventually arrived at the Hickory Church SAG. As I rode by a volunteer he said six miles left. I gritted my teeth and accelerated into the best section of the course which consisted of smoother than normal gravel roads (sometimes almost a dirt road), short easy elevation increases, and then a rapid descent to a flat valley section leading to the finish line. I was pushing hard and was at 18-19 mph almost the entire time.

I came into the finish line with a time of 5:08. So much for my sub 5 hour goal. I had a feeling I would not make it, even with the speed in the last 6 miles. But, if you consider the time I spent trying to deal with my spoke I would have likely been well under the 5 hours. Ah well. That is life. Once again, despite a mid ride hate thought (just like last year) that I was never going to do this race again, I had a great time and will come back for more. The post ride food was great as always, although next year  I hope Yats serves Chili Cheese Etoufee.

I was hoping to win a few door prizes, but the awards ceremony which was supposed to start at 3:30 did not start on time and my wife and I had to leave at 4 to get back to Indy to get our dogs out of the kennel. Too bad, since there seemed to be a relatively small crowd hanging around for the awards and I liked my chances.

Full race results may be found here. Looking at some GPS tracks of the race it appears there was just over 4,000 feet of elevation gain. Not a  bad day in the woods. Except for a cross race next week I have no more races until sometime next year. I’m flirting with doing the Sub 9 Death March for a second time, and I’m also thinking of trying out the Barry-Roubaix race in my old stomping grounds of Michigan. Sounds like a fun race.

Nuts

There are a few things you do not want to happen two days before a 62 mile race. Typically I am paranoid about my bike breaking down. Instead, I pulled something in my left knee. I was riding home from work on the Monon yesterday afternoon and felt a twinge which intensified to a constant ache by bed time. I iced it and overnight it seems to be better. I'm going to do a quick spin around the neighborhood to see how it feels and then will proceed to take it easy for the next 48 hours. I foresee more ice and ibuprofen in the future.

Fighting for 50th: IndyCycloplex Cross Race Report

Not much in terms of posting lately due to work being very crazy. Such a level of craziness in fact that last week I rode my bike to work once. Just once. And I didn’t even ride it home. I ended up getting a ride that evening home from work and left the bike in the basement of my office. Fast forward to Saturday afternoon and I find myself on the start line for the Indiana Cyclocross Series race at the Cycloplex at Indianapolis. What could go wrong?

Since my first foray in the CX scene at the Backyard Cross on October , I had this race in my sights, primarily because it is only a 15 minute ride from my house. I could spin over, do the race, and spin back, and be on my couch in no time. Plus, once the weather report solidified and showed clear skies with temps in the upper 50s, there was really no excuse.

Saturday was my wife’s birthday so she was under no obligation to see me struggle through 45 minutes of mediocrity and went for some spa time. My parents did go to the race which was great, since they haven’t had an opportunity to see me race before.

I was called up in the back third and the field and the race started with a roll out down a paved road with left turn into grass. And ouch, the grass sucked. The first part of the course was a bunch of twists and turns out in a wide open field. My speed dropped and I was passed by many. I was struggling to maintain 10 mph when we came to two long sections of mud, already badly rutted from the earlier contests. The pace dropped more and slow motion crashes and tip overs were in abundance. Even getting out of the mud I couldn’t seem to get my speed up, even when I was riding in the worn down trail left by earlier riders. Add to it the over exertion I now associate with the first half lap of cross races and I was having a dandy time.

The end of the field section included a set of two barriers, which caught me by surprise as I had not seen them when I looked over the course earlier. I got over them but upon remounting couldn’t get clipped in immediately and was rear ended by the guy behind me. The course then jumped onto a roadway section which went past the start/finish line and then climbed up a steep bluff. Would have been nice to have my bar ends for that one. At the top of the bluff was a mountain bike like trail which weaved into several extremely off camber areas and very steep turns. Lots of folks were either slipping down the hill in the off camber areas or were taking the steep turns too steeply and crashing through the route markers or going over the handlebars. In this section there was another barrier, right near the Shamrock Cycles tent. This thing was right on a corner at of an uphill section which required a dismount and then a run up the hill. Luckily a photographer was positioned right at that point and got a nice series of photos as I tackled the barrier.

We then went down several wide switchbacks, which resulted in a few more crashes, and then a short and straight downhill into the parking lot and back into the field section. I performed decently through these sections although I was physically beat after just one lap. Just like at the Backyard Cross I decided that this would be my last cross race. However, things did get better. Just not until a few laps later. The second lap was more of the same, as was most of the third. Heading into the fourth lap I got hooked up with two other riders on cross bikes and started riding in rough pace line. Problem was, they were just slightly faster than me and would get a gap in the grassy sections, only to have me catch up in the mud sections and after the barriers.

Entering the last lap found me with these same two riders. The hilly sections were still close, but upon dropping off the hill and back into the field section the front guy gapped me and other rider in the muddy sections. I stuck with the second rider but could tell he wasn’t going to chase. After a long out and back straight away with a sharp turn, I decided to try to catch rider #1. He was a few hundred feet ahead but I figured if I make contact before the asphalt I might have a chance. With that I pulled around rider #2, told him I was going to try to catch #1 and said he was welcomed to hook onto my wheel. The race for 50^th place was on!

Rider  #3 dropped off, but I slowly gained ground on #1. At this point I was exhausted but having a carrot out there helped me to grit my teeth and push harder. Hitting the last tight turn before the barriers I was less than 40 feet behind #1. We hit the barriers and both crossed with no problems. I had a good remount and as I clipped in I heard the distinct “thrip thrip thrip clink” as he shifted into his big ring and a higher gear. I shifted into the big ring and slammed the rear downshift trigger hard to drop several cogs quickly into a harder gear just as we hit the pavement. He started a sprint with me right on his wheel and as soon as we cleared a curb with a lot of gravel I popped around on his left side, pulled even, and pulled ahead as we hit the finish line. Yeah I sprinted for a 50^th place finish. But it was fun and I dug deep to push through to catch and pass rider #1. That is good practice for mountain bike season. 



End of the sprint for 50th. Huzzah.



Overall I finished 50^th out of 75 and 24th out of 33 in the standard Cat 4. I would have liked a bit higher but considering the prior week, I was just fine with those results. It was a beautiful day and perfect conditions and a very enjoyable day. For now cyclocross is just a distraction from post MTB season blues. I could see next year perhaps taking it more seriously although I would still probably limit my races to four or five. The next race is three weeks away and I plan to spend some quality time riding grass laps down my Butler University. To prepare Perhaps this will help in the next race.

 In other news, Saturday is the Gravel Grovel. There has been a change up in the course this year so it should be an interesting ride. The weather report has gone from highs in the 60s, to a high of 50, to a high in the upper 30s. Still, as long as there is no rain, all should be fine. A report will be forthcoming.



New (to me) bike fever

Some may have heard of the formula used to determine the right number of bikes to own: N + 1, where N equals the present number of bikes you presently have.  Well, I have succumbed to the mathematics of bike ownership once again. Two weeks ago I purchased a used full suspension Motobecane Fantom Team frame from ebay.

This was partially the result of giving my wife a new cruiser bike for our anniversary. Before this, she had been trying to make do with my original mountain bike which was a Walmart purchase and was much too small for me. However, even as a Walmart purchase, it was something of an aberration as it included several brand name parts, and the wheels have been very solid (as in never going out of true after a year and a half of hard riding).  Having a surplus of 26 inch parts and the need for a winter project I began to hunt for a used frame on craigslist and ebay. Not only was the Motobecane reasonably priced, but it was also full suspension which I have wanted to try for some time. Some of the decals have been scratched or peeled off, but the frame itself is in good shape.

The Motobecane Fantom Team. Phase one of the Winter Bike Build.

With the frame purchased I have begun gathering other parts. Not top of the line parts, but more mid range new and used parts. If the bike works out, I will upgrade the parts. If not, I have a limited investment and will sell the bike. Still, searching for the parts for a build is one of best parts of building a bike. I like to search online (or in the clearance bin at shops) for good deals on various parts. For this build I already have quite a few parts, including a spare set of Avid BB7 brakes, so that is covered. Same with the saddle and the crank and bottom bracket will come off of the old bike, along with the stem and wheels. I also have a handlebar from another bike.  I purchased a set of take off X-5 shifters along with a new x-5 rear derailleur ($20.00!) from ebay and a Shimano XTR front derailleur from the Hoosier Mountain Bike Association buy/sell forum.  A seat post is a work in progress.

The parts pile thus far. Also have a set of Ergons which will join these parts on the Motobecane.

The old bike has a Rock Shox Dart 1 fork, a low entry level fork. While it works fine, I feel like this fork may not be up to the task for a full suspension bike, so I am toying with the idea of getting a stouter fork off ebay, such as the Rock Shox XC32, the apparent replacement for the venerable Tora, or a used Tora if I happen to run across one. The XC32 is fairly heavy but since this will not be a race bike, it is not a deal breaker for me.

This is supposed to be a winter project something to keep me occupied once the weather grows cold. Therefore, although the parts are being gathered, no work will be done on the bike until after December 15. Just so I am not tempted I have placed the frame out of each reach in the rafters of the garage.