Pocohantas State Park Mountain Bike Race

Racing at Pocohantas. which is my home trail system, is something I have never been able to do.  I missed the race last year, and the only other race has been a duatholon.  The duatholon was fun, but not a true mountain bike race.  After some heavy rain in the week leading up to the race, we were fortunate to have perfect weather and excellent trail conditions on race day.  Huge thanks to the Friends of Pocohantas group for maintaining these trails. Support this group!

In the middle of the week Joe Fish threw out the idea of riding from his house to the race, then riding for a few hours after the race as well.  This seemed like a good idea, so I followed suit.  I was concerned I would get a bit of a chill on the ride to the race but didn't want to wear to many layers with near 70* temperatures expected at the race start.  I threw on some extra wind protection and arm warmers and hoped that would be enough to keep me warm for the 8 mile trek to the park.  Hard to believe it would warm up by 25* in the 90 minutes till the race started.  Needless to say, the pace of the post race ride was pretty mellow.

I was greeted by what seemed like a ton of mountain bikers as made my way through the park to the area where the race would start.  It was nice to be racing on trails that I am so familiar with heck, I even built some of these trails  I was even able to spin a loop the prior day so I knew exactly what to expect. The only varialbe was the bike I would be racing.  Endorphin Fitness just finished building my Scott Spark on Friday, so this would be my first race on this bike but also my first race on a full suspension bike.

Before I knew it, we were lining up at the start line.  The Pro/Expert field was small, but pretty stacked with some quality riders including Dylan Johnson, Matt Bailey, and of course Joe Fish. I lined up on the second row behind Matt figuring he would be a good wheel to follow.  The race was pretty frantic from the start.  This race has about a mile of fire road before entering the forest which seemed to go by in blur. I found myself in 3rd nearing the trail entrance which I felt good about although I knew it would be a battle to maintain it. About halfway through the first loop I made a pass leaving only Dylan out in front.  Bailey had gotten a bad start and I knew he would be pushing hard to join the leaders.  He passed me soon after and looked very strong.  I maintained my 6-8 second gap to the now leading group of two for most of the first lap, but eventually lost sight of them.

Nearing the end of the first lap, I had some drivetrain issues and couldn't get my bike into the big ring.  Frustrated, I stopped and manually put it in the big ring.  I was feeling strong and hoping to jump back on with the leaders during the second loop, but this small mechanical seemed to dash all hopes of catching them.  I continued to push hard with hopes that one of them would pop, but this never happened.  The 4th and 5th place riders eventually got close enough to me that I could see them on some of the longer switchbacks.  I was able to stay away and take a third overall, my best finish in my second XC race as an "Expert" racer. 

Other then the drivetrain issue, the Scott Spark performed perfectly.  What an excellent bike!  It was great being able to lock out the front and rear and really hammer on the fire road sections.  The bike inspired tons of confidence in railing the turns as well.  Huge thanks to EF for putting in some overtime last week to assemble this bike for me.  Two of the top three riders at this race were on a Spark, I guess it was the perfect bike for the course.

The team had some great results:

Sonya- 3rd Cat 2
Tom R.- 2nd Masters
Frank Y.- 1st Cat 2
Jeff P.- 1st Cat 2 35+
David R.- 1st Cat 1 35+
Joe F.- 4th Cat 1

Full results can be found here: RunRideRace

Sorry, light on pictures for this race.  I will add a few more this evening.



Mark giving directions to the Pro/Expert field



Frank getting ready to lay it down!

Plassman, daydreaming of another deer encounter

Damon and Dave, ready to roll



How did Damon change so fast??



Hilbert #1

Hilbert is always an interesting race, and this past weekends event was no exception.  One thing that is always nice is to see all the Design Physics jerseys.  Seemed like everywhere I turned I ran into them, both before and during the race.  I won't even try to list all the members of the team that attended as I'm sure I would miss many of you.  Several podium spots were filled by DP racers which is always a nice bonus.

My race was alright, finishing second on a tough race day.  My stomach started to turn sour after 3 hours and no doubt my lap times dropped drastically at that point.  I think I need to dial in my nutrition a bit more before Cohutta at the end of the month.  The heavy pollen left me coughing for much of the later laps as well, not sure my body is used to the heat this early in the season either.

My first lap was quite the adventure.  My seat moved quite a bit on my seatpost about half-way through the lap. I didn't want to stop to fix it mid lap hoping there would be a team mate close by in the pit area. Fortunately there was, and Jim quickly lended me the tool I needed to tighten my saddle.  Unfortunately, I also wrecked on some pine needles nearing the end of that lap resulting in a bent rear derailleur which I hadn't realized till after I fixed my saddle.  I could only get to half of the rear cassette, so I laid the Giant down for the race and picked up my back up bike.  Luckily I had taken Friday off from work and built up the old Stijl with my new Industry Nine wheels and Schwalbe Racing Ralphs.  Turns out the Racing Ralph were actually a better tire choice for the trail conditions and I managed to remain upright for the remainder of the day.  Huge thanks to Jason and Paul for giving me bottles through the pit area all day.  After my first lap, I only set my foot down once thanks to their help.

Also wanted to thank RunRideRace for putting on another great event.  Not sure who added all those extra roots at Hilbert over the winter.

Alright, enough of my ramblings how about some pictures from the event.  As you can see, DP was everywhere!!

Erik Bleecher, Jeff Farmer, Matt Juaneza, Jeff Plassman, Paul Leeger, Joe Fish

Kate Fisher

Shannon Bush

Erik Bleecher, Jason Broussard, Jeff Plassman, Jeff Farmer

Byron Gonzalez taking 3rd

Joe Fish taking 2nd

We all feel you Jeff

Tom Richeson

David Reid

Season Kickoff Party at Moshi Moshi

Awesome team party at Moshi Moshi. What great sponsors we have!! The prizes for the BTS series were handed out as were the kits. Man, the kits are rockin this year, huge thanks to Sattler Creative for coming up with the design. Also wanted to thank Mark from Run Ride Race, Fruit 66, Pasture, ByeKyle and Design Physics for supplying the cool BTS prizes. Also wanted to thank Giant Bicycles and Stijl Cycles for coming out to support our event. Now take a look at the pics of us having a great time, make sure you're there next time!!

Virginia Cup Off Road Duathlon Recap



Time for the start!!



When I packed up for this race I brought everything but the kitchen sink.  It has been pretty cool lately, so I figured today would be much of the same.  Boy was I wrong!!  The day turned out to be perfect for a duathlon.  The problem with this sort of event in November is that you will overheat quickly in the clothing required to race your bike for an hour.  Boy was I wrong on the weather; it turned out to be an awesome day!  Almost as soon as I showed up, I started taking layers off trying to find the perfect combination.



Joe and Jim transitioning onto their bikes.

  



Joe, killing it!



Matt and Jeff opted for the more sane duo



This was the first race ever on the mountain bike trails at Pocahontas State Park.  I’m fortunate enough to call these my home trails and usually ride my bike to the trailhead.  I contemplated doing this on race day, but quickly decided not to as I knew I needed to bring stuff for transition and the air was a bit brisk for the quick spin to the park.  Joe Fish is such a badass that he opted to ride his Giant the 8 or so miles from his house to the event.  As these are the home trails to Joe as well, I felt like we had a bit of an advantage over the rest of the field.

 

Finishing up



Once I arrived and started setting up my transition area, I started seeing other Design Physics racers.  It was awesome to have such a nice turnout at this final event of the Virginia Off Road Series.  In total, Design Physics had 9 racers and one spectator!!  It was a pretty awesome feeling to have this much support at an event, especially a duathlon.

In short, the race went down like this, Joe Fish killed everyone!!  I knew I would need to put some major time on Joe during the running sections as he would be faster then me on the bike.  When Joe hung with me on the first run, I knew it was his race to win.  The bike section was very fun with lots of leaves all over the trail.  I passed the few guys that had beaten me on the first run within the first mile or so and settled into a rhythm that I was able to maintain over the course.  I kept expecting my legs to recover from the run, but it never really happened so I couldn’t make up any time on Joe.  I felt terrible by the time the second run was over and I was just happy to be finished.  Not a great day for me, but a great day for Design Physics Racing.  What an awesome way to finish off the season.

All in all, we filled many of the podiums:

Joe Fish- 1^st solo men

David Reid- 2^nd solo men

Kate Fisher- 3^rd solo women

Team Juaneza and Plassman- 3^rd duo men

Paul Leeger- 3^rd 35-39 men

Jim Fisher- 1^st 40-44 men

Lisa Stover- 1^st 30-34 women

In addition John Leino competed on a team and Damon came out to show is support.  Thanks guys!

Got to RunRideRace for complete results.