Test of Endurance 50, and test of bringing gear for Ryan, plus Cramps of DOOM!

The 6th Annual Test of Endurance 50 mile MTB race was a perfect mix of climbing and technical single track this year. Leave it to Mike Ripley to put on and run the best mountain bike races in the Northwest, if not the whole country.

Lucky number 100. Hmm maybe this is a sign of good things to come in the High Cascades 100 MTB race next month

 Before I go into my own race adventure my fellow teammate had a pre race adventure. A question to all the folks out there. How many times have you forgotten your helmet, or your gloves, or your shoes for a race. Inevitably this may happen at some point. But how many of you have left your helmet, gloves, jersey and bibs, and shoes for a race? Probably not many. What if this was your second time this season forgetting your race stuff.

Well this is exactly what good Ole Ryan Garner did. After a 6 am departure from my apartment we roll up at 7:30 for the race to realize Ryan forgot everything minus his bike. I am still confused at how this happened(for a second time this season). Anyways I kept it cool as Ryan was about to loose it. We started asking for extra gear from people and within 30 minutes we had a Helmet, shoes, pedals, a Trinity bike race kit and gloves all from different people. This is where I would like to thank Ninkasi for being such a great sponsor. Normally we handout beer to people under our team tent, but at this race we used the beer to make Ryan race ready. In the end it worked out well as Ryan got 2nd in the TOE for Cat 2, finishing his first endurance race in 5 hours and 12 minutes in all borrowed gear. I am proud of Ryan, but hell at this point I am surprised he didn't get lost and up in Canada.

Ryan on the podium with the only clothes he brought to the race. "Hey guys do you have some sorta clean bibs for me to wear?" 

My race was a blast. I have raced here two other times in 2006 and 2007. Finishing in 6 hour 35 minutes, and then 5 hours and 12 minutes in 07. This time I came into this race in the best shape I have been in as a cyclist. I planned on gunning it hard at the start and let my legs dictate my pace. This meant starting out at the front with Shannon Babcock and Erik Tonkin and all the other pros. The pace was similar to racing a 20-30 mile race.

I quickly realized about 30 minutes into the race that my legs would not tolerate riding with the top pros as the course shot straight up. Did I forget to mention the course had between 8,200-8,500 ft of climbing in 50 miles. Take a look.

After settling in at a pace that was painful but doable a fellow racer and nemesis Shane Johnson of Trinity Cycling, came up to me and asked how I was feeling. I did what any racer would do that understands the game. I told him that I was feeling great, but in reality I was ready to start riding easier. So I put on the burners to create a gap on Shane that has dogged me so many times this season and broke him. With Shane down, my next goal was to catch Doug Turnbull. Doug is a stellar rider. He exudes watts like chi energy and rips the legs off mere mortals in time trials. This season I have yet to catch him, but I have a glimmer of hope as Doug has an Achilles heel, and that is descending. That being said he shamed me and put 8 minutes on me to finish 2nd in Cat 1. For that he earned a Ninkasi beer.

Nice Bronto shirt Doug. Bronto bikes are super fine, and Ninkasi goes well with them. 

With that in mind I attacked hard from Aide Station 1 to try and make up some of the difference. This would have been fine if my water bottle didn't bounce out in the descent. I was left with half a bottle of water to drink over the next 15 or so miles. This came back to haunt me, as I had to ride easy the last 45 minutes of the race because of serious cramps coming on in muscles that I had forgotten that I had. The physical therapist in me was like oh that is my Adductor Magnus cramping(oouch). Ok get out of the saddle and my quads mostly my VMO and my gastroc in my calves ripped me back to the saddle with knife bending cramps.

Missing bottles = cramps of doom

So I grinded away in constant cramping closing in on the finish. I crossed the line in 4 hours and 39 minutes and 36 seconds. Cutting 33 minutes off my previous best time. Not too bad, but leaving me with room for improvement for next year. My goal for next year is to rock under 4 hours and 20 minutes with mullet. I think the mullet will drop atleast 5-10 minutes for me.

Dave Bisers also raced in singlespeed and rode his butt off for showing up right before the race, and having to leave directly after. Dave is the man, rides up and registers races, rolls across the finish drinks a beer, then drives back upto Portland to deal with his landlord. I am stocked for Dave as he is contemplating racing the Shenandoah 100 MTB race in Virginia in September.

Dave looking good on his custom Huckleberry 29er, made by Jake Rosenfeld