TSE Day 3: Passing Showers (Nikki and Kristin)

Prior to our 10:30 am start the sky would periodically open up and dump.  Thankfully it stopped for our start and the weather was perfect for an absolutely fantastic course!

The start was, again, mass and "controlled" (but not really).  We took off out of camp and up a WET and SLOPPY double-track climb for about 2 miles, then through a fast, muddy double-track descent before we hit the first of many fast fireroads.  It was here that Nikki and I had our second fight ever.  She rolled up to me and said, "Why do you insist on going so hard out of the     blocks when you know that I have asthma?"

Over the course of the next three and half hours we rode through some of the prettiest terrain including long climbs, fast carriage roads, one dark and disorienting tunnel, and a fisherman's trail - all dense with ferns and fabulous smells after an early summer rain shower.  It was beautiful despite getting poured on occasionally.  Just as I turned to Nikki and said, "This has been one of the most beautiful and enjoyable rides of my life," we hit the final 3 or so miles of singletrack - rocky, wet, muddy, steep, and sandy - urgh.....  We finished the stage in just under 4 hours, caked in sandy mud, pretty psyched with our ride, but potentially more psyched at the cheddar combo's that Travis had at the finish.  Again, Travis saves the day!

Wondering about our fight?  It was nothing a little singing couldn't resolve.  Ever heard the song about the monkey and the engineer?  

Stay tuned for stories from Stage 4

Race Report Day Two – Greenwood Furnace Stage of the Trans-Sylvania Epic

Stage two of the Trans-Sylvania Epic, featuring a remote start from Greenwood Furnace State Park and return to the picturesque 7 Mountains Camp, gave race leader Jeremiah Bishop a scare and shook up the women’s leader board. Trans-Sylvania’s hardest stage, the 40 mile course featured close to 30 miles of classic rocky Pennsylvania singletrack gnarliness strung together in a long flowing chain with small breaks afforded by dirt roads of the Rothrock forest. The stage had participants digging deep with temps and humidity adding to the challenge of the trails, but as multiple 24 hour series champion Rob Lichtenwalner (who is racing the mountain bike tandem category with wife Sarah for the PAValleys.com Team) put it, challenging in a “That is the best singletrack in the world!” sort of way.


Although five more days of racing face the Trans-Sylvania field, day two started hard and fast with a group of six men separating themselves by the first major descent on the technical Telephone Tr. just a few miles into the stage. Emerging from this section were Bishop (Cannondale Factory Racing), Christian Tanguy (Team CF), Drew Edsall (Yeti), Evan Plews (EvanPlews.com). Brandon Draugelis (PAValleys.com) and Alex Grant (CFR) were only a handful seconds in arrears. Plews, looking to gain back time lost in the open prologue, pressured the group on the ensuing climb and forged a small gap while Bishop realized his rear brake had failed. The trail into checkpoint one spread this group with small gaps forming between each racer and Bishop trailing in fourth looking for mechanical support. The aptly named Beautiful Trail saw Plews emerge a full 1:30 ahead of Tanguy while Edsall trailed a further 0:30 back and Bishop, charging hard, another 0:30 behind. By this point the racers were into the heart of the PA singletrack and Draugelis used his skills to separate himself from Grant, but was trailing the leader by 4:00 and Edsall by 2:00 min.

Things changed dramatically by checkpoint 2 as Plews had flatted and Bishop capitalized with the two riders entering Chestnut Trail at the same time. Tanguy was still holding strong 2:00 min back, but Draugelis had closed the gap significantly to Edsall and was now within shouting distance of yesterday’s second place finisher. This marked the end of the technical trail riding and any further reshuffling of the field. Bishop, now in a position to defend his lead, rode tactically and threw in a last attack on Plews, the day’s big mover and shaker, to pad the lead by a few more seconds. Tanguy crossed third and Draugelis and Edsall called truce on the run to the line with Draugelis rolling in a second ahead of the Yeti rider.

Meanwhile in the women’s race, Karen Potter of MTBRaceNews.com took the women’s win and the overall lead as yesterday’s winner Selene Yeager (Team CF) faced the challenge of a mangled derailleur hanger in addition to the abilities of her rivals. Potter, Yeager and Rebecca Rusch (Specialized) went out as fast as the men and the heat and humidity seemed to hit Rusch harder than her competitors with Yeager and Potter distancing themselves from her on the early climbs. Yeager’s mechanical gave Potter the opening she needed and Potter used it to full advantage by railing the singletrack and then settling in on the roads that finished the stage once the gap was established. Potter really enjoyed the race, later saying “It was hot. Rough terrain today but fun. It was a good mix and the singletrack here really inspires me.” Potter is looking forward to tomorrow’s 45 mile long Coburn stage from the TSE camp featuring portions of the original mtb 100 miler – the Wilderness 101 - where she will defend her new Trans-Sylvania Pactimo leader’s jersey.

Other category winners today include Kristin Gavin and Nikki Thiemann of Team CF in Duo, Doug Jenne (High Gear Cyclery/Ghostship Clothing) in the single speed category, and Garth Prosser in the Masters field while Rob and Sarah Lichtenwalner of PAValleys.com Team won the Tandem category.

The general classification at the Trans-Sylvania Epic reflect the finishes of today’s stage with Bishop, Potter, Prosser, Gavin and Thiemann, and Jenne leading their respective categories.


Race report written by Zack Beltran

Photos courtesy of A.E.Landes Photography

TSE Day One and Two: Nikki and Kristin - Women's Duo

Boy Scouts Motto: Be Prepared


Day 1:

Yesterday Nikki and Kristin started the Transylvania Epic Stage Race with a BANG! After pre-riding the course, and noting the course markings, we ripped RIGHT by the second turn in a rage of enthusiasm - honking the honka horn and celebrating the start of this epic adventure. About halfway into the time trial, we had a typical Kristin and Nikki moment. I looked over at Nikki as we climbed a fire road and said, "I think we missed the boy scout camp loop."

Well, what could we do now?

Not much - so, we pedaled on and came clean to promoters Ray and Mike at the finish when we were announced the first team to finish (note: we were not the first team to start and we didn't pass anybody. Hhhhmmmm.)

TSE promoters kindly just tacked on some time and didn't DQ us! Thanks guys!

Day 2:

For those of you that don't know , we are staying at a boyscout camp near state college - bunk cabins and all!

As the school bus to the dropoff sped along amish homes with uniform clothing hung perfectly on lines, I looked over to Nikki and said, "We forgot to bring a quick link! Eh, we probably won't need it!"

Well, not more than 3 miles into Stage 2 I tear off my rear derauiller.

We problem solved this:  (Note that yesterday I turned to Nikki and said, "Eh, who would want to do this on a singlespeed? That would be AWWWWFFFUUUULLL!) Today I ate my words. By the end of our 5 and half hour adventure we had ripped through 1 rear derailleur, chewed up one cassette, 2 chains, and nearly 6500 calories (perhaps)!

You see, a rigged singlespeed is not a one- time fix, especially when you have 37 more miles of mostly singletrack to ride. Adventures included being pushed into checkpoint one by Travis (Gary Fisher, aka Stork), Nikki scooping up a tow rope (just in case) and A LOT of stops to reset my rear wheel as the tension on the chain kept locking up!

When we hit the finish Nikki said to promoter Mike Kuhn, "Good day to be a duo" to which he responded, "Not for you!"

We're a team - that's how we roll. Nikki was a true best friend today demonstrating patience, emotional support, and positive enthusiasm. I took myself to a "happy place" and kept from crying!

Harlan takes 2nd at Vertical Earth Super-D at Blue Mountain Pennsylvania.

This past weekend I embarked on a journey to the top of Blue mountain to race one of my favorite formats. The Super-D! If you are out of the loop, the super-d is a cross between a cross country race and a downhill race. The course is supposed to be a test of a person's all-around skills. In an ideal world the winning time should be at least 10 minutes and the style of the track should not favor to heavily either discipline. The courses demand riders with versatile skills and a bike that can do-it-all. That is one of the main reasons I got the Fisher HiFi Pro 29er. I knew it would be an outstanding machine for the super-d.


What that means is you get to go downhill really fast and then bust your lungs on a couple hills. It turns out to be some of the most intense few minutes on a bike you can have. Your mind is 100% focused on staying in control! It is one of the best times on a bike I think you can have.

Entry fee to the race gave you two days of lift service at Blue Mountain, so I went up on Saturday to pre-ride. That was a wise choice because I felt like a fish flopping around on the boats bottom. The course was fast, loose and full of high speed berms with an intense section of jumps. As a XC racer I wasn't comfortable on the jumps at all. Still, I tried rolling them, or I took what looked to be a line around. A couple I couldn't avoid so I jumped them as best I could. The sections through the woods had some tricky spots that I stopped and tried a couple times, looking for better lines. On the second to last run I burped a tire and mildly tossed myself off the bike, loosing my glasses. Bye Bye!

Then on the last run it started raining. Time to leave.

Sunday my race started at 12 so I got up early enough to get there and have a couple hours to practice a little more. Unfortunately I had some toll booth issues and ended up getting there with only enough time to get one run in. Fortunately that one run felt great and my confidence was high. The rain the night before actually made the course a little easier and washed away some of the looser gravel turns.

We lined up to a Lemans start, which meant we ran to our bikes in a big confused mass and started racing for position into the woods. On the start line was Brian Lopes (World Champion) and local legend John Gabor. At the 'go' I had to sky over another bike and came around to mine in not the best position. I ended up 4th into the woods. On the first climb I came around two riders and went back into the woods in second to Lopes. The intensity of trying to go as fast as you can, but not making a slip is freaking addictive. I was able to hold Gabor off till the jumps then I let him by, knowing there was a climb immediately after. I took the jumps faster than before, but it still wasn't real stylish, while Gabor just floated everything. 

I did barely manage to come around him on the short climb, but he was throwing down. In the next section of turns and berms I was able to hold position and rolled across the finish line in second, but Gabor finished within the same second on the clock!

It was a great time!

I can't wait till Bear Creek races!



Thanks

Harlan

2nd Place at a Dirt Sweat and Gears : Selene

     This Saturday was my 12 hour adventure at Dirt Sweat & Gears in Fayetteville, Tennessee. Last year the race was a war of attrition. Hard rain turned the dirt to clay and the top pros managed just 4 or 5 laps of hiking 100 pound, mud-caked bikes over a 10 mile loop. This year the promoters promised a back up B-plan in the event of rain. But the course, a mix of tight, technical trail, ripping singletrack,  screaming descents and gear grinding climbs that add up to1500 feet of elevation per lap is mad fun, but no walk in the park even on a picture perfect May day….which Saturday was, and then was not, and then was again (more on that later).
      I had set my sights on 10 laps as a goal for the day. But I had just one real desire: Ride smart, so I could finish as strong as I started.  I got to the venue Friday afternoon to sign in and pre-ride the course. It was blazingly hot, into the 90s and I made a mental note to buy more water as I kitted up. The course was gorgeous, lush and pretty with nearly perfect flow. It was challenging, but not grueling, the kind of course that won’t beat you up, but, especially after 12 hours, could wear you down. I made mental notes of where to eat and drink as I rolled along. Back in the venue, I ran into my old friend Jon Cariveau from Moots who was racing duo. I was traveling and racing alone, so I didn’t have a tent and wasn’t sure how I was going to set up and work my pit all by myself. I decided to ask for a little “neutral assistance.” “Jon, this may be an obnoxious question; and please feel free to say no; but would you mind if I set up shop in a corner of your tent? I’m here alone…” He didn’t even let me finish my sentence. “Of course. Whatever you need. And we’ll help you out between laps too.” I owe them…big.
      Race day broke misty, bright and pleasant. I loaded up on a giant breakfast, packed the car and headed over to the Cotton Mill Preserve. I set up, warmed up, and headed over for the pre-race meeting, where I learned an interesting fact. Any lap that finished after 9 p.m. would not count. I looked around. “Is he joking,” I asked the guy next to me, who smiled and shook his head. I’ve never heard a rule like that. It was like a simultaneous slap in the face and kick in the butt. A lap that doesn’t count? At the end of a 12 hour day? Cut offs are one thing. Discarded laps felt like heresy. I would have to think long and hard if I came in close to 8 p.m. Just another mental note.

      The race started at 9 a.m. sharp with a Le Mans start. The first few laps were uneventful.  Amanda Carey (Kenda/Felt) who is crushing it right now went off the front early. I contemplated chasing, but decided to settle into my day and let the race evolve . I got periodic splits from other racers “She’s 20 second ahead.” “She’s 40 seconds ahead.” But I mostly ignored them. It’s a long day and I was determined to race my race. I felt great. I was eating and drinking well. Then a couple hours into the day I heard the thunder in the distance.
      The rain came, hard and fast. Coach Chris Eatough had said “I pray for dry conditions for you.” I thought he was exaggerating. He was not. I have never encountered conditions so completely unridable.  The mud, where wet, was icy slick, where not soaking wet, it adhered like pottery clay to your bike. Here at home, the rocks are sandstone, so always grippy. These rocks were like Crisco coated marble. I had an instant, profound mental mechanical. As I trudged through the slop, barely making forward progress, I kept thinking, “I will not do this. I will not push a 70 pound bike around a 10 mile course for 9 more hours. No way.” I worked my way  through the muck and abruptly hit a patch of trail that was bone dry. “Huh?” I thought. “Did it not rain here?” Indeed it hadn’t. I saddled back up and finished my lap with new found resolve. As I rolled in, Jon’s teammate Matty from Moots was sitting on the stoop of the van. He jumped up. “What do you need?” I shot him a look. “Okay, everything!” He got to work cleaning my bike and lubing my chain (thank you, thank you, thank you!). I shoveled down food and set my resolve on committed. The sun was shining, so I was hopeful. I rolled out for another lap to discover that the wet mud was now liquid cement. After another  fairly hellacious lap with a 70 pound mud-caked bike, I rolled into transition to get the good news. “They’re running the short course,” Jon told me, grabbing my bike for another quick cleaning and lubing. “They cut out the mud.” “Okay,” I thought,  feeling renewed, “Let’s do this.”
      The rest of the day is almost a blur. I had no idea where Amanda was, but I figured it was way ahead of me. For the moment I didn’t want to know. I had good energy, so I wanted to roll out and keep racing. The day passed pleasantly. I kept ticking off laps, eating my sandwiches, draining my bottles, and enjoying the course. As we neared the end of the race, it happened. At 7 p.m., I heard a female voice. I glanced back and I saw a very fresh, very strong looking female charging up the trail. It was Amanda getting ready to pass me. Neither of us could recollect what actual lap we were on, but I knew she must be one up on me. “I think we could be done,” she said as she passed me, explaining that she had passed Jill, who was in third a while back. “I don’t think I’m pulling fast enough lap times to make it out for another.” I looked at my watch and thought, “You could definitely get in another, sister.” But I kept quiet and thought. First place was out of reach. Third place seemed too far back to catch. I seemingly had 2^nd locked up. But something was nagging at me. “You don’t want to quit. You came here to race 12 hours. Don’t quit.”
      I pulled into the venue at 7:45. Decision time. Amanda had done 10 laps and was done. I had just finished 9. Jill was still about midway through her 9^th. As I stood there, contemplating calling it a day, Clay walked up. “You just pulled a 1:03 lap. You have time to get in another.” “You came here to race,” I thought. “You wanted 10. Go get 10.” I pulled on my helmet, turned on my headlight and rolled out for one more. It was a little slow going to start as I adjusted to dark. And I was starting to get tired and a little sloppy. About a third of the way through I looked at my watch and it dawned on me that if I didn’t get a move on, this lap would not count. “You have about 45 minutes. Put your butt in gear and do this. Or you’re going to be furious with yourself.” I found my second wind and started charging. It was awesome, flying through the trees, shadows dancing on the trail, cool night air streaming over me. I reached the final stretch. I could see the lights of the venue through the trees. I looked down at my watch. “You’re going to make it”! I charged over the finish line with six minutes to spare. “You’re staying for awards, right?” Grant, the other race director asked me. “Oh yeah,” I said. “Good, because you not only got second, but you’ll also get a little money for fastest night lap in the female division.”

      I may not have won the race. But I won a whole lot more.

Brighton Stage Race – May 15th – 16th 2010 : Christian

The Brighton Stage Race runs for 2 days: a time trial and a short track on Saturday; cross country race on Sunday. The winner is the racer with shortest cumulative time on all 3 events.

Time trial:
The time trial is held on the "Torn Shirt" trail in the Brighton State Park, Michigan. Obviously, the trail got its name from the tight turns but not only:
1.Most of the curves of the 100% single track trail have limited to no visibility.
2.There are sections where the riders can get into a nice rhythm as 4 to 5 curves will allow to carry the speed but the following curve is much tighter although it looked just the same as you entered it. Depending how quickly you can react, two things can happen: either you fly off the trail and hope to avoid the trees near by, or you manage to slow down but you are now in way too big gear to quickly regain speed.

The trail was in great shape although there were few corners and steep climbs with some loose sand. It has been 2 years since I raced there.  I remember enough about the trail to keep my fingers on the brake levers the entire time. But I still found myself carrying too much speed in some corners, but fortunately I kept the bike on its tires.

After I crossed the finish line, I was satisfied with my effort, until Steve Dempsey posted a nearly 50 seconds faster time...

Short track:
The short track was held 3 hours after the time trial on a grassy field. 7 laps total. The 10 feet wide trail was quite bumpy and there was a wide range of bikes lined up at the start line: cyclocross bikes, 29er hard tail, 29er rigid, 26er full suspension, etc. The funny part was that each racer was convinced that they had the right bike for the event. I admit I was one of them. I thought my Trek Top Fuel handled the small bumps supremely such that I could pedal non-stop and be in full control in the corners.

I had a good start and was second wheel from the whistle before I quickly went to the lead. Despite my best efforts for 4 laps, there were still 6 of us in the lead group. When I looked back, everybody seemed somewhat fresh and relaxed while I was cooking...I sat up and instantly my heart rate dropped off the near red zone to a much more comfortable level. No wonder, I could not get any gap; drafting was too much of an advantage. Consequently, the group stayed together.

Nothing happened until the last lap. Steve made a good acceleration to stay in the front. Although the other competitors could have been more aggressive and try to make a move in one of the turns, everybody kept their line. At the end the group stayed together, I finished in second place; 3 seconds behind Steve.

Cross Country:
Obviously, the cross country is the event where most of the time canbe made or lost. We needed to complete 5 laps of the Murray's Lake trail which is not as traitorous as the "Torn Shirt loop". It takes just above 30 minutes to complete a lap so with 2h30 this race is oneof the longer one.

I started the race with a deficit of 50 seconds to Steve so I needed to attack. Like the day before I had a good start and was in third position. The leader was riding at good speed and there were not too many spots to pass, so we followed him for an entire lap.

At the start finish area, I upped the pace and dropped everybody but Steve. Steve looked comfortable behind me and rightfully so since he was ahead of me for the overall title.

I kept the speed up and tried to be patient. The Murray Lake trail does not have any significant climbs making it even harder to make any kind of difference. The 2nd and 3rd lap were uneventful but I started to be seriously tired and Steve was still glued to my wheel...

Finally on lap 4, I started to notice that in some areas requiring more power he would drop by 10 yards before rejoining immediately on the smooth trail.  I was playing with fire and I was very tired myself. At each "power zone" I hoped to drop Steve for good but he put up a great effort and we crossed the start finish line together for
our last lap.

At that point it looked unlikely that I could make up the 50 seconds I needed to win the overall but at least I was going to fight for the cross country victory. Steve started yo-yoing behind me just like he did on the 4th lap but also like the previous lap he latched back on to my wheel quickly after each hard zone.

Suddenly, there was no more noise behind me! Steve dropped and I was about 10-12 minutes from the finish. I could have ease up the pace a bit but the large "Team CF" logo printed on my jersey re-enforced my desire to fight to the end. That is the only way not to feel any remorse regardless of the outcome.

My legs were two blocks of lead and making them spin required as much will power as physical energy. Finally I crossed the finish line, completely out of breath. I was catching back my breath before I glanced at the clock and started to count the seconds.

Steve was sprinting to the finish line and crossed the line about 50 seconds behind. Why does it have to be that close? Steve finished the XC race in second pace, 1min15s behind.

In the last third of the last lap I made up enough time to win the overall title. Racing against a strong competitor like Steve made the race super tough, which made victory even more gratifying.

Cascade Classic MTB race 2010: rocks, roots, mud and confusion = DNF: Dr. Jim

I ventured north to Montoursville PA for the Cascade Classic which was incorporated for the first time into the Mid Atlantic Super Series (MASS). The course was on private land not open to the public and was billed to include a lot of newly cut single track. I realized the night before the race that the drive was going to be 3.5 hrs which made me think twice about the commitment of time; I packed up the car early the next morning and headed North West for what was going to be quite an adventure.  

The remoteness of the venue diminished participation of the regular MASS crew although a core group of competitive cyclists showed up. I got there early enough to pre-ride part of the course. The weather was perfect and I was psyched to get out on the course. Within 10 yards of the first stretch of single track I realized that this was going to be a tough day. The course was on very technical single track that was significantly littered with rocks and roots.  Three inches of rain the day before on land that resembled a marsh made for extremely wet and muddy conditions which compounded the difficulty of the rocks/roots. After about 1 mile of a pre-ride I came back to the car and calmed my self down hoping (praying) that the remaining 6 miles of the 7 mile course was going to be easier to navigate. 

The expert/elite riders took off at 11 AM. I made it through the first mile of the course in reasonably good shape looking for a break in the rigors of the course. Unfortunately the degree of difficulty went in the wrong direction – it got harder! Much harder!! We dropped down to what resembled swamp that connected a series of mud bogs via small bridges. After ascending up some easily navigated fire roads, we entered into a series of incredibly steep, rocky and slippery drops as well as freshly cut off camber single track filled with roots and branches that had just lost their bark and were as slippery as ice. To make matters worse, at about the 2/3 point of the course, there was an unmarked turn in which a bunch of us (from what I can tell at least 30 of the 70 expert/elites) went the wrong way for quite a while. After getting back on course I completed the first lap and talked myself into starting the second lap with the hope that magically the mud would dissipate and the rocks/roots would not longer be greasy; this delusion did not last long and I bailed and returned to the car. Apparently about 1/3 of the 70 or so expert/elite riders who started decided to DNF.  Those that kept going put in lap times for the 7 mile course in excess of 1hr. With some more work this course could actually be fun as long as it was dry – adding significant quantities of mud to it made it just wrong!!

I packed myself up for a disappointing 3.5 hr ride home. On the way I called my friend Carl and arranged to meet him the next day at 6 AM in Manyunk for a 110 mile road ride up through some beautiful country north of Philly on what turned out to be a gorgeous day. Ten minutes into this ride, the experience of the previous day became a distant memory – it is amazing how therapeutic a simple bike ride with a friend can be.