Sammamish MTB Race Reports by Dave Acheson and Keelan Christensen

This past Sunday was my second race of the year and the third race in the Singletrack Cycles Westside Mountain Bike Series. It was held on the trails at King County’s Soaring Eagle Park near Sammamish.  Having last raced nearly a month ago, I was hoping to see a little improvement in my riding and my results just to let me know my early season training is progressing as it should. While this is event was still “just for fun” in my mind and having no real expectations for it, I decided I needed to approach it a little more seriously to test my early season fitness appropriately.

The race started up a gradual climb for maybe a ¼ mile before entering the singletrack that made up nearly all of the course. Another feature of this opening stretch was a fairly significant muddy section over the upper half that tried to slow you down just when you were fighting for position to enter the singletrack. I charged up the hill with the rest of the field, trying to hold my position through the sticky mud and be as far up as I could entering the singletrack. I certainly went out harder than I had at the first race of the season. I was moderately successful and entered the singletrack approximately mid-pack. This course was far less technical than the Dash Point course had been and really had only a few spots that were really muddy or rooty.  I tried to push as hard as I could throughout the race, but kept developing bouts of nausea. Whether it was from effort or too big a breakfast, I’m not sure. I’d ease my pace a bit and then begin to feel better. For two and a half of the three laps, I felt pretty good, not great, but good enough for this point in the season. For that last half lap though, I really began to feel the effort and lost any sense of smoothness or flow on the trails. All my turn ins were late and I began to miss my lines. I made my way through it though and ended up 14^th in the Sport 40-49 field.  Definitely an improvement over a month earlier as was the gap to the leader.  All in all, the training seems to be progressing right on schedule with my first road race less than two weeks away now and I’m excited for my “real” racing to begin. - Dave

Sunday was my second race of the year, on my favorite trails of the Westside Series. But after the second lap, I began to despise those trails, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

                 

I started off this race feeling great on the beginning climb, able to keep up with some new competition in my Expert 18 and under category. But when I hit the mildly technical descents was when I felt unprepared for this race. I just had terrible flow through the mud and roots. At Dash Point, I knew I was the only one in my class. I still tried to pass as many experts as possible, but I didn’t push myself as hard through the rolling rooty hills as I did at Sammamish. I completed one lap, able to keep up with the middle field of the expert category when fatigue suddenly hit me. I had little energy for the short steep climbs and little energy to push myself through the mud fields. I felt like every line I picked was the worst way through a technical section. I just needed more time on single track before a race like that. Anyways, on the second half of my second lap, I went over my handlebars on a very rooty section. I came completely unclipped, and my bike took a couple bounces on some rocks. When I pushed myself up and retrieved my bike, I noticed the rear derailleur stuck in the rear wheel spokes. Carefully pulling, I managed to get the rear derailleur out of the spokes. I took a very quick look and everything looked okay. I thought I could maybe catch up to the pack. About 50 feet after my crash, I shifted all the way down to the small chain ring, ready to fly down the decent when my rear derailleur completely fell off my bike. The hanger was snapped in half. I looked up and saw Dave on the edge of the trail. We walked back to the car, and I got my second DNF ever in my racing career.

          

I’m happy I got this bike malfunction out of the way on a race that didn’t really matter. I view these Westside Races as practice races, and opportunities to train in race pace on single track. I still enjoyed a very fun trip with Dave and Cody, and still plan to race more Westside Races in the future. - Keelan

Solomon Triumphs at the Methow Winter Triathlon

The Bearded Man Out Front!                (photo courtesy of MVSTA)

First let me start by saying thank you to all of our great sponsors that have stepped up with all of the generous support for the upcoming season, your contributions big and small are much appreciated. I think that we have to potential the create a very unique team, with a focus on building or expanding a cycling community through the prism of competition and camaraderie. (ok that was a bit sappy and sounded like a mission statement) Any way, thank you, in a big way. Without you all this whole think could not happen.

On to the racing....  First race of the (Bike) season and I seem to have found some cobwebs in more places than one. I don't know if it's the fact that my wife Brandy and I are building a house or that  I'm slammed at work, or that we have two kids under the age of two, but I spent last week running around without my brain. As I explained to Dave A. on the way to the race, I seem to have had my brain cut down by a third per child, (not that I had much brain to begin with). Here is my list of race week follies in chronological order, (for the juniors on the team remember do as I say, not as I do, or as I say I do.) 

1. Waited to sign up for the race at 9pm the night online registration closed (at end of business day.) 

2. Morning after, begged Mike to let me in the race without paying the $10 late registration fee, but forgot my checkbook to pay him. Payed with I.O.U. 

3. Race day, forgot checkbook again. (I.O.U again please ?)  

4. After telling Dave about racing the ski rodeo with out my race number on, I'm standing on the line and reminded by his wife Tedra that I am not wearing my bib yet again. (lucky for me it was only in my back pocket.)

5. Finished the race, and am packing the kids in the car when reminded by Dave that I forgot my bike in the transition zone. (It's not like I'm going to need it any time soon with two feet of snow on the ground still.)

6. Got home, realized I left my helmet on the side of the ski trail somewhere. 

All and all, I got through it and besides not having ridden my bike since last November, my legs cramping during the ski, having to double pole for 200m while beating on my hamstrings with my fist, and making the mistake of  sitting down while putting on my running shoes and not being able to bend my legs to get back up again, things went pretty well. If nothing else it was a gorgeous day to be out in the sun and would have ended that way had the plow guy not buried a pile of lumber at my building project under a couple feet of snow. As it was, I spend a good part of my evening after the race digging through compact snow and moving snow and ice soaked plywood into the house to dry out. Oh well, that's life. 

Thanks again to all our great sponsors, supporters, and team mates, I'm looking forward to a fun season with all of you.     

Thanks for Reading,

Solomon   

Team Riders Represent at the Methow Winter Triathlon

This past weekend, Methow Cycle and Sport - Blue Star Coffee Cycling team riders came away with hardware while riding bikes in the snow!

Dave Acheson rode the bike leg for Methow Cycle and Sport in the team division, and the team handily won the team division. Nice Job!!!

 Soloman Woras once again, won the solo division and overall, showing that he is a force to be reckoned with in all three sports.