I’ve been a serious mountain biker for a little more than 6 years now. I enjoy exploring new trails, traveling the country, and pushing myself and my bike to the limit. I always try to improve my times and my technical handling skills… but somehow this continual progression has not led me to the competitive realm of mountain bike racing.
Until now.
The Baker’s Dozen 13-hour endurance race this past weekend was the first time I had ever raced my mountain bike competitively. As a serious rider just getting into the racing scene, I thought I’d write up a few random thoughts I had during my first competition (in no specific order):
- Passing isn’t that difficult. I was surprised to find that passing and being passed on the singletrack wasn’t nearly as difficult as I thought it’d be. In fact, with an endurance race format such as this, there was very little passing taking place in general.
- You can be competitive without being a jerk. We had some stiff competition with the other teams, but it was easy to be competitive and still joke and laugh at the same time.
- The right equipment can make your life easier and make you a faster racer, but it is not essential. Riding with the right gear and a lightweight bike was a definite bonus, and I could easily feel the advantages of having certain pieces of high-quality equipment. However, there were many people out on the course with whatever gear they could find… and I think everyone had a great time anyway! The guy who took second place in the solo class rode with flat pedals, shin guards, and a downhill jersey and downhill shorts.
- Quitting shouldn’t be an option. There were quite a few teams that quit well before the end of the race. What’s the point in coming out if you aren’t going to put your all into it? A direct corollary of this truth: “Just because you’ve raced before doesn’t mean you’re hardcore.”
- Only ride one lap at a time. As trek7k mentioned in his race report, riding one lap at a time is definitely the way to go in a team race. Even some of the two-man teams were switching off every lap.
- It’s more fun on a team (misery loves company). Having teammates to cheer you on really bolsters your resolve. Also, hanging out at the pit all day and talking about mountain biking with whichever teammate wasn’t on the bike was just a ton of fun. It’s nice to take a break from the computer, from work and real-life, and just think about riding bikes all day.
- Small roots can take their toll after 4 hours of riding. During our pre-ride I noticed that the course was pretty bumpy, and I correctly predicted that riding lap after lap on a hardtail would take its toll. Long story short: it did.
- Small amounts of time add up quickly. We were only an average of one or two minutes per lap behind the first place team in our category, but it quickly added up to a 44 minute deficit by the end of the race.
- Racing is fun. What’s more fun than getting to hang out with like-minded folks and spending all day riding mountain bikes and eating great food?
- Endurance racers do it better. After experiencing an endurance race, a regular 10-20 mile cross-country race seems like it would just be anticlimactic. Training for weeks or months beforehand, only to spend an hour or two on the bike? Eh, I’ll pass. Getting to hang out and ride all day from dawn until well after dusk was a lengthy, all-encompassing experience.
What thoughts do you have about mountain bike racing?
10 Comments
Oct 28, 2011
@trek7k, that sounds like a good strategy too! Interesting... maybe we can recruit a 4th person for next year?
Oct 28, 2011
Oct 28, 2011
One of my buddies from Faster Mustache mentioned a modification to team strategy (point #5) and it goes something like this for a 4-man team:
Lap 1: Rider A
Lap 2: Rider B
Lap 3: Rider A
Lap 4: Rider B
Lap 5: Rider C
Lap 6: Rider D
Lap 7: Rider C
Lap 8: Rider D
Lap 9: Rider A
Lap 10: Rider B
etc.
You can switch it up in any number of ways but the point is no one rides two laps in a row and you can still schedule extended rest periods in at certain points.
Oct 28, 2011
And yeah, little amounts of time do add up on a big race. When I do a solo race one of my goals is to keep moving as much as possible, keep stops to a minimum, and keep them short. On races like Fools Gold when I get to a SAG stop often times I'll grab what I need to eat and head back out on the course pushing the bike and eating. That way I'm still moving, slowly, but at least I'm not sitting still.
Oct 28, 2011
Other things to consider:
Go over your bike a couple days before the race, make adjustments and test prior to race day. I was shocked how many people started the races and had all sorts of mechanical issues in the first 10 minutes - flats, broken chains, loose equipment (handlebar, stem, skewer...), hydration hoses gone wild (drained entire contents in ~200'), etc.
Be prepared for traffic the 1st lap. Unless you are a world class sprinter, you aren't going to beat the field on LeMans starts.
Expect the unexpected. I was not thinking people would stop randomly, dismount on shorter steep climbs, endo going over optional obstacles, weave erratically, etc.
Don't be complacent... if you are feeling that you can pass, do so at your earliest convenience. I found that sometimes I'd go off into lala land and just amble along behind folks that I should have passed before the trail narrowed and I started getting itchy to pull the trigger at the wrong time.
If you are carry water bottles, pick your spots to grab them carefully. Late in the last XC race, I had a water bottle in hand while rounding an turn and unexpectedly had to hop a log- wasn't pretty to say the least.
Don't worry about keeping a bit of extra reserve energy... give it 110% from the beginning.
Oct 31, 2012
This summer I did a 5 race XC series here in Colorado Springs and it was a completely different animal. The first course was really fast with no real extended downhills to coast and catch your breath on. You just had to hammer as hard as you could for an hour straight, it was the toughest thing I've ever done! The second course was really technical and tough but had sections where you had to coast down. It was super hard too but I found it much easier than the "easy" course. Each race in the series I found places deep down inside me I didn't even know I could tap into. It made me so much faster every time I go out now, much faster than what I learned from the endurance race.
Bottom line: both types of races were really fun for me, but very different from each other. I'd highly recommend everyone try at least a little racing because it will make you a much better rider each time you do it. You will find out that what you thought was your 100% maximum effort isn't even close to what you can really do. And you'll probably have a lot of fun and meet some like-minded people in the process!
Oct 28, 2011
Nov 1, 2011
Oct 30, 2012
Oct 31, 2012