Dispatches from the Staff
2:20 pm | Wednesday, Jun 3rd 2009
Pro XCT #3 Road Trip – Birmingham, Alabama
Posted By Brent
Over the past few weeks mechanic Jon Schottler kept insisting I make the 10-hour trek with him to Alabama some race. Me, being a bad decision maker, am taking two semester classes crammed into a seven-week session. I tell Jon I probably won’t have time for racing. No time for racing makes Jon mad; he increased his persistence and finally revealed this isn’t just some race, it’s the third stop on USA Cycling’s new Pro Cross Country Tour.
The Tour is now the only pro level, national XC race series in the U.S. right now, and we were smack in the middle of the action. I decided to race category 2 (sport) in my age group (I’m 20). I was rusty off the line, but we got things started I felt pretty good, keeping up with the leaders through the single track. The course had one major double track climb (600’ vertical) that put each of us to the test. I was getting about an A- as I pulled away from one rider, moments later to be suddenly past by a rider I thought was minutes behind, instant F. Kicking it into gear, I suddenly felt strong and stayed on his 29” tire over the loose rocky road. Entering the single track behind him I decided to have some fun, airing about 5’ vertical over an entire rock garden. I try to ride XC the fun way.
The fun eventually bit me in the behind. Err, front end, when I pinch flatted further down on the high speed rocky descent. Pointing it with no braking is not a good strategy for the 1.8” tires I was running. With my only spare used on the pre-ride, gone was my podium (which I was positioned to get), a chance to enjoy the awesome downhill, but not my determination. I ran the 3-4 miles of trail left, keeping an ear out for the multitudes of riders from other classes behind me and cheering them on when they passed. I Finished 9th out of 12 in the field, running across the finish line.
Jon held a commendable 4th place out of 25 in the category 1 (expert) age 19-29 race, despite multiple mechanical troubles. Here are a few excerpts from his blog:
"Once riding with the leaders for a little while my chain fell off the big ring and got caught under the pin on my chain ring, tearing up my cranks and causing me to stop... which let everyone pass me again. After about 30 seconds of bending my chain back around the pin, and getting functional again, I was back on course... and then doing this again about 5 minutes later. Once we hit the long 5 mile climb I was able to open it up and pick more riders off again. The neutral bottle hand off saved my life half way up the climb... guzzled an entire bottle... which was a bad idea."
"I should also mention that my seat post has been lowering more and more this whole race, by the time I reached this climb it was down 3 inches, making me ride like a little kid with my knee's bent, keeping me from producing very much power. I just locked out my fork and spent a large amount of time standing up, hammering up the long climb…."
"Back into the single track I was able to open it up, railing all of the turns with my Maxxis Crossmark UST Tubeless tires hooking up like crazy. This tire selection was definitely the best idea I've made in a while."
"They showed me finishing 4th place at 2:28 , which I am pretty happy about considering my bad luck. The 3rd place finisher was only 1 minute ahead of me, the winner was only 5. These close times made me upset with how everything went down in the race. If I didn't spend the whole race trying to make up for the mechanicals, horrible start position, and battling my lowering seat, I really believe I could have cleaned up the race. But that's how racing goes, it was my first of the year, and first intense ride on my bike, so now I know what to work on. I still came out with $115, which I can't argue with."
Next was watching the pro men and pro women races. Almost all of the top U.S. XC riders were there, and now I understand why they are pros. Seeing them ride was incredible. I tried to photograph the race as best I could. I am thinking about trying to pursue adventure sport photography for a while after college, and I got a taste of what it’s like to shoot an event like this – HARD. Five laps went by in the blink of an eye, and with only moments to set up each shot after running to a different part of the trail, I did not end up with the photos I hoped for. A few decent shots, but only one of the women’s race that I am proud of, maybe I can get some use out of it.