Black Bear Rampage 2008

Daddy Trent Flexing for the ladies

Dave Flexing for the ladies

Dirt Tans...the only safe tan.

Some of the only dirt on my bike was from the morning fog making the dust stick.

The probably boring account for you of my day at the races...

This year’s edition of the rampage was the diametrical opposite of 2007. It was hard, scary fast, and dry…too dry. I really haven’t been training much however I think I had a pretty decent base from commuting to work. I definitely could tell when there were periods of intensity that my leisure rides to work at 12 mph were not adequate.
The race started perfectly on time this year and went off without a hitch logistically. My only complaint would be the lack of water at the start/ parking area where the only source of refreshment was monster energy drink. Subsequently kids were bouncing around everywhere and just looking at the hundreds of gallons of monster made my heart palpitate and stomach say hell no.
The Expert men wave took off a full 30 seconds after the pro-semipro men. A group of 6 of us myself and “The Great Caleeeeb” included moved to the front and started doing some serious work that I was to ready for this early in the race. Within about 300 yards of asphalt road I was getting maxed out. Fortunately there were some guys feeling the same way in front the pace settled and then persisted. Gary Fisher started with the pro men and was quickly shed from their ranks but as our pursuit group passed the man himself, I flashed my bling and said hop on the pain train. Gary: “Alright man sweeeet”. So He held on almost to the top of the climb at our now blistering pace again…quite impressive for a Geezer who helped start this whole mtn biking thing.
As we crested the weed out hill section on the road we caught on to the semipro/pro group and the pace settled once again. A slight mist morphed itself to a thick fog shortly after that fogged glasses and made visibility drop to about 15 feet. The pace of the group slowed even more and at this point myself and 3 other dude went to the front. It’s pretty intimidating having the entire pro field behind you. A few seconds later a blur of colorful jerseys combined with the sound of squeaking brakes let us know (about 20 people) we had missed the turn for the start of the race….another great start. A group that had been behind the original lead group ducked into the woods in front of us and a herd of cussing pro’s fought their way back to the front.
Brush creek was some of the fastest scariest riding I have done in a long time. The Dust was terrible and this combined with the speed made any small mistake a big problem. I saw several people careen off the trail hell-bent on making the trip down the valley to the Ocoee river. One Pro who will remain name less informed me I was holding him up at the top of the overlook trail (I hadn’t even sent the guy till then and he acted like he had been waiting forever huffing and puffing). Shortly after he passed on a technical downhill I saw him off the left nursing a tacoed wheel and madder than a bucket of snakes. I could only help not laughing inside.
At this point in the race I figured I was somewhere in the top 10 as most of the people in front of me were pros and semi pros. I was informed to my pleasant surprise at aid station 1 I was in 2nd and I really couldn’t believe it. Settle down I told myself, still a long waaay to go. I passed several semi pro men and then about Thunder Rock Express I realized to my dismay I was going to have to stop and pee. It seems drinking 2 L of water before a race is a bad idea. My whiz was the never-ending whiz, you would have thought I downed an entire keg before the race. I imagined all the poor kayakers on the Ocoee that would be swept away in my river of over hydration. It seemed to take hours and about 10 people passed me, which motivated me further to ride with reckless abandon. After the express descent I started picking people off on the climb, which was a treat for me, as my climbing skill set has diminished significantly from the days of my previous racing. By the time I made it to the top of the Quartz loop I felt an unfamiliar tingle in my legs…bonking. The next few miles including the descent I spent trying to get some food and water in me, which given the pace up to this point had evaded my grasp.
As I began the climb back up to brush creek I knew I was in trouble, I felt weak and for the first time ever in a Cross Country race…I felt a cramp trying to come on in my leg. (great all that drinking earlier in the day had cleaned my electrolyte supply out I thought). Jeremy Hargroves caught me at the top of the overlook and never looked back, his endurance racer legs seemed to be trucking along just fine. I got passed by several other people at this point all who were semi pro/pros and the speed with which they dropped me became ever more depressing. I caught onto a friend of mine Matt who was having a “bad day” in the semi pro category and he definitely helped me keep up a better pace thought he last of brush creek. As we neared what was to the be the finish there was a left turn going up the road. I saw two men riding closely together so Matt and I turned and headed up after them. We caught them at the level of the road and found out they were in fact just rec riders, so we quickly doubled back down to the main trail which shot us out onto the old asphalt road there. Thank god the race ended now, I was about as toasted as I had ever been. When I saw the results I was pleasantly surprised to find I finished 4th in Expert, much higher than my top 10 aspirations. It seems the Knoxville crew had a good day with respectable finishes by all. Dave got another 2nd to add to his belt of podiums and Andy, Caleeb, Derek, Mark,Vick, the SMAPS, and Randy all had excellent races that I knew of. This year’s edition was definitely harder with the dry trails wielding an unyielding “dirt roadie” course. I’ll be happy to race some more technical and slower terrain in the near future. And of course CX in one week.

Cliff notes for the excessively long blog entry:
Class: Expert
Place: 4th in class / 8th out of 234 overall
Time: 3:05:20
Fun: Yes
Fast: Yes
Tired: Yes