Bump N Grind - US Cup #3

The 2nd stop on the US Cup/Kenda Cup East circuit stopped in Pelham, AL to shred the same course the the Xterra crew did the week before, the "Red Trail" at Oak Mountain State Park. This stop didn't just bring the racing but the new toys not yet released. The bike above is Sam Schultz's brand new Gary Fisher Superfly 100 29'er, not in stores yet.

If your not fimiliar with it, it's because I witnessed one of the first assemblies of this beaut. Matte (G/S mechanic) even said that it was from the first production batch, it had a #3 on the shock swing arm. This is the full suspension version of the hardtail Superfly that was released last year. Just looks fast, plus they were running the new Bontrager XR1 Team Issue tire and the new SRAM XX mountain groupset that added to the appeal. NICE!

Then, we moved on to the Gary Fisher/Subaru 4 wheel edition, yes, it's turbo. They have it goin' on, that's for sure.

It was cool to see pretty much all the stud (women are studs too) US mountain bikers throw-down. There were 71 Pro men and 30+ Pro women. We were standing on the edge of the road when the men went off and it was amazing to feel the rush of wind when they past, those guys can fly!

The pro call-up was awesome. It was the first time that I've experienced any pro race of this magnitude. I was like the kid whose hand was stuck in the cookie jar because he had two cookies instead of one......that was me, too much to see.

My start was earlier that morning at 9 am. This was the time that I was preparing for the whole year. This was where racing began for me and I guess that's why I feel so drawn to this event. Plus, you can't turn down racing on the finest course in the southeast US.

I was standing at the line surveying the competition and my placement in the race kept moving further and further back because there were some serious racers in this group. I raced one guy in Montgomery last year and he straight "ripped some legs off." So, I really didn't have time to get the gitters before they said go. The problem I've had in the past is a bad start, not getting good position before entering the woods. This time I entered the singletrack in about 5th or 6th.

I stayed in within my abilities the whole time, never really riding above my head. We entered the first fire road and this where I would usually fade because the pace ramps for better position. Well, that didn't seem like a problem this year. We had already dropped the rest of the pack so we were left with the top 6 to battle. Once we entered the next part of singletrack I had lost the train but I was pinned and needed to recover a bit. Placement pretty much stayed the same until about 6-7 miles into the 17 mile loop. This is where the fun began, at the base of "the climb."

I exit the singletrack that dumps onto another jeep road and begins the 1-2 mile climb with 600 ft of elevation gain. Well, I see guy in a Georgia Tech jersey look back to check me. I marked him and he knew that I knew......it was on. He would charge to drop me but I wasn't having that, I trained to dang much for that to happen. I charged to gain control, he'd ramp again. So, I kept the climbing pace high so that he would keep pushing hard. I was the stronger climber and I was hoping he would fade. He lead me the whole rest of the course, sometimes out of site on the down hills and flats. I finally caught him with 1 mile left on a twisty/winding part of the trail. I had him turn for turn, literally 6 inches separating my front wheel and his rear wheel. The only way that I could beat him now was him going down or out sprinting him at the finish.

We exit the trail and climb a short hill towards the finish and he has me by 3 bike lengths. I hear my name called and adrenaline rushes through me. We enter the straight-a-way to the finish and I gas around the right side, gaining ground, sprinting, sprinting and finish line. We literally crossed wheel for wheel to tie at 1:22:19 for 5th place. The line judge said that he crossed the line first but I was hoping for a dance off. I finished in 6th and 2 min off my target time of 1:20.

Looking back I could have pushed harder and reached my goal but that's life. I can't say I didn't put in a good effort with an average heartrate of 186 and a max of 195. That's pretty much pinned for me but my legs still had more to give.

Here's David Creasy, the guy I battled with. Thanks Dave for the hardest racing I've done in a while.

Great weekend of racing and race watching. Looking back on "the plan", I didn't get in all that I wanted to. I'm really lacking in the endurance area and I could really tell. I'm thankful for a good clean race. I didn't flat or crash but I did clip a tree with my shoulder and it almost dismounted me.

I got rest this week and then the focus will turn toward the St Jude Marathon on Dec 5th. Full on training starts first week of August. I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't nervous. My friend Jason was diagnosed with Leukemia when we were in Jr High and we will be running this together in celebration of his remission. It's going to hurt but not even close to what I watched him endure. This is to you my friend.