1st Annual (?) Mellow Johnny's Classic

Rancho de Juan Pelota
Dripping Springs, TX
Sunday, Nov 22, 2009

I woke up, hit snooze, and left 45 minutes late. As I was driving the 85 miles to Lance Armstrong's ranch, it was misting/drizzling, and a bit chilly. Mix that in with the 4 inches of rain Friday, I wasn't really looking forward to it.

This isn't part of the Texas series racing, so I figured I might as well cat-up now from Sport to Expert (CAT 2 to 1). I've had six top five races this year so I had to cat up for 2010 anyway. Less pressure, plus the CAT1's weren't racing till 130pm versus the CAT2's at 9am.

This extra time also allowed me time to setup the GTDC tent, chairs and team area.


So after warming up with Brian Zettner (he's been around awhile and I figured he would help calm my nerves), I go over to stage. They called me up about 8 in, and I just moved up and to the side. Having no clue who was who, I opted to stay in the back so as not to spoil any of these expert's starts. Rookie here, just move up there I told em! I saw that a few other of my Spring CAT2 competitors chose this race as well to move up. Scott Long (2nd overall Spring) and Jason Grimes (4th overall) were lined up. Timmy, who took 1st was also there, but he's been racing expert all fall. So the top 4 sport guys were all here.

Dead last going into the single track behind over 30 riders wasn't optimal considering the mud and greasy ledges. Lot's of hike a bike (my left calf is beat to hell cuz I don't know how to cyclo-cross)! With a mere 3 minute head start over the Open Womens race, Heather Irmiger only took 4 miles to breach my 3 minute head start. She flew past me, UNREAL how fast that chica is!

Settle in and start reeling folks in by the end of lap 1, I had passed a few in my group and they repassed me going thru the start finish, only to go to their cars, I guess they only wanted 1 lap. The expert 50+ winner Pete Stewart passed me right as we dropped back into the single track for lap two. That means it only took him 8 miles to breach the six minute gap. Wasn't another 3 miles or so and the first PRO lapped me, yup, the PRO winner Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski flew past me, and right towards the end, second place PRO Bryan Fawley went around. I was sooo stoked that Lance Armstrong didn't lap me! WOO-HOO. Found out later he flatted early and DNF'd. So does that mean I beat LANCE???



Few.Fast.Dirty.
/jt

Mellow Johnny's Classic Pre-Ride

Rancho de Juan Pelota
Dripping Springs, TX
Sunday, Nov 15, 2009




Loaded up with 3 riders and 3 bikes, we headed up at 845 am to ride a few laps at Lance Armstrong's ranch in Dripping Springs. For those who aren't Spanish speakers, Lance's play on words for his ranch mean "One Ball"! LOL That's also the name of the cafe in his Mellow Johnny's bike shop in Austin.




Doug and I rode two laps. The trail had a mixture of stuff seen through-out central Texas trails, a little bit of everything, with just enough technical challenge to make it interesting and several areas with berms and even a table top if you are so inclined to catch a bit of air.

Here is Doug and I dropping down the steepest (not that you can tell in the picture) downhill drop area. I hollered cheese at Austin Bike as he snapped the picture, cheesy smile I know {Click the Austin Bike link above for many more pictures of the ranch}:


There was also a cool "Pavè" section with 150 meters of cobblestone ala Paris-Roubaix (or so I hear).



Here is another trail review with pictures from Pedigre of Mountain Bike Texas

Rocky Hill Round-up XC Race

Saturday-Sunday, November 7-8, 2009
Smithville, TX

Showed up around 9am to setup the GT Dirt Coalition tent and team area and get in a pre-ride at ten with some friends. Just as we were finishing up prepping to ride, Jason Sager and his team-mate Adam Snyder rolled up in their Dodge Sprinter full of Edge Composites mountain rims. Very nice carbon MTB wheels!! They setup right next to us.

We were setup right along the start line.





The trail was in near perfect conditions with a few wet creek crossings. One was hub deep but for the pre-ride we veered off to the side where it just wet the tires. Many of the twists and turns were nicely tacky and we had fun railing them!

Sunday morning was beautiful. They were trying a new format for this race, usually laps of a 9 mile course, they utilized all of the trail system, everyone doing one larger 21 mile lap. CAT3's included. There were almost 400 racers, and they started off with the Pro's, then staggered the CAT1's, 2's, and 3's. My group of about 36 CAT2 40's went off around 9:30am.


I ended up about 7th into the single track and shortly worked my way to third, spent some time as 1st considering the rabbit who got away Mike L, taco'd a wheel, then Chris and Eddie passed me when I slid out the rear end on a wet root after a creek crossing. I tried keeping them in sight but with the candle burning at both ends I couldn't hold their wheel. Gordon caught me on a long climb and I kept him in sight for a few miles, then lost him as well. I was alone in 4th until the last climb when out of no where Kent comes screaming past me like I was standing still. Finished fifth some 30 seconds back from Kent. It was a fine race & the GT Marathon performed flawlessly as usual.

Alamo Golden Ale set us up with a keg. When the race sponsor's beer ran out it didn't take long for everyone to find we had some fine ale on tap in the GT Dirt Coalition tent. Lots of folks had a chance to check out the Marathon, seems more folks like the red expert color scheme than the pro gray/yellow. A few IMBA brochures were handed out and some of the 2009 catalogs perused, and stickers handed out.

Prost!

New Frame

Just picked up the new ride from Action Bikes in Universal City.

The non-drive chain-stay on my Pro bike developed a crack, and with no 2009 Pro inventory GT sent me the Expert frame, and the fine folks at Action swapped all the Pro stuff over:



It's still too muddy out to ride, hopefully the front coming in tomorrow will miss dumping anymore rain on us and we can ride in the dirt this weekend!

-00:02:22 with 22 laps

Saturday/Sunday October, 17 & 18, 2009
Rocky Hill Ranch, Smithville, TX

Wow, such a small difference for a 24 hour Grande team race.

I was racing for the second straight year with the Texas Chain Gang 24hour endurance team consisting of experts Melanie and Steve Etherton, along with sport racers Bob Sparacino, Rudy Rymal, and John Conwell. Our rotation was just keeping it simple, 1-6 and repeat. I was slot two and raced 4 laps, approximately at 1pm, 7pm, 1:30am, and 8am. All things remaining the same, if I just turned my first lap as quick as I did last year we would have WON! (Or my third lap, or fourth for that matter!!!) It was a team effort and some of us were off of our pace from last year and it affected our overall result. We all did our level best and are proud of the result.

Second place, Grande.

The course conditions were a bit more challenging than last year, as rain in days/weeks prior had many creek crossings wet. This affected brakes and drive trains and it was a chore cleaning your bike every lap you turned, and sorting the drive train, lube etc readying your rig for your next lap. I noticed if I traipsed through the large puddles I collected more mud on the drive train and had fits with my rear derailleur; but if I bombed through them splashing up water, it would clean the mud off and I could shift. So I was bombing all the stream crossings once I figured that out. Kinda fun actually!!

Rudy and Kelly Rymal, official team photogs contributed some pixels:

Course Marshall Mike and I talking bikes and trail conditions (team area under Bob's RV canopy):


Lemans style start in back ground, me in the foreground sporting the retro GT jersey:


Getting ready to receive the baton (necklace with team # token) from Steve, note the stylin' GTDC kit:


Podium pix with the Texas Chain Gang:

Mud Pedal

Sunday, Oct 4, 2009
Lake Bryan, TX

We arrived on Saturday am and got in a pre-ride before the rain hit. The course still had some standing water in spots but was otherwise in fine shape for the pre-ride. Folks who rode after the initial round of intense rain said otherwise. It was a soupy mess.

It rained on and off all night long. It stopped raining around 8:15am Sunday morning.

The CAT1's wheeled off at 9:15am, delayed waiting on the ambulance crew to show up. The course was reduced from 18 to 11 miles due to the sloppy conditions. The fast ones were doing it in around 1:10-15.

CAT2's, we lined up at 11am. I was on my beater no-name SS 26er running 32-18 hoping it wasn't too low of a gear ratio for the flats, but it was fine, and by the end I was thinking a 19 might have been better. The thick mud is tough to pedal through. After sloughing through the course, I came in at 1:29 and 4th place. This makes my fifth top five for 2009 and forces me to CAT1 for the spring. (I requested and was granted a waiver to remain CAT2 for the remaining two races of the season).

Onto other news, Lance Armstrong is hosting an XC race at his Ranch de Juan Pelota in Dripping Springs, TX on November 22nd. Lance along with JHK and Heather Irmiger are signed up. So far over 500 folks have pre-registered for the race (cap at 700) in under 48 hours. WOW this is gonna be fun, there are already 55 racers signed up in my group, second largest behind the 63 signed up for CAT2 30+. STOKED!

Camp Eagle Classic

The best of times, the worst of times. Love-hate.

Camp Eagle is my favorite race venue and course in Texas. It is also my largest nemesis from a technical perspective. When dry, I've ridden alot more of the course than previous attempts and always seem to ride a bit more each time. When wet, all bets are off. I have 4 kids depending on me for a fun family camping weekend, and I'm not about to get hurt, so I am uber cautious. I hike a biked quite a bit for the first 2/3rds of the course due to the slick, wet, muddy conditions. Wet rocks and roots and Hutchinson Python's do not like one another!!

The kids and I setup the Dirt Coalition Tent about 50 yards up from the starting line on Saturday morning, I did a pre-ride, then went back to get the kids from the screen shelter so we could go swimming in the river. As we went past the team area, the tent was gone!!! I was freaked out big time. My team mates from Sage Cycles moved it closer to the start line with their tent. Man was I relieved that someone didn't steal it!!





I registered about an hour before race time, was #30 to sign up out of 35 racers. Lined up at the back row and found it difficult to find my way to the front before the big climb, I entered the single track about 10th, and pretty much stayed there the entire 18 miles. I swapped back a forth a couple of times, but ended up 10th place. My training died off in May, and the hot summer took it's toll on my riding; add in the wet conditions and I think I did well.

Back Row:


Hello:



Few.Fast.Dirty.
/JT