Chainbuster Tribble Mill 6 Hour race

I decided to do one more 6 hour race this year before cyclocross starts up. I had fun at Chainbuster's Conyers event this spring so when I heard that there was another Chainbuster race 2 weeks after arriving back from Europe, I decided that this event would be it.
I'd never ridden the Tribble Mill course but after checking out the course profile and elevation, it looked like it would be a super fast and fun course with no prolonged climbs but plenty of hard accelerations broken up by switchbacks and low-speed tech sections.
The morning of the race, I arrived early to get my pit set up. I would be racing self-supported but sharing a pit area with Eddie and Namrita O'Dea of Topeak/Ergon who were racing Co-Ed 2 person. At the start, I looked around to see who I would be racing against but it was difficult to pick out who was in what category. I had a good starting position and after a short lead-in, I went into the woods in second after Eddie. My goal was to stay at least 80% of an XC race pace to stay with a lead group for the first lap and then settle down to my 6 hour pace. After two miles, it became clear that there would be no lead group and I decided to pace off Eddie for the first lap (but at a reasonable distance so as not to piss him off). After the first lap was done, I overtook for the overall lead and held that until the fourth lap when two team riders finally came past.

I saw a few guys who looked like they might be in my category (based on the numbering system, which I hadn't bothered to figure out prior to the race) in the first few laps as I was exiting the transition and they were inbound, indicating about a 2-3 minute gap, but they soon disappeared as I kept the pressure on.

After every lap, I stopped at the tent to grab a fresh bottle of iso drink and always drank at least 2/3 of a bottle on the spot as well. I ate a delicious gel that I found at the pit after the 5th lap and had a Coke before my 7th and final lap. Other than that, I just drank iso drink and thankfully had no physical or technical problems.

Most everyone was polite and encouraging and I tried to say thanks to everyone who allowed me a swift pass. I was obliged to excuse myself a few times while passing riders on the outside on lines that didn't exist. No amount of gnar-shredding and making motorcycle noises was going to make semi-slicks grip on pine needles and sand-over-hardpack.

At the end, I completed 7 laps and could have completed an 8th if I had about 10 minutes extra, which was basically the amount of time I wasted in the pit box each time getting my own drink.
But winning is winning and it doesn't matter if you win by half a lap or a full lap so there's that.

I also won a "recovery mattress" which I've never heard of anyone doing at a bike race in my life so that's cool. It's super comfy, in case you're wondering.

Packing and Traveling With Your Bike: Part 2 of 2

See Part 1 here.

Here are the step-by-step instructions.
This will take you at least an hour and a half if you've never done it before and an hour at the minimum if you've done it before.


Prepping the bike:
Put the bike in the workstand.
Remove the pedals and put them into a zip-lock bag. Make sure to include any pedal washers (ie: SRAM and FSA cranks).
Shift into the smallest chainring and smallest cog. Remove the chain and put it into a zip-lock bag The masterlink should go into its own small zip-lock bag.
Remove the rear derailleur and put it into a small padded bag.
Cut the cables and remove them. Take the loose housing off the frame and make sure to note which piece goes where.
Unbolt the handlebar and remove it from the stem. It is best to have a mark on both the stem and the handlebar to be able to align them again when the bike is being put back together. Wrap the handlebar well using bubble wrap.
Put the faceplate back onto the stem. Loosen the pinch bolts on the stem and rotate it so that the stem is right above the top tube in the box. Make sure that the stem does not contact the top tube. You may have to flip the stem.


Prepping and packing the wheels:
Remove the wheels from the bike. The cargo holds on airplanes are pressurized so, contrary to popular belief, nothing will explode if you leave your tires at normal pressure, but I find that being able to compress the tires helps to get the wheels into the case in certain circumstances.
If you have a 29er and a standard hard case, you will have to completely deflate your tires to be able to get them to fit. It is your call whether or not to remove the sealant from the tires prior to shipping. If you have confidence that your tires will remain seated on the rim, you can leave the sealant (as I do with my Stans wheels and sealant). You do NOT want the mess of it leaking out.
Take the skewers out of the wheels and set them aside. If your mountainbike has a thru-axle, it is best to put them back into the fork and/or frame.
If you have a mountain bike, remove the brake rotors, wrap them in clean paper and place them into a zip-lock bag. The rotor bolts can go into a separate little bag or back into the hubs.
Put the plastic shipping end-caps into the wheel axles.
This is when you should also put blocks into the disc brake calipers to prevent the pistons from being activated during shipping.
It is also a good idea to let the air out of and to fully compress the fork on your mountainbike for ease of packing (if you have a 29er, this is a necessary step in order for the bike to fit) and also to prevent damage to the fork stanchions.


Packing the frameset:
Wrap the frame tubes in sheets of bubble wrap work great for this and if you want extra insurance, you can even wrap over the bubble wrap with sections of old inner tubes cut in half lengthwise.
Take the bike out of the stand, remove the seatpost/seat from the frame and wrap them.
Place the bike facing crankset-down in the case on top of the first sheet of foam.
Lay the handlebar between the top tube and downtube. There is no optimal positioning because of the shape of road bars so find whatever works best for you. I have included a photo of one option.


Packing the accessory box:
At this point, the bike has been separated into three sections: the frameset, the wheels, and the contents of the accessory box. Make sure everything that is to go into the accessory box is accounted for and put away: the brake rotors, skewers, rear derailleur, chain pedals, and the new cables which you will install or have installed at your destination. It is also a good idea to take a roll of electrical tape and extra zip-ties.
I also usually include an extra roll of bar tape, brake pads, lube, my digital tire pressure gauge, shock pump, a small Zippo tape measure, and my multi tool and flat repair kit in this box. Yes, it all fits.
The accessory box goes between the stays. It is best to zip-tie the seat/seatpost combo to the top tube or seat tube near where the handlebars are. Once again, optimal placement will differ.
Now any extra items can be included, such as shoes or a travel pump. These shouldn't have to be wrapped thoroughly because hopefully everything they could possibly contact inside the case is already packed well.


Finishing:

The second sheet of foam goes next, on top of which go the wheels. The wheels will overlap in the middle. The best way is to put the front wheel in first, and then the rear wheel with the cassette facing up. This way the cassette cannot damage anything in the box.
The loose bits of housing (if you're planning on re-using them) can go with the wheels. Make sure to secure the ferrules on the ends if this is the case.
Then follows the third layer of foam and then the lid. You're done!

A nice side-effect of having a bunch of relatively heavy parts of the bike packaged together in the accessory box is if the gate agent starts to gripe about the weight of your bike box, you can easily knock a kilo or so off the weight by removing the box from the travel case and putting it into your other checked bag.

Feel free to send me any questions you may have. Happy travels and good racing!

-Dávid

Packing and Traveling With Your Bike: Part 1 of 2

Introduction:

Traveling by air with your bike can be a fairly annoying thing. It isn't enough that you already have to worry about jet-lag and racing in an unfamiliar place but also you have to worry about potential damage caused to your bike during travel.

If you're a mega-pro, you have mechanics to worry about this for you and all you have to do is ride.
If you're an amateur or some sort of low-rent Elite racer, you have to do all this yourself. Do a good job and you'll have one less thing to be anxious about and go back to thinking about what's important: your performance.

If you pack your bike in an ad-hoc manner and in a rush, it will be damaged. I see a lot of people doing a bad job packing their bikes and it's because they don't even know where to start. My goal in writing this and making it public is to illustrate my method, which gets used a lot. In addition to the numerous bikes I've packed for other people, I've packed my own and my brother's bikes dozens of times for travel to Europe and to the West Coast with no damage.

It is important to understand that damage to a bike inside its travel case is most frequently caused not by external forces but rather by the various parts of the bike shifting and making contact inside the case.
The two types of damage that can occur are abrasions damage and impact damage. It is important that the parts move as little as possible inside the case and that the parts that are in contact are well-protected.
It is best to take the bike apart as much as possible for transport.
One detail which really helps in this is to remove components such as rear derailleurs, chains, pedals, and the brake rotors off mountainbikes and pack them together in an accessory box inside the travel case. Bike manufacturers do this to be able to pack bikes more efficiently and to prevent damage when the bike is shipped from the factory to the distributor to the bike shop, and so should you when you travel with your bike.
Another good idea is to cut the cables completely and install new ones at your destination. Cables don't cost much and not having your handlebar attached to the rest of the bike via cables is a great help in trying to Tetris your machine into a travel case.

It is important to have a clean bike to start with. Packing a dirty bike sucks, but not as much as unpacking and re-building a dirty bike. Do yourself a favor and clean the bike before you leave. The chain should then get a very very light coating of lube; just enough to thwart corrosion.
Everyone does a better job packing the bike on the outbound leg than on the inbound leg. This is to be expected. After your event, you'll be tired and anxious to get the bike packed and get on the plane to go home. Don't rush and don't get sloppy because you will not be pleased with the results.

Part 2 here.

Are you mad?

Yesterday, Hungary along with most other countries had their XC National Championships. The first thing you should know is that it was a huge pain for me to even be able to register for the event, partially due to me being a Hungarian citizen but not a Hungarian resident, partially due to my dual citizenship, and partially due to the fact that my UCI license was being secured through the USCF and not Hungary and I therefore needed to complete a bunch of paperwork through USCF in Colorado and my residence in Georgia. There was apparent to me some doubt as to my eligibility to race, especially in the Elite category, in the national championships of the country in which I was born but do not permanently reside.

Anyway, so I arrived at the venue in Zalaegerszeg in the foothills of the Alps yesterday morning relieved to find at registration that my bib number and timing chip were waiting for me in the hands of a very professional and friendly race staff. The spectators and media seemed really keen to talk to me about my foreign kit and my super sweet carbon Jamis D-29 (I was one of maybe 10 racers total with a 29er, one of maybe two or three in my category and the only one with a carbon 29er) given that both the type and brand are still very much a rare breed in Europe.

I lined up at the start, called up to the second row directly behind Olympians and multiple Hungarian Champions. We took our first parade lap around the field and I went into the woods in the top 15. There were to be 6x 5.1 km. laps. The temperature was 33ºC (over 91ºF) and very very dusty. The course was short but extremely hilly with very steep grades throughout. We were wheel to wheel the entire time with nobody able to pass with the exception of a few racers who were able to take advantage of the small mistakes made by others to gain a position here or there.

Towards the end of the first lap, we entered a section of the course with a long downhill of increasing grade and speed. The soil was hardpack that had degraded from the wear from previous races to a very fine chalk-dust. Into the sun on this steep downhill, nobody was able to see anything and we were basically flying blind and following only the wheel in front. At some point, I hit what I presume to be perhaps the trunk of a small tree that had been felled. The obstacle was no more than 20 cm tall but rigid and I went over the bars, with the riders behind following me off the course and into the trees. I somersault off my bike and landed on my feet, able to look back to see a column of riders two abreast aimed right for me, some already with their rear wheels in the air preparing to crash. I braced myself as my bike was pulled from me again. I finally was able to grab my bike and head downhill, having lost only around 10 places because some of the obstruction created by the crashes. I got towards the bottom of the hill and and realized that my rear brake lever was coming to the bar and there was barely any force on the rotor. I had maybe 10% from the rear brake.

I finished my first lap and got my first bottle feed; rolling through the start-finish I thought I had a chance to pump my brake and get rid of the air bubble in the system. So I set off on the second lap and on the first hard downhill I completely lost the rear brake and saw hydro fluid at the junction of the master cylinder and the line. The line was out of the lever.
I climbed one more hill at full gas just out of frustration and took off my jersey at the top with the photogs snapping away and asked which way back to the start-finish.

Game over.

At the start-finish, I gave the chip back to the promoters and officially was officially DNF. A kid with a camera came over and started taking photos of me and asked me what happened. I didn't even want to talk to him but I remember when I was his age and Elite racers were my absolute heroes. He asked if I was mad and I wanted to just yell "YES!" but in reality, there was nothing I could be mad about. Frustrated, yes, but this was as random of a problem that anyone could have. I told him there is always next year and he seemed OK with that answer.

Usually, when something goes wrong during a race, there is at least something you can learn from it. This was my second DNF of the season, the first one being a SERC race back in the U.S. earlier this season due to a crash. At that race, I was comfortably in third place, but got greedy and crashed into tree and twisted my ankle because I was trying to chase for second. What I learned from that is that I have to get better at weighing risks against benefits when I'm cross-eyed in anaerobic hell. Fair enough. But there was nothing I could do here at Nationals. I would have needed a second bike in the Pit which I didn't have.

I had to look back to Dave Z.'s Twitter quote from when he had to abandon at the TdF this year: "So be it." True indeed.

And last but not least, a massive shoutout to my amazing parents without whose unyielding guidance and support I would never have had these opportunities.
I am not one to let my fans down. I will keep pushing always.

No blog for a year and a half!?

Sorry guys. Generally I don't blog because I don't think that my stories are all that interesting but you can follow me on Twitter here:Sorry guys. Generally I don't blog because I don't think that my stories are all that interesting but you can follow me on Twitter here: http://twitter.com/DavidSagat
and read shorter, more manageable bit of things about me which you may or may not find interesting.
Also, you'll notice that I have a Facebook again. Don't bother bothering me on it because you'll be ignored.

But I WILL tell you a fun story of What Happened This To Me This Past Weekend As I Tried To Race My Bicycle (it's a working title):

The race was the SERC/US Cup East #4 race at Fort Yargo here in GA. I know, sounds amazing. And it was (almost).
At the start, which someone deemed appropriate to stage on effing PINESTRAW I spun out and basically almost took out the guy to the right of me and in a fashion extremely unbecoming of someone with the nickname of Holeshot Dave, I entered the woods in DEAD EFFING LAST place.
After about half a lap on the super exciting and seemingly not-at-all dangerous 18 km (11 miles for you kids who didn't go to college or live outside of Uhmerica™ [copyright Tristan Cowie]) course, I decided that last place was probably not where I wanted to be for the rest of the race so I attacked like some kind of moron for the rest of the lap and after the first lap was completed I found myself in third place, behind Victor (in first, who I was not going to catch under any circumstances) and R. Marion from the AmClassic Factory Team, who I wanted to catch pretty badly because, well, the payout for second is higher than the payout for third. Yes, you read right, that entire previous paragraph was one single run-on sentence. Applaud freely.
So, after the first lap was completed in 40-something (41?) minutes, I was less than a minute back from Marion and I was chasing like V. Petrov in Malaysia and taking all sorts of stupid chances (if you don't watch Formula 1, ignore that last reference) and long story short, your Protagonist (?) ended up in a tree sideways with my knee twisted 90º and my ankle smashed between my bike and aforementioned tree, plus I got a nice little gash on my knuckle which in and of itself is quite complaint-worthy.
After extracting myself from the tree, I finished the second lap in pretty bad pain (this part is not the joke so don't laugh) while going very slowly due to my right leg not really being able to contribute to the whole "forward motion" thing.
I hobbled over to the promoters and given a bag of ice and the EMS were called over. The EMS Good Ole Boys looked at me funny (on account of my spandex, I assume, or maybe they were gay and impressed by my abs) and twisted my foot to and fro and said something rather non-technical sounding about what may have happened to my ankle but that it was probably not broken and nevertheless that it probably was a good idea if I didn't try to go ride my bike again that day.

Moral of the story is that if you're in third by a comfortable margin and on a course that doesn't suit you, don't chase second on the off-chance that you may be able to catch him, because then you're still going to have to pass the dude and if that guy is Robert Marion then he'll probably outsprint you anyway with his cyclocross-derived sprinting abilities. So just ride your ride, shake hands, get your check, and go home happy/uninjured.
You think 10 years of racing would have taught me this already but like they say, you never stop learning.
My record for 2011 mountain bike races stands at 2 podiums and 1 DNF. Tragic.


Next weekend is the Dirty Spokes endurance race (same venue). My participation is contingent upon what I hear back from the promoter about payout but I'll probably be there racing 6 Hour Open.