SpinDoc races in Gallup and Monterey

Hello, SpinDoc-ers!

This race report is a little different than prior reports for two reasons: first, I was not present at the first of the two events, and second, I participated in the second event.

The first race was the Dawn to Dusk (7 am to 7 pm) race in Gallup, New Mexico. Kirk was invited to race with cyclocross racer Jon Dellios, putting NM's first and second place cyclocross champs on the same team. David Sammeth, Jerry Shere, and a friend of Jerry's comprised a second SpinDoc team. Last year's event was cancelled due to snow, and none of these guys had raced this event before, so the adventure meter was ticked up pretty high. On Friday, April 8th the weather forecast predicted snow for Gallup and a high temp of 43. The guys packed up a variety of gear and took off, battling wind the whole drive East. Kirk and David pre-rode the course Friday afternoon, hooked up with Jerry, John and the third rider and tucked in for the night. Kirk called Friday morning after his first lap to report that the weather was good and he had a good ride. The course sounded quite challenging, with it starting with climbing on a rock face and skirting between large rock formations and bowls, and some cliffside single track. Kirk conceded it would be pretty tough if wet, but at that point the weather was good. David and Kirk rode the first lap for each team. Kirk's second lap was fast and he was feeling good. David and Kirk each rode their second laps with a 15 second difference and everyone was enjoying the race. The weather started to shift, the winds picked up, and precipitation was on it's way. First came the wind, then rain, followed by snow, and the race was called at 5:00. Jon said his last lap was miserable, so he and Kirk called themselves finished after completing a total of six laps. As a matter of fact, the weather had gotten so bad that the wind folded up our easy-up tent into a pretzel. All in all I think all the guys were pleased with their performance and enjoyed the adventure. Their held their own: if you visit www.dawntodusk.com you can view the race results for both teams under the names "SpinDoc" (Jerry, David and their teammate), and "SpinDoc Redux" (Kirk and John).

On Sunday Kirk continued West towards Santa Cruz, CA and his fifth annual Sea Otter Classic. Weather was great, his drive was easy, and he and the camper were installed in a space in the redwoods Monday afternoon with time enough for a lag stretching ride. I flew out on Thursday (without my driver's license. . .but that's another story for another day. I don't recommend trying to fly without it, but it is possible.) Friday was beautiful, and we spent the day cycling through the redwoods with Rob, a friend with whom Kirk has ridden more off road miles than anyone, in many different venues. Rob is also the skilled designer of SpinDoc's logo. It's beautiful and challenging riding in the forest, navigating tree roots and narrow passes between trunks. The smell is wonderful, as was the feeling of moisture in the air. On Saturday we opted out of riding the 49 mile Gran Fondo, a fun ride road event and instead took a recovery day which included a leisurely walk through the Henry Cowell Park, reading about and admiring the gorgeous stately redwoods.

Sunday was an early morning, driving to Monterey for the race. We got there in time for Kirk to air up his flat front, debate how warm it would get during his 20 mile race, and get him to the start line. We did a little better than last year, at which he had to run to the start line -- but not much. Meantime, my ride started at pretty much the time Kirk would be finishing, so Rob (who joins us each year for the race) and I had some time to kill. We went down to the expo area, an outdoor tent village of food vendors and cycling vendors, for a cup of coffee. As this was my first ever mountain bike "race," I was opting to view the experience as simply 'going for a ride,' not racing. That being the case, I wasn't that nervous.

Luckily I had NO idea what I was going to be looking at. Since racing is based on your age at the end of the current calendar year, I was aged up to the 50+ age group of women racing at the lowest "beginner" level referred to as Category 3 in mountain biking. (As Kirk points out, there are four categories in cyclocross, and five in road racing; these are based on the sheer numbers of participants in each genre of riding.) So I'm lined up with the other gals behind the Cat 3 Women's 50+, the only one in mountain bike shorts (hey, that's what we wear where I come from, not lycra!), trying to relax, and querying the ladies on either side of me about the course. It had been lengthened from 12 to 16.2 miles, and -- as I was to learn -- was the same course the Cat 1 and Cat 2 riders took with the exception of side loops added for them which lengthened the course to 20 miles. Heading out, of course, I was happily oblivious to this fact. Waiting for our countdown, the announcer asked if this was anyone's first mountain bike race, at which I raised my hand (indicating 'so hey, play nice, ladies!'), I was the only newbie in our small group.

We took off along the paved wide track that is Laguna Seca Raceway, with about six women all riding like bats outta hell. I was last, but Kirk had told me this was how it would play out. As many of them went anaerobic, I caught back up with about half of them. We took a left turn onto dirt, and immediately started crossing some ruts. Unfortunately, the last and biggest got me, and my front wheel turned and fell into the deep rut, and I went down hard on the handlebars. Wind blown out of my sails, I got up, dusted off and resumed, but it took a bit of time to regain some confidence in my ride. Adding to the mix was the fact that the Boys 13-14 group had been set off two minutes after us, and were already making their way through our group. Shortly after that we hit a steep, loose and heavily rutted ascent, which got pretty much everyone off their bikes to walk up. Several women from my group were already out of site, and we were already starting to catch some of the younger women from prior heats. At the top I hopped back on my bike to see a gnarly very challenging descent -- and some walking down it, too. I made it down, past the ambulance at the bottom (which seemed to be in the process of utilization, but I never heard any details) and continued on. Whew.

All in all, it was a great ride. Parts were lovely swooping single track through willow-ish trees and meadows; some was wide gravel road; some was steep climbs on loose stuff; some was deep New Mexico-style sand. I reminded myself that I was there to ride my own ride, no one else's, and was very proud of some of the stuff I rode. I ended up walking up about three ascents, and down two or three (including one that was simply a foot of sand, making me think of Kirk and some of his cyclocross races, and marveling at the fact that hours earlier he had bombed down that same descent at high speed). After a while I wasn't being passed anymore, and started passing men and women that had started before I had. It was starting to feel long, and I started to wonder how much more there was. My leg ached where it hit my handlebars in my starting crash, but I still felt pretty strong. Where possible, on climbs and easy flats, I tried to pedal harder to make up some time. People out on the course were so nice, and I ended up riding with a local woman who had ridden the course many times as a young adult, and a couple times in the past years. She commented on how much harder that course was than any prior year, and that she'd even heard Cat 2 women talking about how tough the course was. I left her on a climb and unfortunately did not run into her post-race.

Finally, it became apparent that I was approaching the finish, but not without one more nerve-wracking descent. I rode down a rutted bit to discover it suddenly droped in a rutted sandy descent, at which three or four young volunteers were gathered. As I gently braked and exclaimed "Oh crap!" they encouraged me on with "Let it roll! Let if roll!" I did, and made it down, and called back over my shoulder that they helped get me down. Coming into the finish and over the timing mats, I was completed toasted and so happy to see Rob on one side, and Kirk on the other cheering me in. All in all, I am very pleased with my performance on a course that was very technical, very long, and technically over my skill level. It was also my first race, and I felt I held my own, used the skills I have learned from Kirk, and generally applied what I knew pretty well.

Kirk had a great ride, felt good and strong, and rode fast. The longer, highly technical course suited him well, and he placed 16th in his group -- a huge jump from his 41st place standing last year. We wandered the expo, saw some of our SpinDoc reps, and headed back to Santa Cruz. Monday saw us taking a short easy recovery ride, and heading east towards home. Driving past Gallup, Kirk was able to point out where the Dawn to Dusk race was. . . .wow! Pretty crazy terrain there.

Kirk's fifth and my first Sea Otter under our belts, we're ready to hit the ground running at SpinDoc, and prep for the next adventure: racing La Tierra Torture. Oh yeah, it snowed on the racers last year, and the starting gun wouldn't fire in the wet. What will this year bring?

Best to all,
Kirk, Chandler and Ashleigh

The new bikes are here!

Big excitement last week as the new bikes arrived. Beautiful, hand built, American made, Intense Cycles full suspension bikes in all sizes.

We have also received new Fuji inventory including the amazing SL-1 Pro LE full carbon fiber road bike and the SL 2.0.

Not to mention the new Breezer Jetstream hard tail 29er.

Come on in and take a look.

24 Hours in the Old Pueblo

Kirk left Wednesday, Feb. 16th driving solo in Chef Ken's RV. (Although we worked on him until the 11th hour, Chef Ken was unable to join us this year. That left me with awefully big shoes to try to fill! I'm certainly not a

chef.) Although slow going he made it into Tucson at a reasonable time. The next morning, teammate David Sammeth left Santa Fe with Kirk's two Monte del Sol proteges, Derrick and Rico, in the SpinDoc truck sporting six mountain bikes. I held down the fort at SpinDoc with the lovely and capable Ashleigh, and flew out with David's wife, Janine Sammeth, on Friday evening.

The four guys picked us up from the airport in Tucson, and we headed straight to dinner. The two teammates had taken the two proteges on a ride of the course earlier in the day, and it was great fun to hear their animated descriptions of the course, their prior night's dinner at a Cheesecake Factory (definitely a highlight for the boys, as they'd only heard about them from others).

Friday dinner was at P.F. Changs. . . .and that's where the first part of the adventure kicked in ala full-on SpinDoc mode. Rico ordered a shrimp dish, and we all discovered an hour later that Rico is allergic to shell fish. He was only suffering a mild scratchy throat with no breathing issues, so we felt safe with immediate self-medicating. With Kirk's lethal nut allergy, we always travel with Benadryl strips, liquid Benadryl, and Epi Pens, so we dosed him up with a few strips which dissolve in the mouth and are the fastest means of ingestion. The symptoms quickly subsided, and even by the time we got to the hotel he felt fine. We did tell him, though, that should anything change he was to call us immediately.

At 12:45 we got that call. 15 minutes later we were on our way to the emergency room. The kid was covered in hives and miserable. Once hooked up to an IV, the symptoms started to subside, his mom had been contacted multiple times and we knew Rico was out of the woods. I insisted on taking Kirk back to the hotel at about 2:30 a.m. After dropping him off In went back to the ER sit it out with the boys. Upon Rico's release at 3:45, we headed back to the hotel.

Good thing I'm well versed at sleep deprivation! At this point I was up to 8 total hours sleep over two nights. The worrisome one was Kirk, though, heading into a 24 hour race on about 4 hours of sleep. Not good. We left the boys sleeping at the hotel and drove out to 24 Hour Town near Oracle, AZ -- the race location. Kirk had gotten the RV nicely set up, and we were lucky enough to have scored the same parking spot as last year, a minute's walk from the transition tent on the race course. It simply couldn't be much handier than that. Unfortunately, the weather looked nasty, and the winds were blowing at a steady 25-35 mph, gusting up to 50 (we know that from the National Weather Service Wind Advisory). We put up a tent for the boys to sleep in (and much to my amazement it didn't blow over until about 3 or 4 pm). I drove back to Oro Valley to pick up Rico's prescriptions and retrieve the boys from the hotel, and although we tried we did not make it back in time for the start of the race.

This race starts Le Mans style. The riders have to run to their bikes, jump on. and start to ride. Kirk went first as his cyclocross experience of running in bike shoes was deemed an advantage. The riders have a roughly 2 inch piece of a thin dowel that is their baton This baton must be shown each time the rider enters the transition tent if turning out for another lap, or left for your teammate to retrieve at the beginning of their lap. Kirk came in after his first 16 mile loop which he road quickly in about one hour and 19 minutes, and David headed out on his first which he completed in about the same time. Their plan had been for Kirk to then ride three loops, David would ride three, then each would do two laps, twice. They'd total 16 laps in the 24 hours--if all went according to plan.

It did not.

Kirk headed out on lap 3 (his lap 2) around 4:45 and in good shape, but as I stood outside the transition tent waiting to hand off food, water, and extra layers of clothing, a blast of cold wind hit. It was like someone opened a huge freezer door-- but it never warmed back up. It must have been at ten to fifteen degree temperature drop. I've never experienced anything quite like it. The sky was brooding but as of yet no rain had fallen. Now it was just cold on top of being incredibly windy. Kirk came through, and obviously was feeling the lack of food and sleep. I got him to eat a quarter of a pb&j, and put leg warmers on, and we swapped out a fresh water bottle, but he was very single minded about getting back on the bike and heading off. Next time I'll be more insistent about more food, and resting a moment.

Shortly thereafter it began to mist. . .then drizzle, but with 25-35 mph winds. . . and by 6 it was windy sheets of freezing rain. At this point my sense of time gets pretty lousy. In order to prep them to do the transition support through the night, I had the boys join Janine and I outside the transition tent. Considering the shape Kirk started his last loop in, we'd decided that David would simply take over, and ride his three laps. He stood inside the transition tent, and the boys, Janine and I stood outside in the rain. And waited. And waited. And waited. Riders came and went, the announcer kept calling out bib numbers, and we kept listening for 283, but it didn't get called. Soon Kirk was 30 minutes late coming in. Then it was 45 minutes late, and David came out to tell us he was worried. We inquired about overdue riders and learned there was a communications tent in 24 Hour Town. I sent the boys back to the RV to dry off and warm up, and Janine and I raced over to the communications tent to report 283 as being very late getting in and needed to be looked for out on the course. We went back to the transition tent, and stood inside to be out of the rain. At this point I was so soaked I was shaking. Next I know, the boys pull up on bikes and report that Kirk had called in, was inside "a warming hut" and was okay, just getting some warmth and recovery before finishing the course. He had totally bonked with lack of food, the cold, wet, wind, and lack of sleep. He'd meet back at the RV when he was able to finish the lap. He'd called at the moment David got back to the RV, so David was able to remind him not to leave until he felt it was safe for him to make it back.

In the meantime, at the "warming hut" (which actually turned out to be a communications trailer, one of 4 or 5 set up around the course, Kirk was hanging out with one of the volunteers, a ham radio operator who was nearly deaf and had turned down the radio because of the static. He'd lit up a propane heater for Kirk and offered him any of the snacks on hand (all of which were riddled with nuts) and chatted with Kirk as he dried off and warmed up. While sitting there, someone stuck their head in, said "I see a red bike outside with number 283 on it, and they've been radioing out for 30 minutes looking for this guy; is he in here?" Yes, 283 was there.

What a relief to see Kirk ride up. However, it took about 30 minutes just to get him warmed enough and normalized enough that I could get some real food into him. We stripped him of his wet clothes, covered him in layers of towels and sleeping bags, put a hat on him, and got him to sip some soup, chamomile tea, and eventually nibble some honey pretzels. Eventually a bowl of pad thai was eaten, and he was put to bed.

Around ten or so the wind died and rain stopped, and David--being as much an adventurer as Kirk (or is that a glutton for punishment??) decided to head out for a lap or two. Through the rain and incredible wind we had continued to see riders go past with head lights and front bike lights glowing heading out to do a lap. . .so we knew he wouldn't be out there alone in case of trouble. After getting everyone set and fed, I called it a day and joined Kirk in some real sleep. Kirk slept nine hours (!), woke a little before seven, and headed out for a lap feeling refreshed and energetic. He had a great, fast lap, and came in for french toast and fried eggs while David went out and did one. Both were feeling good but a little weary, so Kirk headed out for the last lap, timing it to that he came in after the 12 noon cut-off (had he come in before 12, one more lap would be required to officially finish). We quickly packed everything up, stashed bikes and hit the road headed home as the winds picked back up and drops started to fall. After a quick lunch at In and Out Burger -- another new experience for the boys -- we were on our way home.

Thankfully the drive home was uneventful, the wind helped out (for a change) by pushing, and only hindered a bit once we turned north. The boys were deposited with their vehicle to drive home, Janine and David were shuttled to their house two blocks from ours, and this year's adventure came to a successful and satisfying conclusion.

In spite of sleep deprivation, extreme weather conditions, and it being such a new experience for David, Team SpinDoc placed 44th out of 81 duos. Congrats to both riders.

Plans for changing tactics, meal ideas, and much mulling over have already started in preparation for next year's event. . .

Enjoy the reprieve of weather, get out and ride, and get those bikes in to SpinDoc for spring cleaning. Your local bike shop is here to serve you.

Information will follow shortly about the 26th annual Santa Fe Century, some spin class training for the Century, and a fundraiser we'll be organizing for World Relief Bicycle Fund who is currently sponsoring an epic fundraiser race in Africa to raise funds to build 12 schools there.

Upcoming races include a 12-hour race Kirk is riding as a duo with cyclocross king John Delios, and Sea Otter Classic near Santa Cruz, California. For those of you who would like to try their hand at some fun, casual local mountain bike racing, you can use the next couple months to gear up for the La Tierra Torture. For information, visit their website at http://www.latierratorture.com/ or ask Kirk. Don't let the "Torture" part put you off.

Our best to all, keep the rubber side down and the smile on your face.

Kirk, Chandler and Ashleigh