Big Wheel Racing

Michael on the right, me, then Ayden (in green)

7 Feb 2009

   Other than cross races, I like events that take a good chunk of the day. Why get the bike out for less than 50 miles, or 5 hours of riding/racing? And maybe I’m just getting a little slower in preparation, but it seems like I’m doing more preparing some times. I could have done a little more preparing for the Puzzler, like putting on a larger cog, maybe a longer travel fork, and attaching suspension to the rear. And I could have put a motor on the bike too. I rode my 13 year old Specialized S-Works M2, which converted to a nice light weight SS a couple of years ago.

   I could have ran different gearing, because I did my most difficult SS work at the El Paso Puzzler. Last year I rode my Specialized S-Works Enduro, with 5 inches of travel front and rear. It’s funny how I forgot what worked great and remember only how heavy the bike was on the long climb up Mundy Pass. I do know that the hardtail SS climbs easier, given the gearing. But the Puzzler course got rougher since last year. A long section of new singletrack was added to the “east side” section. Tight turns, in a continuous rock garden, moving mostly up hill. This new section adds to the typical rough stuff on the “west side”.

   Just for background info, the NM Off Road Series holds the Coyote Classic on the west side trails. Some XC racers skip this event due to the difficulty of the course, and many mumble about it all season long. This is all within the Franklin Mountains State Park. The Puzzler involves a 35 mile loop around the northern section of the mountain range, covering the east side trails, and then a return to the west side by climbing Mundy Pass. On paper, Mundy seems like nothing special, but I think El Paso has a gravity generator in the mountains, making the short climb worse than anything in the NMES. I’ve taken my bikes out for great walks in the beautiful forests, and now I’ve walked much of Mundy while pushing SS and geared bikes. So much for the lighter weight of the SS hardtail.

   The Mundy climb is all two track loose rocky steep road. The approach to the climb is a few miles of great singletrack, which, without Mundy looming in the distance like an 8000 meter peak in the Himalayas, would be awesome riding. (By the way, the Coyote Classic will be on the east side trails this year, but it won’t include Mundy).

   The race start was interesting, Michael was out front somewhere on the paved climb to the dirt. Many riders with shifting problems, (snicker, snicker), one rider down on the pavement (?), and we dropped into the next bowl to the north. I somehow caught up to Michael on the singletrack after a couple of miles. I think it was because he didn’t have a “trail marker” in front to follow. (Trail Marker- a rider you can follow close enough to show you the details before you hit them.)  So, I used Michael as a trail marker. And he was railing the turns! (I need bigger wheels). After a few miles, we hit two track and I took the lead.

   A thousand miles later, we got to the east side and worked the course around. The food stop at the city park was great! This was after riding along a levee, backed up against large homes with swimming pools filled with beautiful blue water! Distracting.

   After completing the 35 mile loop around the mountains, we had another 15 miles of the typical Coyote Classic trails, just as the start of loop 1. After a couple miles of this second loop, I started watching the mileage count on my computer, and thinking about the finish line. I finished at 6 hours 45 minutes according to my computer. I was thinking a sub-6 hour day, but it took a little longer. I had not seen another SS all day, and I was later told than one did not show. Michael came in soon after me, grinning as usual. The other SS came in at least an hour behind. I think I came in 9^th overall. Overall, I enjoyed the race. It’s a great early season test, and a good equipment test ride too.

  How did Ayden do? Well, there was a time cutoff at the city park food stop that he didn’t clear. He was the only junior, and at 14, the smallest racer, and there were seven adult racers behind him that didn’t make the cut also.

 Chris

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 10th, 2009 at 8:48 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.