Big Wheel Racing

By Nate

Fool Hollow Lake in the town of Show Low Az hosted the Deuces Wild Triathlon Festival on May 31 / June 1. The even consists of a “long course” (aka half ironman distance) and an Olympic distance on Saturday, as well as an XTERRA off-road triathlon on Sunday. I elected to do the Long Course race on Saturday, and headed to the lake to bag a camping spot after work on Thursday.

The long course went off at 0630 Saturday morning in an extremely brisk lake (~61F?), and thanks to the combination of altitude and cold water I had a bit of a slow swim at 37:10 for the 1.2mi (2000m). After that long cold soak on the legs it took some time to get up to speed on the bike, but once finally loosened up the bike went smoothly, hammering out the 57.5mi in 2:42:04, which turned out to be 13th fastest bike split of the day. Heat and wind started to become a challenge on the in the last 14mi (which also contains the majority of the sustained climbing on the course). The combination of Perpetuem and nuun worked flawlessly on the bike as usual. An early mistake in T1 though I think set things in motion for a problem filled run, I took a couple ibuprofen after the swim to ward off the not uncommon post swim headache, having forgotten to bring tylenol. Unfortunately, what I failed to remember is ibuprofen will tear up my stomach in a hot run like we had. The result was an inability to absorb nutrition during the run, so after the initial 6 miles pace was decreasing continuously despite trying to keep up the fuel/hydration strategy that has worked well in the past. Consequently the run was a somewhat disappointing 2:04:12. A testament to the Hammer Nutrition and nuun combination on the bike that I had enough gas in the tank to complete the 13.1 mi run with effectively no nutrition and still salvage a 5:29:38 total time. Good enough for 30th overall and 4th in the 30-34 age group.

nuun is “gettin’ it done”

With great pleasure Big Wheel Racing would like to announce that High Desert Bicycles & Specialized Bikes have teamed up to provide sponsorship for our team. We are truly thankful for the opportunity to work with High Desert Bicycles of Rio Rancho, NM which is by far the top shop in central New Mexico. With a line up that includes America’s top bike company, Specialized Bike, and their innovative products, High Desert also provide bicycles from Spanish cycling giant Orbea, and American mountain biking companies Yeti and Titus.

Here is part of the now full line up of women’s bikes from Specialized, the carbon fiber Safire!

Since a good majority of the BWR team likes to singlespeed, this bike caught the attention of several team members!

Drool at the Specialized roadie bling!

The women are a huge part of BWR’s team, as we currently have 6 strong female riders. We are always trying to grow the number of women on the team, and now thanks to High Desert and Specialized our teamates can ride in style!

Since we are Big Wheel enthusiasts, no post would be complete without a 29er!

Rich can hardly contain his excitement!

You can even buy a full team kit from High Desert’s road team, which are our new partners in crime!

Nate and Donnie talking with one of the store’s owners, John Kibodeaux.

High Desert Bicycles chose to sponsor Big Wheel Racing because, according to John, they wanted to support the local mountain bike and endurance racing scene. We are very appreciative of this support and we will strive to do our best to represent the shop. We can only hope that we can display a level of generosity back to the shop in equal to the faith they have shown in us. Thanks High Desert and Specialized!

If you visit, the shop, please tell them that you saw this post on the Big Wheel Racing website.

nuun solves hydration! Convenient, easily packable, and great flavors. An optimum blend of electrolytes to keep you hydrated without all the sticky sweet sugar of sports drinks. nuun allows you to decouple your hydration from your nutrition letting you choose how to refuel.

Use it for an all day epic, or keep a tube in your gym bag for those short workouts where you require hydration but don’t need the carbs.

Image from Adam Lisonbee. 

The Vapor Trail 125 is a grueling ultra-endurance mountain biking event in Salida, Colorado hosted by Absolute Bikes and organized by Tom Purvis and shop owner, Shawn Gillis.  Matt was fortunate enough to be invited to this, which required a resume of accomplishmenst in endurance racing. 

A total of 33 individuals lined up at the start, in downtown Salida at Midnight, Sept. 8, 2007.  18 would finish the course with the others dropping out at checkpoints along the way. 

Matt finished with the 5th fastest time over all, and also had the 1st fastest finishing time for singlespeeders.  

 Matt rode his Moots Mooto-x Singlespeed complete with the Kenda Small Block 8 tires. 

Honey Stinger Energy and also Protein Bars were a big part of Matt’s nutrition plan. 

Diet Power has kept the team members fit and trim all year, and we have truly enjoyed the support from Terry Dunkle.

In addition, Matt stopped by Santa Fe Brewing Company on the return trip and was rewarded with the team favorite – Santa Fe Pale Ale – thanks Ty and Brian!

The Vapor Trail 125 is one of the most grueling ultra-endurance challenges out there as it covers 125-miles of mountain bike trails, and rough primitive roads, with over 20,000-ft of climbing and at elevations between 9,000-ft to 12,000-ft.

A very detailed course description is located at the Vapor Trail website.

Less than two weeks after moving to California, I tried to continue the Big Wheel Racing dominance at the the 12 Hours of Socal above Lake Vail in Temecula, unfortunately I lack Matt’s legs and lungs. With temperatures exceeding 90F, and less than 200 feet of shaded on a 10.6 mile course, it’s safe to say that I wilted, less than most but more than the two leaders. By the end of the day (8:20 or so) I had completed 10 laps, for a total of 106 miles with 13,500 feet of climbing (not to mention the extra 2 miles and couple hundred vertical feet from a wrong turn during Lap 2), which was enough for third place in the Solo SS category (and prolly top 5 or 6 in overall solo). At 7 pm, I checked the results and saw that I wasn’t going to catch the two leaders, and no one was going to catch me, so I could’ve stopped, but the trail continued call to me, and the sunset loop was spectacular (and the temperatures were dropping, coincidence?).

The race organizer puts on an excellent event. The course was challenging (even without the heat), with very steep climbs, some steep descents, and lots of sand. The aid station at the summit of the Dam Climb, was manned all day by the most cheerful of volunteers and the coldest liquid water imaginable. It was a welcome shock to the system to down 2 dixie cups every lap, and almost painful to dump a third one down my back. Then sporadically, the promoter was encountered anywhere on the course on his quad. Inspecting the course, looking after the welfare of racers, and giving words of encouragement throughout. I’ll be back in November to compete again, this time the SoCal boys will be cold and Ill be relishing the change..

Sponsorship ShoutOut – Hard to tell from the picture, but I rocked the SockGuy reggae striped socks all day, would’ve resulted in funky tanlines if it weren’t for all the dirt on my legs with an SPF of 1000..

The Pactima kit kept me super-comfy all day, despite the amount of black on the jersey and the copious amount of water on my back that dripped down to my shorts. ‘Nuff said

And I still feel that I can ride all day long on Hammer Perpetuem, although with respect to the heat, I did supplement the Perpetuem with Hammer Nutrition’s Endurolytes. JIC..

All smiles prior to the start

3 laps down, still smiling

6 laps down, moving to a camelback, hurting but still smiling

The beginning of the Dam Climb, which continues up the ridgeline to the right, and then gets steeper as we climb the next two ridgelines

After the summit, the route continued down ridgelines on terrain resembling Fruita, or White Mesa