by Carsten

The Dirty Duo: known to a few to be an excellent early season race with some great trails and delicious apres grub, but unknown to far too many. This race is renowned in the trail running community (ideally, it’s completed as a relay with one member galloping through the 25k trail run and then tagging off to a two-wheeled teamie, who completes a 30k mountain bike leg), but should be equally famous to the XC bikers out there. Despite its name, you don’t need to do the race with a partner, you can just attack the 30k mountain bike race portion on its own. For me this is a great option due to the lack of runners I’m acquainted with.

In any case, I’ve been doing this race since 2005 and would hate to miss it. This race. The DD is early enough in the season to help kick my butt into gear for training and to remind me that the winter base miles are almost through and intensity is on its way. Huzzah!

I’ve done very well in this race in the past and was expecting to be among some of the top guys doing the solo mountain bike (provided I didn’t get lost like last year). My plan was to go out hard and stick with the lead rider as long as I could. This is usually a recipe for disaster (for me anyway), but it seems to work for this race. Good friend of Local Ride, Kevin Calhoun was the only elite rider that I noticed at the start, so right away I marked him as my ‘carrot’. In hindsight, this was perhaps a little too ambitious, but hey, ya never know.

Kim Steed and Mike Rauche were the only other two guys there that I knew were going to be quick, and as it turns out, it was the four of us leading the way on the first climb. This was the first big race on my new Giant XTC 29er and I was really eager to see how it compared to my Niner Air 9 that I’d been racing on for two years. The XTC weighs in at around 25 lbs, so it’s not in the super light category, it’s just pretty light. I did notice that it feels very lively on the climbs though, more lively than I expected, not having converted to tubeless yet. The traction was way better than I was used to, I found myself almost giving up on some of the really steep techy climbs, but the wheels stayed glued, so I kept going, and going, and going….

I stayed with Kevin longer than I expected and only lost him once we got into the first trail section. Once we got down to Fisherman’s Trail along the river, I was quickly rejoined by Mike and Kim. At this point, I decided to stick to Kim’s wheel as long as I could and maybe, just maybe, get ahead of him on the big climb up Old Buck. Kim is a local North Shore guy and no slouch when it comes to climbing, I knew he was going to school me on the descent, so I had to give everything I had to make up for his super DH skills. I actually managed to stay with him on the whole climb, right up to the snow at the top of Ned’s. And just as I expected, he ever so gracefully… completely disappeared down the trail.

By that point was in survival mode, just trying to get down Ned’s without embedding myself or my bike in the trail. This was much harder than it sounds, but I managed okay with just a few close calls. At this juncture, and because I was going faster than I expected, I would like to reiterate just how capable my new XTC was. I’ve noodled my way down Ned’s enough times to have a healthy respect for the trail and take it slow. This time around, I found myself hitting little drops and carving a few corners that I’ve never done before. Instead of having a death grip on the handlebars, I was able to relax and enjoy the trail instead of just trying to keep myself and the bike the right way around. I was beginning to think that maybe I would be able to stay in front of Mike, who is a better descender than I am. At the bottom I hadn’t caught Kim, but I hadn’t been passed either, so I put everything I had into the last climb and hoped for the best. I had enough in the legs to finish a solid third and finish for the first time under two hours at 1:49.

I would encourage anyone who hasn’t done this race in the past to give it a try, It’s usually wet but the Seymour area trails shed water really well and is almost never *very* muddy.

by Carsten

Tension for this race had been building all week – my first road race of the season aboard my newly built Giant TCR, and the second race sporting my new team kit. On one hand, this race was just for training, to get the feel of racing in a bunch, and to jump-start my race intensity for the rest of the season. On the other hand, I wanted to make a good impression for my new sponsor and team mates. With the promise of rain and cool temperatures, I was looking forward to a proper early spring hurt-fest. (un) Fortunately, the rain held off for most of the race, with just a few sprinkles midway through and puddles on the road. (I was hoping it would pour, because I enjoy racing in those conditions!)

The River Road course in Langley has a reputation for lots of crashes and aggressive riding. Although I knew this, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to see where my fitness was and how I stacked up against other riders. The group seemed content to settle into a pretty good pace – not too fast – which was perfect for me at this point in the season.

It was windy along the eastern and northern parts of the course, which I think turned out to be a decisive element in the race. Two of the course’s four corners were pretty interesting. We had to slow down quite a bit to squeeze between the cones and potholes. There seemed to be quite a few people caught out in the wind, because the peloton shrank significantly each lap. During the first six or seven laps, I was able to stay neatly tucked away in the group and out of the wind. I sprinted out of the corners to stay closer to the front, but I was saving myself for the last two laps. On the next lap, however, as I moved up through the group, I noticed two guys out front maintaining a pretty good gap. Judging by the pace they were setting, they looked like a pretty strong pair. I waited for someone to bridge up, but the group seemed content to let them sit out there alone.

Normally I would have agreed, but I found myself out in the wind and unable to get back into the peloton near the front, so I jumped up to the break and helped out for a bit. I was feeling pretty good out there and we seemed to be building a decent lead when my legs gave out. I felt good, and then a few minutes later, I had nothing and I had to drop back into the peloton. I was able to hang on for a couple more laps, and would have finished happily in the group, but there were some pretty aggressive riders starting to stir things up. The tension in the peloton was growing and everyone seemed to be taking more risks. With just a few more laps to go, I decided to pull out and head home. I probably would have been okay, but I don’t have enough experience with that kind of intensity combined with hollow legs, to handle it safely. This race has given me some great experience and a good idea of what areas to focus on in my training. I’m looking forward to joining up with the rest of the team in the coming races.