Headed down to Snowshoe, WV for a weekend of great racing for the Power Aid series. The weather on the mountain was out of this world, kinda strange since last season at the shoe was always a washout. Saturday held the first ever giant slalom, and did Team Chainsmoke show up! With three podiums one of them being the top spot we represented well. The course proved challenging with large gap jumps and huge berms, great course design by the trail builders at the shoe.
Brad Smith 1st
Rob Helm 1st
Richard Garyantes 3rd
Sunday was old school Snowshoe with the race course being Pro DH with an ending from the NORBA days on the right side of the lift. Rained lightly Saturday night so it made a fast course that much faster. Once again Team Chainsmoke Rep’d well with five podiums! It was a killer weekend at the shoe and we are looking forward to the next three races.
Place Plate # Last Name First Name Team / Sponsor Race I Time
I’d been thinking – no, obsessing – about the Dark Hollow Super D since the misery that was the Sol Vista, Colorado National Championships Super D. That experience, one of an enforced mass-start sprint to our bikes, choking on dust, and pedaling what amounted to a glorified XC course, had me doubting the future of the discipline formerly known as Super Descent.
But I knew that with the right race, with the right track requiring a balanced mix of bike handling skills and pedaling fitness (and a time trial format), I could really find my strength in mountain bike racing. So I focused on Dark Hollow. I rode cross-country a lot. I pushed my middle ring on every climb I normally grannied. Dry Gulch to Bobsled, everything on the Crest but Puke Hill… I forced myself to max out and suffer. I even rode the Snowbird tram and did sprint intervals at 11,000’ elevation, nearly puking in the process. It was the most I’d ever focused on, or trained for, any event in my life. That is, until the weekend prior to the event.
A buddy and I rallied for Brian Head early on a Saturday, intent on camping and getting a jump on learning the Dark Hollow course. Instead, monsoon moisture shut us down. And for some reason, it mentally crushed me. I was coming off a full week of schmoozing at Outdoor Retailer, and suddenly found myself unable to ride, committed to other events, and I stopped training. I drank too much beer. I nearly gave up.
Saturday morning of race weekend I was on the road by 7:30AM, a minor miracle. I felt like a cornered animal must, kinda terrified but ready to lash out and attack whatever needed dealing with. Contained panic. And I felt out of shape and slow.
Dog, check. Bikes, check,
Practice that afternoon both put me at ease, and on edge. I lucked into a lap with the Go-Ride boys, a good omen right off the bat. And like usual, without any cruxes to worry about, I flowed the trail the first time through like I already knew it. Of course Krispy and MJ, battling it out in a premature battle royale, were long gone – Scott@Go-Ride not far off their pace. But Joss and I rallied and I was feeling good. Still, knowing the monster only added to the anticipation.
After some food and downtime, I shuttled back up for a run with my Chainsmoke Racing teammate Carter Lee. After a quick pedal through the flats up top, we dropped in to the first technical rock garden. Railed through the turns and nailed a rock gap I’d noticed the first time… then heard the hiss of a flat tire. As soon as I pulled off, I heard Carter’s yells of pain echoing through the woods. Shit. Running up a steep-as-balls trail at 11,000’ ain’t easy, and I only managed about twenty steps before slowing to a walk. I found Carter 50’ down the side of the mountain, off the trail, his helmet crushed on a boulder. He was awake, alert and in pain, so I accompanied him back to the trailhead where he was able to get a ride back to rest and recovery at the resort. Scary stuff. More clutter for my headspace—don’t. fall. there. I managed one more practice lap that evening, a more leisurely ride inspecting sections with MJ playing coach to his Cannonball Racing crew. A much better note to end the day with.
Sunday morning, I was just calm. A bit nervous, but calm. And somehow, somewhat confident. A mellow spin up to the peak of Brian Head was the perfect warm-up. Then rolled to the start line. At first I was relieved to be in the sweeper spot for Cat 1 30-39, knowing the gunners ahead of me. That was, until I realized that Scott from Go-Ride was right behind me. Back to being the bunny.
View from the top of Brian Head, race day morning warm-up.
The first few minutes of the race were all concentration. Pedal. What’s the line on the next corner? Push to turn. Stay loose, low, elbows out. Pedal. PEDAL. Drop into the first rock garden, through the switchbacks, vision, stay loose, flow it, let the bike do the work. PEDAL. It was a couple minutes past the first technical zone that I started to smile. Downhill races don’t give you time to think, but Dark Hollow did. I had time to realize exactly where I was: racing, rallying, pushing my limits on one of the best, shuttled trail rides in the country. In perfect weather, racing against good friends, in one of the most beautiful landscapes on earth.
And it all just flowed from there. Turned in my best performance of the year—both mentally and physically. I never completely blew myself up, though maybe I should have. Had a few close calls, but recovered them all. Scared me a bit/surprised me a lot seeing slcrmr on the side of the trail, asked if he was OK, he just shouted encouragement so I rolled on. Pedaled through all the tricky ups, cleaned all but one step-up over a tricky rock. Lost maybe two seconds there. Otherwise, couldn’t have been happier with my run. Turned in a 21:50, good for 2nd place Cat 1 30-39. And yeah, I’ll take 2nd to Krispy any day, even if he smoked me by 1:15.
The finish line... relief!
Chainsmoke Racing results:
Ryan Meeboer: 2nd place, Cat 2 30-39 23:32
Betsy Meeboer: 1st place, Cat 2 Women 19+ 26:33
Josh Rhea: 2nd place, Cat 1 30-30 21: 50
Put a little video edit together from Saturday practice.
9 Hours of Hilbert was a painfest and I loved every minute of it. It started like any other XC race does, with testosterone pegged and everyone trying to get into the woods first. Jeff and I ended up around the 6/7 position going into the woods. That was cool until I realized we ended up behind a roadie pretending to be a mountain biker – he was killing us in the turn and before I knew it everyone in front of him was gone. Once we got to an open area Jeff and I passed the roadie and opened up a gap. Before I knew it I was alone – and rolling solo for about 3 hours.
About 3 hours in I saw a guy roll through the pits, I was worried that he might be in a position to knock me down a spot so I worked on wheeling him in. Once I passed him we spent the next hours fighting back and forth, it was pissing me off – I would catch and pass him then he would roll through the pit and I would have to start all over again. Eventually he ran out of steam and couldn’t keep up – but the nice thing about this battle was it pushed me to overtake the 4th place guy (I didn’t know that at the time)
On lap 11 – I was ready to call it a day I was so tired. So I check with officials to see how I was doing and they told me I was in 3rd place. I guess just that gave me some energy because I felt GREAT on lap 12 and 13 – however lap 14 might have been the longest 6 miles of my life.
When the day was over I had 14 laps for 84 miles at 8 hours 27 minutes – taking 3rd place and my first XC podium finish.
Special thanks to Jeff for helping me top off bottles when he was taking breaks – and to my Coach Dave K!
Arrived Friday night to clear sky’s and nice temps to Seven Springs Resort in southwestern Pennsylvania. Had a few drinks with the locals checking on trail conditions for the upcoming race weekend. Woke up Saturday morning birds were chirping and the sun was out in full force. The race course was blazing fast Saturday, simply perfect.
217 Racers woke up Sunday morning to a rain soaked Springs.
Did one practice run and quickly found out that we would need a tire swap to the Schwalbe Dirty Dan’s. Course was tacking up by the time the race was started so it was ideal conditions! Team showed strong with 7 riders total two of which made it to the podium
I really wish I’d had a handlebar bell when we kicked off the 2010 Fears, Tears and Beers race in Ely, Nevada with a 43-strong group ride through the town’s casinos. And a random department store. With wet, dirty mountain bike tires. Not that we needed any more attention drawn to ourselves, it just seemed like it would’ve fit in perfectly with the ringing of the slot machines and the gaudy, gold-painted decor. Before I’d stopped laughing and taking pics on the fly though, we were back outside in the drizzling, 45º rain, and heading for the mountains.
The park staging area for the race start and finish.
Betsy shralping through the casino.
Heading out of town, full of energy and stoke - Betsy and Josh.
Fears, Tears and Beers is a unique event in the world of mountain bike racing: it’s an enduro format, which has a number of timed, mostly downhill sections similar to a Super D. The catch? You have to pedal to the top of each timed section. So it’s more or less like a fun, relaxed ride with your buddies with a few downhill-ish races mixed in. Add up the times of all the courses, and the lowest time wins. Good fun.
Off to the mountains...
The first climb rose 1,850 feet to the high point of the course. The first few miles ticked off with a nice gradual grade and perfect, tacky dirt. The rain was merely a nuisance. Around 1,000 feet into the climb though, enough water was on the ground to turn the dirt into wet, sticky clay. The stuff that adds 50 pounds to your bike with one turn of your wheel. And then that wheel doesn’t turn anymore. Stubbornly, maybe stupidly, we battled on against the mud. Pushed, shoved, cleaned out derailleur pulleys with sticks, whatever it took. And eventually, some of us were able to pedal again. But that was mostly because of the snow.
The first sign of real trouble.
Snain!
Out of the frying pan, into the snow.
It started as sleet, then “snain,” then just big fat white flakes that accumulated faster than I would’ve ever thought on June 12. The heinous trail surface was soon white, and with it, my tires shed their pounds of mud and actually began to roll free again.
Muddy, wet, tired, greasy... pretty much says it all.
At the top, two course volunteers huddled under a tarp, outfitted with all the essential race-support supplies: wine, a case of Hamm’s beer, and a flask of whiskey. I partook of the whiskey after I’d descended 1,000 feet, raced the first timed section on the backside sport loop, and climbed back up to the top again—exhausted, soaked, and cold. But not out, like most of the field by that point. The three timed sections down the frontside of the mountain went quickly from snow to mud to epic, bermed hero dirt. It almost made the previous suffering worth it.
This dude was beyond stoked with the last few runs - super fun hero dirt and amazing trails. My camera was too covered in mud and water by this point to take many photos.
In the end, the tally went something like:
Beginner: 1850’ vert, 17 miles
Sport: 3500’ vert, 26 miles
Expert (only two racers completed this crushfest): 5400’ vert, 33 miles
43 racers started; 14 finished.
Drivetrains destroyed: 43
Fears, Tears and Beers represents all that is great about grassroots racing, and the enduro format is simply a blast. I’ll definitely be back next year. (And yes, there was beer at the end!)
Legs.
Off to buy a completely new drivetrain back home in Salt Lake.
Memorial Day dawned perfect and clear for a full day of DH racing. The course was a great warmup for the season – nasty fast loose gravelly doubletrack/fire road down to a big sweeping loose turn onto singletrack. Then a flat, fast pedal through a couple of super fast, wide turns and into the woods. The woods got slow for a few seconds through some tight trees and even a mini climb, then plunged into a legit technical section – big rocks, roots and off-camber corners. The bottom finished up with more pinned singletrack and even a little wooden booter you could style out a bit… if you had any energy left.
Chainsmoke Racing represented well yet again! We even had some racers break into racing for the first time ever, including Cat 2 (awesome for his first race) Grant Baron. Anyway, onto some pics and results:
Josh Rhea: 7th place, Cat 1 30-39 4:32
Grant Baron: 14th place, Cat 2 (AKA sandbagger class – Grant did awesome here) 19-29 4:36
Bryan Safarik: 4th place, Cat 2 40-49 4:42
Carter Lee: 2nd place, Cat 3 13-18 4:31 (SMOKING time and Chainsmoke’s only podium for the day!)
Colin Eichinger: 8th place, Cat 3 19-39 4:46
Saturday May 20 was supposed to be about 50º and rainy… basically as miserable as it gets. Fortunately, although cool and rainy up in Salt Lake, as soon as the car crossed south into Utah County, the sun broke through and all was well with the world. Definitely a bit chilly, but racing conditions were prime.
Ryan and Betsy Meeboer, Richard Lee, Carter Lee and Josh Rhea were the Chainsmoke representatives on the Super D course. Everyone podiumed! The course was just under 4 miles of pedally, mostly downhill awesomeness, with race times in the 15-19 minute range. The top started with a pinned fireroad/doubletrack with a few nasty corners filled with loose chunder, then dropped onto the tackiest singletrack Utah has ever seen. Just beautiful, moist, perfect dirt. Then a slight climb out to a couple miles of rolling traversing singletrack with some significant sidehill exposure. Then a few more perfectly-bermed turns to a nasty paved road climb finish for about 150 yards. It hurt but was well worth it. In the end, the results were:
Quick write-up from Frank and the results from last Sunday’s CCCX DH:
KellyJ: 2nd EXPERT WOMEN all AGES
Bronzesoldier: 1st EXPERT WOMEN all AGES
Downhill Jill: 4th EXPERT WOMEN all AGES
Mikeautomatic: 4th SPORT MEN 35-44
AKbruin: 8th SPORT MEN 19-34
It a showing of true team spirit, I think every member had at least one crash on his or her respective race run and in practice. I believe we all got varying degrees of poison oak from said crashes. Team Chainscratch?
Personally, I felt like I had a decent run despite a quick crash in the mud. But, yeesh, 8 out of 12 is pretty humbling.
Welcome to Chainsmoke Racing’s event blog! We’ll post race reports and team updates throughout the season here, so check back often.
A bit about Chainsmoke Racing:
Chainsmoke is the bed of a shuttled pickup truck. A common experience, a place shared, and a means to deliver the fix we all seek. It’s covered in dirt, piled high with bikes, spare tires, an open cooler, and exhausted riders fired up for more. A place where we push back our helmets and laugh about the ride, the crashes, the good times, and the pain. We heckle each other mercilessly, yet encourage and coax the newbs into progression. It’s why we ride.
And because we love to ride, we also love to race. Not the ‘I’m radder than you’ type of racing, but the run-it-chainless-cuz-it’s-fun, stop to help a stranger with a mechanical, share that fast line you found with your friends, pin-it-and-have-a-blast kinda racing.
Chainsmoke is a gravity mountain bike race team, but it’s foremost a group of friends who’d be hanging out together anyway. Just with cool jerseys.
