Topham Racing

This was perhaps the most exciting race I have ever had–in more ways than one. The excitement started about 10:15 on Friday night. I had ridden the course early in the evening, then had a nice dinner with the family at Teton Village. I was making sure the bike was ready for the race, and I decided to check the air in the rear shock. I pumped it up like I have a million times before, but this time when I unscrewed the shock pump, I heard air leaking from the valve.

I tried several times to pump it up, clean it, etc. Nothing worked. I did not have a valve core remover or anything that would substitute to remove the valve. Finally, I decided I would just need to go to sleep (if I could) and try to hit one of the Teton Village bike repair shops in the morning.

I slept horribly. I woke up several times and just kept thinking about how I might have to miss the race if I could not get my shock fixed. Finally, morning came, and I began my quest to find a bike mechanic and/or a valve core remover tool.

I hit all the shops with no luck. At 9:00 I rode up to the start line to see Cole and Austin start the 9 and under race. I only had time to watch about 1 lap, then I went back to my search. I started asking random bikers if they had the tool I needed. Nobody did. Finally, I spotted the utahmountainbiking.com tent in the parking lot. I asked someone if I could look through the toolbox. After five minutes of looking through the toolkit, I finally found a valve core remover. I removed the valve from my shock and pulled out the tube I had brought with me to provide a new valve core. I almost died when I realized I had brought the wrong tube (a presta valve instead of a shrader). The right tube was back at the condo.

I looked at the clock. I had about ten minutes until I needed to line up. I rode to the condo, found the tube, replaced the valve core and rode back to the starting line. Everyone was lined up, but there was a slight delay–lucky me. I quickly tried to warm up a little bit on the hill below the staging. I decided I didn’t care how well I did–as long as I finished it would be better than not racing because of a stupid mechanical problem.

We started out slow, then I went to the front. Keith came up beside me, and I asked him if he wanted it. He said, “yes.” I said go for it, and he took the hole shot. Given my lack of warm up, I thought it would  be good for Keith to set the pace so I wouldn’t blow up. I was right. Keith set a beautiful pace for the entire first lap. By the time the first lap was over, Keith and I were neck and neck, and nobody else in our group was close to us.

My wife gave me a perfect handoff of a second water bottle, and I moved past Keith to start the second lap. I set the pace for the second lap, and I started to feel like I could win this one.

Near the end of the lap at Jackson is a very steep gravel road climb. The only way to do it is to spin a really easy gear and try to stay in the middle so you don’t lose traction. I made it to the top and I think I had some distance on Keith. Unfortunately, I was also delerious, which is always dangerous in a race. A few turns later I hit some soft dirt and went down. I got up quickly–just in time to see my lead evaporate and hear Keith ask me if I was ok. Surprisingly, even with the crash I didn’t give up the lead. Keith and I kept at it, and he finally passed me on one of the service road sections. I still thought I could get him at the end. I was right on his wheel when we hit the last service road before the finish line. We both sprinted as hard as we could, and he won by less than a half a second.

Like I said, it was one of the most exciting races I have ever had. It was like the old times when Jay, Keith and I used to battle it out for first, second and third. I have to admit that I caught myself replaying the race a couple of times that afternoon and thinking, “I should have won, if only I hadn’t crashed,” etc. Then I reminded myself that I was five minutes away from not racing at all. Taking second to Keith beats that any day.

Thanks again to utahmountainbiking.com. You saved me.

I have been doing the mid-week races at Solitude the past few weeks, so it feels like I have spent a lot of time up there. The ICup course is slightly different, however, than the mid-week course. By “different,” I mean harder. It is longer, it climbs higher, and the descent pounds your body.

We did two upper loops and one lower loop. The final lower loop lap was actually shorter and easier than the mid-week course. The only problem is that after two upper loop laps, it didn’t seem much shorter or much easier at all.

Notwithstanding the altitude and the long course, I felt great this whole race. A gentle reminder that warming up actually helps, especially at 8,000 feet.

Brad jumped out in front and I was pretty happy to follow him through the first part of the course. I think Brad’s strategy might have been to pass a bunch of slow riders before the new Honeycomb singletrack. That wasn’t a bad strategy at all. Eventually, however, Brad had to dial it back a little, and I was suddenly in the lead. I knew it wouldn’t last, but it was nice to be in the lead for a moment.

At some point, a rider I had never seen before jumped out in front and took off pretty fast. I don’t think he had ever raced in our group this year. So, when John passed me a few minutes later, I told him to go chase down the sandbagger. By the time we reached the top of the loop, John, Kevin and the unknown guy were all in front of me. I was in fourth, but I could at least see Kevin in front of me.

I followed Kevin all the way down the punishing decsent. As we started the second lap, Kevin had some trouble with one of the rocky sections and I sneaked past him. Unfortunately, that didn’t last either. Kevin passed me and took off and I never saw him again. The good news is that by this time I was pretty far in front of Brad and the rest of the gang, so I ended up riding the third and final lap all by myself–hoping to catch up to Kevin, but feeling pretty confident I would finish fourth unless I blew a tire or a chain. Fortunately, I didn’t have any problems, and finished fourth in the Utah Open for the second year in a row.

It is not often I get to the end of a post without mentioning Keith. Apparently Keith flatted on the first lap.  I never saw him. He finished the race but was well back in the pack.

Stan returned with some new wheels on his bike after missing the last couple of races. It sounded like Stan and Mike (who does not have new wheels but does have a new haircut) battled it out for a while until Mike took the lead. Apparently the new haircut is lighter than the new wheels.

Jason had another good race finishing sixth. He almost held off Brad for fifth.

It is hard to believe there are only two more races. I sure would like to give John, Kevin and Brad a good race before the end of the year. I think it will be mandatory for John and Kevin to move up to the expert class next  year, and despite Brad’s fairly obvious attempts lately to make it look like he hasn’t been far and away one of the best riders in the group this year, his friends at Revolution are going to make him move up too. Who knows, maybe Keith, Stan, Mike, Jason and I can actually win some races next year.

I got to this race early so I could pre-ride the new singletrack. I was expecting to be unimpressed, but I actually liked the new layout a lot. Now if we could only get rid of the service road decsent (although it actually helped me in this race–more on that later).

I jumped out in front and was first into the singltrack. I decided to set a very slow pace to see if I could save some energy for the climb. When we finally got to the doubletrack, I stepped it up and tried to hold on. eventually Kevin passed me, then John, then Brad (Brad and I actually got tangled up the first time he tried to pass me, but he eventually got by). Somewhere in all of this Jason passed me too–I must have been oxygen deprived because I don’t remember it. I kept waiting for Mike to pass me as well. What I didn’t know what that Mike had snapped his chain at the starting line.

After the first descent, I saw Kevin with wheels up on the side of the trail. After a few minutes of feeling bad for his misfortune, I started to worry that he might get his bike back together and catch us all and that would really be embarassing.

Three lap races are always interesting. They have a middle. This time the middle was filled with rain. Rain mixed with roots and rocks at 8,000 feet makes for some interesting mishaps. I can’t remember a race where I saw more people just having a tough time keeping the bikes on the trail. I am not talking about crashes, I am talking about people being unable to make this turn or that turn, or losing traction on a climb–there was some funky stuff going on. I was just about ready to ask one guy if I could pass him when he proceeded to hit a rock and fall over, providing a nice wide path for me to get by. It was that kind of day.

Going into the third lap I was in sixth place. Kevin had not come from behind to humiliate us, so the guys in front of me included John, Keith, Jason, Brad and a Johnny come lately named Geno. Geno and I had been passing each other for the better part of two laps. Every time I passed him he would pass me again. But on the third lap I started to notice he was having trouble with the roots and the rocks too. I figured it was time to finally put an end to the passing game, and I passed him for good just before the new switchback climb.

I saw Brad a couple of switchbacks ahead of me and I yelled at him to slow down. By the time we reached the top of the climb, I had caught Brad and I figured this was my chance. There is nothing good to say about the service road descent at Snowbird. It is fast, loose, dangerous and no fun at all. However, I figured this was my one chance to beat Brad, so I just went as fast as I could and hoped my kids would understand if I didn’t come home for dinner.

The rapid descent also allowed me to catch Jason near the bottom, with about 1.5 miles left in the race. Having moved from 6th place to 3rd place, I found a second wind and pushed it home, beating Jason by all of four seconds.