Monday, May 11, 2009

Chainbreaker XC - It's All About the Fuel

This years' Chainbreaker XC race had exceptional course conditions. Typically the course is dry and super dusty, however, due to the excess amount of rain we've been receiving the last two months the course was dry and tacky for the most part. This made for some very fast overall times (possibly even a course record).

The calm before the storm - Trebon looking relaxed while directly behind Sheppard has the look of intensity



As I mentioned in my last post it's always nice to roll out of bed, have a home cooked breakfast, and ride to the start line. I arrived at the venue around 9:30am and continued to spin my legs to keep warm. At 9:45am I went over some last minute details with Jenny about bottle hand-offs. The course starts with a short starter loop before beginning the first of three laps. There was some confusion as to how long the starter loop would take and as a result Jenny was not there in time to hand me a bottle for the first lap. Long story short, I was immediately in a caloric deficit. Riding at close to my max HR for the first 2 laps I was feeling very good and had lots of power in the legs. Then on the final lap, the lack of calories eventually caught up to me. I began to feel tired and my legs had little power in them, especially on some of the short steep climbs. At the start of the final lap I was right behind Trebon, and by the finish I had lost 7 minutes.


Starting to show signs of the fatigue setting in

I knew the inevitable would happen sooner or later and was just hoping I would be able to finish strong. This just proves how important nutrition is during endurance events. One minute you are feeling great the next you are fighting fatigue.
The XC races are always a challenge for me but it's great to have such strong competition in Bend to gauge your fitness against. Chris Sheppard proved today why he is still one of the premier XC bike racers around. By setting what I believe was a course record with a time of 2:22:39 for the 39 mile race, he beat Carl Decker by over a minute.

Pl Num First Name Last Name City Time
1 4237 Chris Sheppard Bend 02:22:39.00
2 4470 Carl Decker Bend 02:23:41.00
3 6266 Cody Peterson Bend 02:26:44.00
4 135 James Williams 02:29:57.00
5 4414 Brandt Brig Bend 02:30:31.00
6 3367 Brett Nichols Boise 02:30:59.00
7 3 Ben Thompson Bend 02:31:47.00
8 3277 Ryan Treban Bend 02:32:48.00
9 205 Chris Brandt Eugene 02:37:17.00
10 92 Scotty Carlile Bend 02:39:03.00
11 7 Chad Swanson The Dalles 02:40:31.00
12 181 Sloane Anderson Bend 02:40:36.00
13 3294 Andy Rigel Seattle 02:43:38.00
14 37 Ian Leitheiser Portland 02:43:54.00
15 3462 Paul Clark Bend 02:46:10.00
16 40 Matt Russell Bend 03:01:03.00
17 3364 Ryan Weaver Portland 03:01:47.00



Riding over an obstacle through the infeld kept things fun

The view from behind as I finish the last lap

1 comment:

Donut boy said...

Black socks are soooo yesterday. And what's with the pallets? You west coasters call that an obstacle? Commmme onnnn.