Bonelli XC Race

For the longest time I've wondered what it would be like to race in a shorter format. The only races I had ever done prior to Sunday were endurance races. Counting Coup, Vision Quest, The Traverse and 12 Hours of Temecula were all endurance oriented races.

I found out there is a HUGE difference in riding style between short track races and longer rides.

I raced on Sunday in the 25-29 age Sport class. Doug House, Matt and I drove up together to pre-ride the course and Jake also drove up to join us for the race. I had never been to Bonelli so it was good that we were able to tour the course before the race.

It ended up being around 9 miles long and our class would do two laps at racing speed. The pre-ride was good because it let me figure out which sections would be tough and what gears I'd want to use in different spots.

After finishing the pre-ride I determined that the entire course could be done in the middle ring minus one brief steep technical climb. I also thought that the entire race would be decided in the aforementioned steep section as well as a big climb towards the end of each lap. If I could do well on these two sections I would probably be able to finish well in my group.



You can see from the picture above that the race started out kind of crazy. When Matt and I lined up in our group we realized it would be tough. Last year only three people raced in our division and this year thirteen people raced. Everyone looked fairly fast and it was intimidating from the start.

The actual start was pretty rough. I fell back in the pack right away and I think after the first 100 yards or so I was second to last. I've never experienced this before, but my mouth was instantly dry. No spit at all. Totally dry in the entire mouth. I was really nervous, freaked out and excited all at the same time.

In the first 10 minutes or so I was able to keep pace with the group and ended up passing maybe half of the people on a few of the early climbs. All the training and the ability to stand and hammer when climbing made a huge difference.

I don't remember much about the rest of the first lap other than it was hard. Really hard. I found myself struggling to catch my breath and drooling uncontrollably at different times.

Jake and Chris Messina started after I did, but both passed me right before the technical climb. I really wanted to clear the climb but I had to stop because there was a long, long train of riders walking their bikes instead of riding them in front of me. I had no choice but to dismount and hike. Except this is a race! Forget walking and hiking! I actually ran the bike up the section and in the process passed one or two guys.

The rest of the first lap found me struggling to keep the middle ring action going, but I was able to tough it out.

At the start of the second lap I realized I had a guy from my class hanging on my wheel. He got a little ahead of me and as we came in to start the second lap I saw him get some great support from his team. He had people on the side of the course handing him fresh water bottles and pouring cool water over his head. I was pretty jealous.

This leads me to another noteworthy aspect to the race. Everyone in our division had numbers on their calves to mark their groups.



This way I could always know who I needed to chase and who I could let go. I was in group "19".

Back to the second lap ...

I ended up chasing down the guy in front of me (again I knew he was trouble because he had a "19" on his calf), but it didn't last. He held my wheel for maybe 3-4 miles after I passed him and eventually he passed me on a flat section. It was so frustrating to be carrying this guy and having him pace me for so long. I just couldn't seem to shake him.

He was out of sight when I hit the technical climb again and this time I cleared it. No stops and I was able to ride around a few people that were hiking it - including my nemesis who had passed me earlier.

He turned out to be a super cool guy because as I rode past him he encouraged me by saying "Keep going dude!" Mountain biking is the best. So many guys are just plain cool. Even though I was passing him in a race he made it a point to encourage me.

That was the last I saw of him as I tried to turn up the pace a little for the last climbing section.

I ended up finishing it all in the middle ring - which hurt like crazy. I almost cramped in my right quad and calf, but managed to keep it under control.

I was chasing Matt at the end of the second lap but just couldn't seem to catch up. He was maybe 50 yards ahead of me at the top of the last climb and I didn't see him until the end of the race after that.

I came to the end of the second lap and got a little confused. I thought I was going to be turning right into the park but instead was told to climb a little more and then turn right into the park. It sucked to have to climb more at the end - especially since I wasn't expecting it. Haha.

Standings from the race:

1 435 POYTRESS ADAM M 28 SANTA BARBARA 1:32:59.46
2 526 HERNANDEZ RYAN M 28 WALNUT 1:33:51.78
3 425 VAUGHAN MATT M 26 IRVINE 1:39:23.83
4 411 MEYER RYAN M 29 FOOTHILL RANCH 1:39:57.66
5 454 CHOI DREW M 26 UPLAND 1:41:25.98
6 472 BURNDUM ADAM M 27 SANTA ANA 1:42:08.23
7 485 CRUZ MICHAEL M 25 LA MIRADA 1:42:09.24
8 565 LUCAS LEONARD M 26 PASADENA 1:47:54.53
9 412 PEREZ ROEL M 27 SAN DIMAS 1:52:26.23
10 510 ROBMAN SEAN M 27 PASADENA 1:58:35.14
11 544 NAVA ABELARDO M 27 PACOIMA 2:04:40.37
12 553 BARRETT JOHN M 29 CHERRY VALLEY 2:11:04.70
999 437 MILLER GRAHAM M 27 LA VERNE DNF

You can see I finished about 30 seconds behind Matt and fourth overall.



I can't believe the top guys finished _six minutes_ faster than Matt and I. We weren't even close to them.

I'll post a podium picture later when I get it along with some other notes from the race.

Big question now is whether or not I continue in the series and race for an entire year or if I call it quits after one race.