Moab Day 3: Sovereign

  

After a day of swooping around on Mars, I was curious to see what else the guides would throw our way.   Turns  out we were to visit Venus on the third day of our journey through the myriad worlds of Moab.
  


Like slick rock,  the Sovereign trail is but a few miles from town,  but that’s where the similarities end.   The trail winds up, down, and across a huge mesa.   Unlike its red-faced sandstone cousins,  this gargantuan land peninsula is tinted with an oxidized green, like a giant molten blob of patina'd bronze.   I didn't know what to make of the green soil- I had never seen anything like it.   This oddly colored rock is just another example of how varied and diverse the life and land of this place is.   Every ride is a geology lesson and a ultra-high def episode of a discovery channel documentary all rolled into one.  Then again,  falling on a Juniper tree after wiping out on some crazy rocks is as close-up as you can get.




Our guide today was a hard man known as Steve.  Steve had ridden these trails for quite a while,  and while he was slow to warm up, could rip through downhill singletrack with far more finesse than I could.  As we drove to the trailhead he told us about life around Moab and how he came to call it home;   not many people here were born and raised in Moab-   each person we’ve met here has their own story-  with Moab being the current stop of their journeys.  I guess we all have that in common at the moment.

I’ll be honest:   riding up that mesa was a bit of a chore.   Three days into our trip, we were still getting acclimated to the altitude and terrain.   The sovereign trail was a world apart from slick rock:  generally tight singletrack littered with loose rocks and technical uphill sections.   It definitely left its mark on yours truly…


   
After toiling uphill across loose rocks left by dirt bikes (the lazy' man’s mountain bike…),   we would be rewarded by tight, steep singletrack that switched back across the mesa.  The surface was much looser than slick rock, and I may have been guilty of riding the breaks down it, as I was really not in the mood to fly off the side of a cliff.  



After an hour and a half of ups and downs we reached the top of the mesa:  a cliff face with the gorgeous La Sal mountains in the background.   The are the ultimate compliment to the varied Moab Terrain.  You’re in the middle of an arid desert canyon land, and off in the distance are snowcapped mountains,  gracefully kissing a sky so blue that it would give Bob Ross a wet dream.
 


As we made our way down the Mesa, Steve corralled us through a dried up, rocky half-pipe of a riverbed (I believe if was called Terry’s Tunnel).  This riverbed was full of ledges and rocky outcrops that you had to traverse.  The techie bits were fun to try and figure out: correct gearing, a good line, and some fast twitch muscle fibers got you over the rocks and ledges,  but any misstep and you had the chance of a one night stand with the ground…



As we stepped off of the green mesa we were met with sandy red singletrack and a few flat wash sections.  For the record,  deep, loose sand is a royal pain on a mountain bike-  I reassured myself that riding in sand would come in handy at the next cx race.
 


One of the last sections we traversed was a giant, wide open stretch of sandstone.  i was told it used to be a seabed, and it’s pretty apparent.  it stretched far out-  a vast, dehydrated sea bed,  littered with junipers and small desert flora.



we finished up our ride on some non-technical jeep roads, riding back to the van and cooling down.  We had another great day of unforgettable riding under our belts.  As I sat there devouring a sandwich in the shade, the La Sal Mountains sat on the horizon.  This trip was the mountain bike equivalent of a seven-course tasting menu at Le Bernardin-  I had no idea what the next course would be- couldn’t wait to find out.

'Tis the Season to be 'Crossy

Racing road since march has started to take its toll on me. after 6 months of silly cat 4 crashes, watching people sprint for 30th place, and not eating bacon, I'm ready to take a break from skinny tire racing for a few months. I know I'm not the only one. It seems like Green mountain sucked the life out of most road racers (myself included) and now everyone wants to relax, drink a few beers, and enjoy the fall.

By "enjoy the fall", of course, i mean take a zipcar to New England every weekend, ride a cross bike in circles until you can't see straight, get covered in mud and blood, drink belgian beer, and ring cowbells.

After the green mountain fiasco (that's going to need it's own entry), i didn't even want to look at my road bike. what better time to take out the 'cross bike, bring it over to cadence, buy some new parts, and have it ready to go for the upcoming season? call it cat 4 retail therapy.



I wanted to give some new canti's a try, since my avid shorty 4's did as good a job at slowing me down as Britney Spears did at parenting. Jed @ cadence recommended the new TRP Eurox's; they're traditional canti's that look like Empella Frogs legs. I slapped on some green swiss stop pads, and I've been really happy with how they stop and control speed. That being said, they were squealin' like pigs when i first got them mounted. Traditional Canti's are a pain to toe in correctly...

the guys at Cadence also wanted me to try out the new teflon-coated cables. they're super slick and really reduce friction- We'll see how they hold up through the season.

This week marked the start of training for 'cross; We hit up a Dave Jordan coaching session on Wednesday, and then a teammate and I decided to organize a cross "boot camp" Saturday morning. It was either that or crashing in a prospect park field sprint...





Boiko, myself, and two Sid's guys showed up at 6:45 am hit up the riverside park just south of the GWB. at that hour no one is around, and there's a fantastic circuit you can do that emulates a 'cross course really well. Boiko also brought the PVC barriers he made. We did some mounting and dismounting drills, barriers, stair run ups, and a few race pace simulations. we all had a blast and it really pumped us up for what's to come in the next few weeks. It also gave me a chance to hone my wicked barrier jumping technique. (hint- always go for style points)



We'll probably be holding another 'cross boot camp in the next few weeks, so stay tuned. By the way, I'm really pumped at how more people are getting into 'cross.


On Sunday I either had the choice of doing a Time trial in 90 degree heat, or doing a 'cross race in 90 degree heat. either way, win-win right? If i had to equate my TT'ing to a martial art style it would probably be the formidable "flatulent sloth." I've quickly realized that the only reason i do TT's is due to the guilt i feel for having bought a TT bike. that, and the sadist in me likes scaring the public by donning skin suits...

Boiko and i drove over to good ole' Macungie, PA for the 2nd round of the Bear Creek CX race. i had heard from Jed that yesterday's course was SUPER muddy and technical. the mud was peanut butter, and the race organizers had really outdone themselves with this hard, technical course. did i mention it was 90 degrees for some reason? i didn't get the memo.

This course had everything- deep mud traps, super-tight switchbacks, lots of loose gravel, a muddy run up over a huge pipe, and of course barrier that was meanly placed in the middle of a small mud trap. glorious.

I made sure to have a good starting position. when the whistle blew, i clipped in quickly, and stuck with the top 3 right off the front. It's hard, but getting that good initial position is really essential to doing well- especially in a technical course. It's also important to always ride straight through puddles at fulls speed.

photo by Dennis Smith

I stuck with the top 3 for most of the race. I almost forgot how fun and painful it is to go all out for 40 minutes. your body is maxed out- all you can think about is breathing and pedaling. TT's may be an all out effort, but its a linear, progressive effort. the effort put out in a cross race is much more erratic- there's no recovery. If you're catching your breath, you're not going fast enough. there's also that whole running and turning bit. half of a 'cross race is avoiding obstacles. some races almost feel like the temple of doom. Maybe they should start using huge boulders at races to mix it up a bit...

on the final lap, i was going head to head with one guy for 4th position. we went back and forth- and i had a good feeling that i could beat him. after the final barrier jump i was ahead, and wanted to keep the speed up. there was a small mud trap right before we hit the asphalt. i went through it too fast and ended up making out with the asphalt. Score!

i somehow managed to bend one of the front brake arms below the rim of the wheel- if effectively jammed the front wheel, so i started running. After about 30 seconds of running, i was able to rip the brake back out and i rode to the finish. I still finished 8th and was pretty happy with that.



Eventually I noticed one guy roll into the finish with his saddle and seatpost in his hands. apparently it had snapped off mid-race and he FINISHED THE RACE WITHOUT A SEATPOST. That man deserves an award. Or at least a massage with a happy ending.

Boiko rolled through the finish- his facial expression was a mix of pain and awe. He'd just done his first 'cross race and got totally shelled. and you know what? He had a blast. And that's just the beginning.



Mud, blood, barriers, Run-ups, Beer Tents, Belgian beer, new jersey diners, and Cowbells are here for the next three months, and I couldn't be happier.