Black Bear Rampage

[Dustin Gaddis]

http://scottsbikes.com/articles/2010-bl … -pg168.htm

Anyone else going? I’m going to single speed this one, climbing isn’t too bad (on paper at least….). Looking at past results, this is a fast course.

I’m looking for a little redemption after my DNF at Fools Gold. 😈

[Dustin Gaddis]

Yesterday was a long day. Woke up at 5am, did about 7 hours of driving, 4 hours of mtn bike racing, and got home around 10:30 last night. I’m tired today.

It rained the night before the race. But the trails were perfect yesterday, just damp enough to hold the dust down in the morning, totally dry later in the day.

The race went well. I got there an hour before the start, so I had plenty of time to get all my stuff together without being rushed. We started with a climb on a paved road. I was riding a singlespeed, so I HAVE to keep a certain pace on the climbs or it gets too hard to pedal, and when we went into the singletrack at the top I was in the top 25% of the group that started at the same time I did. But, the trail was really flat. It was a ton of fun, super flowy with big berms in the corners, good stuff. But I had an easy gear for climbing, which limited my speed on the flats, so I got passed by a handful of people. That was pretty much how the ride went, long gradual climbs I would pass people, and in the flat areas I would get passed. On the downhills I was generally faster than most folks unless it was really rough, then the people with suspension were faster.

The trails were awesome. I was having so much fun that I forgot to eat anything until we reached the base of the big climb of the day at 19 miles in. OOPS! I should have eaten two energy gels by then, but I had just forgot. So I found a fairly flat spot on the climb, stopped and downed two gels quickly, and then started back up the climb. It was a long tough climb, I was hurting by the time I got to the top several miles later.

I felt like crap for about 5 or so miles, because I had waited so long to eat and I was riding pretty hard, and I was starting to cramp if I got out of the seat and pedaled really hard, so I had to walk to steep sections. Luckily there weren’t too many steep sections. At mile 22 I stopped at an aid station to refill my camelbak and apparently dropped my glasses, I realized they were missing a few miles later. Stopped briefly again at mile 28 to eat my 3rd and last gel. About mile 30 I started feeling better again, and just cruised through to the finish, still had to manage the cramps though, no really high effort pedaling, but most of the climbs were rideable.

The finish was a 500meter fairly steep climb on a closed paved road. It sucked. When I started the climb I could see a guy up ahead, and I could tell he was hurting. He had his head down, his shoulders were slumping, and he was rocking side to side as he pedaled. So I gave it hell up the hill. I’d sit and pedal for a while, stand and hammer until the cramps started, then sit back down again. I passed that guy pretty quickly, and I wanted to ease up a bit, but then I was in sight of the finish and there was a ton of people up there cheering us on, I so kept up the pace. By the time I crossed the finish line I was starting to cramp even when seated.

My computer showed a 41.5 miles and a moving time of 4:14. With the 3 stops I made my total official race time will be around 4:20 I think. I didn’t make my goal of sub 4 hours, but I can’t complain. I had a great time. The trails were super fun, the bike was perfect all day, and I finished strong but with nothing left in the tank. And the weather was perfect, mid 70’s all day. A great ride.

[TheHammer]

Sounds awesome. Good work on your finish! I am going to do that race next year for sure.

Are you familiar with those Ocoee trails? I heard that they can be ridden year round, would you agree? I may make a trip over the winter or early spring if trails are in good shape. Do you have any GPS data from the race?

Good ride!
Hammer.

[Dustin Gaddis]

I am not familiar with them. This is only the second time I’ve ridden them, the first was at the Cohutta 65 last year.

But those trails are REALLY fun. Lots of variety, smooth relatively flat contour surfing trails, and some rocky, steeper trails too. Great ride, highly recommend. As long as the trails are dry they should be rideable all year round.

I don’t have any GPS info, but I’m sure if you ask on the main SORBA forum someone there does.

EDIT – results are up. My official time was 4:21, what I expected. I finished 12th out of 20 starters in my class and 112 out of 215 overall. Solid mid pack, typical for me.

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