Ride Against the Machine

Ride Against the Machine / Salvagetti Mountain Bike Team

Crankworx Colorado Cross Country Race Report (8/2/08)

Rider Results and Comments from the Crankworx weekend...

Special thanks to: Salvagetti Bicycle Workshop, HoneyStinger bars and gels, Maxxis tires

Winter Park Crankworx Colorado Cross Country - Winter Park, CO

Shawn Meredith - 32nd place Pro Men - Time: 2:00:1.4
My first pro race in the WP series went as well as could be expected. There was a very tough field with over 40 competitors.  The start was good, and I was able to make a few moves that got me in the top half of the field. However around mile 16 I started to go into survival mode, and forced myself to just keep pedaling. A minor fall threw off my mental game for a few miles, and I lost several positions on the final descents, partly due to loose handlebar grip. I am quite satisfied with my time, and have a new goal of moving up in the field.

More on Shawn's race can be found at http://shawn-meredith.blogspot.com/2008/08/crankworx-colorado-cross-country-race.html

Scott DeLeeuw - 20th place Beginner Men 35-39 - Time 2:34:12
Coming off of a 300 mile RAGBRAI week, I thought I would be flying in this race.  Even though everyone walked away from me, I still felt like I was riding well and felt really good.  The course was almost exactly the valley Point to Point done in the opposite direction.  At times I let myself mentally despise the same trails over and over again, but then I remembered that no ride is a bad ride and was just having a blast being out on the dirt.  My RockShox Duke has been leaking like the Exxon Valdez for some time now and it started to bottom out on moderate bumps, making me go very wide in to corners, and forcing me to really throttle it back on the downhills.  On the last downhill I swept wide through a turn and my bar ends hooked a tree and I went down hard.  Luckily I got no road rash as I hit the trail abruptly and didn't skid, but man did it hurt.  Confidence shaken, I got up and finished the race at a snail's pace, trying hard not to let what just happened get in to my head.  Afterwards we had a great post-race lunch at Dairy King and that made everything all better.  Next race I will be sporting Chris' RockShox Reba!

Nicolette Clark - 2nd place Sport Women 19-29 - Time 2:01:25
I was not feeling up to racing at the start of the Cross Country. My wrist had been bothering me all week, and I didn’t feel my energy was up to par. I figured this would be the other race that I drop so I decided to just have fun. It started on an uphill dirt road again, and after the blow up at the start of the last race I decided to take it easy on this one. We started up the hill and I immediately got passed by a lot of girls. There seemed to be an abnormally large amount of women doing this race, so it was a little intimidating. Somehow I ended up catching girl and girl, on both the climbs and descents, and rarely got passed. I felt great, I climbed pretty fast and never burnt up and descended fast. By the last downhill of the race there was no one in front or behind me. I was surprised at how much energy I still had, I still wanted to ride by the time I crossed the finish line. I came in second, which was a total shocker considering how I felt at the start of the race.

Ride Against the Machine / Salvagetti Mountain Bike Team

Valley Point to Point/Super Downhill Race Report (7/19/08-7/20/08)

Rider Results and Comments from the doubleheader weekend...

Special thanks to: Salvagetti Bicycle Workshop, HoneyStinger bars and gels, Maxxis tires

Winter Park Valley Point to Point/Super Downhill - Winter Park, CO

Chris Plesko
Sat, July 19 -- Valley Point-to-Point -- 3rd place Expert Men 25-29 - Time 1:25:31
Coming off a solid training block I had no expectations for this race but was hoping to at least be able to ride hard the entire time. The expert field started hard as usual and I hung around the back of the loose lead group up the opening climb. By the time we hit the singletrack I was alone in 2nd place with 1st dangling somewhere 20 seconds ahead. The rest of the race was punctuated with me losing time on every downhill to 3rd and stomping back ahead on every climb. I caught most of the singlespeed field late in the race and when the course finally began to flatten out, the 3rd place rider from my group caught me. We battled through traffic for 5 minutes or so before he finally gapped me. I hung close but was spun out for the flatish finish and was pleased to hold onto the podium in 3rd across the line.

Erik Arentzen
Sat, July 19 -- Valley Point-to-Point -- 23rd place Sport Men 25-29 - Time 1:37:44

The lead pack dropped me almost right from the start, so I was racing in survival mode.  Dropped the chain and chainsucked at the base of Ice Hill, but made up the place I lost by running my bike up the hill.  Passed another 5 or 6 riders, which subsequently passed me when the rider in front of me stacked at the bottom of a downhill--it was all I could do to keep from running him or his bike over.  Felt great in the last 4.5 "flat" miles, in contrast to feeling miserable in the same section last year.  Caught a number of riders in this section, came to a complete trackstand stop on the surprise bridge that threw Marni, and finished in nearly the same time as last year.  Not bad for damage control.

Race 4 - Sunday, July 20 -- Super Downhill -- 9th place Sport Men 25-29 - Time 23:12

I borrowed Michelle's 575 to give me a bit of an edge.  Once again, I was dropped like a rock on the uphill start.  My breathing was asthmatic, and I was seeing stars by the time I made it to the flat singletrack leading to the start of the downhill.  But the downhill--what a blast!  Caught a few riders, including one that I passed right after the short hill at 5 points.  He was hot on my tail from there down to where Long Trail crosses the road, and that made for some real fun racing!  I railed the berms high on the outside of the brake bumps, and he took the inside line in hopes that I would hesitate and give him a chance to blow by.  The three plank jumps near the bottom were so big and fast that the rear shock on the 575 was bottoming out on the pre-ride, so I took them a little slower in the race to avoid being thrown...which is exactly what happened on the sharp jump after the next switchback.  The rear shock bottomed out, and I went for a wild ride off the back of the bike with the tire under my leg and one shoe clipped out.  Nearly saved it without stopping, but I wasn't lined up for the upcoming bridge so I had to stop and remount the bike.  Tore my shorts, but no scratches and a huge grin from a fun ride!

Scott DeLeeuw
July 19-20 Race weekend, Valley Point to Point, Super Downhill
All through this race I kept thinking that what I really need is a nemesis.  Someone to push me through things, always be there to try to do better than me, and maybe even throw a wrench in to the works when I think I'm on top of things.  Well, I got it, but as Erik pointed out, a nemesis speaks to one person, since I had multiple it would a be a nemesi? 

Anyway, in the Point to Point one guy hung with me nearly the entire race.  I'm used to seeing the same people over and over again, but usually not all race long.  When we got close to the end he turned it on and I was determinded he wasn't going to get my place.  Any good nemesis has to win sometimes and I rode my little heart out only to have him lose me in the last mile.

But fast forward to the Super Downhill on the next day.  Our field was a whole bunch of age groups clumped together so our start group was huge.  My legs were shelled from the first day and the group quickly left me on the initial climb.  Once we hit the downhill though I started catching people.  Most let me pass, but one didn't, he started riding faster and faster to try and stay ahead of me.  I've never experienced a race at the front or the rush of dueling it out with someone, it was intoxicating.  I hung to his wheel like a rabid dog, looking for any moment to pass, but on every uphill he would gap me big time.  We swept through the trees, the dust off his wheel coating my teeth and glasses.  We hit the last uphill section where I surely would have walked on my own, he stood and hammered so I did too, I didn't know where the strength was coming from.  As we hit the last flat section, power came from my legs that I haven't felt in a long time and I blew past him.  I ended up with 2nd, but there were only 3 in my age group.  Regardless, the race was a blast.

More on Scott's race can be found at http://rideagainstthemachine.blogspot.com/2008/07/my-soul-for-nemesis.html

Nicolette Clark
Sat, July 19 -- Valley Point-to-Point -- 3rd Place Sport Women 19-29 - Time 1:58:29

After a nice long warm up I was feeling good and decided to try to start in the front of the pack. Not a good idea. I was in the lead pack for a while, but soon I started to feel my hard start and began to already shut down. I was passed by quite a few more girls by the time the single track started. I never regained my energy and the rest of the race was a struggle. The ups kicked my butt and the downs were never long enough to recover! The last section was tough, I was beyond ready to be done but I had to fight with baby heads the whole section. Finally the finish line came into view and I was done! I felt like crap and was very surprised to see that I came in 3rd, only 2 minutes behind 2nd. 
 
Race 4 - Sunday, July 20 -- Super Downhill -- 1st place Sport Women 19-29 - Time 31:02
 
This race was super fun, starting with the challenge of loading our bikes on the lift to finding there were only 11 girls total racing between Sport and Beginner. Narrow that down to age group and Marni was my only competitor. It was a fast race and was over too soon! It was a lot of fun to be more relaxed on the course, and to know that it was ok to push on the few up hills there were because it would soon turn to downhill again. I ended up in the middle, too slow to catch the couple of girls ahead of me, and able to stay ahead of the rest, so I had the trail to myself almost the entire race. I came in 1st, and in a way I am proud even though there was only two of us in the group. Only about 20 women in all were brave enough to try this race, so I think I deserved that 1st Place.  :)

Ride Against the Machine / Salvagetti Mountain Bike Team

Race Report (6/29/08)

Rider Results and Comments from this weekends race...

Special thanks to: Salvagetti Bicycle Workshop, HoneyStinger bars and gels, Maxxis tires

Winter Park Cross Country Super Loop - Winter Park, CO

Shawn Meredith - 3rd place Expert Men 30-34 - Time: 1:27:19.3
This race was ridiculously fun and hard. Never riding any trails at WP, I hammered the open sections and hoped I could keep a lead in the single track. Half way through the race a lead group of three formed on the open dirt road. I left everything I had on the final climb putting some distance between me and the other two riders (Stefan Griebel and Derek Strong). However they both caught me on the final descent, and I let them pass. It was great to battle it out with two great riders, and a perfect race.

More of Shawn's report at http://shawn-meredith.blogspot.com/2008/06/carpe-weekend.html

Nicolette Clark - 3rd Sport Women 19-29 - Time: 2:13:11.8
After three years of longing to be a part of this series I finally competed in my first Winter Park race. I can't say it was what I expected, or wished for. I started the race with an unconfirmed case of bronchitis, which made for a rough ride in itself, major chain problems and a decent crash towards the end. Overall it was fun to race with a good bunch of people and it was fun to see friendly familiar faces along the course. It was harder and longer than I expected, but fun all around. It was great to see Chris along the way cheering us on, and to see Marni, Melissa and Scott cross the finish line, with big smiles on all of them. I can't wait to race with everyone again in a couple weeks!

More of Nicolette's report at http://nicoletteclark.wordpress.com/2008/06/30/winter-park-race-2-cross-country/

Marni Plesko - 4th Sport Women 19-29 - Time: 2:19:02.0
Yesterday was my first Winter Park cross country race of the year. It was an advertised "Just over 16 mile" race that, in reality, was closer to 19. Due to this discrepancy in distance, I timed my eating for 16 miles, and was basically bonked by mile 17. At this point the trail was pretty technical and I did not, stupidly, stop to eat something. I made silly mistakes that I will remember not to do next time. I got 4th in my Sport group, only 6 minutes behind my teammate who got 3rd. Considering that I think of her as a much stronger rider than myself, I was super happy with that. I will write more of a race report later, with pictures, as I have realized that looking back on these reports the following season is very helpful.

Melissa Clark - 4th Beginner Women 19-29 - Time: 2:25:19.2

Scott DeLeeuw - 21st Beginner Men 35-39 - Time: 2:19:37.6
As tough as the race was, I had a blast.  Anytime you can get out and ride with friends is a great day.  I had some frustrating moments on the downhills where I could have gone much faster but there were others in the way, but that's how it goes.  Overall the race tested me, I was in about as bad a shape as I could be in, but I think it also flipped a light switch in my mind.  It's nice to feel good when you are out there and I want to work back towards that.  I'm always so impressed with my teammates, they just fly!  Shawn is unbelieveable, and Marni and Nicolette have improved so much.  Even Melissa did very well despite being super worried about it.  Great job everyone!

More of Scott's report at http://rideagainstthemachine.blogspot.com/2008/07/winter-park-cross-country-loop.html

Ride Against the Machine / Salvagetti Mountain Bike Team

Race Report (6/14/08)

Rider Results and Comments from this weekends race...

Special thanks to: Salvagetti Bicycle Workshop, HoneyStinger bars and gels, Maxxis tires

Winter Park Hill Climb - Winter Park, CO

Shawn Meredith - 1st place Expert Men 30-34 - Time: 36:47
My second MTB race in CO! I took off hard from the line gapping the group to draw out the leaders. Nick Traggis (Horizon Organic Dairy) pursued and we played cat and mouse with him leading the most of the way. Around mile 4 I hammered through a rare flat section and never looked back. It was a beautiful blue bird CO day, and I could not be happier with my result.

Bill Henderson - 24th Expert Men 40-44 - Time: 46:02.6


Erik Arentzen  - 15th Sport Men 30-34 - Time 49:18.2