JasonHilimire.com

WTF even gone when I wrote his post…. As I just had it all typed out and disappeared!! Grrrr!

Now for the short and pissed off version.
Managed 5th overall and 3rd age at the Singletrack stampede. Broke my chain on the 1st lap & then next lap, busted up my front derailleur. After a few adjustments, was forced to stay in the small ring. So congrats to J Bixby who won by a few minutes, while I spent triple his advantage on the side of the trail.

Saturday was 126 miles on the road bike with Brendan, Staffo and Barney. Hosed completely after that ride. Brendan broke a shift cable in Italy Valley and drove it 18+ miles in the 53×12. I was gassed a bit from the race still and when we got to CDGA decided to roll the last 30 miles home. Frick, my legs were cooked after that ride.

Last night was Farmall #2. Was sitting pretty till I burped a tire at the end of the 2nd lap. Was dumfounded for a second, the realized there was a floor pump in the trailer as I was right near the finish line. Rolled over and pumped it up. Had fallen into about 6/7th place. Lost pretty close to a full minute on that. Damn near impossible to make up on that course. Drilled it the next few laps and brought the gap down to under 30 secs (EDIT: gap to 2nd place not 1st) and made my way up into 3rd. I wasn’t gonna close 30 secs on the final lap, so kinda sat up a bit. Was a little frustrated at my luck again, but oh well that will happen. All part of racing.

Next week is Farmall #3. Gonna be a shootout for the overall! Then no races till Shenandoah 100!

I figured since I have it, I might as well share it.  Here’s my power data from the 1st lap at the Hardcore 24 this past weekend.  I ended up winning the lap and the $100 prime in a 2 man sprint against Park Ave’s Rob Pilato.  It was an epic battle, probably one of the hardest laps/race I’ve ever done on the dirt for sure.  I set many personal bests for this season.  It may or may not have been the fastest lap overall, but we did have a little prologue in there at the start and the course wasn’t quite worn in yet.

At the start we rolled off the grass and onto the paved climb, I just basically jammed it here to string everyone out.  I knew the 40 seconds of climbing wouldn’t take too much and all it would do is really give me the lead into the singletrack.  From there it was mostly just rolling and keeping the pace high.  Right away, Rob was on my wheel and Doug Rusho was in 3rd (not sure who was in 4th).  There’s not too many opportunities to make a move in the early singletrack, so I stayed tight and let things be.

As we crossed the road and hit the sidehill climb, I really gassed it.  I knew this climb well, practiced attacking here and practiced the roll-out at the top where I would have to keep the effort up as it was still climbing and it was new trail so it’d be nice and loamy.  Didn’t really get any separation from Rob on the climb, but managed to get some separation from 3rd & 4th.  Descending the orange trail I was able to get a few seconds between us, & tried to gas it coming up the Brown trail rooty climb, but Rob was hanging on with everything he had and clawed his way onto my wheel.  Some harder efforts on the Brown trail, but never really shook him at all.

Click Here for the Big Version: Flickr resized it tiny

Coming off the Brown Trail onto the more open Orange Trail, I hit the gas on the slight climb.  Was actually able to get a few seconds of separation here and even more again on the descent.  As we bombed the trail, they rerouted us through a new section I hadn’t ridden and it was quite wet.  My front wheel slipped in the mud as I caught big air coming into it and he quickly pulled the gap right back.  Bummer for sure.  Railed the purple trail with everything I had and still, he was right there at every section.  My last shot was to drill it up the grassy open climb and get some separation.  I didn’t really attack but turned the screws on him for the whole long minute up the climb.  We were both gassed and still no separation, but still had a little bit of climbing left.  I heard him breathing pretty heavy and hit him with the knockout punch.  Drilled it again immediately and finally got the separation I needed.  I had about 8-10 seconds heading down the final descent and knew I just had to get back across the road and keep it together.

Bombed the descent and got a few extra seconds, but coming off the descent, the course was rerouted onto the red trail.  I was set up to make a left turn and cross the road.  But we had to go right on a greasy corner.  I had to pull up, and head down the red trail.  Super tight trail with zero visibility, off-camber, etc and I’d not ridden it in a long time (they actually removed it when the rain came).  As a result I had to lighten up and try not to crash.  This let Rob back on.  At this point, I basically ‘sat-up’.  There really wasn’t too many more opportunities to get separation.  Had a quick chat with Rob, we decided to cool our jets and SPRINT for MAD MONEY!  Regardless of winner, we’d split the cash.

As we came out of the woods, I swung it wide.  This gave Rob the lead onto the pavement.  I’m sure it didn’t really matter, but was nice to sit in 2nd wheel.  He tried to up the pace, but I hung on without issue.  We rolled off the pavement around the bathrooms and back onto the pavement for the final 100 meters.  I scouted the corner just incase.  Super tight left hand turn.  Slightly off-camber with tons of rock-fill everywhere.  You hit this wrong, you were gonna drift and miss a pedal stroke and have to give it some gas on the little rise up to the road.  I set myself up around the corner, Rob took inside a little tight and had to miss that pedal stroke.  I carried my momentum and as we hit the road I was already going faster than him, slammed the pedals with everything and got a few bike lengths for the W!  Official lap time 42:57?? (computer reads 41:54).

9 attacks on my behalf that lasted from 20-90 seconds greater than  120% of FTP.  52 efforts that ranged from 1-15 seconds that were greater than 150% of FTP.  All in all; 15 minutes (36%) of my lap was spent Anaerobic!!  Needless to say, I was spent on my 2nd lap and rolled a 48 minuter as I tried to recover.  Also, not that it mattered, but about 15 minutes into my lap, the nose of my saddle shot straight up.  Making it super tough to get forward on the nose when climbing and forcing me to stand quite a bit more than I would have liked (I fought the saddle issue for many laps and took a seatpost rebuild when Marky-Mark got there to finally fix it).

Thats it for now..

Quick report & full post coming later.

Was suppose to be 4man, but changed to duo due to fears of a weather repeat if last years monsoons. Casey & I manned up & got ready to rip.

Raced my ass off & won the first lap. Gave everything I had and won the 2 up sprint. Will do a full power/lap review later.

After that settled in. Rain & fog & night came. Took a break & so did everyone else. Got up early ripped out some laps. Had a huge lead and were able to stop by 9:30 when the next round of rain came.

This past weekend was the GROC Fat Tire Festival.  Held at Dryer Rd Park in Victor, NY.  Originally started as a time trial race on the trails, my first race there was abysmal.  But last season I persevered and took home the XC win.  Headed back to the race this year to have some fun & of course to represent the #1 plate that I was given!

It was a fairly short course, but completely revamped from prior years.  Not much of a roll out, but right onto a singletrack climb, up to the top of the fields, across the fields and into the trails.  A fast technical & twisty downhill and then onto lots of short & steep climbs that just seemed to keep coming.  Back out onto the field around top and then ripped the descent.  Repeat 4x

Evil Steve took the holeshot and pegged it up the first climb.  It was nice as it actually took a ton of pressure off to rip it up the climb.  I stayed nice and steady and then attacked him as we came over the top in the field to take the lead into the singletrack.  By the time we exited Chutes & ladders I had a decent lead that grew when I attacked again coming up the Elevator climb.   I kept the pace up and by the end of the 2nd lap I had a good 30-40 second lead.  More of the same on the 3rd lap, the only real excitement being of course when Bridget missed my feed.  She was afraid of coming onto the course & when I reached out for the bottle, she decided that she’d test my coordination by throwing the bottle to me.  Well, I ride bikes for a reason and don’t play ball sports…  I laughed pretty good and wasn’t worried at all.  I was turning 20 minute laps and it wasn’t too unbearably warm.  The 4th lap I had a solid 45-55 second lead over everyone and stupidly decided to take a look back across the field just as I entered the singletrack.  ….Down goes Igby!  hit the deck pretty hard when I clipped a pedal.  Lost a few seconds, but regained my composure and held on for the victory.

While we waited for the kids race to start, Lake tooled around on the skills area.  The dude can ride the stuff no problem!  I was seriously amazed!

He was so pumped to be out riding!  Just love the Joy the kids get out of it.

I took a video of the kids race… Lake is a Youtube Star again.



This weekend is the Hardcore 24.  Doing it as part of a 4 man team this year for the first time ever!!  Will be nice to sleep some between laps!!

Lake Showing off His Stuff at Last Nights Park Ave XC

Race

My race faired ok, got the holeshot out of the gate and was the first one into the woods. Doug Rusho was in tow and Andy August was shortly behind. There was really no place to shake Doug as the course is super tight, and super fast. So he hung on my wheel for the first 3 laps. I gave him the lead into the singletrack at the start of the 4th lap. 50 yds in, I hear a loud clank and my pedals stopped moving. Look down and somehow the front derailleur swung into the chainrings. Weird part was, I didn’t hit anything, was jra’ing on the trail. Ends my race quickly. Ah well, the legs felt like crud still from the weekends big efforts.

Side Bonus? Set personal best power or 2nd best numbers across the board, so from is there. Plus, I got to ride a few laps with Lizzy and Lake. I’ll happily take a DNF if that’s my reward. Hopefully I can upswing the form some for this next month of racing!

Gotta get the bike tuned up, big weekend on tap!

Things have been a bit busy here these past few weeks.  Thought that maybe I’d get a few pictures up and a brief report.  Some are already aware, but a few weeks ago strained my back a bit at the Farmall #2 Spring race.  Not sure what exactly caused it, but damn if it didn’t just shut me down immediately.  Had to pull up and head home.

Took some time to let it heal and thought that I would give the Highland Hex 6 hour a go.  Things were going great at the Hex, I laid down a super fast 1st lap and lead for the first 4/5 laps or so (first 3 hours), then my back started acting up quite a bit.  I took it easy for a lap, then tried to go again, then decided it wasn’t going to happen whatsoever.  I ended up pulling the plug and heading home.  With the back issues I decided to pull the plug on the mohican 100 this season as I was forced to rest and recover a bit and let things heal. I’ve been taking it fairly easy and just hitting the road bike for the past few weeks and letting it rest as much as possible.

Memorial Day Weekend

A few quick pics from Memorial Day weekend. If you didn’t already know, good ol’ Waterloo is the birthplace of Memorial Day! Thus it gives us a great reason to celebrate not only our soldiers, but our families. I took some good bike rides, but it was more about spending time with the family

Park Ave XC

Park Ave has changed things around a bit this year with a new venue for their weeknight mountain bike series. They’ve even added a kids race! What can I say I was thoroughly impressed with the race course. Fairly technical, almost entirely singletrack, 1 steep goat climb, but otherwise super flat and fast. Even the kiddies race hit up some singletrack!

After a big weekend of riding on the road, including a trip to OCP to rip the Hardcore Course on Monday, I decided to test the legs out and see how things went.  A lap or two to warm-up and I knew the course would be super fun.  Race started with a loop around the ball-field & I knew the start would be fairly critical.  Unfortunately mis-timed my pedal clip in and was edged out into the woods by Andy August (on his cross bike).  Flew around the course following him a bit, till he took a bad line along the creek and got stuck in the trees.  I fell into 4th behind Doug Rusho, Andy & Dan Staffo (also on cx bike).  Got past Dan down near the creek where the lines widened up and past Andy when he took a different line after the bridge crossing.

Squeezed past Doug just prior to the bridge over by the ropes course.  From there I hit the grass field with Staffo in tow.  Staffo attacked and took us into the singletrack where I followed for the first half of the course.  Down by the creek again, I managed to pass him in the same spot, put in an attack and because I was able to ride up and over the bridge steps on the 29er, I was able to really establish a gap.

From there on forward I just kept the gas on, stayed patient behind the lapped riders and just ripped it in the woods.  Focused on just staying smooth and fast and having fun!  Not exactly sure how far in front I finished (minute or two), but it was a great race and happy to have such stiff competition out there!

Up next is the Full Moon Vista Friday night crit, then I’m off to the FasCat Training Camp in Boulder for 10 days!!  Gonna be awesome to be back and ripping up some of the fun stuff I rode last year.  Also gonna hit up the Granby course for Nationals Recon!

My favorite race(s) of the season kicked off last night; Farmall Hill Challenge.  This is the 10th year this race has been held, with 6 races a year!!  That’s alotta races.

If you’ve raced this course you know it’s lots of steep killer grunt climbs, and essentially no recovery between the efforts.  Seriously, check out the training zone distribution 30% of the race (25 minutes) was spent going anaerobic!  Pretty much either going full gas here or resting on the downhills!  Not sure how I did it, but the legs came together and I felt like a million bucks, as compared to the Bristol mt road race where I felt like a wrinkled dollar bill..

So after Saturdays epic ride, I decided to try my legs out for some good ol fashioned xc racing. The Handlebars spring classic at Sprague brook in Buffalo was just the ticket.

Some good competition was there, but damn lots of cyclocross bikes. Isn’t this a mountain bike race? Unfortunately the weather was calling for massive thunderstorms and some course adjustment were necessary to keep he trails from getting hosed. This tipped the cards in the cx bikes favor, but only slightly.

The course started out with a drag race in the grass to a sweeping corner and dumping you. Into the first section of single track. Down that across the river and up to a long single track climb. Fun swoopy descent and onto the dreaded grassy fields. A few twists and turns to mix it up and some more single track. A quick steep loose climb then into the super long but super fast doubletrack section. Some more grads and then a 2 back to back steep climbs and a little single track in the pines before you descend to the finish. All in all a good super fast & fun 8 mile course.

Lap 1 saw me heading neck and neck off the holeshot, but carrying way to much speed, I had to reluctantly give up my lead or I was going in the creek at the single track entrance. Got stuck behind Nathan Chown, but was able to make a pass and led the group through the single track and out onto the grass. There Dan Staffo and Chown tried to make short work of me, but I held my own. They dumped me on the short steep climb before the doubletrack and I was forced to chase for a long time.

I rebridged on the single track and took back the lead on lap 2. Again I was stuck on the opening single track behind them, but I attacked across the rocky creek where I would have an advantage over the cx bikes. Not much of an advantage though as they bridged back up on the long single track climb. But once back onto the grass we were still three. Again on the steep, loose climb I was dropped and forced to chase on the doubletrack on my own. I managed to bring them up close, oh so close and was a few seconds off at the start of the 3rd lap.

Lap 3 saw me chasing hard through the single track in the beginning and pushing it with everything I had on the grass. The gap had grown quite a bit in the open sections, but I drilled it with everything I had in the single track. Still they climbed much faster than I did and slipped through my fingers. I gassed it in the final few miles after the climbs and in the trails to catch. If I caught them in the trails, things would have swung my way as it was a bit technical and the mtb would be to my advantage. Unfortunately never did. I turned myself inside out and ended up 12 secs down. Bettered by some super strong riders.

It was a great race and great course. Thanks to John Roden for putting on the event and taking his time. Free lunch afterwards, and even Lake got to do a fun little kids. Been super excited about xc stye racing lately…..

A few random pics from the Rambler. Thanks to Noelle for hanging on the back of the moto and taking some sweet pics!!

It’s mountain bike season! Sprague Brook this weekend!

Hit the greatest race in New York state up this past weekend. The Prattsburgh Rambler. 30+ mile dirt road race with some intense descents, few bits of singletrack and some ferocious clims that top out well over 20%.

The past 2 editions saw warm temps and dry & dusty race course. It was only fair that this year was 50 and rain. Turning many of the long dirt road climbs into quicksand. It certainly felt like the brakes were on while climbing for sure.

The race started off with a new section this year, that I was totally unprepared for. Right off the bat we climbed rt 53 and Ramone gunned it hard. It drew out the pack and I was quickly gapped (need a better warmup) but we hit a new fun and muddy descent that I was able to use to my advantage to bring the front back to me.

Once we rolled back through town a 2nd time and started the first climb we were a small group of 6. Staffo, Ramone, Duncan, Andy August, Jonah D and myself. Staffo and Ramone turned up the heat and slowly our group split. First Jonah, then me then Andy & then Duncan. Duncan managed to rebridge & the 3 rode the rest if the race together.

I started off in pursuit of Andy & Jonah soon bridged up to me. I dropped my chain in my spokes going up the next steep climb and he slipped through my fingers and ended my chase of Andy.

For the next forever miles, I chased Jonah. Up and over Canen hill, down Ridge road descent and up Hungry Hollow climb. The whole time Rob Dietrick was chasing me just as fiercely as I was chasing Jonah. I managed to finally catch Jonah on Hungry Hollow just before the steep pitch at the end. For a moment it looked like we were a group of 3 as we were diamounted and running up the super steep and loose climb. But I managed to get a good gap and hold em off. At least until after the descent and passing by the onion fields. Jonah rebridgend and we hit the singletrack together. I led, and managed to have a great cartoon esque faceplant on the descent, but still kept my lead. I got out front at the exit of the singletrack with a small gap and less than a mile to go. But the forever tenacious Jonah continued to pull me back in setting us up for a Mano e Mano sprint showdown. It all came downtown the last 50 meters where I narrowly edged him out by about a tire width for 5th place!!

All in all it was a killer race! Conditions were truly epic and hopefully I’ll have some pics from the moto crew soon to post.