Monday, February 21, 2011

Budu #1: Dash Point

Sunrise broke over the manicured lawns and four-car garages of Norpoint Way, a wealthy neighborhood in Tacoma whose upper-most houses enjoyed a 360 view of the snow-capped North Cascades, Mt. Rainier, the Puget Sound and the Olympics.  This was not a neighborhood used to seeing a solid line dirt-smeared Subarus and aging Vanagons lining it's sidewalks, especially on a Sunday morning.  Yet on the morning of February 20th, that was the scene; dirty cars, spandex, and lots of mountain bikes.  Like last year, the weather was clear and sunny, a rare February gem, and with the good weather came mountain bikers anxious to blow the dust of their legs for the 2011 racing season.

GL6 had a good showing (both of racers and dirty cars): Edward, Dani, Lee, Erica, Mike, Dave, Erin, Courtney, Kyle, and John all raced, with Kerry and Brian shouting out encouragement and good-natured heckling from the most spectator-friendly part of the course (i.e. the wood bridge rooty mud bog)  Joining the ranks from the Olympia Orthopedics team were Ann Mitchell, who took 1st place honors in the Sport Women 30-39 category, Karen Metcalfe, and Stephanie Werts.

Due to construction in the park, the race was staged from a roadside trailhead (hence the line of dirty cars along pristine neighborhood streets) instead of from the campground like last year.  Every other category was started according to age, but not the women.  Usually all women start together because the age categories were so small, but today there were twenty four total women and were were all released together.  There was no place to spread out, no hole-shot, just straight into the singletrack from the start.  By that time, what had been frosty hard-pack for the beginners and experts had melted into muddy mush, which we were used to after riding all winter in CF, but combine racers of varying technical ability packed all together onto the singletrack and you get confused carnage.  Luckily I started in the middle of the pack so I was able to make it through the first few miles of swearing (not just from me), run-arounds and near-pileups without loosing too much time.  Unfortunately, Courtney started near the back of the pack and was stuck at the end of the line of slipping tires, nervous dismounts, and slow climbers, which take much time and energy to get around.  After racers sorted themselves out, the course twisted and turned, dove and climbed through the park.  The most challenging components of the course (other than managing energy) were roots made slippery by all the mud, keeping good speed and flow through the turns, and a few narrow wooden bridges over especially muddy spots.  There were several spots I had to jump over logs too big to ride over, or run up a particularly tough climb.  The course ended with a muddy, root-filled drop into a bog which was covered by one of the wire bridges.  I heard from Dave that he went down hard in that section and since there were so many spectators there,  I didn't even bother trying to ride it.

Though I had ridden all winter long, this first race drained me.  Riding all-out for an hour and twenty minutes was much different then cruising through the woods on the Rita.   Though I really enjoyed the course, I was thankful to cross the finish line and be done and even more thankful for the happy hour beer at the nearby Harmon Brewery.

Results
Beginner Women 30-39
Dani Vergara, 3rd

Sport Women 30-39
Erin Roe, 4th
Courtney Anderson, 7th

Sport Men 30-39
Edward Vergara, 18th

Sport Men 50+
John Curtin, 8th

Clydesdale
Mike Scholl, 8th

Singlespeed Women
Erica Keller, 1st

Singlespeed Men
Kyle Curtin, 7th
Lee Peterson, 12th
Dave Snyder 19th

Sunday, February 6, 2011

2011 Capitol Forest Classic Registration is Open!!

Mark your calendars now for AUGUST 13th and 14th!!!! Friends of Capitol Forest presents the fourth annual Capitol Forest Classic featuring the Northwest All Mountain Championships. Spend the weekend at the Pacific Northwest’s premier mountain bike festival! Come and ride the GL6 Crew's home turf with two epic courses of 100% singletrack.

Super D: Drop 2100′ in 6 miles on our namesake trail, Green Line 6.This trail is 100% singletrack and features smooth flowy berms, tight switchbacks, a couple of short climbs, rocky and rooty technical, fun pumps and small jumps in a mix of deep forest and dry clear cut.   One run and you'll see why we named our team after this trail.
Cross Country: Come race some of the most fun and most challenging single track in the Pacific Northwest. The Cross Country course is 100% single track and includes a little bit of everything: tough climbs, sweet descents including finishing on the Super D course, rocky and rooty technical, and flowy, smooth and fast sections.

All Mountain: The All Mountain class will test the boundaries of racers’ abilities. Racers will compete in both the Super D and the XC on the same bike. Yes, that’s correct, the SAME bike, with the same parts. Lowest combined times from both the Super D and XC in each class wins. King and Queen of the Mountain awards are given to the overall lowest combined times.

Both days include a kids race, lunch and snacks, and a raffle that includes a $1000 bike credit at Joy Ride Bikes in Olympia.

Visit http://capitolforestclassic.com for more info and REGISTRATION.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Tapeworm Time Trial

First GL6 race event of the 2011 Season. 

The weather broke off partly sunny and cool, the trail was mostly in really great shape except the one muddy section back somewhere in the labyrinth. 

Lee Peterson came in 9th overall. Erin Roe came in 6th in Women's and Todd Davison placed an Amazing Blazing 30th out of 70. I think I was off to over extended and pushing too hard by half way through the course and was out of breath all the way to the finish. Fast on this 6 ish mile course is an under 45 minute finish with the top time around 38 minutes. 

Fun trail, lots of low speed bike skills to get around those corners and through the trees. Check it out sometime. Maybe another time trial in March.


-Todd


Results
Lee Peterson, 9th Men's (out of 56!)
Todd Davison, 30th Men's
Erin Roe, 6th Women's