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Rosena Ranch Race Report, Saturday, Feb 25th, 2017, from the WINNER, Greg Fenton: We stared with a large group. It was nice to have so many teammates together (Jimbo, Kal, Reed, Tony, and myself). We had several attacks starting from the onset of the race. Jimbo and Kal responded to them. About lap 7 the group started to break apart and was fortunate to be in the lead group with 5 other racers. Jimbo had a strong attempt to bridge up to the group but the head winds were increasing and his efforts were cut short. Kal was riding strong but unfortunately one of the racer's in the front group with me was in his group (60+), which bumped Kal down a step on the podium. Reed and Tony ran into some misfortune when the Cat 3's were passing the group on both sides. The Cat 3's crashed right in front of them causing them to break, swerve, and stop to avoid the crash. Now for the sprint finish. Our break away stayed and it all came down to a sprint for the line and I was fortunate to take the win. I was riding my new Specialized Venge so I am making an official endorsement for this bike. It was perfect for this type of race. The first race was so fun that Kal, Jimbo, and I decided to race back to back to support Rodger. As the race started, Terry took off with a group of 8 racers and had a nice gap. Oops, that was last week in Phoenix (I thought I should mention Terry this week since I forgot him last week). Anyway about half way through the second race we decided this wasn't such a good idea and we finished early so we could go eat lunch. -Greg    Here is a race report from Rhonda Geiszler. How many of you guys could keep up with her?
-Reed So I decided to race my bike solo at the 24 hours in The Old Pueblo 24-Hour Race. Before this race I was feeling like I was getting too old to race against these young gals. The weather forecast was looking like rain the entire 24 hours and I was dreading the conditions. My husband got me dialed in with a Gore-Tex jacket, gloves and pants. The race started at 12:00 noon on Saturday with a Lemans style start and it was actually kinda fun. Once I grabbed my bike from Darryl I was off. I looked down at my Garmin and noticed my heart rate wasn’t registering. Hmmm what was going on? I moved it around a little and nothing. I rely on my heart rate a lot for endurance races, especially 24 hours. I just shrugged my shoulders and thought, nothing I can do. Lap 1 and 2 I had my Gore-Tex jacket on and there was no rain and I was hot. Lap 3 I took off my jacket and, of course, as soon as I cleared the check-in tent it started pouring. Off I went for a 15-mile lap with 1500 feet of climbing in the pouring cold rain. When I finished that lap I was so cold that I couldn’t put my right glove on, my ring finger and pinkie were numb. Darryl forgot to bring my extra gloves so he hopped on his bike and in a blink of an eye was back with two pairs of warm gloves for me and I was off. I eventually put the other Gore-Tex gloves on and my hands were cozy and warm. I did a few more laps and was feeling fine. It was around 5:30 PM and it was time to put night-lights on. I stopped and Darryl slapped them on and handed me another PB&J sandwich and another bottle. He was very adamant that I drink a bottle a lap and would make me finish the bottle while he checked my bike out. On my 1st night lap my gut said change my lights on the next lap, despite my lap time of 1:45. I asked Darryl and he said, “You have plenty of light”. As I got out of the check-in tent my lights blinked. I was a little pissed off and remember Ken telling me “you have 30 min left and you need to put them on low”, so I did. I had 700 lumens on my helmet and I was unsure about the burn time. I put my helmet light on low and finished the race. It was so hard to see and I had few crashes but I finished that lap. I carried an extra battery for the rest of the night laps. Riding at night is not my favorite, but I actually had fun riding at night. The moon and the sunrise were beautiful. Endurance racing requires mental games, at least for me. I chose to never look at my Garmin or ask the time because I didn’t want to know. At one point I was feeling tired and I almost missed a trail but a rider said, “Hey the trail is right there”. I told him I was daydreaming. He said “that’s what happens when it’s 5:30 in the morning". I couldn’t believe it was already 05:30!!! I was excited that the next lap would be without lights. I got a surge of energy. I was on lap 13 and I took 10 minutes off my previous times. I was happy I made my goal and was heading in to finish. When I came in Darryl said I was in 2nd place so I grabbed a bottle and took off. I was tired but O.K. and I could feel my legs had no power. I pushed on and saw Darryl at the last 2 miles of lap 14 and he said, "you are 8 minutes behind her so get moving, you can catch her". I tried really hard and I was suffering. Finished lap 14 and was thinking I was done. When I saw Darryl, he said, “this is your last lap and you can catch her”. I was spent and the last lap was mentally and physically hard. I ended up 2nd overall female and back 7 minutes from 1st place. I was very excited about my performance. The top ladies are pros and 20-30 years younger than me. It was a good day in The Old Pueblo. I raced my bike 240 miles and climbed 22,500 feet in 24 hours and 21 minutes, despite the wind, cold, and rain. Cheers and of course I will do anther one! -Rhonda KMC Fontana Southridge Winter Series, Race Number 3 - by Jeff Jacobson Weather was perfect for the KMC Fontana Southridge Winter Series race today. The race consists of three 5+ mile laps with lots of climbing and technical single track. The 50+ and 55+ expert groups started off in the same wave and I stayed with the lead group of riders for most of the first lap. The dirt was nice and tacky except for a few remaining puddles and some new rain ruts, which made passing a little more difficult. On the last climb to the summit I peeled off the front and no one followed. The entire second lap I didn’t see anyone from my category behind me and settled into a comfortable pace riding mostly alone. On the third lap I noticed a pack closing the gap behind me with at least two of riders from my age class. I was able to pass some slower riders from the groups ahead of ours, which held up the pack a bit. I picked up the pace and was able to just hold on for W.  |
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