MtnBikeRiders.com

RL Policar: Up and comer SS racer David “Sho-Nuff” Sanderson does it again this weekend and is greatly improving. Read his race report and experience all the joys and pains that he went through this weekend. He did all that just so he would have something to say when his coworkers asked him what he did this weekend…”I raced” David replies (while puffing up his chest). “I raced REALLY HARD”

The sky’s been falling all over So Cal the past few days, dumping several inches of rain leading up to Saturday’s race and causing me doubts about the race conditions. Friday night it rained so hard that I thought to myself, that if it’s raining like this in the morning, I’m not racing! Fortunately I awoke to a light sprinkle, loaded up the bike and made my way to Fontana. I arrived to find RL and Jeremy already on the scene with the camp already set up, thank you guys! Eric (with a propane heater!), Moe, Priscilla, Kim and Tony soon follow.

I registered early enough to take a warm-up lap of the wet Southridge course. The soil in Southridge does well in the rain washing away the loose sandy top layer with minimal puddling. This provides excellent traction; in fact the traction was so good it felt as if I was running a harder gear ratio! This mixed with the extra cold air was sure to put what endurance I have to the test.

I arrive to the starting line to find a few unfamiliar faces with very large legs ready to race single-speed this week. Seems a few more serious cyclists are coming out of hibernation and preparing for their upcoming season. Christmas comes early as Donny informs us that were only running two laps this week (approx. 12 miles).

Donny counts down and we bolt from the starting line, I don’t know if I’m just properly warmed up, hoping to finish early or just getting faster, but I muster up a decent start. I’m too polite around the first turn and fall back several positions as I stick to the outside line. I manage to stay near the leaders through the early climbs as we make our way to the water tower climb. Here I fall back from the thunder thighs in the group and settle into my personal hell slowly grinding my way up. I manage to do a bit better than last week and can still see the leaders near the top.

I’ve pushed too hard through this climb and my legs are burning bad. I’m breathing deep and the bitter cold air is biting in my lungs as my heart pounds out a rapid beat. I snake my way though some the short single track before ascending some of the brutal short and steep climbs that take us to the course peak. I’m nearly done, using everything I got to grind out this climb and debating walking, It’s here one of my fellow racers starts cheering me on, “You can make it! Just a lil more”! What a great guy! This is a thousand times better than the “Passing on the left!” that I was expecting, and is enough to convince me to push, if for nothing more than to avoid slowing him down. I don’t know his name, but I know the bike and I’m gonna make sure to thank him before the next race.

My favorite part of the course is here with the rolling single track equipped with several little berms. I rail through these as quick as I can remind myself of my mental notes from the warm-up lap. Some of the ruts have grown in size and one corner has eroded enough to present some dangerous exposure if you were to let your front tire run the corner too wide. I reach for my now missing water bottle and freak out! S&!^, I’ve got no water! Thank goodness it’s anything but hot today and I know I’ll get another bottle on the next lap. I take advantage of some of the lines I learned the preceding weekend riding with Priscilla and RL. I now know I don’t have to brake at all as I cross the first concrete channel, I can bunny hop out of the second channel and finally take the dirt alternate route instead of riding down the last concrete channel. On one of the last sections a spectator is yelling at me for ruining her photo of her friend who is behind me. I didn’t know I was supposed to let people pass me to make their photos look better. Her boyfriend is looking at her like he is in serious debate as to if he should continue to date her and I couldn’t agree more. I round my way be to the starting straight for lap two.

RL is holding GU but no water! He might as well be holding a plate of bacon at this point because the only thing I want in this world at the moment is water. He quickly grabs a bottle and gets it to me just in time. I try to resist the urge to immediately chug the whole bottle in an effort to avoid a stomach cramp.

I’ve noticed I really have two different mindsets when I race. One that is really focused and intense. The other is really loose and relaxed thinking of anything other than the race in order to help me ignore the burning in my legs. I spend most of lap two in this state thinking about what I’m gonna eat after this weekend and debating giving 4X racing a try. I stay in this state until my favorite single track section where I always smile as I snake my way around. I discover today that this right here, is why I mountain bike, to flow around and have fun. I’m dogging it, riding at my regular trail pace when I hear the team cheering from the finish line. I muster up what I’ve got left and pick up the pace for the final few turns and a race time of 1:04:46 and yet another third place finish. The Animal, Eric Hunner has 2nd with a time of 1:00:59 and winner Rod Leveque gets in under an hour (sorry I don’t remember his time, but the results should be on the SRC website shortly).


We head back to the team camp and I proceed to eat more carne asada than anyone has a right too. It’s amazing what a race does to my appetite! Thank you RL, no one can cook on an old portable propane grill like you can!

Also a quick thanks to the team sponsors Evomo, Hoss MTB and Ergon whose gear helps us get through our races and trail-rides.

Other updates -

I get some more good news! The better than good, rather great people at KHS have provided mtnbikeriders.com with a demo Lucky 7 that I’ll get to ride in the next Southridge DH race! This is a bike on my short list of possible upcoming purchases and now I’ll get to swing a leg over it and tell you what its like to fall in love all over again.

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A friend and I were discussing the recent changes that he had seen on the site. Changes not only in the site layout (rotating header, black design and etc) but also the focus and direction we’ve taken in the last few months.

You may have scene quite a bit of racing postings, events and team news. This friend found it rather interesting that in a few short months we’ve gone from recreational mountain biking and towards a sudden focus to racing.

Well, yes its true. Our focus since late 2008 has been on racing, that’s due to the fact that we found we had a pretty talented staff that liked to go fast. When we formed the MtnBikeRiders.com Racing Team, we wanted to to bring “recreational” mountain bikers to a new level of riding. Don’t get me wrong, none of us really dream of being a pro (well maybe one), but if you take away all the events and all of the jerseys, we’re still the same group of people…recreational mountain bikers…that race. Think of it as Vegetarians that eat Sea Food. Get it?

Every time we finish an event/race, we like to post our experiences so we can share and even relate to our readers. I have another friend that likes to comment on the site (dial tone), we were having a conversation about racing. I had encouraged him to at least try it, but he said no thanks because he was a recreational rider, but we had taken it to the next level. But what I want everyone to understand, sure we have a number of our staff that race, Moe and I just started racing but it doesn’t mean we’re “hardcore” or anything like that. Honestly, I raced DH because Priscilla thinks its hot…Moe races to achieve personal goals.

Our racing focus on the site is basically a grass roots effort to make mountain bike racing more appealing to those who consider themselves recreational riders. If you’re lucky enough to have a race series by your home, please take advantage of it. Some of the people we meet at Fontana come as far away as Colorado just to race…for us its just a 40 min drive. You never know, this racing thing might just be your thing…just look at Priscilla, a mom of 3, college student and wife…but she’s a champ! Or you can be like Moe and I, not really serious racers,(c’mon…its Moe and RL…)but we have fun when we’re out there.

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My day started off brewing coffee at 4:00 am, not uncommon during the work week, but probably not the best thing to do before a race. I could not sleep. I kept turning the news on checking the current
weather conditions. The night before, the news said it going to start raining at 4:00am on race day. One part of me wanted it to rain it would be like the Camp Pendleton Mud Run but only with a bike under you, and another part of me wanted my wife and baby to be at the race warm and dry. Well the rain held out long enough for our MtnBikeRiders Team to race in really nice conditions, and keep the wife happy- choose your battles wisely.

My race started at 10:00am Single Speed 34 and under. I had my work cut out for me, some of the other Single Speeders included Mark Mumea & Calvin Lefebvre both have laundry list of races under their belt.

Our course was 4 laps, 16 miles total. First lap I was going like crazy with every body else about 21 minutes for the first lap, then I settled into my groove. Knocking the hills down one at a time and before I knew the race was half way done. The SC VELO XC CHALLENGE race was a lot of fun, everybody I ran into that day was in such a great mood fellow racers included.

I had some great competition from a gearie in the middle of the race. I threw my chain off in a rough downhill section and the gearie comes zipping by and says,”I didn’t think I was going to catch you”. I
put my chain back on as fast as possible. I took a gamble and rode with the loose chain for the rest of the race instead of burning up minutes trying to set the chain tension just right. It paid off because I caught and passed the gearie. The gearie caught up with me after a few downhill sections [ I am riding a full rigid he was on full suspension] he said,”Hey single speed I’m back” . He kept the pressure on and we were passing other racers together going uphill. We had are own race within the race. I pulled away half way though the fourth lap and BAM! threw the chain one more time with 1 mile to go before the finish line. I look back as I am putting my chain on and the gearie is in sight. The race is still on. Well I finish without any more hiccup’s or positions lost to a Warm welcome at the finish from family, friends, and strangers alike.

I end up on the podium in second place, second to Mark Mumea. This was such a fun event and a great beginning to the SC Velo Triple Crown.

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First and foremost, the MtnBikeRiders.com Racing Team did an excellent job in yesterday’s event. We had 4 of our racers place on the podium and represented the site very well.

So let me start off with getting ready for the race. Since I wasn’t racing, I wanted to make sure that our athletes were taken care of. The night before, I bought a boat load of water, Gatorade, snacks and tubes.

The funny thing was, even though I wasn’t racing, I too couldn’t sleep the night before, I woke up around 5am and started packing the car with all the stuff we needed. My role for this race was of many responsibilities. I was basically the water boy, camera man, cheer leader, mechanic and what ever else I could find to do to help our riders out.

One of my other jobs was to take video footage of the event. I had over 40 minutes of coverage that I condensed into a 4.5 minute video.
If you’re having issues watching that, here’s a non-HD version from Youtube.

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Well the day came and went very quickly! The SC VELO XC CHALLENGE in San Dimas, CA was the kick off for our MtnBikeRiders Racing Team! I am happy to say we did these jerseys proud!

Race day started out with a lot of rain clouds and overcast skies. I was really worried about having to race in the mud but luckily the rain didn’t start until after we finished the race. The race course was 4 miles long and we were required to ride 3 laps. I know 12 miles doesn’t sound like much, but this by far was one of the most difficult trails that I have had to do laps. I would say the majority of it was climbing. There were only about three fun downhill drops and two singletracks, other than that it was uphill pedaling. Not my idea of fun, but it was a butt kicking race.

The first two laps weren’t so bad, but the third lap I really wanted to throw in the towel. I experienced a lot of cramping and had to walk a few hills that I had previously pedaled up. I was exhausted on that third lap but I was determined to finish. I was able to avoid a couple of crashes and my chain dropped on me twice..but other than that it was a pretty clean race.

This was a tough race and I am just happy to have finished!

Kim Finch kicked butt out there! 2nd place win!

Props to Joe “Gangsta” Solancho, Kim Finch, Eric “Animal” Hunner and “The Moe”! Great Job guys and gal. You guys rock! I really felt like we went out there and gave it our all, and I’m real proud to be part of this team. Thanks also to our sponsors: ERGON, HOSS, EVOMO and of course KHS for my sweet bike!!!

Thanks for all the support of families and friends that came out to cheer for us too. It was freezing out there and rainy by mid afternoon but everyone was a trooper about it. And a special “Thank You” to RL. He seriously put in a lot of time and muscle into the race for us. He was photographer, babysitter, videographer, water boy, snack boy, motivator and the set up crew. You are the best RL! I wouldn’t be able to race without your support babe. Love you.

My reward for a job well done: Pizza and a cold brew.

We’re looking forward to the next race in November! Check out our flickr account for more pics!

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