Taking the collar. The golden sombrero. You baseball aficionados
probably know what these are. They are not good things. Taking the
collar means going hitless in a game. Getting the golden sombrero is
worse, striking out four times in a game. Well, that pretty much
describes my D-ville weekend. But you know what? I still had a great
freakin' time and am already looking forward to next year.

My golden sombrero:

1. Hit the podium for the Sport 35-44 DH race - nope
2. Beat Schlachter and Frankie in the DH - nope
3. Do a sub-50 minute DH and sub-2:45 XC - nope
4. Beat Frankie in the TWW All Mountain competition - nope

That's the Reader's Digest version of my weekend. Now here's the
extended mix:

Friday

I arrive around 12:30pm at the Wild Plum campground. No one is there,
but the TWW spaces are identified and tents in place. I find a flat
spot next to the river, setup camp, make lunch, and just veg out. Oh
so decadent. Plenty of time before the guys show up to shuttle me to
the top.

Well, 2pm rolls around, and no signs of the shuttle crew. Then 2:30.
Then 3:00. By this time I've ridden up to highway 49 three times
hoping that I'll run into them. No luck. 3:30 rolls around. Nuttin.
Crap, it's getting late, I need to get moving. So at 4pm I decide to
head to the top by myself. I wanted to get a run in and pickup my race
packet before they closed at 6pm.

Did my practice run, but man, seemed really slow. I spoke with some
people and they thought the course was slower. That kinda made me feel
better, but I thought to myself there is no way I'm doing a sub-50
minute time.

Got downtown, ran into some Bellas that knew me from the sombrero ride
in SDF, and then needed to figure out how to get back to the
campground. Fortunately I ran into the D-ville Outfitters shuttle and
they were just getting ready to leave. $20 and a super cute shuttle
driver or ride the 12 miles back to the campground. Easy decision. I
actually had forgotten my car was at the top (I had asked for a shuttle
to Wild Plum only). But fortunately I remembered and cruised to the
top with the other passengers.

Got back to the campground, had some fud, and then hung around the
campfire. We had some seriously classic TWW fireside chit chat.
Always reminds me why the number of women associated with TWW has
declined. It takes a special breed of woman to deal with us. The
Roaring Meeces had a couple there. Good times. No quotes here to help
protect the innocent.

Saturday

Okay, so my DH start time wasn't until almost noon. Gotta love that.
So I had an eggs and bacon breakfast courtesy of Miss Mary. Good
stuff. Thanks a bunch!

I was having shifting problems, so Kyle helped me with a cable and
housing replacement and all was good. Thanks dude - I still owe you
some moolah.

Got to the top and debated on whether or not to wear my pads
(knee/shin, elbows). Schlachter talked me into it even though they
fell somewhat restrictive on my Friday practice run. Probably could've
used a little lighter setup. Oh well, Rich had crashed the other day,
and he said without his pads he would've been banged up pretty good.
Okay, pads it was.

I got a good warmup in and was ready to roll. Saw Marla Streb start on
her XC bike - and in her skinsuit. Hard to believe she had a baby not
long ago. Oi yoi yoi... yoi yoi. Spank you very much.

My race was uneventful, other than I pushed really, really hard -
everytime I looked at my HRM, it was either 182 or 184. I didn't clean
the waterfall even though I fully committed - just lost my balance
after the first section. Damn! Oh well, not a ton of time lost there.
The course was really rough and I didn't have a ton of power in the
pedaling sections. Got passed by one guy who started 2 minutes behind
me and caught no one. I mashed really hard on the road at the end (192
HR) and came across in 53:32. A measly 16 seconds than last year. I
was really hoping for a wholesale time change based on how and what I
rode last year. But there is a small glimmer of hope there -
Schlachter who is in his best shape of his life and rode a better bike
than last year, was actually slower by about 10 seconds. And I was the
only one in our group to improve their time from last year. So I'll
take the small victory... I do need to get out and ride on the dirt
more for sure.

Frankie came in at 52:17 while Schlachter came in at 49:16. That put
me only 1:15 down on the TWW All Mountain competition heading into the
XC (Schlachter wasn't doing the XC). Something I thought I could make
up easily. But knowing I likely didn't make the DH podium, I drowned
my sorrows in five slices of all meat pizza and two huge Cokes. I
didn't think too much of the impact that could make in the XC.

Saturday night's festivities were much more tame, except that Ty,
Isaias, and Mo arrived at the campsite to provide us with some
entertainment. More good quotables, but I won't include them here.
The one thing that was determined though was that Frankie has a bigger
pump than Isaias.

Sunday

Woke up feeling totally dehydrated, hmm... could the Cokes and greasy
pizza combined with altitude and not drinking much water on Saturday
have anything to do with it? Oh well. Packed a ton of Endurolytes and
Hammer Gel and hoped for the best. And filled my 100 oz. Camelbak
nearly full. Man that pack was heavy.

Allan helped me setup a great plan - ride a steady pace, attack, ride
steady, attack, and so on. That would hopefully either demoralize
Frankie or cause him to blow up chasing. Unfortunately, I couldn't
execute the plan very well - unlike Allan who hammered out a great
time. I just rode steady the whole way up, keeping the HR at between
170-175, admiring some folks if you know what I mean, chatting with
others, and cheering on the SSers. Perhaps I need to maintain better
focus. I passed David G. and Julie B. on the climb (and gave Julie a
little "encouragement"). I was actually feeling pretty good all the
way to the first water station, high fived a dude that paced with me,
and continued on. Unfortunately there was still a long way to go
before Packer Saddle, and I noticed a tiny twinge in the right quad.
Uh oh. A major cramp was a long way off, but that did not bode will
for the remaining 21 miles.

So I backed off my pace some and Frankie must have seen that happen.
He later told me he was anywhere from 40'-100' behind me on the climb.
On one downhill fireroad, he blasted by me without a word. Damn, I
couldn't respond, there was too much race left. I ended up about 1:30
behind him at the saddle. I knew if he reached the DH portion of the
course before me, I was done unless he had a mechanical. I never saw
him again, but it sounds like I closed the gap down to about 30 seconds
which made me feel pretty good. I thought I rode much better after
that climb after the bridge (I believe Pauley Creek) than I did at the
DH race the day before even though I was nursing some major crampage up
that climb. Weird. Maybe the faster rolling tires. Or the lack of
armor. Or the Endurolytes and Hammer Gel kicking in. I passed a ton
of people and no one passed me.

Oh, I almost forgot - not sure where I was on the trail, but saw a guy
in front of me nearly fall to his death. It was a short steep up over
a big rock. He fell to the right, bike cartwheeling over him and then
off the cliff. He managed to grab a small tree to prevent him from
falling thankfully. I was there to witness the bike falling into the
abyss of trees and rocks, and hearing a final thud when it landed. I
hung out there for a few seconds after making sure he was okay, and he
said he was fine (but probably not his bike). Easy to forget what were
exposed to there when you're racing hard.

I hit the last chicane before the road and managed to slam into the
small tree there but managed to stay upright and get to the road. I
couldn't use my thumb to shift into the big ring it was so tired from
all the beating of the three days of riding there. So I used my palm
to shift it. I went into my aero tuck and hammered to the finish.
2:47:38. Didn't hit the 2:45 mark but did improve on my time last year
by 19 minutes.

I saw Michel earlier in the baby head area and asked if he was okay.
He said yes I think but later turns out he thought he might've popped
his hip joint. Ouch. I also passed Hane on the last pesky downhill
where I flatted last year - he was fixing a flat. I don't know if I
would've caught him had he not flatted, but I definitely closed the gap
significantly when the course pointed downward. Again, another small
victory that I'll take.

So the margin of victory in the TWW All Mountain competition was less
than 2 minutes - not bad after nearly four hours of racing. Frankie
and I had a great time competing and I'll look back on this as a great
highlight for me. Now I have to do something appropriate for the
blog...

Many thanks to all the folks there with, affiliated, and supporting of
TWW. Michel, thanks for securing the tent sites. Kyle, thanks so much
for sticking around to shuttle us back to the campground. You could've
been home by the time we got back to the campground. Isaias, thanks
for getting everyone hyped up about this race too. Ty, you can still
ride with TWW since you didn't flat (interesting though that my tire is
flat today after sitting in the garage - must have a slow leak from the
XC race. Whew, just made it apparently). Nice job with the fastest
TWW time on the XC course.

There are many others too - thank you. And congrats on all your
finishes. Finishing at D-ville in itself is a victory. I had a great
weekend - hope you did as well.

Mike

P.S. - Oh and Heather, Matt has my number, so you can get it from him. :)

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