East Coast North America Singlespeed Champitionships of the Universe, Part Deux

This Was Originally Written for the MORE monthly e-mail newsletter back in June... Just stumbled across it while I was cleaning up the MORE site and figured i'd post it here...

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ECNASSCU 2004: I've Got to Climb THAT on a Singlespeed?

That’s what I was thinking as I checked out the course map and description for the ECNASSCU Part Deux for the first time. According to the description, stage 2 was a hill climb that gained 700’ in a mile. I’m normally at my limit riding Fountainhead on a singlespeed and I was starting to doubt the wisdom of trying to do this, and doing it while carrying half of my camera gear and trying to shoot the race. But I should start at the beginning and not in the middle.

I drove up to State College, PA on Saturday morning for ECNASSCU (the East Coast North American Singlespeed Championships of the Universe, Part Deux) and the MORE spring camping trip – convenient how those 2 events just happened to be in the same place on the same weekend – it’s almost as if someone planned it that way. Pulling into the campground around 12:30 I found Scott Scudamore and Mark Wigfield trying to out for what should have been a morning ride. I set up my tent and joined in the discussions around the map as we tried to hash out a route.

We finally set out on what we guessed was a 10-12 mile ride in Rothrock State Forest around 1:30, joined by fellow MORE members DT, Trevor, Eric and Lisa. The ride started with a 2 mile fire road climb that gained about 350’ from the campground. I was on my singlespeed, as I’d decided to stay in the spirit of the event and ride 1 gear all weekend, and I was feeling surprisingly good on the first climb. After some navigation discussions at the top of the climb we found our route and turned down a long smooth descent on an old fire road, losing over 1000’ in 3 miles. The downhill was pretty smooth, but you could let go of the brakes and hit speeds near 30 miles an hour.

At the bottom of the fire road we decided that instead of riding the road to the next section of the ride we could carry our bikes down a steep and rock portion of the off-limits to bikes Mid-State trail to get to a legal trail that ran along side a creek. The trail at the bottom was a blast with a couple of nice rock gardens that we sessioned for a while. Once we made through the trail we started up Long Mountain Trail to get back the vertical that we lost earlier in the ride. The trail turned out to be 4 mile, 1100’ climb up an overgrown fire road and I probably walked as much of as I rode.

Once we hit the top of trail it crossed a gas line right of way and became singletrack so tight that you could barely see the trailbed at times through the mountain laurel. We climbed for short time and then the trail turned into a sweet twisty downhill with a very steep and rocky section about half way down which we attempted to ride but I don’t think anyone managed it. After some more singletrack the trail dumped us out half way up the first fire road we climbed at the start of the ride and we sprinted back down to the campsites.

Later in the afternoon, as we drove into town, I looked at a copy of the course map for the race the next day and kept looking at the description of the 2nd stage. 700’ in a mile sounded like another long hard walk after my performance on Long Mountain. By the time we got back from town the rest of the group had arrived, set up camp and most had managed to fit in a ride. We finished the day with a great potluck dinner and settled in for a night around the campfire.
The next morning we had a great pancake breakfast – courtesy of Scott and his mobile kitchen – and then packed up the cars to head over to Tussey Mountain ski area, the staging point for the race. Since I, like most of the riders there, was there to ride and have fun, not to compete I brought my camera along and tried to shoot as much of the race as possible.

We started with a long but fairly gentle climb that started on road then became doubletrack and finally singletrack. At the top of the climb everyone lined up for the lemans start of stage 1 and I headed down the trail into the woods to find a good place to shoot. Since the race is a stage race I’d have plenty of opportunities to get ahead of the pack to set up. After the last racer came through I started down the trail, a sweet, rocky, undulating ridge top trail. I didn’t keep going for long as I had my first flat, then a second, and third. I ended up walking to the end of the stage and caught the support van just before it was about to leave. They gave me a “Rothrock Approved” inner tube to replace mine and gave me directions to the 2nd stage, since it had left long ago.

The stage 2 climb that I had been dreading was hard, but it was on a smooth gravel road and I surprised myself by managing to climb the whole thing without walking or stopping. At the top I managed to find the start of stage 3. Stage 3 was a 2-up downhill time trial, riders raced against the clock, starting 2 at a time about 30 feet from the entrance to the singletrack. When I arrived there were about two dozen pairs of riders left to start so I walked down the trail a short way to shoot the riders starting the stage. After the last riders started I rode back to the end of stage 2 with a couple of the Mt. Nittany Wheelworks riders who were helping to run the event. The finish of stage 2 was also the finish of stage 4, a climb on an old rough fire road and I wanted to be there early to make sure I was there when the racers finished in case it was contested at the end and finished in a sprint. After shooting the racers finishing (including a sprint) we rode over to the top of stage 5.

This is the stage that I’d been waiting for. I’d seen pictures and heard descriptions of it from last year. The racers were still waiting at the top and would ride it as a time trial, but the non-racers were already heading down the trail, and combined with the fact that I was carrying a lot camera gear I decided to ride down the fire roads to the finish. Once we got to the finish I walked up to the rock garden and spent the next 45 minutes shooting the action and watching riders come down and try to clean it. The atmosphere at the stage finish was amazing; everyone was watching and cheering on each and every rider as if they were old friends. There were a few crashes and less than half the field made it through to the finish without at least a dab. The biggest cheer was for an injured rider walking down the course.

Stage 6 started with a climb up a fire road that was followed by a beautiful bench cut downhill just technical enough to keep you on your toes. I got a head start on the climb and managed to make it up and find a place to shoot the downhill just ahead of most of the field. I rode down to the end of the stage just as everyone was forming up for stage 7, a short dab/no-dab section through a rock garden and 3 narrow footbridges. The atmosphere was like stage 5 with riders watching and cheering on everyone as they made their attempts on the rock garden and then the bridges. Very few riders managed to clean the whole section.

After the end of the stage 7 we rode trails back down to the ski area where Scott was firing up the grill for the post-race party. After some food and beer the top finishers and a wild card faced off on the go-kart track to decide the winner. DT rode the whole race fixed-gear and got the wild card slot. In the end go-kart the race was won by the same rider who’d won the most points during the race, a local road pro.

We rounded out the weekend with another night around the campfire and another great pancake breakfast, this one provided by Bill Trossen. All-in-all it was a great weekend. The weather was great, as was the company and the riding. If you’re thinking about heading up to the state college area I’ve got a couple of quick recommendations. First, get some nice thick tubes and keep the pressure in your tires higher then usual, and second, make sure you’ve got a map and some local knowledge of the trails – Rothrock is a huge park, not all of the trails are well marked, and some a definitely a lot better in certain directions.

Snowshoe/Slatyfork - A Ride Report in 4 Parts

Just got back from a couple of days in WV with my brother JJ, so here's a not so quick ride report in 4 parts.

Part 1 - A well maintained bike is a quiet bike (which can be a very
good thing)...

We got to snowshoe on Tuesday evening, had dinner and settled in and planning our first ride on Wednesday morning. Up early on wednesday, we picked up our trail passes and headed out to do a ride that we enjoyed last year, cheat mountain ridge to the fire tower, then down 6000 steps to the lake. The mountain bike trails at snowshoe are laid out with the "cross country" trails on the main skiing side of the mountain and at the silver creek area just down the road, and the "downhill" trails on the other side of the mountain (the "Western Territory").

Cheat mountain ridge is a fun, mostly flat trail that runs out around the valley to the opposite side on a mix of gravel and twisty, rooty singletrack through evergreen forest. About 3/4 of the way around, JJ froze and told me to stop. He'd just seen a black bear lumbering down the trail about 30' ahead of us. The bear didn't see us and we very quickly (and quietly) turned around. We headed back along cheat mountain ridge and found a trail that wound in and out of the woods along one of the ski trails, it was part of the NORBA pro XC loop (they rode it uphill) and was really muddy and torn up.

Part 2 - So that's why downhillers wear armor...

After a quick loop around the lake and a lift ride back to the top we decided to head over to the downhill side of the mountain. The trails aren't all pro-downhill difficulty and most can be ridden on a normal XC bike with some care. The first run was great, down shay's way to an area called poo plateau that was recommended by the guys in the bike shop. The trails were nice winding singletrack with small rock gardens and were a lot of fun, but we couldn't tell why it was rated difficult, until we found the way out... the gauntlet. The gauntlet was fairly straight, but steep and covered with loose rock. It was all rideable and fun, but there were a few sections that looked pretty sketchy...

On the shuttle ride back to the top, we ran into one of the guys from the snowshoe bike shop who was guiding a kid around the mountain. Since they were heading for the same area as we were, we asked if we could tag along. We started this run under the western territory lift and went through the start gate for the NORBA downhill run, though we didn't stay on it for long. Most of the run was fast and loose rocky skid roads, but it started raining while we were on the way down. Part of the way down we stopped and the guide showed us an alternate way down that connected back up the trail after a switchback. The shortcut was steep and rocky, and for some reason JJ and I decided to try it. The top looked difficult but rideable and I made it down about 1/2 of the 50 or yards of the - thanks to the new rain - muddy trail and then... well I'm not sure exactly want happened, I might have panicked and grabbed my front brake or got hung up on a rock, whatever it was the result was a massive endo which sent me flying into the rest of the rocks... I hit a rock with my chest and got the wind knocked out of me. JJ thought I'd broken a rib, and I wasn't sure for a while. I was pretty shaken up with scrapes and bruises on both legs and arms and my chest and abs. We made it though the rest of the run, taking the "easier" way down when there was an option...

Part 3 - Beware of guides that ride rigid 29er singlespeeds...

Thursday we headed away from snowshoe, down the road to Slatyfork and a full day's guided riding from Elk River Touring Center (birthday present from my parents). We met our guide Joey (on the 29er, actually a great guy, just needed a title for this section) loaded the bikes in the truck and headed up Gauley mountain. We stated out on a trail called FS134 (it started on old forest service roads) that would through some very pretty meadows and then into the woods. The drop-in to the singletrack section of the ride was just that, it stated with a drop that was easily 60 degrees, with a bend to the right. After Joey assured us that it was rideable, and then rode it himself, JJ tried and went off the trail and then over the bars about half way down. After making sure that he was OK, I tried and made it a little further, I panicked near the bottom when I realized that I was about to hit 2 small trees and went head first into the trail again. The rest of the ride was a lot of fun, with a good amount to climbing to help make up for the previous day's shuttling... after FS134, we did gauley mtn trail to bear pen loop to boundary trail and the back up on gravel... bear pen was a lot of fun, with downhills similar to the watershed, but harder. We finished the day with a long downhill that mixed overgrown forest service roads and singletrack, and ended on a fast gravel road...

Part 4 - red = record...

with both us nursing injuries, we decided to take it easy on Friday and stated out with another run to poo plateau, this time with the helmetcam... the ride was fun, but there is no helmetcam footage, well there is, but keep reading. Somehow I got the color that the LED on the remote lights up when it's recording mixed up (note to self: red is record, not green) so I have tape of everything that I didn't want to tape and no tape of what I wanted to tape... after the run JJs wrist was too sore to ride any more (from Thursdays crash) so we called it a day and spent the afternoon relaxing and packing up (we had to leave by 5:30am the next morning to get JJ back for a soccer practice).

Overall it was a great time, both at snowshow and slatyfork. We only scratched the surface of slatyfork and I want to go back (though probably [not?] for the race). I'm still sore from my crashes, but hopefully I'll be ok to race on Wednesday.