Guest blogger: Tyler Loewens
The Lewis and Clark Marathon MTB race was a complete 180°
polar opposite experience when compared to the Platte River Marathon MTB race
(report found here). From what I can tell this was due to three main things: 1)
Better gearing 2) Better in-race nutrition 3) Course more suited to my growing
skillset. At the end of this shindig I am also going to touch on my
ever-changing impression of what MTB is best suited to my needs (previous report found here), as well as some current gear changes needed.
Gearing:
Holy hell does gearing make a big difference when you are
running a 1 by setup! Out at Platte I was running a 1 X 9 with a 34 tooth front
chainring, and an 11-32 cassette. After that terrible experience I decided to
change to a much smaller front chainring in anticipation of the L&C race
which is supposed to have steeper climbing.
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| New 1X10 X7 drivetrain |
After doing some quick research I found that the 30 tooth
chainring was the smallest I could go on a 104 BCD crank without being a huge
PITA. Well it turns out that 30 tooth front chainring would no longer work with
my chain guide, so now I had a decision to make. Sure I was running a narrow
wide front chainring, however my 9 speed XT rear derailleur was built prior to
clutch-type technology so would the chain stay on over rough stuff? Well I put
the 30 tooth front chainring on without the chain guide, and rode the bike up
and down the neighborhood. Nothing immediately fell off so I did the “ass-drop”
test and sure as toddlers are adverse to bedtime, that chain popped right off.
Eff.
So I went digging through my box of rear derailleurs and noticed
my 10 speed X7 type 2 RD hanging out. Then I notice I still have an 11-32 10
speed cassette as well! Both of these were from my cross bike which I just
switched to 11 speed. Golden. I ordered an X7 shifter and the cheapest 10 speed
chain I could find. Once those arrived I put it all together and hello 2011,
Tyler has arrived! I now had a 1X10 drivetrain without a chain guide that
worked!
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| Sure looks more modern without the chain guide |
So that was a long build-up to say that the new 30/32 tooth
low gear combination was instrumental in my success at the L&C race. I
could actually sit and spin a gear up tough climbs that did not have my lower
back tight with fatigue after only an hour. Not to mention I now had that extra
gear in the rear cassette that helped make the gear jumps that much more
comfortable. On top of that the X7 shifter can dump 5 gears at a time, so I can
effectively sweep the cassette in two shifts! I did this many times
transitioning from a flat-out fast section to a steep rooty climb. So choice.
Better in-race nutrition:
I have always struggled with in-race nutrition that would
not make my stomach a little sick. This time around I took a chance and brought
along two PowerBar energy Blends that look much like the applesauce packets my
2 year old loves.
After the second lap I figured out that the feed zone was
the best place for me to get some sort of food down. The second lap I had a
Hammer Nutrition gel (what I normally use), and was OK. The third lap I slammed
one of these PowerBar energy blends and wow, what a taste difference! For a
blended energy product it actually tasted like real food! Talk about a pick me
up. On the fourth lap I took another Hamer Nutrition gel and felt my stomach
start the downward spiral, so the next lap I took my second energy blend and
again was happy for some real food. After that second blend my stomach turned
around and I felt good the rest of the race! (even the disgusting energy blend
that tasted like coconut was a good boost for me)
I was feeling so good that on the 6th lap I was
singing to myself and other racers. I came upon two guys riding a good pace and
sang “I love the fishes cause their so delicious”, and instead of them
finishing the song they stopped and looked back at me in unison like I was
crazy. Not at all what I was intending, however they got off the course and let
me by which was super classy of them (or maybe they were just hoping I didn’t go
crazy and eat my own fecal matter in front of them). Of course I finished the
song after passing.
For sports drink I was again using Skratch labs in my
bottles. Again I used three different flavors so I could have that little
mental joy when I grabbed a new one “Ooo, Pineapple!” Again I found myself
wishing for a second bottle mount as I would lose a good 10 to 20 seconds per
lap getting a new bottle out.
Course more suited to my growing skillset:
As this is only my second actual MTB race, it is absolutely
still too early to understand which type of course will really suit my skills. With
that in mind I can tell you that Lewis and Clark suits me much more than
Platte.
A lap of the Platte race course starts off with a sustained
and fairly steep doubletrack climb that can be loose in a few spots. A lap of
Lewis and Clark (besides the start on Monument Road) starts off with a super
fun and fast descent that us slow-pokes go down in the 3+ minute zone (fast
guys going in under 2 and a half minutes!!). On top of that, L&C’s climbs
are a bit shorter and more punchy which is more suited to my “yes I would like
another beer” rear end. L&C to me just feels like it has a flow that one
can really get into.
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| Strava Ride details for my race |
Lewis and Clark is where a mountain bike truly has a strong
advantage over a cyclocross bike. Many of you will remember how handily my
brother (Travis Loewens) smoked me in the Platte marathon race on his
cyclocross bike. In the L&C race I was able to catch Travis on the first
descent with ease, even if he had gapped me by over 30 seconds prior to it.
After the 3rd lap I had followed Travis up Never-Rest (both of us
off the bikes pushing), and then saw him in the feed zone getting something out
of his cooler (he runs a bladder instead of bottles, so it must have been
food).
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| Strava elevation profile for my race |
I knew this was my opportunity to put some time into him and
force him to expend more energy on the climbs to catch me, so I quickly grabbed
a bottle and food and headed off to the course. I heard him say something along
the lines of “I love you, enjoy your ride, unicorns make the best sandwiches”
(could have been something derogatory too….shrug), and I was off. I let it rip
as much as I was comfortable with and set my fastest time on that descent for
this race. We only saw each other in passing on the course going opposite
directions the rest of the race. I just forced myself to keep a steady climbing
pace, and then really concentrate on using the rooty descents to my advantage. If Travis had an actual MTB at this race, the outcome would have been different for sure.
Those three things together (better gearing, better
nutrition, and better course) added up to me coming in 3rd place in
my age group (ages 14-39 CAT 1,2,3) and 5th place overall Marathon. I
cannot describe how good I felt about having that much more of an enjoyable
race.
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| Third place! |
So how did the old gal (my Trek 69er) do on Lewis and Clark?
Surprisingly well! There are two things I need to change:
I am using the Ergon GS2 grips which have a small integrated
bar-end, and an ergonomic shape to the grip itself. While I really love the
small bar-ends for a different hand position when climbing in my lowest gear,
that ergonomic grip shape is downright dangerous in technical descending. The
little angled shape prevents your hands from getting all the way around the
grips which makes it very hard to hold on when bombing down technical
singletrack that is throwing your hardtail bike all over the place. Time to change
those out to something else. Suggestions?
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| I am going to miss those bar ends |
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| The ergonomic part of the grip hinders your control |
I am still using the origial Avid Juicy 5 hydraulic brakes
that came with the bike in 2009. Those of you that know about the Avid brake
reputations will already be asking me why I haven’t changed already. While
these brakes always stopped me in time (and in super noisy fashion), I always
had to use two fingers on each lever. Even when I just wanted to scrub a little
speed, one finger would not do it. Maybe I need to bleed and adjust them…maybe
I need new pads….maybe I should just ditch these brakes for something like an
SLX brake with the icetech rotors. Suggestions?
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| These brakes have got to go |
While I still would have wanted a more stable descending
bike overall, and more traction climbing over roots (my one wreck was in slow
motion on a root that slipped my rear wheel off to the side and forced me into
a tree), I am now starting to amend my assumption that I really need a full
suspension bike. If anything a full 29er hardtail with a forgiving backside
might be the cats meow. What I really need to do is get a full suspension bike
next to a 29er hard tail for a demo on the same day same course. Either way I
am pretty sold on a 1 by setup for my next bike.
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| My only mark from the wreck |
Unfortunately there was a wedding scheduled at the Lewis and Clark monument that same day, so all of us racers had to park on the road. I got the Bike Way truck their early enough to get an OK spot, however the race organizers had such a good setup near the finish line that we hardly used our own tent at all. Oh well, it is still nice to have the tools and a bike stand available if you need it.
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| You can see our pop-up tent in the background in orange....pretty close to the registration tent really |
So what's next this season for me? The Odin's Revenge Gravel Race Long course. This is about 180 miles of gorgeous and super challenging gravel and B roads in middle Nebraska. I am crossing my toes that the rain they keep getting out their stops soon, otherwise I will be really wishing for some bigger tires than my 700X40's.
Hope you enjoy reading! As always feel free to leave a message below.
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