Treasure Valley Rally 2011

The Treasure Valley Rally is the finale in the EFTA race series and is organized by the bike team to which I belong, Team Bums.  This year the race was slated to take place on 8/28/11.  Irene, however, had other ideas.  She tore through New England, striking down on us with great vengeance and furious anger.  The race was postponed a day or two before it was supposed to happen.  On the bright side, we had the pleasure of learning what it was like to live without electricity for a week, so it was a fair trade.

After some frantic message board conversations, it was decided the race would be rescheduled to 10/16.  Almost unbelievably, this was the next available weekend that didn't step on the toes of an integral player or go head to head with a competing race.

Brett Russ, the race director, spends countless hours getting this thing ready.  He oversees trail maintenance, organizes with the scouts (Treasure Valley is a scout reservation), works to have shirts made (big nod to Scott Nelson, artist extraordinaire), lines up sponsors for prizes, etc, etc, etc.  I met Brett the day before the race this year to help set up for a few hours.

I helped stake out the starting area and then we headed up to a stream crossing where a bridge had washed out with the storms and built a new bridge, put it in and gapped the shortage with rocks. 



Luke Luck might like lakes but Brett builds bombproof bridges



Wheel-ready!



Once the bridge was built and in, we headed down to the field to stake and tape an area of crossing traffic.  From there I grabbed a leaf blower and blew the section of trail back down to the start, ate a delicious Italian grinder (thanks Brett!) and then leaf blew the section back up to the same field (in the rain - ugh!).  That was the end of my trail work day.  Back home to rest up for the race the following day.

I got to bed early following some carb-laden American chop suey (thanks Cori!) and was up early the next day and headed back up to Treasure Valley with Cori and Harry.  I helped stake out the staging area and finishing chute before getting myself race ready.  My race was slated to start shortly after 11 am.  I did a little pre-riding and then saw Harry's race go off at 10 am.  He moved up from the kids race to the youth race, which was two miles replete with double bridgeless stream crossings and a few tough climbs.  He did great!!!

Listen up!  I want to see a fair fight.  No nunchucks, no knives. Now kick some butt!

Nearing the finish!

After the youth race, we had our racers meeting.  Despite Brett seemingly having hit puberty while giving his big speech, we all got the point and were ready to roll!

Racers' Meeting

I had cracked the support between my chain stays on my Fisher (new rear triangle expected this week - a big thanks to Ben at Bicycle Concepts!).  I called Mike Tonry three days before the race and he answered the phone, "You need a bike?"  Before the day was out I had a beautifully equipped Niner Jet 9 in my possession (THANKS MIKE TONRY!!!!!). 

One Fish, Two Fish, Cracked Fish, Blue Fish

Nothing could be finer than to be on Tonry's Niner in the moooornin'

The Elites went off followed by the Experts, then my Sport group and finally the Novices, with all but the Elites in waves grouped by age.  My age group in Sport was the largest wave in the entire race.  There were 27 racers in it including me and it's pretty competitive.  As usual, I did a bad job queuing up and ended up in the second to last row with maybe two or three rows in front of me.  I did score an outside position, so I was lined up to do some passing on the right side of the pack.  

They only gave the 30 - 39 year old group in front of us a one minute lead before they sent us off, so when we started, I had a good stretch of passing going on for probably the first quarter of the first of two laps.  The course crossed the same two stream crossings that Harry went across.  I got across both pedaling all the way through.  Not everyone was so lucky.

Dirty mountain biker takes bath!

About to clean the second stream crossing

I break the course up into four sections in my head  

1. the climb up to the top of the Sampson's Pebble
2. the gnarly descent down to the lake
3. the torturous cart road climb back up to the Pebble
4. the what must be downhill but seems like more uphill back to the start

Sampson's Pebble

Things thinned out pretty well by the time I made the first climb up to the Pebble.  Mike Tonry was up there offering words of encouragement to everyone who rode by, although I suspect he was really there to check up on his Niner.  

Next was the downhill to the lake.  That was great.  If you race mountain bikes, you know that a lot of the stuff you don't clean is because the riders in front of you got hung up on it.  When you're on your own, you own everything, be it victory or defeat.  I was riding pretty well.  I got to the bottom and began the climb back up to the Pebble.  It's an unforgiving beast of a climb.  I made it up, said hi to Mike again and started down the Midstate.  

I soon figured out that the Novice groups who went out before us had skipped the down to the lake and climb back up to the Pebble and were now in front of me.  Man, oh man, passing on the Midstate is a task and a half.  I got down to the start to hit lap two.  I didn't really know what place I was in and couldn't hear the announcer through all the hubbub down there.  

Went back out and had a solid second lap.  Legs started cramping toward the end, but I was able to ride through it.  A quick brush with fame as I saw a blur fly by that was Mike Broderick, the 166th best mountain biker in the world.  I crashed into something on my way down on the last lap, but all in all it went really well.

I finished pretty strong.  Fifth of the 27 starters in my group and only seven minutes out of first.  Not bad for 19.5 grueling miles.  Total time 2:29:16.  

My hand was a little bashed up from whatever I crashed into.  The ambulance guys looked bored, so I let them clean it up and give me a band aid. 

Ouch.

 

Cori was at the finish line working with Beckie Beaupre to help with the time keeping.

For a good time...!

Hung around afterwards and watched the awards while having a pulled pork sandwich from the scouts' barbecue.   

Elite Men: Matt Boobar (3rd), Mike Broderick (1st), Paul Simoes (2nd) with race director Brett Russ

Karen Potter, 2nd Place Elite Female

Potter's pooch, Bruschi

 Really great showing from lots of my riding friends.  And a spectacular job by all the volunteers at the race.  And especially Brett.  Great race!