Victory Hill Enduro

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fowleezy
Autobus
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Joined: Mon Jan 29, 2018 3:02 pm

Victory Hill Enduro

Post by fowleezy »

Posting in the hopes we can up the membership in the club's Enduro Team....

Pare, Cactus and I headed up to Victory Hill (think: back side of Burke Mountain) for what I think is the best race of the year. The race was contested over 6 timed downhill stages and ended up being about 20 miles including transfers and about 3700 ft climbing. We practiced the stages Friday and Saturday before the race on Sunday.

My race went pretty smoothly, modulo a rear flat halfway through the first stage. I'm not sure what exactly happened, but with each corner I could feel it getting softer, so I pedaled as hard as I could hoping to get to the end of the stage before it was totally flat. I failed miserably in this, but managed to only lose 11 seconds on the stage despite the rear end totally washing out in the last few corners. It turns out my rim tape was somehow cooked, so I had to throw a tube in and transfer to the second stage. I put the pressure higher than I would have liked to try to prevent flatting again, and luckily that worked as I didn't have any problems for the rest of the day.

The rest of my race was pretty uneventful. My cornering is still not up to snuff with the top guys, and I lost a bit of time on all of the stages but overall had a pretty clean race. I ended up top 7 in all of the stages, with a second on the fourth stage that was super pedally and suited me well. I ended up in 5th at the end of the day and clung on to the wide angle podium. Final time was 31:20, with first place in my category at 30:33. Definitely still lots of work to do on fitness and cornering, but happy I put together a solid race.

I highly recommend checking these trails out if you are ever up at KT.

Oh hey Pare BTW, How did YOUR race go???
chrismitchell
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Joined: Wed Nov 16, 2016 11:07 am

Re: Victory Hill Enduro

Post by chrismitchell »

So after a couple years of avoiding Enduro racing, I was finally cornered into racing Victory hill. This was my first time up to Victory and it was well worth the trip, not super technical but a ton of flow and small kickers that you could get creative with. Practice on day 1 and 2 went well, although I don't think any of it stuck by the time I got to race day.

Feeling good after day 2 of practice, I decided to celebrate, with a beer... or two, perhaps a couple more snuck in there also. Anyway by the end of the night I had Fowler and Pare looking at me sideways asking if I remembered I had a race in the morning, unfazed, I headed back to the bar. After an early rise and some 'herbal remedies' I was good to go. I was going for the shock and awe approach and decided to rock the full spandex MRC XC kit. It was of course a smashing hit along with my XC helmet and DH kneepads. I figured the Lycra alone should ensure that nobody followed too close behind.

Going into the race I had a goal of finishing top half of my age group with a reach goal of finishing top 10. A botched turn on stage 1 (right in front of the camera) got me thinking more realistically and from then on I just tried to ride smooth. Honestly I think I just crashed because I got distracted by the people watching. The rest of the race went fairly smooth and I finished 18/41 in my age group, placing right in the middle on (almost) every stage, with the exception of the aforementioned pedally stage 4. This was a great time, super glad I went and glad to get that first race under my belt. Hopefully we can recruit a few more for next year!

Also, I was rocking my go-pro for the race. Got most of it on video if anyone is interested in checking it out (camera was obstructed on stage 2), the links are below. Don't mind the mindless banter that I still need to edit out at the end of most of them.

Stage 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59ykvxOpqU0&t=170s
Stage 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qinjyfw0ZsI
Stage 4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvfsLWWZUUM
Stage 5: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcVQKL51yGE&t=332s
Stage 6: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glfZduvIkoE

Also Huge Shout out to Fowler and Pare on their big finishes! They killed it out there!
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pace21
Maillot Jaune
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Re: Victory Hill Enduro

Post by pace21 »

Anyone who thinks enduro racing is the "easier" form of mountain bike racing is sorely mistaken. Ooooo baby that was hard race. As "hardest mountain bike races ever" go, it won't knock Gnar Weasels 2015 off the top step, but it's definitely on the podium. Physiologically speaking, it was unlike any other form of racing. Maaayyybe close to a real hard Battenkill but still different. It was 3 hours on the nose, but exactly 30 minutes and 47 seconds of it was max effort, anaerobic, zone 6 stuff with enough rest just before each approx. 5 minute effort that it was guaranteed to be a full gas interval (unlike traditional 5 minute intervals that you might do at, say, a paltry VO2max intensity). And that was the downhill lol... The *actual* 3700 feet of climbing (and remaining 2+ hours) was mostly done at high zone 2 to just below threshold (you can only go so slow without falling over on the steep parts). I digress, on to the racing....

With the exception of Stage 1 where I caught my 30 second man all my stages were reasonably clean, no crashes, no hiccups, and I managed to slow down just enough through some of the real sketch so as not to cause a big time gaff. What about catching my 30 second man? At first I was bummed because unlike a road TT you can't really pass on fast downhill singletrack -- I basically had to slow down for the last minute or so of the stage. In hindsight I could read 2 things into that: (1) maybe it was good to calm my nerves and let me get through stage 1 clean as I've crashed on stage 1 in two previous enduros, and (2) I caught my 30 second man, that's probably a good sign.

I started towards the front of the 40+ and I didn't dilly-dally much between stages so I managed to be the first finisher in my class (which of course means nothing because of the 6 stage time trial format) so I got to sit around for the next couple hours while everyone else trickled in. Names kept getting added to the results on the computer display but they all were slotting in below me. Then it got really interesting when I saw the names of the 3 fast dudes that have all beaten me in my previous races show up on the leader board in second, third, and 8th place. From there it was more waiting until they finally locked the results and sure enough, first place. Not quite as dramatic as a bike throw in a sprint, but I'll certainly take it and consider 2018 a success especially after kneegate and Crattflu were the highlights of the first half of the year!
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Jacob
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Location: Arlington, MA

Re: Victory Hill Enduro

Post by Jacob »

Nice!
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Mkidd3
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Re: Victory Hill Enduro

Post by Mkidd3 »

NICE!!! Congrats!
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