Maybe there's a universe where 40+ miles of fireroad is a good idea, but it's not this one. So was the 8k+ of climbing supposed to make it fun? There had to be some reason I signed up for the Traverse, a 44 mile race across the Main Divide of the Santa Anna Mountains in Orange County.
Mostly, I signed up to get more experience at long mtb races. That worked out pretty well, but the course wasn't much to write home about. It really was all fireroad until the final descent of Trabuco Canyon (course gps). That was a blast, and to be fair, the Main Divide provided great views of snow covered Mt. San Jacinto (or was it San Gregornio?). There is also an appealing remoteness to the Main Divide... five+ hours of backcountry riding is enough to heal some of the wounds of city living.
Back to the racing, I went out pretty hard on the opening climb up Blackstar Canyon, reaching Beek's Place in about 50 min. Another hour or so of ups and downs (mostly ups) led to the junction with Silverado Motorway. Vision Quest goes down the single track, but we continued on. I hadn't preridden the course, so this was uncharted territory. The short version is more ups and downs... mostly ups.
There was a pretty long, sustained climb leading into the Four Corners, and the first aid station. I was glad to get there, partly because it meant I was halfway done, but also because I knew the course from there to the top of Santiago Peak. I actually felt pretty solid on the climb, passing a couple of people out of the aid station. After the lower section of the peak climb, there was a lot of space between riders.
A long descent followed Santiago, which was the high point for the course (almost 5.6k ft). I passed a couple of riders during the descent, which I attribute to the RIP9. As usually is the case on these kind of rides, the RIP is too much bike for most of the course. But it really excels on the downhills, especially rocky fireroad, which makes it seem worth the effort of pedaling it up all those climbs. At one point, I bombed past a guy, carrying a lot of speed into a long straight section. Unfortunately, the fireroad degenerated into a series of nasty potholes covered in large, loose rocks. I think it's bad form to crash in front of a guy you just passed... or at least, it's pretty humiliating. It was all I could do to stay on top of the bike and let it do it's thing, but eventually I rode it out and got back under control just before a tight right hand turn. Got a 'nice recovery' from the guy I was passing, then was back on it.
Eventually the descent led past the Lower Holy Jim turn off, and then it was more climbing, including a really horrible section called The Wall. You can imagine why, let me just say that it was steep, loose, and steep. Much time was spent simply trying to keep the pedals turning, trying to keep enough weight on the front to hold a line. Eventually, however, it was over, and the course "leveled" out, meaning the ups and downs were about equally balanced. I didn't know this part of the course, so I was glad to pass the turnoff for West Horsethief Trail, a nasty hike a bike that Vision Quest goes up. From there, I knew there was just some mellow (relatively) fireroad leading to the top of Trabuco.
I had a good run down Trabuco, enjoying the single track after 4+ hours of fireroad. Not as good as the last time I was there, which seemed sublime. Going in, I thought I could finish between 5:00 and 5:30. I was close to 5:15, so tempted to let it all hang out on the descent. But there was also a lot of poison oak. At speed, it's hard to tell what's deadly poison oak and what's harmless wild rose. I kept wanting to bob and weave, trying to avoid any plant hanging over the trail.
I hit the Trabuco Canyon jeep road and went flat out, having recovered a bit during the descent. Still, I came in at 5:17, not able to pull back two minutes to meet an arbitrary clock reading. Not bad, though, and I ended up 29th overall, out of 121 finishers and about 140 starters, and 6th in men's intermediate 31-45 (results). I pushed it reasonable hard the whole day, and nutrition, mechanics, and legs all worked pretty well. Any day where you can ride your bike for 5+ hours is a good day, even if it is nearly all on fireroads.
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