Ronde Ohop Kermesse

This past weekend I took advantage of my travel to the Seattle area and entered the Ronde Ohop Kermesse race near Eatonville, WA. This unique event was a combination paved/dirt/rock race that was based from the Nisqually-Mashel State Park (in the shadow of Mt Rainier National Park).

The Ronde Ohop is a Washington Cup event. Based on the website description, the race is meant to “evoke the Belgian tradition of short, fast and hard races .... the race runs on good county roads with 13 total miles of dirt road”. Most riders were on road bikes (including me). The number of flats and damaged wheels was impressive (think Hilly Billy Roubaix) with lots of DNF’s.

Since I rarely have a bike (as well as good weather) in the Seattle area, I couldn’t resist riding spectacular HC climbs (each with 3K+ ft of vertical) on each of the two days prior to this race. One of these rides was up to Sunrise (on the east side of Mt. Rainier) while the other was a climb to the Paradise Inn (on the south side of the mountain).

While these rides were great with amazing views of Rainier, they left my legs in a “less than fresh” condition for Sunday’s race. Subsequently, I ended up getting dropped far too early on the initial 14 mile road section. Thankfully, we then entered the final 2.2 mile loop section which included 1.3 miles of dirt trails with an abundance of fairly large, imbedded rocks. The race called for us to complete 10 laps of this loop which gave me the chance to catch quite a few of the roadies who were struggling with the trails.

While I would have liked to put in a better ride, I ended up finishing in 5th place in the Masters Men 50+, CAT 1/2/3/4/5 category with an average speed of 16.8 miles/hour.

This event was fairly well organized but it truly made me appreciate the great organizers we have on the West Pennsylginia race scene (where we have Port-a-Johns at races !).

On the positive side, the officials did have a nifty wireless camera set-up with a big domed tent (it rains alot here ...).

All things considered, I’m glad that I entered this race and it was great fun to have a chance to compete in the Pacific northwest.

Also, a big thanks to Len Throop (the owner of Eatonville Outdoor) who encouraged me to enter this race and loaned me his pump. Make sure you visit Len if you are ever in Eatonville !

Steamboat Stinger

This past weekend we caught up with Sam and Deidre in Steamboat, Colorado for a great visit and some mountain biking. While we were in town, I teamed up with Lorraine York (Deidre’s mom !) and entered the Steamboat Stinger Mountain Bike race in the Coed Duo (Open) category. For the Duo categories each teammate rides one 25 mile lap. To add to the excitement, Lorraine and I were competing in the same race category as Sam and Deidre (!).

I took the first lap which saw a wide variety of conditions due to passing rainstorms. The large field produced quite a traffic jam as the course hit a tight single-track section very early in the race.

After the initial 1500’ climb it started to rain fairly steadily as I descended into the adjacent valley. Unfortunately, the rain changed the course conditions from tacky wet, to slippery, flying mud during this descent.

Thankfully, the rain stopped as I arrived at the bottom and the trails started to dry quickly due to the low humidity. After climbing back up to the top of the ridge again I was greeted by an “unofficial” Aid Station that was stocked with PBR handups as well as bacon strips.

As I rolled back to the Start area at the bottom of the initial hill, Lorraine was ready for the handoff and laid down a fast lap.

At the end of the day we finished in 23rd place in the Coed Duo category. Sam and Deidre had a great day with a 2nd place finish (and a faster time than the Mens Duo winner !).

Storm Peak Challenge Hill Climb - Steamboat, CO

This past Wednesday I entered the Storm Peak Challenge Hill Climb Mtb race in Steamboat, Colorado. This event is part of the Steamboat Town Challenge Mountain Bike race series. Sam mentioned this race on Tuesday (as we were driving out to Colorado) and I thought that it sounded like a good chance to get out on the local trails and loosen up my legs from the long drive.

This is basically a mountain bike hill climb on the Steamboat ski slope mountain. I entered the Masters 50+ Sport race which was advertised as a 5.6 mile climb up to Storm Peak.

We rolled into Steamboat at about noon which gave me a bit of time to have a local bike shop (Orange Peel !) take a look at my rear brake (which was in serious need of a bleed job). As I noticed my shortness of breath after climbing the hotel stairs, I was starting to wonder about the wisdom of entering this race since I had no time to acclimate to the thin air at this higher elevation (Steamboat is at about 6,500 feet, while the race started at about 7,000 ft elevation and ended at over 9,000 feet). Also, the temperature at race time was almost 95F with bright sunshine and 5% humidity (!).

As expected, with the steep climb and thin (dry) air I had a hard time catching my breath on the first part of this race. However, I was able to settle into a steady groove after the first few miles and finished up on the mountain with no problems.

While I didn't encounter any of these (in person), I did see plenty of scat signs on on the trails to the top.

My next task was to get back to the lodge area at the base of the mountain. Somehow, I was imagining a nice paved road with great scenic views that I could easily glide down. In reality, the way home was more of a downhill mountain bike course filled with high speed banked turns. Thankfully, my brakes performed well and I enjoyed the bombing ride back to the bottom.

I ended up in 5th place in the Masters 50+ sports category with a time of 1:16:19 for the 6.4 mile climb.

After race festivities included a free Fat Tire Pale Ale at the Slopeside Grill and random awards via raffle.

One of the most interesting things about this series was the high number of kids that were racing (on shorter courses). In fact, the largest number of racers were in the "Coed 7-8 year old" class with 14 spirited competitors ...... very cool !

A challenging race with good organization and course marshalling as well as friendly competitors. Highly recommended !