CCCX Mountain-Bike XC Race #1, Fort Ord, 2/12/2023

 By Dennis Pedersen

Most of you probably think of me as a track cyclist. That has certainly been true for the last 10 or more years. So how did I end up astride my new Ibis DV9 hardtail on a beautiful day in Fort Ord, ready to start my first mountain-bike race in 16 years? Well, it's a long story that I won't get into (though you can read the story here), but I was stoked and ready to race on the dirt trails!

My friend and former boss Chris and I had talked each other into racing. Neither one of us had much belief that we'd do well, but racing is exciting and motivates us to stay healthy and fit. Chris and I had ridden at Fort Ord a couple of times recently, and the trails were still so familiar to me after all those years. And the recent rains had left the trails in beautiful shape, without the usual loose dust.

I drove down just in time to sign up, get ready, and reconnoiter a little bit. I was surprised at how many old friends I saw there, including fellow former Team Bicycle Trip team member Jose Luis Hernandez, now a competitor in the Category 2 55+ group I was in. As we lined up for the start of our cross-country race, on the only paved section we'd be on, I got to meet several other competitors and friends. 

Chris's 45+ group was lined up just ahead of us, when we started to roll forward. Suddenly, I realized this was the actual start of our race too. Oops! I wasn't the only one caught out, and several other people lagged behind as others raced forward onto the trails. Knowing how important a good start is, I quickly sped past several other riders and hit the dirt. 

Keith Defiebre, the CCCX race promoter, had advertised these races as being 4 to 5 miles per lap, with my group racing for four laps. Well, having done no endurance training in many years, I didn't expect to last long. I was right. About halfway into the first lap I could already tell I could not keep up with my competitors, even though I drafted as much as possible. Marcelo, the only competitor I was able to stay with for a while, slowly pulled away from me in spite of my best efforts. Being fast for 250 meters is very different from being fast for 250 minutes. 

Soon, as is common in cross-country racing, I found myself riding by myself, or passing or being passed by the same handful of people at various parts of the course. Man, my legs were definitely not happy. While I was breathing heavily, it was really the burning in my legs that was holding me back. 

But the course is a blast to ride, and really suits me well. Or would have suited me well if I had trained for it like I had in the past. Lots of small rolling hills, hard packed sand, fun downhills, and very few technical sections, all contributed to a great ride for me. Even though I was enjoying the course, my painful legs and burning lungs forced me to slow down and even stop pedaling to stretch occasionally. At some low moments I even thought I should just drop out of the race. But then I remembered how much I fun I was having and kept going. Right? 

On my third lap I noticed a couple of my competitors pass me. I didn't like that, but there wasn't much I could do except watch them ride slowly into the distance. I think they were some of the riders who got confused at the start. On my last lap, I was amazed at how fast the category 1 racers passed me. The only people I passed were a few of the slower juniors and women. 

I was able to get an idea of my lap times from Strava, and they showed how I went from 28-minute laps to 30-minute laps during the course of the race. In some ways I was surprised it wasn't worse. My competitors set fairly consistent laps in contrast. 

Thankfully, the final finish line soon appeared, and boy was I grateful! My lungs were literally hurting from gasping for breath for just shy of 2 hours. Strangely, my legs recovered pretty quickly. I guess because their potential is so low now, I wasn't able to push them hard enough to cause much damage, even though it felt like I had while racing. 

By the way, I had expected about 16 miles of racing, but we ended up doing almost 24 miles, with over 2300 ft of climbing, and I finished 7th out of 8 riders, at 1:57.14, almost 10 minutes behind the winner. 

So, I really did have fun, and it was so exciting and great to see old friends again. I'm planning on racing the next CCCX race, on February 26th. Hopefully my legs will have adapted better to this punishment by then!