APRIL 08 RACING

Thanks to all of you I am off to my best season ever! At least with regard to results…

March was a bust this year for training after I ended up with an abscessed saddle sore a week after returning home for my first race in Texas. After two weeks off the bike I was a little to hasty to get going again. Not wanting to have another problem, I had changed my saddle position a little and imanaged to pull my hamstring in the process of returning to riding!

I kitted up for the Banana Belt III road race which is part of the not-so-prestigeous Oregon Cup this year. It was of course cold and trying to rain but I felt decent and was ready to race. Unfortunately I flatted after about 20 miles and the resulting slow wheel change meant a long attempted chase back to the pack. Didn’t happen and I was losing time after another 20 miles. So I just rode home and started dreaming about warmer days to come.

Thank goodness it WAS warmer in Fontana, CA for the National Mountain Bike Series round #1. After an unscheduled business trip to San Jose earlier that week, I was again touched by some sort of bug. This time in my intestinal track. I seemed to recover and felt decent on Friday during my pre-ride of the XC course. Then Saturday morning I woke up to back pain. Once I got up and visited the toilet a few times it became apparent that my ‘back’ pain was really some abdominal cramps. Things settled down and I raced that afternoon.

I pre-registered way early in hopes of getting some respect at the start line. Not so. Typical NMBS cluster and I was in 83rd position heading out on lap one. My fitness is clearly coming on regardless of all the setbacks, though. By the end of the race I had managed to saw through the field and finish in 28th spot. Not bad considering… That equaled my best ever NMBS result, too!

After the race I was in real trouble, though. The violent effort brought back whatever was in my gut with a vengeance. I got no more than 2 hours sleep Sunday morning (yes, not Saturday night) and was stricken for the next three days. Finally just as we were getting ready to leave Thursday for NMBS #2 in Arizona things started to improve. Flew down Thursday AM and got a nice lap of the marathon course ridden.

Friday AM was the marathon start and we had a decent field. Liam Killeen, Nat Ross, Travis Brown, Tinker Juarez, fellow Scott rider Cody Peterson, my 2006 Transalp partner Ben Thompson, all in the house. So it was time to get my game on no matter what. We left the start and there seemed to be a little hesitation going into the first trail. I took the initiative and the lead since so many times I have gotten ‘gapped off’ by slower riders at the start of these races. I rode a manageable pace for about the first five miles then started looking for help at the front. When I turned around there were only 4 riders left!

Wow, that was easy… I messed around drafting Ross, Peterson, Killeen, and Juarez for the next lap plus. It was good to have company but harded to ride behind some of those guys in the desert. Just before the descent on the second lap of three, I was getting antsy. So, I stood on it over a few rollers and immediately dropped all four of them. Not wanting to ride for 30 miles alone, I sat up and waited for Killeen. Finally he re-joined me and sucked wheel back the start/finish line. As we started north again, I let him go to the front and he was riding a hard tempo. Unfortunately for me, the wind had shifted to behind us and he is a little guy. So, all the way up the false flat climb (15 miles) I slowing lost track of Liam. He was riding about a .5 mph faster but there was nothing I could do.

I resigned myself to second but withheld hope of catching up on the long downhill to the finish. Then I had a mental lapse and flew off into the cactus and stacked it, scraping my left side up pretty well. After that, I just rode it in finishing 4.5 minutes after Killeen but about 8 minutes ahead of Tinker and Nat.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/mtb.php?id=mtb/2008/apr08/NORBA_2_08/NORBA_2_081

The rest of the weekend was a stage race with a time trial, short track, and regular cross country event. I took it easy for the TT and ST and gave it all I had left during the XC event. Since my decent finish at Fontant I got to start on the 3rd row in AZ. Much better and I was able to finish a very respectable (and personal best) 19th!

Last weekend was round #2 of the Oregon Cup road series near my home in Kings Valley, Oregon. The weather was finally in the 70s (for one day so far this year) so it was a great day for a training ride. An early breakaway got off early with Doug Ollerenshaw (Rock Racking) leading the charge. Adam Craig (Giant) and myself among others tryed to rally a chase but two of the big local teams were also represented in the break so we were all really content to race for 5th at the end. I managed 12th at the finish so I was pretty happy with that. A nice ride home to Salem and I had a 100+ mile day.

Later in the evening I visited the Blackrock Freeride park in Falls City, Oregon. Our team, Capitol Subaru Cycling is going to be taking over the annual cross-country race there beginning in 2009. This years event takes place on June 1st and I have volunteered to re-design the course. We got it all laid out on Saturday evening and it promises to be the best XC course in Oregon this year. Come on over and check it out!

This weekend is the first National Ultra Endurance race in Tennessee. Since it will only be the second time I have ever ridden my bike east of the Mississippi and over 100 miles in a day, I am not sure what to expect. I am ready to race, though, and looking forward to another chance at a great early season result!

I have attached some pictures from CA and AZ for you all to enjoy!

Thanks again,
Evan Plews