Hi you all, I was curious what you might recommend wearing for this race- do folks typically wear both chamois and shorts or just chamois? And what about tire pressure for tubeless? Sounds like it’s not too technical a trail… thank you so much for your insight!
Just chamois for sure, it will be a tad warm after 9-10am. Tire pressure depends on the size of tire you are running and rider weight. It’s not technical but lower pressure will give you a bit more traction and it is loose in a few spots.
Elliot thank you so much!!
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Temp at Race start 7 AM ~50°
End of 3 hour lap 1 at 10 AM ~ 75° 4 hours at 11 AM 82°
At least it looks like it will stablize by noon in the mid to upper 80’s
Relay member here. I’m doing lap one and only lap one, so I’ll dress similar to Unbound.
Smartwool base layer, bibs, and since I got some rash from a crash last weekend, arm sleeves and leg covers since sunscreen and abrasions don’t mix. medium/thin wool socks, finger less gloves. (not totally sold on that choice though) I’ll wear a jacket at the start, then shed the jacket at 5 min until the start and hand it off to my partner or I’ll just warm up exceptionally well and deal with it. The first climb will start my internal furnace as it is so there’s that.
Most people will just be in standard kits…temp shouldnt be a problem…you will be warm by the time you get to the village 1 mile into the race…the first 5 miles is one of the hardest climbs of the race…as far as pressures…whatever you usually run…there is some technical single track but 75% of the course is fireroad or double track.
For reference, I am running 2.4 tires and weigh about 155 pounds. I will do 16/17 psi.
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Nothing quiet like handing off to my really partner only to have Alex Wild rip through 5 minutes later on his way to the finish.
Congrats to @IvyAudrain & @Jonathan for cracking sub 5 hours.
And to all the TR Forum folks that came out to play on Saturday.
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Amazing work out there! Thanks for the kudos. I know I’ll definitely be down to do that again!
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It really was quite the choice. Nice temps for first lap but a) early wake up and b) can’t see the freaking trail because there’s so much dust. I still have no clue what caused my front to go away on the transition between the fire road and 2nd single track.
Also kudos to Amber & Jonathan for their advice on concussions. I did take a whack, so sought out the medic at the 1st rest stop for a check out, got cleared, and finished out the lap a bit more carefully than I might have sans crash. All these little things that get brought up during the podcast that you might not think you’re going to use, but come in hand say when you crash.
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Good on’ya for taking care of yourself! That’s tough to do in a race scenario.
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That was hard. My first big MTB race and I learned a ton.
I rode the course on Friday to get a preview and that helped a lot even though it wasn’t really great for “tapering”. I was coming off a crash 2 weeks ago and wanted to know if there was any really gnarly sections like rock gardens, drops, etc.
I cramped about 2 miles away from the finish line! Took a swig of water (I was sooo thirsty despite constantly drinking – might need to reconsider my sodium next time), then an angel rode by and said “If you smack your leg you’ll get it to release.” So I stood there punching my hamstring as hard as I could, must have looked ridiculous, and it released. I rode home to the finish.
One other thing I learned, was not to take my gloves off. I was so hot and my hands were overheating so I took them off for my final climb. Well my palms were sweating so the bars were slippery on the final descent into the finish!
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Yeah I had the warning signs of cramping up after Walternate. All the standing & weight shifting on the pedals triggered something. Dropped a bunch of cogs, slugged down some electrolyte and spun through it. SOooo glad I got to hand off to my partner for lap 2. Alex Wild’s comment about the climbs being back to back with very little rest on the DH between was spot on.
It was a great weekend (did Flume trail on Sunday) and apart from some hiccups with relay hand-off and timing that counted my finish as my team’s finish (we did NOT finish in 4h 14m and that glitch messed up awards ceremony too which was awkward) It was fun.
I would like to see the start go in waves though. With chip timing that shouldn’t be a problem and the waves don’t have to be micro-managed to a TT Level, just managed better than mass start. 
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I’m trying to get the 2022 course in GPX to go ride the route. I had a Chrome extension to download GPX files from strava segments, but strava changed their site so the tool no longer works. Does anyone have a link to a gpx for the route?
Thanks
Link from their site:
Thank you, that’s great, I’d not seen the link. I downloaded it from plotaroute, then imported to Garmin connect (it seems to be some ones ride, so showed up as taking 2:32 to complete), then saved as a course within Garmin. So now I should be good to just do the course with navigation telling me where to go.
Thanks.
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Just finished my first try at this race. Really my first MNTB race ever.
- I need help learning how to pace these kinds of events. I just missed the cutoff for the 2nd lap by a few minutes. I felt pretty good, I don’t think the second lap would have been much fun with the heat, so I was not too sad about missing the cut-off.
How do you guys pace yourself? I basically tried to keep my heart rate around 150 (Max HR of 179). I do not have a power meter for my MNTB. I would push harder on the climbs, especially if I could see I was near the top(thank you wahoo) because I knew descending would lower my heart rate (even if we were ripping).
In general, I felt like I left it all out there. I know I have more work to do to get in shape for these kinds of events. But any advice on pacing would be great.
Food/Hyrdration: Seems like it worked pretty well.
Breakfast : Nuun Salt Tablet with water, Bean and Cheese burrito (frozen)
Oncourse:
Camelback Chase with water
Two bottles with scratch.
I filled up once, but did not finish one bottle or the chase after the fill up. Mostly. I was worried about the heat (102—when I got back to my car).
Food. Lots and lots of Gels. one pro bar that I dropped 60% of on a descent. A few cliff blocks.
No cramping, a few pee’s in general it seemed like I did well on the food/hydration set up.
Pacing in MTB is more about you being in tune with your body than anything else. Really you just need to ride a lot and know when you are going too hard. For me, a power meter in MTB is only good to check out your stats after the race. Every little punch and how technical it is you could do anywhere from 300-600w and be in the bail out gear.
What was your volume coming into the event?
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I try and ride 5-7hrs a week. Our trail system is completely destroyed from all the rains, so its been mostly road riding for me leading up to the event. And I did another mountain bike event 2 months ago.
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No, it was not, I crossed for the 2nd lap RIGHT when they were putting up the tape at 11 AM. The heat really kicked in and I don’t think I had any carbs, liquid or otherwise until just before Walternate. I did an “okay” job of staying hydrated though, but only because I refilled one of my bottles with regular water as the heat sucked my desire for anything with flavor. (but for some reason I ignored the maurten in my bib pocket?)
I lost about 12 minutes on lap one to a mechanical. (rear axle was tight, but internal hub portion was loose) I could coast, but not pedal, and it didn’t fail until after the climb around mile 20, so I was able to coast down to the aid station. The mechanics at the 24 mile aid station fixed it and I was able to just make the cut off and complete the race.
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Good job making it through! I will shoot for that next year. Fingers crossed it wont be so hot!
I also agree about the power meter. I have had one on my road bike for years. Especially since this event was at altitude ( I live at sea level), I feel like all you can do is all you can do. So if you look at your power meter info and say " I normaly do X" it doesnt really help in the moment.