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Thread: Old guys racing MTB's

  1. #1

    Old guys racing MTB's

    So I entered the World Senior Games this year to race my mountain bike. The event is held in St. George October 16-17. I figured I'm up for one last big shoot out in the desert. It seems as if all my stars are aligning this year as I'm in fantastic shape at the moment. I'm training/coaching the high school team again this year and I'm riding with them daily. I can hang with some of the fastest high school racers in the country. I'm 55 this year and my age group is 55-59 so I'm a youngster to some of my competition. The race falls exactly one week before the HS State Championship MTB race so I should be peaking at the perfect time.

    I entered all three MTB events, hillclimb, downhill and cross country race.

    This should be interesting, the only downsides I see at the moment are it's been 3 years since I last enter an MTB race and about 15 years since I last raced and took the event seriously. Oh well, it should be fun.

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  4. #2
    Good for you! I used to race a bunch but, got tired of the races taking up my whole Saturday. Plus, training to race seemed to take the fun out of riding- there just weren't any casual 'stop and smell the roses' rides anymore. That being said, I'd like to try the Senior Games sometime.
    Are we there yet?

  5. #3
    Mountain Man
    Join Date
    Apr 2010
    Location
    Heart: Escalante. Reality: CO
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    510
    Nice Ice. Good luck and have fun. Oh to be able to ride at mid-20s level again.

  6. #4
    So at the high school MTB practice today we did race simulations as part of the days training. I also joined in to get myself some race day practice. We set up a short course that was 1.6 miles around with a 300' elevation gain per lap and raced 3 laps (4.8 miles total with 900' of elevation gain). I lined up with 10 of the fastest racers on the high school team and at the end of the simulation I finished third and less than 10 seconds behind the winner.

    We also did a hillclimb today that was 1.5 miles long with 500' of elevation gain and I again finished third (about 20 seconds behind the winner).

    So all in all I'm feeling really good about my chances at the World Senior Games. Some of the kids I was practicing with today are easily some of the fastest (top 10%) high school racers in the country. Now I just need to stay healthy and fine tune my body and skills over the next two month's.

  7. #5
    Mountain Man
    Join Date
    Apr 2010
    Location
    Heart: Escalante. Reality: CO
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    And how relatively easy to improve and stay healthy when hs age. While past 40, uh, not so much.

    Good to hear, will be fun to see the results. Win or lose, I always took serious pleasure in competing and draining myself of every ounce.

  8. #6
    Sounds like fun. I've enjoyed the few races I've been in but I was just a weekend warrior and competing mostly for fun and to see peoples faces when they get passed by a fat guy on a SS. I think I placed 68 out of 115 in the single speed category for the 30 miler. Not bad, but the fast guys finished like a full hour ahead of the other 80 or so guys in the category.
    beefcake. BEEFCAKE!

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  10. #7
    My results from the World Senior Games.

    First in hill climb - won a gold medal

    Third in downhill - won a bronze medal.

    First in cross country - won a gold medal.

    First overall - winner of the green jersey given to the overall race winner.

    I'm pretty damn happy with those results.




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  12. #8
    Nice. That's a hard course too. I raced that for the cactus a few years ago and that uphill is rough.

    Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk
    beefcake. BEEFCAKE!

  13. #9
    I won the race I wanted the most, which was a gold medal in the Cross Country race. It was a real dogfight as I duelled with another rider the entire way. We swapped the led a dozen times. At the base of the final climb I pulled up next to him smiled and said "the easy ride is over, now we get to do some serious racing" at which point I dropped the hammer and was finally able to drop him from dogging my back tire. I also knew I needed a gap before the final downhill as the other rider won the downhill event the day before. After the race he told me when I asked if he was ready to get serious he figured I been saving myself for that climb and had more left than he did. I don't know if I did or not, but I've done enough racing to know sometimes it's easier to win with head games. I had used that tactic before with great results so figured it was worth a try.

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  15. #10
    Nice job! I'm really good friends with Steve Washburn. He is one of the nicest guys you could ever ride with (or race against).
    Are we there yet?

  16. #11
    Steve was the guy I was duelling with all weekend. He didn't make winning easy. Because of the tight duel and race tactics the cross country race was by far my most memorable race.

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