Hello everyone,

I have a race report and good news from the California State Championship Cross Country MTB Race.

First, if we have not met before, I am a faculty member in Electrical Engineering and one of your teammates.

As everyone who knows me is aware, I have been thrilled to represent UCLA Cycling at local mountain bike racing.

I have placed first in my age group in the Beginner Class Cross Country State Championship Race at Big Bear on September 21, 2008. I am currently ranked first in California in my age group (50-54) on the USA Cycling web site in the Beginner class. This class will be referred to as Cat 3 by USA Cycling as of December 1.

I enter in the local NORBA race series. An example of a popular series drawing up to 400 riders from professional to beginner categories is held near Big Bear Lake and also at the Rim Nordic cross-country ski area. The State Championship was held at Big Bear this year. The Big Bear race starting altitude is 7100 feet and rises to 8500 feet in a series of climbs and descents before a finish at about 6800 feet. The race course accumulated about 1900 feet of ascent. Overall course length was about 17.5 miles.

This is the fourth race that I have entered at Big Bear and I have improved from a time of 2:15 in 2006 (my first race) to 1:36 this year.

I have developed a training plan that I have sought to optimize very carefully given limited training time. In addition to a long MTB rite, this emphasizes time-efficient interval training on an indoor trainer that I tune very carefully to match the geometry of my race bike. I select a combination of resistance training and an evolution of intervals through the season with an intention to peak at two events. I generally also try to follow Joe Friels’ book and recommendations closely. This year the two events were at Big Bear. My plans were in 2008 were successful with the exception of having to reduce weight training due to a slight shoulder separation that I contracted in a couple of falls I at Mammoth. One of my major weaknesses is technical descending and I took opportunities to improve in 2008. I have yet still a major weakness in this area.

In my first race of the season on June 1, I learned an important lesson. This was my third year of racing. I had previously ridden conservatively in 2006 and 2007. There are a series of long climbs in the Big Bear course and this suits my riding style. June 1 was the first race event where I found that I could take the lead early and gap other riders. I believe that by opening a gap and pulling out of site around the many turns and hills, it was possible to gradually build a lead. Unfortunately, descending capability led to problems and while I could maintain gaps on climbs over other riders, I was being repeatedly caught on the downhill sections. The June 1 event closed with a lengthy climb with steep ramps that were causing some riders to dismount. I was quite certain after this that I had a sufficient gap. However, a long very technical descent completed this course. Another rider closed on me and I was not vigilant. He passed me 50 feet from the finish line and I placed in second place by 2.6 seconds after 1:38 minutes or racing.
To avoid this again, I worked all areas and attempted to gain some technical skills. It is interesting that of all actions I took, the most useful was watching the videos of Julien Absalon in the Olympics this summer.

The September 21 event proceeded according to plan. I was able to maintain gaps through most of the course, although I was passed on two descents. I was quite fortunate to be able to clean the last descents and maintained a lead I had built on the last climb to place first. Substantial luck was involved - one fall would have been the difference between first and second.

I might also mention that I learned lessons regarding mechanicals. I had brake problems due to picking up debris in my rear wheel disc in this race. However, this was a minor issue. In contrast, I have had every manner of tire problems in virtually every other ride (I ride tubeless tires and rims), other than the race itself in the last month. I will be paying attention to optimizing tire systems in the coming year.

I will also be moving up in class in 2009 and and this will be a new, but welcome challenge.

I look forward to seeing you all this Fall.

Best regards,

Bill Kaiser