Sarah Kaufmann

The last few years around this time there were always stories about how the 12 Hours of Mesa Verde was awesome and the course was super fun.  I meant to do it each year and but somehow it didn’t ever happen.  So this year when the opportunity popped up to race duo with teammate Jenny, I jumped in.  And it was true.  The course is a 16-mile rocky pump track - damn hard but super fun.

I left Ogden on Thursday evening with Mary, Taylor and Amy and we rolled in to Moab around midnight, crashing out in the middle of the desert in Mary and Taylor’s secret camp spot.  I didn’t sleep much and when 7am rolled around and the tent turned into a furnace, we were up and ready to roll.  After breakfast in Moab we finished the drive to Cortez, CO and arrived at the venue.  I met Jenny and we did a lap of the course, confirming its fun-ness

We picked up registration packets and drove to Durango to NoTubes Women’s Elite Global Team Headquarters - aka, Shannon’s House.  Somehow it took about four hours to shop, cook, clean bikes and eat dinner and we finally got to bed around 11.  Which was NOT long enough before our 4:30am wakeup call.  Good grief.

I made Jenny do the run – that whole pro-triathlete thing comes in very handy (from my perspective).  I wasn’t surprised when she was the first lady on her bike (though I did feel quite smug) and the first lady in after her lap.  We traded off the clothespin/baton and I headed out on my lap.  I felt pretty crappy on lap one but the good news was that I felt better each lap through the day (hehe…maybe it’s because I got slower – go figure).  The couse was still fun but it turned out it was A LOT harder at race pace.  Why is this always such a shock?  Running to my bike.

Photo credit: Dusty Powers

My new Cannondale Scalpel is a super rad bike but it fits pretty differently from the custom mini-bike I rode last year.  It’s taken some time to get the fit dialed and my goal at Mesa Verde was to use each lap to fine tune and adjust to get it sorted.  I made a few mental notes during my lap about adjustments I wanted to make in my off-lap, finished up and handed off to Jenny.  Jenny’s second lap was even faster and after fighting sickness all week I think she was finally feeling a little better. 

I felt better on lap two as well and was enjoying myself until about four miles from the finish when I clipped my pedal on a rock through a high speed section and hit the ground.  Hard.  I didn’t even have time to get my hands out (which is probably a good thing with my broken collarbone track-record) and my face took a good part of the impact.  Got my clock-cleaned, bell-rung, etc., and had a good session of lying on the ground in the fetal position while I tried to catch the air that had been knocked out of me.  Body check, bike check, scavenge for lost computer and glasses and I got going again – albeit a little more cautiously.  The course was super dusty and landing on my face made for a pretty good post-crash look.  Sadly (okay, not sadly), I don’t have any photographic evidence of the dust-mask.

When I got back (after the deserved heckling) I iced the bumps from my crash and got ready for lap three.  There weren’t many places to eat or drink on course and I wasn’t finishing my bottle each lap so I thought I was being pretty smart by only taking half a bottle on lap #3.  But the day was heating up and perhaps the previous two laps were starting to drain me because on my third lap, I had emptied my bottle by about halfway through.  And I was pretty thirsty.  Knowing I had one more lap to do, noticing all the ejected bottles all over the course and knowing that Jenny and I had a pretty solid lead, I did what any thirsty-and-not-caring-about-germs bike racer would do.  I started looking for lost bottles on the trail.  I checked a few that were empty and finally found a nearly full bottle of water.  Which I drank.  I did lament for a moment that it didn’t have any elete in it.  But then I remembered that I was drinking from a bottle I found on the ground and that not having elete was probably the least of my worries.

Handed off to Jenny for her last lap and got ready for mine.  I gave myself some caffeine and got stoked to rail one more lap.  I had gotten the bike fit dialed and was super comfy.  I felt the best and had the most fun on this lap but it was my slowest – go figure.  Even without crashing or scavenging for hydration.  The NoTubes Masters team had a rough day with a lot of bad luck but Jenny and I held on for the win in our category.  Smiley and loopy post-race.

Photo credit: Kenny Wehn

Big thanks to Stan’s NoTubes, Alpine Orthopedics, elete Electrolytes, Shannon, Kenny and all of our sponsors.

Last year I didn’t get to the Whiskey 50 and I was excited to go back this year.  Especially since Stan’s fronted 10 comped entries for pro women and the women’s field ballooned to nearly 40 of the fastest chicks in the country.

I met Jenny at the airport in Phoenix on Thursday evening and we drove to Prescott to meet up with the rest of the NoTubes crew arriving from various destinations.

On Friday we prepped bikes and Jenny, Nina, Shannon and I headed out to spin and check out a small piece of the course.  We went to the pre-race meeting, got checked in and tried to keep the nerves at bay before the Fat Tire Crit in the evening.  The crit is a funny event – a bunch of dirties riding on the road is often a recipe for trouble.  Add to that, that some of us were running slicks, while some were running knobbies, some were dogging the crit to save their legs for Sunday and some of us were pinning it, and it ends up being a little silly.  But when you add a beer garden along the course and a couple thousand people in town for the race, it gets fun.  Nina, ‘the Baum’ took the hole shot and led out the first lap, AND grabbed the $100 lap 1 prime.  I moved up through the race and was happy with a 10th place finish, though it was damn painful.  I liked the corners

Photo credit: Greg Greene

I did not sleep on Saturday night – evening races to NOT promote restful sleep, good grief.  We also had a 5am wakeup call from the fire alarm when certain unnamed people made burned their pre-race breakfast.  Hehe…it’s okay though, because those unnamed people also went on to finish 1st and 7th in their races that day and all was forgiven

Shannon was on feed duty at Skull Valley so Nina, Jenny and I shuttled up the road and were able to check out another piece of the course and spin the lactic acid out of our legs from the crit the night before.  We rode the singletrack on the last part of the course.  It_is_awesome.  And during the race, it comes in the last hour – almost all descending and you are cooked at that point, with about 40 dirty miles your legs and just finishing a 14 mile dirt road climb.  Here we are pre-riding.  Someone must have said something funny

Photo credit: Yackle Brothers Racing

We made final preparations, watched some Lady Gaga videos on youtube (don’t ask) and got to bed.  For me it was another sleepless night and I was impatient when it was finally time to get up at 5:30.  I felt not great warming up and my legs did not want to open up and work.  I ran out of time and didn’t warm up enough, especially for how my legs were feeling but it was time to go.  We cruised in a group up the lower, mellower portions of the paved climb out of town and I think everyone was ready and anticipating the inevitable split that occurred when the pavement tilted up near the top.  I know I was ready and I tried to make the split but instead watched as the front group rode away.  I was happy to see that Jenny made it and hoped she would hang on for a good day.  (She did!)  I tried to stay near the front of the chasers but was caught as we crested the climb.  Sue gave me a push, which was really nice and motivated me to at least stay with the group of chasers, even if I had floated to the back at that point.  I entered the singletrack at the back of that group, I’m guessing around 20th.  I was glad that there was a group as I wanted people to work – but the mojo was kind of funky in our group.  Instead of motivating each other and making a good train, it seemed like we were getting in each other’s way a lot and slowing each other down.  I made a conscious decision to stay calm, though, and not blow myself up trying to make silly passes.  Instead, I conserved some energy riding a little slower and waited for good passing opportunities.  I had moved up several places by the time we hit the first big descent and caught up to Kelly B and Nina at the bottom.  I hung on Kelly’s wheel for a bit until she gapped and dropped me.

The descent to Skull Valley felt long and I tried to eat and drink.  Maybe I tried too hard because when I flipped it at the bottom and started the climb, my stomach was in a knot and full of fluid.  But I was happy for the feed from Kenny, Rich and Michael – thanks!  I always struggle on the bottom section of the climb that is all false flats and rolly.  I really wanted someone to work with but Sue, Kelly and Wendy were ahead of me and I was only losing time to them and Nina was behind me but far enough that I did not want to wait.  As my belly felt worse and I started to get some nausea and dizzy spells, I shifted into damage control mode and started I was going backwards.  I felt a little better when we cleared the first half of the climb and hit the steeper pitches.  When we got to the 25mile split aid, I was very thankful for the feed from the Alpine Ortho guys.  I tried to grab a tablyte out of my pocket but my motor skills were severely lacking at that point and I couldn’t fish one out.  I put a foot down just passed the aid, got some tablytes, poured some water on myself and got going again, feeling a little better and like my head was finally on straight.  I made up some time on those top miles of the course and could see a couple of the ladies who had passed me lower on the climb up ahead.

I hit the last section of singletrack and reveled in knowing the hardest part was over and it was all fun (except for the very final fun-hater road section) to the finish.  (Did I mention this part is fun?  Love_it).  I was having so much fun railing it, I caught a couple of the ladies in front of me and made a couple of passes on Cramp Hill.  As I neared the end of the singletrack, I could see Kelly in front of me and when we popped out on the final road section she had about 10 seconds on me.  I chased her all the way down the road and didn’t seem to be making any ground.  When we made the right turn up the little one-block grade, all of a sudden I closed the gap and found myself on her wheel.  This posed a bit of a dilemma.  Kelly is my friend and is a total sweetheart.  I knew it would hurt to lose a place after 50 miles of racing.  On the other hand, it was a race, and I wanted it too.  (And we were racing for 14th place – not exactly podium spots).  I’ve never won a sprint finish but I knew in this situation, all I had to do was grab Kelly’s wheel, sit on and recover for a moment and sprint.  So I did.  I was feeling a little guilty so I started my sprint early, trying to make myself feel less guilty for the dirty road tactics.  I think Kelly was cooked, though and I held on.  For 14th.  Oof.

I was faster than the last time I did this race so that feels good.  I wish I had felt a little better during the first half of the race but in the end it probably wouldn’t have made much of a difference.

I cooled down and we reconvened back at the team house.  Nina had finished less than a minute ahead of me and we were thrilled to find out that Jenny had a fantastic race to finish 7th!  Shannon rode solid, having worked non-stop through the weekend (and since who-knows-when before that), feeding racers, sorting various problems and taking care of all of us.

After packing, food, wine, whiskey (not me, but certain unnamed teammates…) and a requisite Trader Joe’s stop, Jenny and I headed back to Phoenix as we both had crack of dawn flights the next morning.

Huge thanks to Shannon, Kenny, Rich and Michael for their help all weekend and to the Alpine Orthopaedics crew for their help as well, and the support this season.  Huge thanks also to Stan’s, elete, Adidas, Lazer, Cannondale, ProGold, Gu Energy, Genuine Innovations, Ergon, Crankbrothers, Kenda, Verge and fi’zik.

Ah, Sea Otter.  So much crammed in to one weekend.

Most of the NoTubes crew rolled in to Monterey on Wednesday evening.  Nina picked up Jenny and I in San Jose and we rolled down to our amazing team house in Carmel.  On Thursday morning we were able to do some bike work to help my rad Cannondale Scalpel fit me a little better.  It’s not easy being freakishly short – and it’s not easy for Shannon, the team manager, either…  

Bike work - make it fit!

Once bikes were built and ready by the afternoon, we headed to the venue to pre-ride the XC course.  Since the race is not a UCI race anymore, there course isn’t quite the silly road race that it used to be.  It is now a slightly less silly road race on a longer loop.  But it does have some legitimately fun singletrack pieces thrown in between the fireroad sections.  It is one long loop of 20 miles so the pre-ride took a solid couple of hours.  

Nina, Kaila and Tiziana - pre-ride smiles.

Once we finished up, we zipped home, took a quick dip in the ocean and headed to Light & Motion for their soiree and a factory tour.  After that, we went back home and hosted the Stan’s crew for a late dinner.

Friday morning we headed to the venue for STXC.  My teammates rode great.  Nina, especially, crushed it on her new Scalpel 29er.  Shannon, Kaila and I were a pink brigade for the first bit of the race, all riding pretty close together.  My legs seemed to take the first seven minutes or so to wake up and  I was able to move up a little starting then but it didn’t last long as I was pulled shortly after.

Bling bling Stan's wheel-tree at the Stan's booth.

Jenny and I busted out of the venue before too long after the race and we went home to get some downtime before Saturday’s XC race.  We hopped in the ocean again and chilled out for the afternoon.  Kathy arrived on Friday night to complete our little NoTubes family for the weekend.

Saturday morning we headed to the venue and prepared for a HOT day of racing.  (Ironically, as I sit here in Monterey the following morning, it is cool and there is thick fog sitting outside the window.  But that doesn’t matter because during our race it was friggin’ hot).  The race start at Sea Otter is unusual as we start on flat pavement.  We buzzed around the track in a group like a bunch of roadies until the pace lifted before the turn off the track.  Through a couple of U-turns and we hit the rollers on the fireroads.  I made an error in one of the turns and was chasing when the first accelarations started on the rollers.  A gap quickly formed and I could not punch it enough to close it.  It was damn frustrating to watch the front group fly along the down fireroad as myself and the other chasers could only watch the race ride away from us.  C’est la vie.  As we hit the first section of singletrack and groups had been established, Kelsy and I found ourselves together.  Kels is practically my next door neighbor, I know we’re very evenly matched and I trust her lines.  We wound up working together for the rest of the race.  We took turns on the front and we both had issues with dropped chains, lost bottles, crashes and tolerating the heat but we motivated each other and it was nice to ride together.  I tried to hit the last long climb hard and create a gap (hehe…as great as it was to ride together, um, it WAS still a race).  I didn’t want to sprint Kelsy or have to play tactics at the end because I knew I would lose.  Though I didn’t let myself look back, I thought I had I opened a small gap partway up the climb but Kels closed it up as we crested the top.  I led into the final singletrack but, again, on the sandy S-turn climb, Kels closed it up and we entered the race track together.  We laughed rolling down the hill and Kels said, “Sprint it out?”  So we did.  And Kels took it.  It was a thrilling sprint for 20th place.

It was a little demoralizing to see the results later and see the 21st place and the time gap but all in all, I was happy with how I rode and pleasantly surprised by how I tolerated the heat.  Aside from letting the gap form in the opening miles and one especially hot, exposed section of singletrack climbing where I had a good fade, I felt pretty good.  As Jenny put it after the race (in her New Zealand accent), “I think we rode pretty well for mountain girls.”

After the race, we were lucky enough to take part in the SRAM Ladies Lounge hosted by Rebecca.  Though I think our brains were a little fried at that point, it felt great to be a part of getting more women stoked on bikes.

Saturday night we hosted a legitimate party and stayed up ’til the breaka-breaka dawn.  Okay, not really.  But it was way past my normal geriatric bedtime.  And Sunday we wrapped it all up and headed home.  A few days of appearance at work to make sure I still have a job and then it’s off to the Whiskey!

Huge thanks to Kenny and Jimmy for the wrenching, Shannon for, well, everything, Stan’s for, also everything, elete, Adidas, Lazer, Cannondale, Alpine Orthopaedics, ProGold Lube, Gu Energy, Genuine Innovations, Ergon, Crankbrothers, Kenda, Verge and fi’zik.

Last weekend there was an ICup race in St. George (5+ hours drive) or a road race in Salt Lake that included a stretch of dirt on each lap (45 minutes drive).  Last year I opted for the road race and I made off with the win.  I gambled on the road again this year but didn’t make out quite so successfully.

The race is a circuit race; flat, square, about five miles per lap with just over a mile of dirt each time.  The 1/2/3 women do eight laps.  Last year I got away on the second lap and the girls never really got organized behind me so I managed to stay away until the end.  This year there were four Ski Utah girls, Kat, who was another lone wolf, and myself.  I knew with that many teammates working together, it would be tough to get away and tougher to stay away.  On the first lap, I forgot it was a road race and sat on the front.  On the second lap, I remembered I shouldn’t do that and I tried to get off the front.  And that’s when I found out that they weren’t going to let me.  At first I thought it was kind of funny – I would slow to a crawl, move all over the road to indicate that someone should come through…and they would just slow down and move all over the road behind me.  By the fourth and fifth lap I didn’t think it was funny anymore and I was just pissed.  It was like a race to be the slowest.  When they weren’t stacked up behind me, the Ski Utah girls took turns launching attacks and I would drag us all back up to them.  I had a vague idea that wasn’t what I was supposed to be doing but I kept doing it anyway.  I tried in vain to get them to work with me – I would come by after they attacked and say, “Let’s go,” and try to get the two of us away.  But they didn’t seem to want to work with me and inevitably things would all come back together.  Finally Kat had mercy on me and told me that I didn’t need to chase down every attack.  She told me if I didn’t think they would stay away, I should let them sit out there and at least tire themselves out.  In hindsight, this was really obvious.  But road tactics are not intuitive to me at all and I did not figure it out on my own.  But thanks to Kat for the heads up – live and learn.  Unfortunately I had already burnt most of my matches chasing them down.  Here I am sitting on the front.

Photo credit: Catherine Fegan Kim, Cotton Sox Photography

Finally, on our second to last lap, Kat attacked on the dirt and I countered and opened a gap that I thought I might be able to hold through the final lap.  Here’s my (brief) moment of glory.

Photo credit: Catherine Fegan Kim, Cotton Sox Photography

I rode as hard as I could through the rest of the lap but the girls got organized behind me and they caught me right before the dirt, with about a mile and a half to the finish.  I knew I did not want it to come down to a sprint so I sat up and tried to recover enough for one more hard effort on the dirt to try to make a selection before the last corner.  Of course I was still sitting on the front like an idiot.  I rode pretty hard and sweved all over the road to try to unglue the girls from my wheel.  With no luck.  At one point, someone said something (because I really was being pretty obnoxious).  Even thought she’s a sweetheart and my friend, it was really hard not to turn around and scream, “Then get the eff off my wheel!”  But I didn’t.  Instead I got angry and pedalled harder.  And then there was a gap and a selection was finally made.  Myself, Kat and Laura.  I was still on the front as we made the final corner.  I had no idea where to start sprinting so I just waited.  Kat went first, then Laura and finally my brain and legs engaged and I chased after them, finishing third and feeling super frustrated and angry.  That was like racing with a leash on.