DAWN TIL DUSK – 2013

THE SECRET IN COMPARTMENT 42

REVEALED, FOUR DOGS IN POST

RACE AGONY & ONE FOR THE AGES

By Bob

            After being either cancelled or shortened due to snow three of the last four years, D2D moved from its traditional early April slot to mid-May and was rewarded with a full day of epic racing.  But before we turn to D2D, we have a little catching up to do.  A report: 

1.     CHUCK FINDS A SECRET IN COMPARTMENT 42.  Early this year in Sedona, a certain Rez Dog who shall remain nameless (perhaps the one with an English accent mate) bought a sexual enhancement supplement called “Horny Old Goat” from a cheap gas station vending machine and planted it in compartment 42 of Chuck Van Drunen’s Gallup-flea-market-camelback (where it apparently blended right in).  At Fountain Hills, Chuck had been lugging it around for over a month without a clue.  This caused us to speculate that the mysterious one minute penalty Chuck was slapped with at Fountains Hills was due to racing officials getting an anonymous tip about his performance enhancing drug.   Well . . . shortly after our Fountain Hills blog report, Chuck found the planted supplement and has ridden penalty free ever since. 

2.    PETER STORMS MESA VERDE.   In case you haven’t noticed, Peter Tempest is riding strong this year.  We know.  Peter rides strong every year.  But this year is starting out pretty special.  After a strong showing in Santa Fe at the La Tierra Torture, Peter rode 12 Hours of Mesa Verde solo and won the 50+ category going away with 7 laps (112 miles) in 11.05.05 – 1hour and 35 minutes ahead of the second place finisher.  

3.    FLASH FORWARD.   Before we get to the epic racing from D2D this past weekend, let’s flash forward with a teaser and set the scene after the finish.  Here it is:  Chuck is staggering around on cramped legs raving incoherently about some mysterious, un-identified man/woman who refused to yield on lap 4 thereby sending Chuck sprawling into the sagebrush and causing not one, but two flats (Paul to Chuck:  “I’ve seen condoms that are thicker than your race tires.”).  Andy Stravers is curled up in a fetal position convulsing randomly and Hadji Corona and Peter are both in catatonic states – incapable of responding in any way other than grunts and groans.  (Editor’s note and disclaimer:  Bob was out of town this year for D2D and he is therefore relying – as always - on wildly conflicting reports.)

4.    THE MAIN EVENT.  The main event at D2D is always the Gallup Duo Male category a/k/a the Gallup Cup.  During the last two weather shortened years, Chuck and Andy have owned this race, but they have also suffered the indignity of having weather related asterisks planted squarely next to each of their victories.  How would they do with a full 12 hour race against Peter in top form and paired with the always super- strong Hadji?  And what would leave our duo heroes in such a complete state of utter exhaustion at the end of the day?  Well . . . it’s time we find out.  There was a stunning surprise right from the start this year.  Morning Guy was actually at the start of the race for the first time in nine years.   That’s right, Chuck actually showed up for the start (moved back to 8am with the extra daylight) for the first time in the history of D2D.   Of course, he still made Andy ride the first lap, but give him credit.  Chuck aka Morning Guy was actually there – for the first and only time in the nine year history of the race.  

5.    A BATTLE FOR THE AGES.  It is hard to imagine a closer, harder fought battle than what played out this year.  Let’s let the numbers tell the story:  After seven laps the biggest time spread between Andy/Chuck and Peter/Hadji on any one lap was only 3:10.  On four of the seven laps the time spread was 1:30 or less.  After seven laps, Peter/Hadji had won four of the laps and Andy/Chuck had won three.  The race was in doubt all day long up until the last minutes of the day.  To heighten the drama our two local duo teams were also neck and neck with a three man super-team from Durango and a killer master’s duo team from Albuquerque. 

  

6.    A LAP FOR THE HISTORY BOOKS.  When the history of Rez Dog Racing is written, years from now, there is a lap from this year’s race that is certain to be included.  Chuck blistered his first lap in a time of 55:44 for the fastest lap of the day (Chuck also had the fastest lap in 2012).  And, get this.  The fastest lap of the day is not the lap that we will still be talking about years from now.   What we will long remember is Chuck’s last lap – the 12^th of the day (Yes. You heard me right. 12!).  And here’s how it played out:  Chuck finishes his tenth lap and grabs a beer.  Andy goes out for lap # 11.  Chuck is ready to call it a day even though Peter and Hadji are still within striking distance and the Albuquerque duo is neck and neck with them. In the Rez Dog tent, here’s what was heard next:   

Nate to Chuck:  Dude!  You are so ready for 12.

Paul:  Get our shit on mate, you’re going out!

Greg:  After all the years you’ve made Andy start and finish and you’re gonna sit on your butt now???

Like a skipping record or a repeating sound track, this chorus played over and over and over and over again as Chuck hoped against hope that the cut off time would arrive and spare him from the inevitable.  He declares that he is not going out with less than 1:05 on the clock and hopes the hoard will pipe down, but they don’t.  With 1:05:20 still on the clock the Albuquerque Master Duo rider comes through and his partner blazes off.  1:05 arrives and then 3 seconds later with 1:04:57 left of the clock Andy comes screaming in and Chuck, who for 3 seconds thought his day was finally done, realizes he has no choice but to suck it up for one last brutal lap.  And brutal it is.  With an abundance of advice and encouragement – but no water – Chuck sets out after the Albuquerque rider and reels him in on the hills of Third Mesa and then gradually starts putting time on him.  With only a couple of miles to go, the inevitable happens and Chuck cramps up on a short climb.  Rather than spending two minutes he doesn’t have to stretch out his cramps, Chuck gets out of the saddle and stands  on the pedals the rest of the way in to finish 12 laps in 11:55:00 to win the Gallup Cup and 1st place overall in Male Duo.  The Albuquerque masters duo finishes two minutes back and Peter and Hadji just miss the cutoff time and finish with 11 laps in 11:05:00.  Absolutely, historically epic!!!

A CONCLUDING QUESTION.  Did any other Rez Dog’s ride D2D this year?  Boy did they ever!  There were a slew of Rez Dog soloists – ten in all – led by Dirk “the Hollebeast” Hollebeek who came in second in the Master Male category, behind former overall winner Brian Lugers.  Dirk put in 8 laps in 9:49:29 and brought back some serious trail credibility to our consummate roadie.  Paul DeWitt put in 7 single speed laps in 11:11:15.  In Master Male, Brian Culligan put in 6 laps (10:06:00), Blaine Silversmith put in 5 laps (9:11:00) and Alan Philips put in 3 laps (5:41:15).  In Solo Male, Greg Cavanaugh, Charles Chiang and Jonathan Chiang put in 6 laps each (8:29:00; 10:00:00 & 10:03:00 respectively).  Luke Pikaart, riding without the benefit of a junior category, put in 4 laps in 9:38:00.  That is 74 Rez Dog laps or 888 miles.  

Supported by some serious Pit Moms (Pit Bulls?): Nate Haveman, Tim Pikaart and Paul Barry, who proceeded to feed and encourage riders all day and provide such thorough bike cleaning/support that another non-local racer asked Pikaart to fix his tire thinking he was neutral support, and Tim obliged!  

This was one impressive day for the Rez Dogs...not bad for one day on the bike mates.   

Alan On A Family Camping Trip

I was not aware Andy Stravers owned a coffee shop in California???

Cabin 34 Roubaix

I solicited race reports from a number of riders. More to come!! -Greg


From Dirk:
"It was really fun and a great course. There was a good showing of about 15 people with a great neutral start to the cattle guard by the lake. There was a lot of wind but a general tail wind to Page with some tough swirls none the less. The gravel was really deep and the road was choppy in spots so that made following wheels difficult but a group of about nine quickly formed. Lee was absolutely killing it on the front with just about every rise and the group dwindled a bit. A group of us used one of Lee's pushes and sling-shotted to a smaller group of around five or six. As we approached the Jackelyk ranch, Alan and I started to push the pace anticipating the right hand turn at Page back to the Cabin and well into the wind, desiring to create a little gap that the wind would make permanent.

I came into the turn first, followed by Alan, with a small gap to Lloyd and another small gap to Paul followed by the rest. Alan and I hit it into the wind and became a group of two. We traded pulls but Alan was taking monster pulls and doing the lion's share of the work. We paced Balok's ranch and the wind seemed to be coming from every direction-it was a real trick to get into the slipstream. As we passed Silva's ranch, I noticed that Alan was going faster and faster. The dude was crushing it! I kept seeing him drop the chain down the cassette as we made the left hander back to the lake...I wondered if he was going to run me out of gears! He was riding his road bike with a 53x11 and I had the cyclocross bike with a 46x11. There was no way I could beat him in the sprint, and now I wondered if I could even hang on as he kept ramping it up.

We blazed through the trees and down the road past the field and the lookout tower road and toward the finish line. We crossed the cattle guard and as we began the slight rise by the lake I dropped back about a bike length and drilled it. I swerved all the way over to the other shoulder and cranked it up, standing to get more power. My rear wheel was slashing from side to side so hard I feared I might have punctured, but I still continued. Cresting the hill, I dared a glance back and saw that the attack caught Alan by surprise and that a gap had formed. I continued as hard as I could all the way to the road, but man, that driveway to Cabin 34 is a long way off...it hurts!"

From Lee:
"I had no race experience. I had no race strategy.  I knew it would be better to stay back and my plan was to stay behind Jen.  Rolling out of the start I lost sight of it all and preferred to be out front instead of behind the squirrelly thin tires of Alan or the beefy quads of Llyod and Dirk.  Quickly I was pawned into the rabbit, where I was crushed just before the top of the hill (I had never ridden the course this direction and only the other way once).  Lung busted I tried not to pull over and puke while being passed by Jen and some others in the lead pack.  Brian snuck up on a mtn bike and I tucked in to recover.  Later, I was passed by the tandem mountain biking team, but was holding a short lead over Jen who I passed while working with Brian.  I held it together into the wind on the final stretches, finishing in 57 minutes, feeling beat."

From Lloyd: 

"The 4th, sometimes annual, Cabin 34 Roubaix promptly started at 2:14 pm under windy, yet sunny skies with a record number of riders. 

 The peloton remained a somewhat cohesive unit as we encountered the neutral start.  The first acceleration of the day came when Lee Perlow escaped the clutches of the bunch in order to "pass a little gas."  I sat on wheels and encouraged other riders with remarks such as "yeah! close the gap."  Shortly after we hit the High Road, Dirk threw down what he referred to as a little "tester."  The remains of the peloton bridged the gap without too much carnage. 

I dragged my carcass up to Dirk and we discussed some strategy.  I thought we were in agreement to let a rookie get off the front for a few miles, dangle 'em off the front in the wind, before crushing their spirit.  However, this was not the case.  

Dirk opened his suitcase of courage and led the peloton down the hill with reckless abandon.  By Page Intersection, there was only the three of us.  Dirk dove into the corner followed by Allen sliding around on his 25mm slicks.  I figured Allen would slide out and I gave him a bit of space.  The little bit of space turned in to an insurmountable gap as Allen pinned it after the turn.  I didn't want to be stuck in the wind all by my lonesome, and I wanted to hear the rest of DeWitt's "Old Bull vs. Young Bull" story so, I sat up and waited for him.  

We both shared in the effort, not concerned with catching the lead group, but thinking rather of the cold beers at the finish.  When we reached the lake, conversation got a bit tense as we both thought silently about the podium spot up for grabs.  Suddenly, the shadow boxing was over as Dewitt set an unbelievable tempo on the tortuous accent to the headwaters of beautiful Lake McGaffey.  I burnt a few matches and barely grabbed the draft.  DeWitt's enthusiasm drained on the long, windy run in to the finish.  At that point I danced on the pedals in an immodest way and overtook my adversary for a highly coveted podium position." 

THE FAT TIRE 40 IN FOUNTAIN HILLS

CHUCK TAKES IN A STRAY,

PAUL AND THE PEANUT GALLERY AND

WHAT’S IN COMPARTMENT 42?

By Bob

            This past weekend, eight Rez Dogs broke down the door on the 2013 racing season at the Fat Tire 40 in beautiful, sunny Fountain Hills, AZ.  

A report:

1.   CHUCK TAKES IN A STRAY.  We start the action last week on Tuesday when Chuck Van Drunen, Chuck Whitney and Andy “Bobcat” Stravers played hooky and went for an afternoon ride on the HDT.  In the parking lot they bumped into ex-pro roadie, Adam Gaubert, who was on this way from Austin to Durango by way of the HDT.  What then ensued was frenzy between CVD and Adam who each tried (unsuccessfully) to beat the other into submission before the night then degenerated into beer, food and tall tales.  One of the best stories was Adam describing a training ride with Lance (yeah, that Lance!) where he and some buddies orchestrated a break (does this remind anyone of what Bobcat, CVD and the other young Rez Dog guns pulled on Tim Pikaart back in the day?) only to be caught and hammered by Lance 250 feet from the finish.  There was sharp division in the Rez Dog ranks over whether Adam as the newest, albeit temporary, Rez Dog was a good influence on CVD or whether he was bringing out CVD’s dark side tendencies.  More on that later.

2.    PAUL AND THE PEANUT GALLERY.   While CVD, Chuck W., Greg Cavanaugh and Adam went down to Fountain Hills for Saturday’s time trial, Paul Berry, Peter Tempest, Andy and Bob Rosebrough didn’t get out of town until Saturday afternoon.  Paul, riding shotgun, was in rare form.  He was coming off of 33 straight days of work.  (Yeah can you believe that?  33 days straight!)  That combined with four Heineken tall boys led to a spot on monologue of hilarious CVD impersonations full of “let’s fire it ups”, “pimps”, “factories”, “I saved XXX grams with my carbon fiber wheels” and “let’s eat salads”.  In case you were wondering, Paul was not straddling the fence on this one; he was clearly on the “Adam is causing Chuck to give in to his evil-roadie-dark-side and we need to do an intervention” bandwagon – and the peanut gallery of Peter, Andy and Bob was eating it up. 

Time Trial:  "The Ledge" 

-Greg: 

-CVD:

-CRW:

3.    THE LULL BEFORE THE STORM.   The pack met up in Fountain Hills Saturday near dusk and here is some of the craziness that ensued:

·      CVD tried to wrestle Peter to the ground on the manicured lawn at Bobcat’s parents condo as senior citizens gazed in horror – on  the verge of cardiac arrest,

·      Greg – who has a teen crush on every new ex-pro that lands in town – led the “Adam is great!” bandwagon to counterbalance Paul’s Chuck-needs-an-intervention crusade.

·      Adam was nowhere to be seen, because after hanging out for a few days with some fat tire guys he desperately needed a pre-race massage to get his roadie groove back on.

·      CVD pulled the ultimate roadie trick of drinking Sprites while the other dogs were downing tall draft beers at dinner.

·      Greg commandeered a Basha’s electric shopping cart after dinner and started putting it through the paces while popping down Oreos (will we see a review in the April Journey?).  

"How do I sync these Oreos to my iPhone?" 

·      Paul and his peanut gallery were wondering when CVD would ever find what was planted in compartment 42 of his Gallup-flea market-camelback a month ago at Sedona.

·      Bob was urging Paul to hunt down a javelina, leash it to his bike like a sled dog, and then roast and eat it after the race.   

4.    OH YEAH. THE RACE.  Five of the eight Rez Dogs lit it up on Sunday.  Here’s the quick results:  In a field of 200+, Adam was 15^th overall at 2:48, CVD was 22^nd overall at 2:50 (in spite of a mysterious time penalty, but much more on that later), Peter was 39^th at 3:00, Chuck W. was 67^th at 3:11 (in spite of a flat) and Greg was a gutsy 85^th at 3:22 while battling through calf cramps.  The top three Rez Dogs who signed up for the Open Team category (CVD, Peter and Chuck W.) made the podium with a solid 3^rd place performance. 

5.   TWO DNFS AND ONE DNS.  What about Andy, Bob and Paul?  Paul, who didn’t register, had a great day on a stunningly beautiful, fast course.  He took off well before the start and rode up to the high point near the foot of the McDowell Mountains and then came back with Greg to the finish.  Andy, who is one of a very few riders who actually seems to get stronger as a race progresses, was turning up the turbo when he got knocked out by a pinch flat and then another flat when his valve stem came out.  He had to walk it in from the road.  Bob had a front tire pinch flat on a rocky downhill section that sent him flying over the bars in a heap and ended his race.  

CONCLUDING QUESTIONS.  What was the mysterious and unexplained one minute penalty that race officials assessed CVD all about?  Are pre-race Sprites on the list of performance enhancing drugs for MTB races?  Did it have anything to do with how CVD sauntered in fashionably late while Peter held his place at the starting line like a personal valet?  Did CVD use an illegal hold in his attempted take down of Peter on the condo lawn?  Did Andy and Bob complain to race officials about the terrible tire pressure advice CVD gave them prior to their disastrous pinch flats?  Or . . . , heaven forbid, did race officials learn what CVD has been lugging around in compartment 42 of his camelback for the last month?  Your guess is as good as ours on this one.