Winding Trails Root 66 Race?

[CouchingTiger]

Anyone have the lowdown on the Winding Hills race course? I've heard that its pretty non-technical and similar to a cross course.

Thanks,

-Couch

[bdee]

It's so easy you can run like 90 psi 1.8mm tires, 500mm flatbars and 200mm long cranks. I heard Johnny T was going to enter and race his old Yeti DH bike with the disc wheel and monster chainring -up the hills.

Honestly any MTB skills you have are almost not needed, it's that fast. Race Brialee if you want to ride something more challenging. Personally I can't justify the expense to race Winding Trails this year to get smoked by cat 3 road racers on a course that's not that interesting. But, a roadie guy like you might just blow everyone away..

[CouchingTiger]

Yea, that's what I feared. Not a very interesting foray back into MTB racing but I've got a free spot this Sunday with nothing to do, so maybe I'll hit it up. Maybe I'll change the gearing on my SS and race that. What ratio would you suggest? I run 32x18 for our local stuff.

-Couch

[bdee]

Yea, that's what I feared. Not a very interesting foray back into MTB racing but I've got a free spot this Sunday with nothing to do, so maybe I'll hit it up. Maybe I'll change the gearing on my SS and race that. What ratio would you suggest? I run 32x18 for our local stuff.

-Couch

32x16 at least. I raced 32:18 on the 1x1 against the geared guys and would've done better with a bigger gear (finished 7th). The few hills are gruntable in a slightly bigger gear than you are used to.

I raced it 32:16 in 2005 on the blue Schwinn in the Open SS class. Finished 4th maybe?

32:18 (2:1 equiv.) in 2006 in the Sport race on the Karate Monkey (was in 2nd place solidly until my post broke with one lap to go).

So yeah, bigger gears = faster out there.

[hammerhead]

Couch,

You will be spinning your legs off at 32-18, the SS guys on the Root66 forum often discuss their gearing. You might check it out. I don't think my son ever shifts off the big ring for that one.

Lots of flats, nothing technical - as BDee says - the roadies rule that course.

H.

[jkcousins]

Yippeee I'm First Timer racing "Whining" Trails. I was gonna chicken out, but you guys convinced me its right for me. : )

[CouchingTiger]

I gave up and registered for the standard expert race (vs. SS). Will see how it goes.

-Couch

[hammerhead]

Couch,

Looks like you did pretty OK, no?

H

[pk]

Congrats to Mrs. Couch for winning the Woman's Sport and to Couch for taking numero uno in the Men's Expert.

Not a bad day for Team Rowell!

pk

[CouchingTiger]

Yea. I actually thought it was one of the best courses I'd ever done. The access road/double track sections were short and the singletrack was all new school, tight and twisty with really good rolling flow. Nothing much technical except one easy nose in (that wasn't so easy for some), a half dozen or so log crossings/jumps and a couple sand sections.

Talk about a hammerfest though. On the gas the whole time with zero chance to recover, ever. My HR graph was a tabletop, literally, with a rance of like 5 beats across the whole spread. I was anaerobic the whole time and at the front step of my lactate threshold. Ouch!

Good stuff though and awesome organization, marshaling, officiating, timing and results. They were promptly posted on the web by the time we got home. Root 66 is the real deal.

-Couch

[bdee]

Congrats to both of you! All that 'cross racing and TT stuff pays off for folks like you on that course. Root 66 does an awesome job all around.

[pk]

Couch, you gotta post that graphic of your HR Portrait of Pain. It makes me want to crawl under a rock just thinking about it.

pk

[CouchingTiger]

OK, here it is. If you factored out the couple minutes of the pre-start (30 seconds) and the start, the rest looks pretty similar. Not a bunch of recovery. BTW, my max HR is 178bpm and my LT is around 168bpm. I was anaerobic almost the entire race.

Yea, EZ course :)

There are no 'EZ' races or courses. If it's less technical or flatter it just means you go faster. Work is always a constant. This is unless of course you are far superior to the competition and don't have to work to stay ahead of them. Unfortunately, I never seem to have that scenario.

-Couch

[radair]

Come on guys, how about some linkage? No photos, HR flat line, nothing? Ah, I'll help you out a little: http://www.root66raceseries.com/results/index.php?method=search.results&column=race_id&race_id=67&race_date=2008

The Couches are on pages 2 & 3.

Congrats on kicking butt!

[CouchingTiger]

Here is the writeup on MrsCouch's blog;

http://twoadventures.blogspot.com/

and here are some pix;

http://picasaweb.google.com/cgr.tandem/FatTireClassic

-Couch