White Mountain Double Century and Final Race for the CA Triple Crown Stage Race

[RojoRacing]

Old record was 10:53 I set it at 10:41 with with slightly revised course being 4 miles longer and a few thousand feet more climbing. I guess one of the riders asked the sag driver how can a recumbent can climb so damn fast and his response made me laugh "because the rider is stronger then all you guys". After the race I was just chatting with one of the head volunteers who works with the organizing body for the CA Triple Crown race series and he had sent a text regarding my win to the head honcho of the series who wasn't present. He too asked how a recumbent could be so fast on these hard courses and I told him to text him back saying it's electric assist. The response from the head honcho said "LOL that's a good one but it all seriousness can you check his bike closely to make sure he really doesn't have a motor and send me a few pics" We both got a good laugh out of that. Apparently there's a well know recumbent rider in the SF bay area that recently inquired about riding his new e-assisted recumbent in the series but was denied because it's not fair. Based on the strava data it looks like I may have missed out on taking over the top spot in the 3 race series by only 1-2mins after 36 hrs of racing. I needed win win by over 30 mins but it looks like the other guy way have rolling in about 28 min after me. This race was far from perfect and several things over the series could have easily given a different result but the damage has been done and no one in the series will even take a recumbent lightly based on preconceptions.

Race report in the works after I get done watching the Moto GP races from today and catch up on some sleep.

Ride data
https://www.strava.com/activities/707662422

click here to watch who the race played out among the top 5
http://labs.strava.com/flyby/viewer/#707662422?c=9qev712u&z=C&t=1Nr9AU&a=VhIuKvHlLyrDMS8qW4gvKggkLyo

 

[LarryOz]

Way to Jason - Next stop - EmmitSmith Grand Fondo Century - near Dallas Fort Worth - this next Saturday.
Only 100 miles, with maybe 2500' of climbing. $10,000 first prize.
Recumbents are allowed - I asked the race director and got a possitive response.
I'm trying to figure out how to get there right now..
If we both go and work together, we probably could break away down a downhill with 10 miles to go and they might never catch us!
Interested?

 

[RojoRacing]

Way to Jason - Next stop - EmmitSmith Grand Fondo Century - near Dallas Fort Worth - this next Saturday.
Only 100 miles, with maybe 2500' of climbing. $10,000 first prize.
Recumbents are allowed - I asked the race director and got a possitive response.
I'm trying to figure out how to get there right now..
If we both go and work together, we probably could break away down a downhill with 10 miles to go and they might never catch us!
Interested?

I saw the other thread and the UCI discussion that went with it. I'm not falling for that.

 

[bladderhead]

He wants pictures. He must have looked at this forum and read C Plager.

 

[RojoRacing]

Does your HR stay low as you dehydrate and your performance suffers? I had an oddly low avg HR but then there was one 2hr and another 1 hr period where I was totally without water or nutrition due to missing aid stations, fast guy issues

 

[LarryOz]

I saw the other thread and the UCI discussion that went with it. I'm not falling for that.

I did receive a personal email from the race director that said I could ride.

From their website:

• UCI Road competition that apply will be enforced. To review UCI Road competition guidelines click here.

This really only says that UCI Road competition rules apply, not "all" UCI rules and regulations, so I think with that, and a personal email from the race director I am pretty confident they will let us race!
Go for it!

 

[RojoRacing]

I did receive a personal email from the race director that said I could ride.

From their website:

• UCI Road competition that apply will be enforced. To review UCI Road competition guidelines click here.

This really only says that UCI Road competition rules apply, not "all" UCI rules and regulations, so I think with that, and a personal email from the race director I am pretty confident they will let us race!
Go for it!

Sorry but it's just not going to happen for me. I'm kind of being evicted from the room I rent, I don't really know if there's a difference between eviction and being asked to leave within a mere 30 days. I still have no idea where my next place of residence will be but I needed to get my mind off it for the weekend so a long ride was in order.

 

[RojoRacing]

Meanwhile I'm already catching some banter on the strava feed that I need to come up with a somewhat Cruzbike ambassador worthy response. I will ask you guys refrain from gushing about how awesome the Vendetta is and how they should get one too because that never goes well :lol

 

[LMT]

Sterling effort yet again - well done.

EDIT: Regarding your strava feed, he's certainly thrown his toys out of his pram!

 

[ratz]

For those that don't live in the strava world......

https://www.strava.com/activities/707662422

 

[RojoRacing]

Sterling effort yet again - well done.

EDIT: Regarding your strava feed, he's certainly thrown his toys out of his pram!

They both are really nice guys when I talk to them at the events but some people have the hardest time with change.

 

[RojoRacing]

Please insert donut comment here:

Ratz wins the comment thread for today

 

[RojoRacing]

Some good comments from the riders yesterday while climbing the 10'000 mountain.

Rider: Damn you really can climb fast on that bike
Me: yeah I do ok
Rider: have you ever ridden this course before?
Me: I climbed and descended this Mountain yesterday but that's it
Rider: Wait!.......You mean you actually road all 6000' yesterday? why?
Me: well I got into town at like 9am so what else was I supposed to do all day?
Ride: You could of did an easy flat ride
Me: Pff now where's the fun in that

Sure a 50 mile ride up a 6000' climb may have have not been the smartest move the day before a race but damn, the descent was something else. In my defense the second half of my friday descent would only be climbed in the race and not descended since we would be going left half way down. That second half of fridays descent was like nothing I've ever ridden. Roller coaster is the only thing that comes to mind because even thought the road is all down hill the pitch constantly rolls as it winds down the center of this massive canyon. I'm not sure how many of you have driven a strait stretch of hwy that has steep 50" rollers where it feels like if you went fast enough you could get the car airborne over the other side. This DH had mini 10' rollers in the DH and I hit one at about 45mph and literally floated away from the ground for a moment. The feeling was so unnerving it made me back off just a touch because you can't steer away from the rocky canyon wall if your tires aren't on the ground. I really regret now filming the ride to share with you guys here.

 

[Rick Youngblood]

Incredible achievement Jason.

Recumbent history rewritten.

You must be some sort of hybrid man-machine racing beast from an other world, right?

 

[trplay]

Fantastic job Jason! You are certainly laying some major milestones in recumbent history. Ratz's coment on strava about the "world is changing", rings so true. But not only is the DF community struggling to figure out what just hit them so be it in our own community. I have to laugh at a post on the Brol site where the discussion is going something like this "For reasons I can’t fully get my head around, the Vendetta is a magnet to hard-core df riders." They may be scratching their heads but it's pretty simple for me. A guy ( a very fast guy among other fast guys) just podiums in the ultra hard climbing series called the California Triple Crown. A grand total of three recumbents have successfully finished the mega hard climbing ultra race the HooDoo 500 although more have tried. What are they ? Yep, Vendettas. A guy ( a very fast guy) finishes first in the recent Savannah Century ride without breaking a sweat while flying a safety flag. I can go on but most will get the point. Cruzbikes are out riding with the Df's and the DF's are paying attention.

 

[ratz]

But not only is the DF community struggling to figure out what just hit them so be it in our own community.

I look forward to once again being a sub par slow rider on my bike of choice without having to change bikes nor lose fitness. Bring on the hard core guys.

 

[RojoRacing]

During dinner with some random rider the night before we were talking about past events. The lady who was sitting next to me mentioned she was leading the series and could normally hang with the main pack of fast men expect the recent central coast race a few months ago. She said some dude on a recumbent got away at the front and before she knew it the group was in desperate chase mode and they dropped her on a few short hard effort climbs to the coast. I just lowered my head in apology and said "so yeah that recumbent dude is actually me" our table all got a good laugh with that one. Kind of sad how they few people that hang out with me long enough to chat love hearing about my stories and humor but then there's the polar opposite group who only see me as the bike who beat them. Me and Derek 2nd place had a good laugh about the missing aid stations and his detour into the crop fields to run through the sprinklers. He said he should have gone barefoot because he got his cleats full of mud. Even the guys who ask me to ride a DF bike are good people with a sense of humor but their comment always tend to seem negative when taken out of context via computer screen. No matter how much someone hates what I ride if they can't also hate me as a person it breeds conflict within themselves and I make it hard to hate me.

 

[SteveJW]

Way to go Jason.
Max Power= 822W, Max HR = 165 bpm

That's amazing! If I could generate 822W, my heart would explode.

Congratulations on an amazing ride!!

 

[Cruzbike Chris]

My heart almost exploded jus reading the Strava stats and comments. Your killing it Jason, wish you could be in Dallas for the $10k Grand Fondo! That would be a site to see! Great ride and awesome responses on Strava.

 

[snilard]

Does your HR stay low as you dehydrate and your performance suffers? I had an oddly low avg HR but then there was one 2hr and another 1 hr period where I was totally without water or nutrition due to missing aid stations, fast guy issues

My HR is higher than usually when I am dehydrated.