Project SingleSpeed Racer: Race Report 6, Season Finals
Posted: October 8th, 2008 by Lath Carlson
I used the Summer Showdown, the last Mid Atlantic Super Series race of the season, as my goal for recovering from my knee injury. The course at Bear Creek Ski Mountain in Macungie, Pa. is typically one of the most technical of the series, and tends to suit my strengths as a rider well. They also offered double series points for this race to encourage attendance, which was a bonus. With some solid riding under my belt, I felt good going into the event.
Chuck and the rest of the Bear Creek crew have been hard at work building new trail sections for the race. I didn’t get a chance to pre-ride the final course, but word was that the climbs were more manageable then previous years. I opted to gear down to 32×20 on my Kona 29’er for the climbs and technical sections.
Before the race, I did my warmup on the road bike and rollers, and felt good heading to the start. The Elite field had a solid turnout, and it was good to be back to racing with these guys. As we waited at the start line I looked around and no one else was riding singlespeed. Hmmmm. This was a first. I can usually count on Topher, Yozell, or someone else to be going mono-cog. Maybe they knew something I didn’t?
After a delayed start, we got going in the middle of a fairly hot day. Temperatures were in the 80’s, and with a few short climbs and some technical sections, the field spread out quickly. I fell in line behind Topher, who’s another good technical rider, and the first lap went well. When we hit the start of the second lap, Topher and his gears disappeared ahead of me on the flat sections. After the race he fess’ed up that he had pre-ridden and decided to run gears for this very reason. The remainder of the race I held my position, only getting passed by one rider, and passing a couple. On the last lap I ended up riding with fellow Jim Thorpe’er Jamie Huber (EWR). We both cramped up on the last steep climb, I pushed through it and finished 14th, Jamie 15th. Against this field that felt like a solid finish. Gears would have helped, but not by a huge amount. Harlan Price (IF) picked up the win.
In the end I finished 6 MASS series races. The promoters count 7 results for the series, and I ended up 14th overall. With Topher’s conversion to a geared bike, mine was the top Elite placing for a singlespeed rider.
Looking back on my season riding singlespeed at the regional level in the Elite Open class, I feel good about my results. On a couple courses, Grangue and Bear Creek, my lack of top end gearing was a disadvantage. On others, such as French Creek, riding singlespeed worked very well.
October 16th, 2008 at 8:57 pm
Lath,
What are your thoughts on the Lalonde’s running 36/16 (on a 29er) in the Wors races? I have no idea what the terrain is there, but I assume it is like our DE/PA/MD trails and even then, it sounds a bit steep. Do you think a gear that large would work in the Mid Atlantic area? Is it just getting used to that large of a gear or the trails there are so flat and open that they need the large gear? I am intrigued, but I also think something larger than 34/17 (again, on a 29er) would be huge. I run 24/19 in a 29er and I am not sure I want to go any larger.
I would like to hear your thoughts.
James
October 17th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
My rule of thumb is to run the biggest gear that I can ride for the steepest climb of the race. On most MASS races that means a 34×18 or 19 on a 29′er. Most of our courses are climbs, twisty singletrack, and downhills. In the Southwest and West I would run a larger gear because there are more flat sections and smoother climbs. In Wiss. the climbs seem to be shorter then on the East Coast. It looks like they are averaging 13-17 MPH in the WORS races, which is a little faster then MASS races. The final race averaged a little over 13MPH for Lalonde, so if that was on a 36/16 I would be surprised. Some of the other WORS races look a lot faster, so for them that would be a normal gear choice. It all comes down to the course. I’ve found that their is only about a 2 tooth difference in what most SS riders will push on a given course.
October 17th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
Just so you do not think I am a total sissy, I meant to say I run 34/19!
I will experiment with the 34/18 gearing a bit towards the end of the winter to see how that works for me. I never thought to look at the speeds, but it does make sense that a faster course is probably flatter and less twisty and therefore a larger gear would be required. I do remember reading how both Lalonde’s were surprised at the climbs in NY and Mount Snow nationals and went looking for smaller rings and larger cogs, like 34/21 for the XC courses or something along those lines.
As always, thanks for your input. I hope you continue writing this series in 2009.
James