Napa Valley Dirt Classic

I will just start off by saying that was a really wet and muddy race! It reminded me when I did the Cool Race near Auburn, Ca back in high school riding my Schwinn hardtail with full v-brakes. I just completed the Napa Valley Dirt classic (NVDC for short) for the second year in a row. Last year (weather was sunny and warm btw), I competed in the Cat 3 19-34 Men division with a time of 2 hours 14 minutes which placed me 14th out of 30th. That's pretty crappy! Midpack for beginner category? Last year, the NVDC had to be my 6th race into my first race season and now with a race season under my belt and a lot of riding, I have moved to Cat 2. My time this go around was 2 hours 19 minutes due to weather (everyones times suffered, Pro's times were 12 minutes slower than last year) but that placed me 8th out of 25!! Sweeeeeet! GO ME!

I need to buy a canopy or something to change under for next race season, especially for the early season races when it's still raining. I had to cram in my car and slowly but surely change inside since outside was pouring down rain and I wanted to stay dry as possible before the race. I finally got changed but just sat in my car where it was warm and dry and finally got out with 10 minutes before start.

As usual, I started out slow, pacing myself but once we got past the hike a bike section and onto wide fireroad I let my road biking power take over and I took off, once we got to our first climb I was warmed up and hammering up the singletrack, passing a lot of people as they struggled up the hill, a lot of them losing traction or just going slow :)

I ripped down the hills pretty good, I think a lot faster than if I was still on my Schwinn. I felt confident and comfortable going down the hills with less braking due to my full suspension and hydraulic disc brakes. My brakes performed great, although loud, but everyones brakes were loud as they squealed from the water. I managed to go down and up 2 out of the 3 "swoops." I think last year, I didn't make it up any of them? These "swoops" are these 3 roller coaster type hills all in a row. So you go down really fast and then you have to pedal up the steep opposite side and get to the top where you find yourself going down again shortly and repeat!

After meandering through the woods for a while, I got down to Pope Valley and started the hill climb from hell. My goal was to climb most if not all of the hill this year but that was soon over as I suffered from chain suck in my granny gear and the wet & muddy conditions made it near impossible to get traction on the steeper sections. I'm sure some of the pro's got up the hill! So I joined my fellow racers as we walked up the hill for the next 15 minutes, but once at the top, I got on my bike and took off, passing a few more.

By now most (& hardest) of the climbing was done and I was approaching the airport where I would then have a quick descent back to the finish line. I decided to chase this other Cat 2 racer, who was in a different age category, to the finish line. I kept on his tail all the way till we got to the track field where we make one full lap around it before finishing. He had the inside line around the final 2 corners and I wasn't feeling comfortable to step on it fully with wet slick asphalt so I let him come in before me :p

I quickly pedaled to my car but half way there I realized my front wheel was not spinning correctly with the brake rotors rubbing! The front quick release had come loose and I started to wonder how long has it been loose? 2 miles? 200 ft? I'm sure it was only a short distance, perhaps only the last couple 100 yards of dirt before the track, but who knows. Close one! I will make sure to double/triple check the QR skewers more often and lock them down really tight. SO I ran to my car and quickly undressed in the pouring rain, since I didn't have a canopy to change under and I didn't want to change in my car this time, since I was wet and muddy now. I got down to my bibshorts and threw everything in the back and grabbed a blanket to cover my front seat and quickly jumped in the car and started the heater on full blast to allow my body and more importantly my feet to defrost so I could put on my shoes and leave. After 10-15 minutes my feet warmed up enough to put my shoes on and I headed to Santa Rosa with the heater on full the whole time, switching between defrost and feet. I then enjoyed a nice hot shower and deli sandwich & chocolate milk from Raley's, YUM!

Yeah, it was worth it! NEXT UP: Sea Otter Classic, the biggest bike event I will be attending this year. It's an international event and I got 5th last year in the Cat 3 category which qualified me for Nationals in Colorado in July? Hopefully I will place within the top 10 in Cat 2 and qualify again and maybe this time I will go.