Photo Credit to Beverly West, Vicki Hamilton, and David Hiott
I am pretty pleased to make the podium in my first Bump n' Grind, 3rd place in the beginner men 50+ (8 in that class). I do have to say my 8 mile race is pale in comparison to my team mates' 17 mile race. With that out of the way I have to reflect back on my pre-race jitters...this was the worst case of "I've got a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach." I tried to warm-up a little, but I was so nervous it lacked the structure of a good warm-up and only served to burn-off some of the anxiety. I tried to take advantage of my road fitness and hit the 1 mile of paved road (all up hill) at the start hard prior to entering the trial. When I entered the single-track I had a pretty big lead on all the others in my class. I pushed as hard as my single track trail skills would allow, but between the 2-3 mile point the guy who would take 1st place
passed me and that was the last I saw of him. Not much longer and the 2nd place guy passed me, but I was able to pass him on the 2nd lap going up the paved road, but he managed to overtake me between the 2 and 3rd mile again. I was really pushing hard to catch-up with him during the last mile, but I could make-up the last 20 seconds or so. In the post race analysis I was able to assess my good points and my bad points and leave with a good feeling about the race. For me I want to improve my "trail skills" so I can take advantage of my road fitness. Thanks to Jeff Dorminey and the West family for making our pre-ride several days prior a real special event...so to speak.
Carl Viars
This past weekend was the one the two targeted races I’d been training for since the first of the year. The weekend of the Bump and Grind mountain bike race. As I drove up to B_ham Sunday morning, I was asking myself the usual race day questions, am I ready? Is my bike in good shape? Will that new tire hook up like I hope? And so on and so on. I guess the race day jitters were getting to me. After I had arrived and registered, I started my warm-up routine and as I was warming up I started answering those pre race jitter questions, am I ready? Yep, this is what I’d been training for, hadn’t done all those super hard hill repeats up bald knob till I felt as though I was going to puck for nothing, is my bike in good shape? Again yep, Sid had fine tuned it for me. Will that new tire hook up like I hope? You know it will, you used that tire here before. The more I warmed up the better I felt, I just hoped my luck would hold out. Finally they called the sport 50-59 class to the line. As we were on the line I noticed that the class was not as big as last year, it seemed as though ONLY THE FAST GUYS showed up this year. READY, GET SET, GO! We were off. When we got to the single track we were all still fairly close together. I was probably in about 7th place, not wanting to blow myself up right from the start (there’d be plenty of time for that later). After about a mile or so I started to pass a couple of my competitors and worked up to the 4th position with the 5th place guy right on my wheel. The two of us were already passing riders in other age groups that had started before us. I was working pretty hard trying to drop this guy, with no such luck and finally asked if he wanted by, “no” he said “he was going as hard as he could”. After he told me that I decided to slow the pace down a little (had too) to try to save something for the 3 mile climb and if he wanted to pass me he was welcomed to. Things stayed about the same till we got to the climb, still passing other age group riders and him still on my wheel, but after we crossed the bridge half way
up the hill, he attacked and started to open up a gap. I tried to follow his attack, but when I hit the highest heart rate I have EVER SEEN in a race I decided to back it off some (had too again!) and try to catch him later. After I reached to top of the climb, I shifted back into the big ring and keep a fast speed along the ridge road. Turned off the ridge road back into the single track heading down toward Blood Rock. Blood Rock is no problem for me, as I decided about 4 years ago to walk it. There is no decision to be made when I get there, a no brainer! As I was walking(actually half running) down blood rock I heard the spectators (people how want to see riders fall) saying “rider back” so I stepped over to give him room and as he passed I realized he was in my class, I had just gone from 5th to 6th place, but I did notice that as he was passing me a looked out of control (he crashed at the bottom of Blood Rock) As I was descending the bump trail( the rocky rough trail right after Blood Rock) I saw several riders off to the side with flats, and there he was, the guy in my class who had just passed me off to the side with a flat. Back in 5th and still had Johnson Mountain and the last section to go. Still trying to catch the 4th, place guy, I keep pushing hard, not letting up, I know he’s just ahead I keep telling myself. Still passing other riders along the way (just not in my age group). Finally crossed the line with a time of 1hr 26minutes 10seconds. The guy in 4th finished 1minute 25” and the guy in 3rd finished 1 minute 48 seconds ahead of me. Even though I could not catch them I was still pleased with my results and felt as though I rode the best race I could (I averaged a heart rate of 172 bpm and hit a max of 186 bpm). After I cooled down, I hung out with some of the other folks from our team and some from ICS Chain Reaction, talking and laughing about our races.
So in conclusion how do I rate the 1st half of the year? I am pleased overall. I had two targeted races that I wanted to do well in (Attack on Swayback-2nd and Bump and Grind-5th). Going to chill a couple of weeks and than start my build up for the 2nd half and my favorite season, cyclo-cross!
Jeff Dorminey
So this past weekend marked another road trip up to Birmingham for the Bump N Grind mountain bike race. This year I have been fighting off being sick and really wasn't all that excited about going. But I went ahead and registered knowing I would have fun when I got there. I think during my lack of excitement, I forgot to re-check the time that my race started. I left Montgomery about 8:30 thinking my race started at 10:30. This would give me about 45 minutes to warm up, or so I thought.
Got to Oak Mountain, found a parking spot, and headed over to registration. As they were getting my goodie bag together, I kept hearing over the loud speaker something about Sport class lining up. I figured it was another age group or something. But I thought I would ask what time my race started... she said, 10:00. WHATTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I looked down at my watch and it said 9:47 and this lady is asking for my driver's license to verify I was who I was saying I was. After providing DNA samples to verify identity, I raced back to my truck, threw my clothes on, pumped my tires up, grabbed my CamelBack and raced back to the starting line! I didn't have time to go all the way to the end of the parking lot so I had to cross the barrier fence since my group was starting in 30 seconds. I couldn't hop over the fence because it would not have held so I figured I could fit "through" it. WRONG! Luckily Dave Hiott and several other people (including the 40-44 class behind my group) got a kick out of watching me fight and wrestle my way through the fence which kept getting hung on my CamelBak. Luckily a guy was standing there and helped me through as the announcer did the 10 second countdown! This was the first race I have ever entered where they started the race and I was not even on my bike! Needless to say, I started in dead last.
The next few minutes I was at red line trying to pick off as many spots as possible before hitting the woods. Once in the woods, I settled down and focused on keeping a good pace but not blowing up too early. I knew the fire road climb would kick my butt later on. About 4 miles in, some guy said he was coming around and asked if he could pass. I told him to wait just a second cause this was not a good spot. Well, about the time I said that, I hear him barreling beside me through all the brush up on the embankment of the trail and he nails the tree that I had had my eyes on the whole time. The next few seconds went like this... he hits tree, he rams me into the other tree on the other side of the trail, we both go down in a cloud of dust at about 15 mph, his bike, my bike and all 185 lbs of me land on him. I have never been that close to a man before in my life! If he hadn't been so apologetic, I would have thrown his bike down the side of the mountain. After untangling the bikes and making sure all my body parts still worked, I got back on my bike to try and chase down the 5 or so spots I had lost. I am pretty sure the next time he thinks of passing a fellow racer, this little run-in will remind him to use a little caution.
For the next couple of miles, my body was sore from the crash. But the pain from the race soon helped me forget that. The singletrack section were fast. I was riding better than I had ever ridden before but I knew I still had to climb the fire road so I didn't push too hard. Once out on the gravel road, I knew the next couple of miles was going to hurt. The road turned upwards and my speed went down. The heat was killing me. I passed a few riders but got passed by several more. Even though my progress up the fire road was slower than molasses, it was steady. I could feel that I had improved over last year so that kept me going. Once over the top, I put it in the big ring and hammered it! I felt surprisingly good! I passed a couple of riders, and started seeing more and more people on the side of the trail with flats. I had never seen so many flats and I was just praying I would get through the race without on. This kept me motivated cause these were spots I was getting back.
I eventually turned off the dirt road and headed down to blood rock. Years ago, I used to ride down blood rock all the time. I have even ridden up it several times. But I guess with old age, family, responsibilities, or maybe it's just an increased wuss factor, I always end up walking it during the race. But seeing that the only times I have ridden Oak Mountain over the last 3-4 years has been at the Bump N Grind race, I think that is a smart decision. Not to mention, the ambulance I saw leaving as I was arriving that morning I think spooked me. :)
Anyway, as the rocks became larger, I hopped off the bike and ran my happy little tail down blood rock. Which looking back, I passed two people, one of which was laying on the ground (he should have walked). Once down, I hopped back on, and proceeded down the Bump Trail. Now the Bump Trail has always had bumps and rocks and what- not. That's why it has that name, I get it. But it seems like the last couple of years, it has gotten almost ridiculous. So much of your success in this race depends on whether or not you can get down the Bump Trail without getting a flat. It seemed like there was a person on the side of the trail every 20-30 feet fixing a flat!
After the Bump Trail, I crossed the gravel road and started in on Johnson's Mt. As I crossed over the covered bridge, I felt my rear tire rolling... A FLAT TIRE!!!!!! NOOOOOOOO! In all my years racing I had never gotten a flat tire before in a race! I pulled over after the bridge and take a look. The pressure was way down but it was still holding air so I hopped back on thinking I could make it. WRONG. It was rolling on the rim pretty bad so I pulled over again. I had already watched about 4-5 people come by me and I was about 3 miles to the finish. I did not want to lose any more spots. I didn't have time to change the tire so I pulled out my CO2 and pumped it as hard as it would go praying it would hold to the finish. Climbing Johnson's Mt. I had my sights on 2 riders. I saw one was hurting pretty bad and the other was not moving too fast. Jeff Dorminey had passed me while I was fixing my flat so I paced behind him as long as I could. I picked up the first rider and set my sights on the 2nd. I could tell my tire was losing air as I caught the send guy going into the last section of woods past the gravel pile. I stuck to his rear wheel like glue putting as much pressure as I could on him while trying to recover from my efforts. I figured we would probably have a sprint finish towards the end. Well, about a 3/4 mile from the finish, he lets me by and hops on my wheel. My back end was all over the place as I did my best to drop him before we came out of the woods. As I crossed the paved road out of the woods, I looked back and he was no where to be seen so I cruised in on a flat tire and a big smile on my face!
This was definitely the most fun I have had at the Bump N Grind. I ended up with 26th place out of 45 racers in my class. Nothing spectacular but I took 2 1/2 minutes off my time from last year and with all the problems I had, I am happy with the results. Congratulations to everyone who got out there and raced!!!
Brooks Gant
I went into this race without doing any extra preparation (unlike usual) before a big race. No extra hydrating, no carb loading days in advance, etc. (I also completely forgot my camelback, but happened to have a water bottle in my car!) This venue is my favorite by far so I went into it wanting to just go and have a good time. I lined up with what must have been 40 other 25-29 sp
ort riders. I somehow exploded off the front, got the holeshot, and carried the lead for quite a while into the woods. I had two riders on my tail and new that with all of the fire road coming up it'd be better to try and get any draft as possible so I let them by. We traded places throughout the 3 mile climb, each one pushing the other to get up the mountain faster. My rear tire lost traction in the steepest part of the climb about a quarter of a mile from the summit causing me to dismount as I watched the other two slowly ride away from me. Soon after the trail started going down I somehow broke a front spoke. While my wheel didn't go out of true really at all, my spokes are titanium so there was a substantial amount of flex going on...enough to cause me to slow down on a couple of really fast rocky sections. I was caught close to the end by two other guys in my group, but really got into a good rhythm for the last third of the course. I ended up finishing in 5th, almost 5 minutes faster than my time last year (which got me 3rd). For some reason I felt better in this race than any other this year. Maybe I am getting TOO hydrated or eating too much food before races??? I guess that is an entire different beast to tackle on its own!
Blake Gill
I am pretty pleased to make the podium in my first Bump n' Grind, 3rd place in the beginner men 50+ (8 in that class). I do have to say my 8 mile race is pale in comparison to my team mates' 17 mile race. With that out of the way I have to reflect back on my pre-race jitters...this was the worst case of "I've got a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach." I tried to warm-up a little, but I was so nervous it lacked the structure of a good warm-up and only served to burn-off some of the anxiety. I tried to take advantage of my road fitness and hit the 1 mile of paved road (all up hill) at the start hard prior to entering the trial. When I entered the single-track I had a pretty big lead on all the others in my class. I pushed as hard as my single track trail skills would allow, but between the 2-3 mile point the guy who would take 1st place
passed me and that was the last I saw of him. Not much longer and the 2nd place guy passed me, but I was able to pass him on the 2nd lap going up the paved road, but he managed to overtake me between the 2 and 3rd mile again. I was really pushing hard to catch-up with him during the last mile, but I could make-up the last 20 seconds or so. In the post race analysis I was able to assess my good points and my bad points and leave with a good feeling about the race. For me I want to improve my "trail skills" so I can take advantage of my road fitness. Thanks to Jeff Dorminey and the West family for making our pre-ride several days prior a real special event...so to speak.
This past weekend was the one the two targeted races I’d been training for since the first of the year. The weekend of the Bump and Grind mountain bike race. As I drove up to B_ham Sunday morning, I was asking myself the usual race day questions, am I ready? Is my bike in good shape? Will that new tire hook up like I hope? And so on and so on. I guess the race day jitters were getting to me. After I had arrived and registered, I started my warm-up routine and as I was warming up I started answering those pre race jitter questions, am I ready? Yep, this is what I’d been training for, hadn’t done all those super hard hill repeats up bald knob till I felt as though I was going to puck for nothing, is my bike in good shape? Again yep, Sid had fine tuned it for me. Will that new tire hook up like I hope? You know it will, you used that tire here before. The more I warmed up the better I felt, I just hoped my luck would hold out. Finally they called the sport 50-59 class to the line. As we were on the line I noticed that the class was not as big as last year, it seemed as though ONLY THE FAST GUYS showed up this year. READY, GET SET, GO! We were off. When we got to the single track we were all still fairly close together. I was probably in about 7th place, not wanting to blow myself up right from the start (there’d be plenty of time for that later). After about a mile or so I started to pass a couple of my competitors and worked up to the 4th position with the 5th place guy right on my wheel. The two of us were already passing riders in other age groups that had started before us. I was working pretty hard trying to drop this guy, with no such luck and finally asked if he wanted by, “no” he said “he was going as hard as he could”. After he told me that I decided to slow the pace down a little (had too) to try to save something for the 3 mile climb and if he wanted to pass me he was welcomed to. Things stayed about the same till we got to the climb, still passing other age group riders and him still on my wheel, but after we crossed the bridge half way
up the hill, he attacked and started to open up a gap. I tried to follow his attack, but when I hit the highest heart rate I have EVER SEEN in a race I decided to back it off some (had too again!) and try to catch him later. After I reached to top of the climb, I shifted back into the big ring and keep a fast speed along the ridge road. Turned off the ridge road back into the single track heading down toward Blood Rock. Blood Rock is no problem for me, as I decided about 4 years ago to walk it. There is no decision to be made when I get there, a no brainer! As I was walking(actually half running) down blood rock I heard the spectators (people how want to see riders fall) saying “rider back” so I stepped over to give him room and as he passed I realized he was in my class, I had just gone from 5th to 6th place, but I did notice that as he was passing me a looked out of control (he crashed at the bottom of Blood Rock) As I was descending the bump trail( the rocky rough trail right after Blood Rock) I saw several riders off to the side with flats, and there he was, the guy in my class who had just passed me off to the side with a flat. Back in 5th and still had 
ort riders. I somehow exploded off the front, got the holeshot, and carried the lead for quite a while into the woods. I had two riders on my tail and new that with all of the fire road coming up it'd be better to try and get any draft as possible so I let them by. We traded places throughout the 3 mile climb, each one pushing the other to get up the mountain faster. My rear tire lost traction in the steepest part of the climb about a quarter of a mile from the summit causing me to dismount as I watched the other two slowly ride away from me. Soon after the trail started going down I somehow broke a front spoke. While my wheel didn't go out of true really at all, my spokes are titanium so there was a substantial amount of flex going on...enough to cause me to slow down on a couple of really fast rocky sections. I was caught close to the end by two other guys in my group, but really got into a good rhythm for the last third of the course. I ended up finishing in 5th, almost 5 minutes faster than my time last year (which got me 3rd). For some reason I felt better in this race than any other this year. Maybe I am getting TOO hydrated or eating too much food before races??? I guess that is an entire different beast to tackle on its own!
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