Bulldog Rump post race write up.

Dave Taylor

Dave Taylor

Rex kwan Do
I had a lot of fun as always at this event. I had never ridden KVSP so I got there early and preroad the course. I had a long week with TLD the week before and only a short road spin and one short fat bike ride in between. Wedding rehearsal friday and wedding saturday(about 6 ipas and a jack n coke but flushed it out with water after 6:30pm sat). The pre ride went well minus a tree blowing me off the bike in the little shickane right before the left before the last big climbs. The shoulder is sore today. I ended up running 34/19 as it felt good on the pre ride but in hin sight a 34/20 would have been better. Off the start I went into the woods in 2nd but on the first slight tech section I moved into the lead. I had tired legs on the first lap and my buddy greg from 19-39 group passed me right before the last climbs. He was the only one to pass me from any class so that was good and the second lap I felt a lot better. I finished in 1:09.34ish. Many people like that place for riding. I thought there were one or two ok sections but overall the last two course have utilized too much fire road/gravel/field sections. In my mind xc racing should be all single track but hey, it was fun and I got to race. Maybe there are reasons behind so much fire road but who knows. The rocks are sharp. I need to patch the inside of my race tire from a slice during the race. I won my class (cat 2 ss). Big congrats to my buddies Greg Kaasman who won cat 2 19-39 and Joe Van Mater who won the endurance race...they are both freaks of nature. Good to see Arias out there as well as @jShort , @pooriggy , @UtahJoe , @Uzzi_SL and anyone else I missed. I will post a reply in a bit with some crappy pics I took. Note: my criticism is only trying to be constructive , I am all for the best race courses. So far, Mooch leads, blue mt second and wayway third of the courses I have raced this year.
 
Nice work after doing the TDL! The reason for fire road is that we only have so many trails to make a course without crossing the road. We needed that to make the longest course possible for the endurance racers, and it also gives a nice opening for passing throughout the course. All ST courses are great for riding but not so much when there are bottlenecks for racing. I agree I love the all ST courses as well but this was the best fit for our event.
 
Ok, that makes sense. Looked like a great turn out btw! Hopefully the guy who had a heart attack is going to be ok.
 
Course was awesome and well marked/marshalled. I managed five laps in the endurance race, and was about ten minutes short of a sixth. I could have pressed for it, but I honestly wasn't really feeling like a sixth lap was necessary. I made that long climb near the end on all five laps, which I really didn't think was gonna happen after climbing it once or twice.

A female endurance racer and I went off course a little on the first lap (well I went off course and she followed), but she pretty quickly realized we (I) messed up. We went back and found the correct turn, and then Mancuso was marshalling right around there so we let him know. He went and put up the tape across the road which apparently was missed.

Thanks Cycle Craft for having an endurance option and putting on an awesome event. And thanks to all the Bulldog racers and others for being course marshals, everyone was doing a great job out there!
 
Nice work Dave. Me personally I dont mind those short road sections at kvsp....usually everyone lifts off the throttle slightly and it allows you a moment to grab a drink, etc... The grass field is always hell, but as Ryan said, there is only so much you can do with that loop. But that to me was a perfect KVSP course....excellent flow, tons of speed, enough rocks that you still had to pay attention to you lines. Man that race is WAYYY more fun when its not like 97 degrees.

Great work Team bulldog/cyclecraft, really fun race!
 
Congratulations Dave.
There is only so much continuous single track at KVSP, fire roads are needed to connect the trails. I don't think they were excessive. There is only so much you can do at a venue like KVSP to put a race loop together, the Bulldogs do the best they can with what they have.
I had a good race after taking some time off the bike this week. The usual suspects were in front of me at the start, Kahl, Eichlen, Welch some how I got around Welch, and Eichlen but Kahl is always on , he finished way ahead of me but it still felt good to get 2nd.
Thanks Bulldogs/Cyclecraft for putting on a well run race.
 
pooriggy said:
Congratulations Dave.
There is only so much continuous single track at KVSP, fire roads are needed to connect the trails. I don't think they were excessive. There is only so much you can do at a venue like KVSP to put a race loop together, the Bulldogs do the best they can with what they have.
I had a good race after taking some time off the bike this week. The usual suspects were in front of me at the start, Kahl, Eichlen, Welch some how I got around Welch, and Eichlen but Kahl is always on , he finished way ahead of me but it still felt good to get 2nd.
Thanks Bulldogs/Cyclecraft for putting on a well run race.
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Congrats @pooriggy . I will have to go up and ride the trails on a weekend. It was defintely fast. Looking forward to taconic...that was a pretty fun course last year.
 
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Ha nice Dave... You got me, @Rich W and Dave f in one shot... Pretty much like this for the 3 of us throughout the race.
 
The course was awesome and well marked. I think the gravel rant comes from having a single gear. I don't think it had excessive gravel, I just shifted up and it went through really fast without doing 160RPM.
I rode there lots of times before and also could not picture it any better, unless someone builds bridges and tunnels to fix overlapping sections, perhaps it will be done as soon as RedBull starts sponsoring H2H.
Great learning experience with lots of fun, had a chance to really learn how to pass people for the first time.
David, Congratulations on the win, I could not have a chat before the race because I was in the potty room until 2 minutes before the start and after the race I had to run to my kids 1st birthday.
 
UtahJoe said:
Ha nice Dave... You got me, @Rich W and Dave f in one shot... Pretty much like this for the 3 of us throughout the race.
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Ha, was so tough to get pics with the lighting there. You were just mumbling away going dow that downhill @UtahJoe haha. Awesome to see you always smiling during these races. I am learning to holeshot and pish from the beginning. It may not work when I go to cat 1 but it works now.
 
charlesrg said:
The course was awesome and well marked. I think the gravel rant comes from having a single gear. I don't think it had excessive gravel, I just shifted up and it went through really fast without doing 160RPM.
I rode there lots of times before and also could not picture it any better, unless someone builds bridges and tunnels to fix overlapping sections, perhaps it will be done as soon as RedBull starts sponsoring H2H.
Great learning experience with lots of fun, had a chance to really learn how to pass people for the first time.
David, Congratulations on the win, I could not have a chat before the race because I was in the potty room until 2 minutes before the start and after the race I had to run to my kids 1st birthday.
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Thanks. Been riding my butt off lately. Yesterday was tough after a wedding saturday though
 
I had fun again on the fatty Sunday. Not sure how'd I'd feel after Bearscat and working the race all morning but I decided to say f it and just race. I hit the start and the legs didn't want to go. 3/4 of the way through the first lap they finally woke up. Traffic was the name of the game as it was just a lot of people to get by. I did what I could and put a more solid effort in. It's always fun when the guy in front of you asks if you're on the fatty without turning around. I guess those tires humming are that noticeable 🙂
 
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