Lost Valley Luau Recap

Each year, Mesa Cycles puts on a race at Lost Valley called the Lost Valley Luau.  Two years, ago, the thought of signing up for it crossed my mind, but at the time, I knew I would be way overmatched.  The original date in the spring also got rained out and it was rescheduled for Father's Day, which turned out to be about 90-95° with stifling humidity and bugs that would eat you if you stopped anywhere for more than a second.  At any rate, I decided to do a charity ride with my parents and in-laws that day on the KATY Trail on that day.  My wife was pregnant with my son at the time, so she drove the SAG wagon.

Last year, I really wanted to do the race even though I knew I would still be overmatched, but the original date got rained out, and the make up date in June was rained out as well.  I at least was able to get my feet wet in the racing scene though, participating in the last installment of the Dirt Crit series at Castlewood that The Alpine Shop sponsored.


This year, when the racing schedule came out, I circled last Sunday on my calendar and crossed my fingers that it would be dry.  Through most of March, I was feeling pretty good about the race happening, and the trails have been in excellent shape all spring with the obscenely warm weather we've been having.  Unfortunately, as race day came closer, it was looking like rain might ruin the day once again.  A week out, they were predicting rain almost every day from Monday through Thursday, though clear Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.  Then they moved the rain back to where Saturday and Sunday would be clear.  Then about Monday or Tuesday, they were saying it would rain Friday and Saturday with clear skies on Sunday.  By Wednesday, it hadn't rained a drop yet and that night Greensfelder was mostly dry on the east side, with some muddy sections in the dips on the west side trails from a deluge we had received last Saturday.  This is when fortunes started to change.  The 2" of rain that was threatened for the area Wednesday night and Thursday morning turned into about 0.2" and all that materialized on Friday was some localized showers, though I hear Lost Valley was under one of those for a while.  The rain stayed away on Saturday, and that afternoon word came out that the race was on!

Parking lot starting to fill up.

The Cat 3 race started at 9:30, so about 8:30, I left my house so I could get to the area with some time to spare.  Arriving at the mound parking lot, it was about as full as I've ever seen the place, but I found the registration table and signed up.  It was only a little after 9 at this point, so I rode up and down the road to the Army Reserve center behind the mound a couple times to get the blood flowing as it was a little chilly (about 60°), though still really warm for the end of March.  Gradually, people started lining up at the entrance to the Hamburg Trail where the start line was going to be, so I migrated towards the group and waited for the instructions.  There were about 70 of us between the Marathon, Cat 3 and Junior classes.  We were starting at the same time as the Marathon class, so at 9:30, they got their signal, then 2 minutes later we got ours, and the Juniors were 2 minutes behind us. 

Coming down the Hamburg Connector. Credit Karena Romstad.

Not really knowing what to expect in regards to my competition, I found a spot in the middle of the pack as we took off down the Hamburg to the drop off into the back side of Lost Valley.  I was immediately relieved that I wasn't blown away at the start line, and started to pick up my pace to get around as many people as I thought I could before we got to the cut-off.  I've ridden out here enough to know where my strong and weak spots are, and the gravel is most definitely my strong suit.  My hope was to go as well as I could on the gravel and the flat singletrack, then just try to survive the descent to the first dry creek crossing and the tougher singletrack after that. I hoped to then make up time on the next gravel stretch and hold my own on the final stretch of singletrack that I've gotten pretty good at before trying to haul as much as I could on the open stretch to the finish line.

Another shot on the connector descent.  Credit Karena Romstad.

 Coming down the connector descent, I was again pleased that I was only passed by one person, and I think I may have passed a couple of other people.  The hill has a lot of loose gravel, and people had warned that the rains of the week before had washed a lot of it out and rutted it up a bit.  I usually ride the brakes pretty hard coming down here, but the I didn't quite have the death grip I usually do and the looseness of the gravel may have slowed me down a bit as well.  The reward of getting to the bottom here is an immediate climb back up to the top of the next ridge, and this seemed a LOT more washed out than I remembered.  Maybe this is what the reports were warning about.  It's also been a long time since I've actually climbed this hill though, so maybe my memory is getting fuzzy.  I continued to hold my own though, and even passed another rider or two.  At this point, I think I was probably in the top third of the racers.  

After getting to the top of the hill, we entered the newest stretch of singletrack at Lost Valley, which I have a bit of a love - hate relationship with.  I love it because it's flat and can be fast in places, but I hate it because of some of the turns in this area are filled with baseball sized rocks that can beat you to death and make it easy to wash out if you aren't careful.  Soon after I entered the singletrack, I came up on one more rider.  After deciding that I could go faster than he was, I made the move to pass and was cruising until...

Going around one of those rocky turns, I went a little wide and slammed my left pedal into a small tree.  Fortunately, I stayed on the bike, but I was shaken and some of the life was sucked right out of me.  I pulled off to let what I thought was 2 people pass me, and as I turned around, about 5 riders whizzed right by.  DOH!  Once I saw a hole, I got back on the trail and continued on.  As soon as I got moving again, I immediately noticed that my pedal was not just moving up and down, forward and back like pedals are supposed to do, but it was also moving left to right a bit.  Not good!  To make matters worse, this was right at the end of the part I'm good at, and next up was the descent to the first creek crossing.  I made it down all right, but at one of the switchbacks, I pulled off to let yet another rider by since I knew I would be slow at the crossing itself.  Seeing someone bloodied up at this crossing last summer can go a long way towards making you tentative for a while.  I made it up the other side without any problems and then there was one more technical area that I struggle where I was passed yet again.

While that was the last area in that section where I was really stuck, there are some twisty uphill climbs before I got back to doubletrack, and I continued to lose ground on the pack through this area.  By the time the course widened out, the last rider to pass me was far enough ahead that I couldn't see them at all. At this point, my stamina was starting to fade more than I would've liked, and while I know I've ridden this stretch at 15-20+ mph in the past, it was tough to even get to 15 on a lot of it.  This is probably where I need to learn to drink at speed a little better.  I had a full bottle of water with me, but I'm not sure I'd taken two drinks of it at this point.  Finally, at the end of the stretch of doubletrack, the rider in front of me was starting to come into view.  Unfortunately, this would be short lived as the upcoming section of singletrack was quite a bit softer from the recent rains than I would've liked, and I was slowed down by some slippery rocks and a few muddy areas.

Not me, but this is one of the better views of the creek crossing.  Credit Dennis Fickinger.

There was one semi-bright spot through this area though.  Coming up one the other creek crossing that has always given me trouble, I heard someone say, "You need to keep your speed up if your going to make that crossing!"  At that point my mindset went from stop and dismount like always to let's see if we can make this.  So I kept pedaling, made it across the creek and up on the rock armoring on the other side until my front wheel got stuck in a gap between a couple of the rocks.  So while I didn't totally clear the crossing, that was about the best I've ever done there.

Me after the crossing.  I think you can see a grin from my quasi-success.  Credit Dennis Fickinger.

After making it through that crossing, there was one last small ridge to climb up and over, and the climb was again harder than I remembered, but at this point, it could've been one of about four things - my pedal, not drinking enough, lack of stamina, or the dampness of parts of the trail.  Let's just say the downhill to the final creek crossing felt really nice.  After making that crossing, I got tripped up on a root on the other side, but then it was time to go as hard as I could for the last mile to the finish.

On the finishing stretch.  Credit Karena Romstad.

By now, as hard as I could go was down to about 10-12 mph given the slight incline in the terrain.  Valleys are tricky like that.  What looks flat can have a few percent grade hidden by the hills on either side of you that are much steeper.  But then when you're pedaling through it, you wonder why you can't go any faster than you are.  There's definitely a 3-5 mph difference in speeds for me going one way versus the other through here.

Almost done! Credit Karena Romstad.

 But I toughed it out, and made it to the finish line in 59 minutes and change, which seems to have put me fifth out of 8 in my age group, which is better than I thought on race day.  I initially thought there were only 5 in my age group, and I was last.  Hopefully, I'll get an exact time at some point soon.  It's been a been a while since I've just done the standard Lost Valley loop, but I think that's about as fast as I've ever made the trip.  Well, since I've never ridden it without stopping somewhere along the trail, I know that's the fastest I've ever made it around the loop.  I didn't reset my odometer before the race, but I think it was a 10.5 mile course and if I did it in 59 minutes, that would give me a 10.5 mph average and I'm almost positive that's about the fastest moving average I've ever achieved over the loop.  Usually I'm happy if I'm close to 10 mph.  All in all, it was a great event (the Qdoba and Pabst Blue Ribbon at the finish made it even better), and I was happy I decided do it, even if it did put my bike in the shop for the next week to get repaired.  I'll just have to ride on the road until I get it back.