The Tale of Dragon's Tale

Race: Dragon's Tale
Location: New Castle, VA
Date: April 14, 2013
Riders: Zack - 2nd Overall

The Dragon's Tale is a  37 mile event on the rocky spine of mountains in southern Virginia.  I raced this event when it was a shorter race in the late 1990s and my only recollection is a lot of hiking and swearing after I broke just about everything on my bike (torn tire sidewalls, broken derailleurs).  Zack fared a lot better than me.  Here's his report in his words:

The 5^th annual Dragon's Tale was a blast. This race is the reincarnation of Kyle Inman’s classic “Dragon’s Back” from mountain biking’s hallowed past (the 90’s) on a revised course but many of the same trails. It couldn't have been a more perfect day, with sunny weather in the 60's and 70's, cold stream crossings, grinding climbs, ripping descents and gnarly ridge top riding on some of Southwest Virginia’s most epic singletrack. 

As usual Chris Scott of Shenandoah Mountain Touring puts on a great race: well-marked, well supported, good food (with vegetarian options ;-) and great beer at the finish line. It looked to be a tough field with guys like Westly Richards, Erik Jensen, Kyle Lawrence, James Wittwer, Andy Rhodes and Mike Runnals coming out this year.

We rolled out of the staging area at 10 am with a 4 mile parade down Rt. 311 for a relaxed warm-up. When we made the left turn on Broad Run road, it was time to start opening things up.  I set a fast pace on the dirt road, blasting through the 5 deep and cold creek (come on, it's a river) crossings. 

The water was deep this year due to a heavy rain fall a few days before, and I had to jump off halfway through and run the across several times. These deep crossings can wreak havoc on a drivetrain, but my Squirt wax lube held up and I was still squeak-free by the end of the race.

Wes and I reached the first climb with a rider from App. State hanging on and a big gap over the rest of the field. I led up the 20 minute technical climb up Grouse Trail with Wes right on my wheel. First time at the top it's a right turn along the ridge into Deer Trail for a ripping downhill with many tight steep switchbacks.  

My new Scott Spark handled this terrain beautifully, I was able to climb up some steep switchbacks that I don't think I've ever ridden before, and the thing descends like a rocket, such a fun bike to ride. I thought I might be able to get away on the descent but only managed to gain a few seconds. 

Coming back through the first aid station to climb Grouse again, Wes pulled in front of me and motored up the climb and was out of sight by the top. He was on fire. At the top of the climb it’s a left turn on North Mountain Trail to ride out the rest of the ridge.

I was by myself for the rest of the race, just going hard and riding clean on the rough and rocky ridge-top single. I kept imagining someone close behind and Wes right up ahead to keep going hard, even though my legs were in a fair amount of pain and having cramping issues. 

This trail is punctuated by 6 steep grunting climbs requiring several dismounts. One of the final humps is particularly sadistic - seemingly endless and so steep it's a struggle to put one foot in front of the other. Finally, the grunts were through and it's down a fast descent to Aid 2. The Continental X-King’s setup tubeless on Stan's wheels were amazing in this terrain with excellent climbing, cornering, and braking traction, and they roll fast on the road sections as well.

After Aid 2, it's the home stretch with about 45 minutes until the finish. A steep 10 minute climb up North Mountain Trail followed by some ridge and yet another ripping descent down Lick Branch Trail with some sweet skinny off-camber single. Then it’s the final 5 minute climb (woooo!!) up Ferrier Trail and an awesome descent to roll back on the road for a few miles to the finish.  

I crossed the line with a time of 3:53:30 for second place, about 10 minutes in front of Harrisonburg's Erik Jensen and about 5 behind Wes Richards. Sue Haywood (Stan’s NoTubes) topped the women’s podium, followed by Laura Hamm and Brenda Simril (Motor Mile Racing).

 A frigid rinse in Craig Creek and some tasty food and beverage topped off the both painful and awesome day.

Andy Rhodes (5^th), Zack Morrey (2^nd), Wes Richards (1^st), Erik Jensen (3^rd), and James Wittwer (5^th). (I’m looking forward to getting the 2013 jersey that hopefully covers my belly.)

Racing with the Scott Pro MTB Team in 2013

I was happy to be invited to the Scott Pro MTB Team this year, it was sad leaving Blue Ridge Cyclery after a great season with them in 2012, but so it goes... You can check out the team updates at http://scottrcmtb.blogspot.com/ and on Facebook, and I'll also be checking in here from time to time.

In addition to the Scott team with all our great sponsors, Magura Direct and Stan's NoTubes are continuing to support me this year. Thanks guys!

Tour de Burg

We're on Day 5. Crazy wind storm Friday night wreaked some havoc on yesterday's mountain stage on the SMT.

Stages so far-

6/30 Tour de Burg Prologue

7/1 Tour de Burg Stage 1

7/2 Tour de Burg Stage 2

7/3 2012 Tour de Burg Stage 3 aka trees from hell!!

7/4 2012 Tour de Burg Stage 4

June 16, 2012 Lumberjack 100

Flat! Constant Pedaling! Hot! Dusty! Fast as $#!T! Just a few ways to describe this race. Fast first 2 laps, fell off a bit on the third lap, but ended up 12th. Overall a good day and a great workout.


Check out the race coverage from Cyclingdirt-


Lumberjack 100 NUE Race Highlights 2012


Sweet Crash!! Watch those bars Drew (and Kevin)


Goofy interview featuring me


and... here's my Garmin file on Strava- http://app.strava.com/rides/11149068

6WC 2012

Aka 6 Hours of Warrior Creek in the year 2012 A.D.



Thank You Sponsors! Blue Ridge Cyclery, Stan's NoTubes, Magura USA, Schwalbe Tires

6WC 2012 Podium

What can be more fun than riding a huge 12.5 mile pump track with monstrous banked turns and berms and flowy singletrack for 6 hours? I will leave that question unanswered. Lets just say, this race was a lot of fun. 


I arrived Friday afternoon in time to get my race number plate and lovely t-shirt, and do a lap on the race course to refresh my memory from 2 years ago. The loop was in great condition, and the weather forecast for race day was looking to be perfect, starting cool in the 50s and getting up to 70 or so. After consuming my standard pre-race meal of Mexican food at a fine local establishment, I headed out to find the cabin fellow Blue Ridge Cyclery teammates Scott and Ellen Ramsey had rented for the weekend to lay my well stuffed body down to sleep. There was a big crew of team people at the cabin including Gordon WW Quadsworth, Chris Coleman from the shop and his girlfriend Liz and it was great to hang out and enjoy some team togetherness before I got too tired and had to go embrace the pillow for a few hours.


The next day Scott, Chris, Liz and I got out to Warrior Creek bright and early and we got the pit area all set up for the day. Since BRCC was one of the race sponsors we had a choice pit location right next to the finish line.


Race time was soon upon us, it started fast with me and some duo team guys leading out on the extra road/fire road section at the beginning of the first lap. The first 15 miles went by in just over an hour, we were flying, average speed was close to 14 mph. One of the duo team guys came around me in the first lap. From the second lap on I just went fast and smooth, didn't go crazy sprinting up every climb but just stayed steady and strong without killing myself. 


Something clicked with the banked turns, which I've never been good at riding, and suddenly I was railing every turn and hardly using the brakes at all. Basically, you just whip the bike around sideways and extend your arms and legs going in to the turn, then compress and suck the bike back up to you at the end of the berm, keeping your body fairly still and letting the bike move around. It felt great to finally get the hang of this technique!


Over the course of the race, I moved down into third in the 2 man team rankings, then fourth, then on the last lap one more 2 man team guy passed me. Bummer. I did win the solo category by 23 minutes or something, but I wanted to get on the duo podium too! Oh well... No I'm just kidding it was frickin sweet, and I only missed 3rd on the duo podium by 40 seconds or so. And, when you figure in the fact that the duo guys never had to stop and refuel, because they just do that during the rest lap, I was easily in 3rd and probably 2nd if I would have not had to stop and grab a fresh bottle/food/etc etc. Yay. 


Preliminary race results are up here and individual lap times will be up soon.  My Garmin was running for the whole race, so I posted up the results to Strava and the Garmin site (which has more accurate stats) Happy to see that my 6th lap was only a few minutes shorter than the 2nd! That was good pacing, and great job legs you make me happy.


Coming up this weekend... Camp Hilbert! Should I do 5 hour or XC? Stay tuned!!!

March MADNESS!! and some April madness too..

I know, I've been slacking lately on the blog updating... sorry about that, if anyone actually reads this thing.  Anyway, I don't have a lot of time to write at this moment, but I will say, racing has been going great lately! I've won more races in the past few weeks than the past 2 years. Feels like things are starting to come together.

Tsali Podium

Here's the latest results, in an easy to read bullet list format for your enjoyment.

• March 11th VORS #1/Southern Classic #2 -  Shootout on Angler's Ridge, Danville VA - 4th Cat 1 30-39

• March 18th VORS#2 - O'hill Meltdown, Charlottesville VA - 1st Pro/Expert

• March 24th Belmonte Endurance Races, Wintergreen VA - 1st Open men (a course marshal sent me the wrong way and I missed part of the course, but at the time I was 20 minutes in the lead, so I'm counting it as a win!)

• March 31/April 1 US Cup East/SERC #2/Southern Classic #4 - Tsali Knobscorcher, Bryson City NC - 1st XC, 2nd TT Cat 1 30-39

• April 7 6 Hours of Warrior Creek, Wilkesboro NC - 1st Solo Men (only 7 minutes behind the winning 2 man team! :)

VORS is the Virginia Off Road Series, I'll be doing these when there's nothing bigger going on, and also should be able to complete the US Cup East/SERC series, 2 more of those are coming up later this month in Georgia.  I will be racing 2 of the US Cup Triple Crown races also. Currently registered for 7 NUE races and several more soon when I get the money to pay the entry fees. I'll be at Cohutta 100 at the end of the month and doing the US Cup/SERC #4 race the next day.. ouch. Not planning on winning that one, but I need to complete at least 8 of 10 races in the series and there are a few other ones I'll have to miss. Drive to Alabama from Ohio the day after the Mohican 100??? Probably not. Oh scheduling conflicts, you kill me.  


Speaking of which, I couldn't make it to Dragon's Tale this year due to being down in NC for the Tsali Knobscorcher on the same day, and that was very sad.. I love Dragon's Tale, such a badass race, and Chris Scott does such a great job putting it on.  There was a huge field this year, and JB came out and destroyed everyone apparently. But hey, if I had to miss a big epic gnarly backcountry 4 hour race for a little 2 hour XC race like Tsali, at least I won the thing! And, although its not my normal style of course, it was super fun and good to practice that fast flowy buff singletrack.  Apparently everyone is into these sub-2 hour short sprint XC races, so I'm giving that a try this year, but I think my real love will always be with the longer backcountry races.

Start of the 30-39 cat 1s. You can see me way in the back left behind everyone... Photo by MTBMike

The win at Tsali was especially tasty and satisfying because I had a terrible start. I got jammed in the 2nd row behind tons of guys all fighting for a good spot on the start line, and was maybe 15th or 20th getting into the singletrack. A few dropped off the sides, but we were pretty much cruising along single file in a big train at a medium-fast pace for the first few miles and it was impossible to pass on the tight twisty singletrack. Finally, I saw an opportunity on a gradual climb with some room on the sides of the trail, and stood up and sprinted past the entire line of like 15 guys. 2 were a few hundred yards off the front and I was able to catch them within a few minutes by turning myself inside out on the steep grunt of a climb in the middle of the race lap. "Shut up body, do what I tell you!" 

Andy hot on my wheels towards the end of the 1st lap -Photo ToShun Campbell

After that, it was just cruising fast and smooth. Andy Johnston and I traded pulls in the lead until the middle of the second lap when I punched it hard again up the steep climb and didn't see him any more after that. Gary Yates, who eventually finished second, bridged up to me a few miles from the finish, he was flying! He passed me and I was having a hard time holding on to his wheel, and thought my hopes of a win had disappeared. Then, either I got a crazy burst of energy or he had exploded himself in the effort to bridge the gap, either way I came back around him and hammered my ass off for the last 2 miles of the lap and got a good 40 second gap on him. It was pretty intense. On second thought, maybe this short XC stuff is alright.

Enjoying the lead a few miles from the finish :) -Photo by ToShun Campbell

BRC Training Day

Today I drove up to Natural Bridge, VA today to ride with teammates G-Wad and Jay Catleggs (Gordon Wadsworth, Jay Catlett). Frank Deal and Dan Netzer also joined us.  We rode the monstrous 12 mile 3000 foot Orchard Mountain climb twice, with a little warmup before hand. The first time up, Dan and I hit it pretty hard, and halfway up I went even harder, riding alone the rest of the way up. The second ascent was more leisurely and threw in some painful low cadence strength work. Both times down we hauled as much ass as possible, and since the road was only about 5-6% grade most of the climb this involved a lot of pedaling...

The day was clear, the sun came out after a cloudy and raining night and morning. It was beautiful. The view from the Blue Ridge Parkway to the valley floor 3000 feet below was pretty incredible.

Gordo snapped this pic of me and Jay at the tippy top of the climb