Transparent Racing made it's debut this weekend at the Sea Otter Classic. It was a great weekend where we got to catch up with our new and awesome sponsors: WTB, Rooly Eyewear, Action Wipes, and Squirt. It was definitely not without it's hassles though. The biggest issue all weekend was the weak compressors at the gas station making it quite difficult to blow tires onto rims. After a few gas stations and a lot of quarters we gave up until the next morning. Luckily the boys at the Giant tent came through for us and not only let us use their compressor but showed us a great trick on how to blow tires on real easy. So easy you can do it with a hand pump. If you see us at the races come up and ask us and we will gladly show you!
Saturday was the short track. Brutal course. after a fast road start (well sort of, there was a bit of road) we headed up a steep climb filled with breaking bumps and then across an off camber single track resembling thing that with both Macky and I being hard tail riders was not treating us too well. Macky was able to do pretty well and hold out for a solid 15 minutes and well I was able to get two good laps in. Better than nothing but that back row call up of 100 guys is rough, mad hard to move up when you are standing still waiting for the field to get through the first tight section while the leaders are ripping around the course. On a more positive note our new tires from WTB worked amazingly well. The Vulpine (xc semi-slick) as a rear tire is amazing! It rolls fast and still hooks up really well in the loose dusty stuff. The Nanoraptor as a front tire is pretty sweet too! Once again super fast rolling and corners quite consistently as well. WTB is definitely making some of the best tires I have ever ridden.
After cleaning up with our action wipes and heading back to the hotel the goal was to rest up for the big day, XC, on sunday. Sunday morning rolled around and man it was hot. The weather report was only calling for temperatures in the 80's but by 10 am it was already in the 80's and was on it's way higher. With high temps and a need to stay hydrated Macky and I went for the shorter warm up approach which did not turn out too badly I think. Macky was able to finish 37th overall and 6th for the U23's and I managed a 100th place finish out of 150 or so. Even with reasonable results it was a really hard day in the saddle. At 1 hour and 15 minutes in I ran out of fluids and had to back off my blistering pace that was moving me up through the pack consistently quickly to soft pedal in order to save the body from succumbing to the horrendous heat. Grabbed 2 new bottles from Macky's mom at the feed zone and headed out for lap 2. Still hard but was able to pick up about 5 guys over that lap and even grab an old racing buddy from NY who just moved up to the pros too, Seamus Powell.
Macky's race went fairly similar, the heat got to him during the 1st lap and he was pushing a pretty hard pace as well. After backing off and getting through the feed zone he was able to recover well and rally back grabbing a number of places on his way in.
All in all it was a great weekend for Transparent Racing and we would like to thank all of our sponsors: Hammer Nutrition, Rooly Eyewear, WTB, Action Wipes, and Squirt lube for helping us get going and make our dreams come true!
Cheers!
Saturday was the short track. Brutal course. after a fast road start (well sort of, there was a bit of road) we headed up a steep climb filled with breaking bumps and then across an off camber single track resembling thing that with both Macky and I being hard tail riders was not treating us too well. Macky was able to do pretty well and hold out for a solid 15 minutes and well I was able to get two good laps in. Better than nothing but that back row call up of 100 guys is rough, mad hard to move up when you are standing still waiting for the field to get through the first tight section while the leaders are ripping around the course. On a more positive note our new tires from WTB worked amazingly well. The Vulpine (xc semi-slick) as a rear tire is amazing! It rolls fast and still hooks up really well in the loose dusty stuff. The Nanoraptor as a front tire is pretty sweet too! Once again super fast rolling and corners quite consistently as well. WTB is definitely making some of the best tires I have ever ridden.
After cleaning up with our action wipes and heading back to the hotel the goal was to rest up for the big day, XC, on sunday. Sunday morning rolled around and man it was hot. The weather report was only calling for temperatures in the 80's but by 10 am it was already in the 80's and was on it's way higher. With high temps and a need to stay hydrated Macky and I went for the shorter warm up approach which did not turn out too badly I think. Macky was able to finish 37th overall and 6th for the U23's and I managed a 100th place finish out of 150 or so. Even with reasonable results it was a really hard day in the saddle. At 1 hour and 15 minutes in I ran out of fluids and had to back off my blistering pace that was moving me up through the pack consistently quickly to soft pedal in order to save the body from succumbing to the horrendous heat. Grabbed 2 new bottles from Macky's mom at the feed zone and headed out for lap 2. Still hard but was able to pick up about 5 guys over that lap and even grab an old racing buddy from NY who just moved up to the pros too, Seamus Powell.
Macky's race went fairly similar, the heat got to him during the 1st lap and he was pushing a pretty hard pace as well. After backing off and getting through the feed zone he was able to recover well and rally back grabbing a number of places on his way in.
All in all it was a great weekend for Transparent Racing and we would like to thank all of our sponsors: Hammer Nutrition, Rooly Eyewear, WTB, Action Wipes, and Squirt lube for helping us get going and make our dreams come true!
Cheers!
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