Episode 2: Blue Clay

Also, be sure to sign up for a women's ride this Sunday! Event details and signup link are here.

Written by: Jeff “Sketchy Guy” Rezeli

It’s like the old saying goes, if at first you don’t succeed, buy a better bike.

After a 4th place finish in my first-timer baptism-by-mountain-bike race, I had some soul searching to do. I decided a scapegoat was in order, and that burden fell on my trusty steed. I had entered the first-timer’s race on my well-traveled trail bike, a 2014 full suspension, carbon rig by GT. It had suited me well for lots of weekend warrior outings, guys' trips to far-flung places, and a heavy slate of adventure races for the last 8 1/2 years. Almost everything had been replaced and rebuilt on this bike several times over, but it was out of its element. The 27.5” wheels that were the next best thing in 2014 are nowhere to be found on race day. Mountain bike racing is dominated by short-travel bikes with 29” wheels, and the CCORS race series was no exception.

On the drive back to Raleigh after finishing my first race with Rob, I hauled out every excuse in the book about how difficult it would be to be competitive on a 130mm trail bike with 27.5” wheels against an armada of 29ers. I must have been convincing because a couple of days later I received a text from Rob with a link to a 120mm Kona Hei Hei CR on Craigslist.

“Something like this?” Rob asked.

Something exactly like that.

There was still a tough decision to make. Do I want a short-travel, race-specific bike? Or do I want something race-capable that can still travel to the rugged NC mountains without fear of being shaken to pieces? I decided the latter would be the ticket. I had only done one race, after all. I was not ready to go all in on a race bike, and the Kona offered a nice “down-country” option that could handle tougher trails while hopefully boosting my speed in cross-country events on race day.

Shortly, I was on my way to buy a gently used bike with a few upgrades and only 71 miles on the odometer. If it had been ridden at all, I sure couldn’t tell. The bike was pristine, and a deal was struck.

As luck would have it, the seller lived in Wilmington, right next to Castle Hayne, NC, home to Blue Clay Bike Park and the location of the next race in the CCORS series. So, after purchasing the bike in a grocery store parking lot, it was off to the trails for a preview of the race course with a sunset lap.

For anyone not familiar with Eastern North Carolina, its defining characteristic is that it is pancake flat, with sandy soil that drains well. It was perfect for tobacco farming, and these soil conditions are part of the appeal of this series. While the red clay soil in The Triangle (Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill) gets wet, turns to gumbo for much of the winter, and keeps our local trails closed more than we would like, the trails in Eastern NC drain well and are ready to ride within a day after rainfall.

What Blue Clay Bike Park lacks in elevation, it makes up for in tight, twisty turns, with trees spaced like a picket fence for most of the course, making you question if those wide handlebars are a good idea. It would still prove to be a challenge.

Race day was cold, gray, and generally less glorious than my first race. I am one that prefers to be cold at the start of exercise since I am sure to warm up quickly, but the pre-race briefing and lining up of the various flights of competitors tests that theory. Finally, I am on the line again, in a CAT 3, 2-lap race, against some suspiciously young-looking 40–49-year-olds.

Once again, I invested some mental energy the night before strategizing my approach to “the hole shot” at the start of the race, but in the poetic words of Mike Tyson, “everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”

The Blue Clay course starts with a short straightaway under the scoring timer before a 180-degree hairpin sends the pack toward the single track. I go hard from the start, but not hard enough, hitting the trail about 2/3 of the way back in the pack. The riders in front of me are plenty capable, but there is a train of several riders that are a shade slower than I would prefer. So what does one do? Trying to inch my way through that kind of traffic feels like poor form, and the passing opportunities are truly few and far between. I end up riding some wheels for much of lap 1.

The technical features are giving the pack fits, with some hard braking and near pileups. I seize on a few of these opportunities to make a pass here and there. The guy right in front of me gets wide on a sandy left-hander and goes down. I give him a shout to make sure he is okay and continue.

By lap 2, the course has opened up quite a bit. The fast riders in my group are long gone. While the pack inchwormed along, the riders ahead of the field got some separation, not to be seen again until the podiums.

I keep my heart rate pegged and cruise in with an 8th place finish. In a 17-person field, I’ll take it for my first official result. But with the bike card already played, where will the improvement come from before the next race? It may take some training and hard work after all.