Sedona Chaos

The idea of piecing together a GPX file and suggesting others “race” it is still a bit of a peculiar one.

I wrapped up a big project with just enough time to throw bike and bags together to get out of town. Aaron picked me up and drove us the back way into Sedona so we could do a little “pre-riding.”

Pre-riding, Sedona smiling.

It wasn’t so much pre-riding as it was an attempt to verify as much of the course as I could. Last year’s Sedona AES race loop was painfully short, but neither Chad or I had time to get to Sedona to get tires on the ground for a GPX file. So I did the best I could using GPS data from traildoc, my own files, Garmin Connect and even Strava. But I still preferred to see as much as I could, and get some assurance we weren’t leading people completely astray.

I had that shot lined up, but no subject. Aaron had flatted ’round the corner on Aerie — the nail in the coffin for his race tires. The trail went slower than I expected, so we ended up with a cold paved ride in the dark back into town.

Sedona Big Friggin’ Loop

After last year’s route chaos, I went into this race with two goals: have fun and ride a bunch of new trail. Ride hard if it feels good, but I wasn’t going to invest much since following the route is so hard, especially when fast guys show up with no GPS, or without the know-how to use one.

Chaos is the only word to describe the start on Highline. It seemed even the locals didn’t know how to link up the S-curves on the slickrock, so we all got lost. I got knocked off my bike by a tree branch that I never saw — I felt a crack in my neck but no pain until later in the race. The first chute on the downhill was a huge dust cloud when I got there, with people yelling not to drop in! Several riders dropped in anyway, resulting in some near crashes and good T-bones into dismounted riders. As we crossed Turkey Creek road, a bunch of riders came in from the side, on the road instead. All in good fun, I say.

After some techy and some climby there was a group of four of us, snaking in and out of the fingers of New Frontier. Nick Gould fell off at some point with chain issues, then it was seemingly Kurt and I. As we dropped into Girdner there were no fresh tracks, telling us that we were in ‘the lead’ — at least of those following the course — who knew who was where by now. We kept a fun and steady pace, and the few times I looked back I noticed a guy with a huge beard behind us. My first thought was “who is this guy and why can’t we drop him?” He didn’t seem to be struggling, and had the confidence to not have to follow right behind us.

Kurt took the lead when I fumbled a double root move out of the wash and he stuck it. I drifted back a bit and asked the bearded rider his name. “Travis.” I had seen that Travis Brown was on the spreadsheet, but didn’t think it was “the” Travis Brown. Where are you from? “Durango.” Are you “the” Travis Brown? “Sometimes.” He admitted to a dysfunctional GPS, so he was at our mercy, relying on us to get him through the course.

And then we rode singletrack. For a long time. Never climbing for very long, never technical for very long. But always doing both — climbing and technical-ing. Sedona has a unique style of singletrack. Somewhat lacking diversity, so it’s a good thing its style is a really good one.

I was kicking myself for not bringing the camera when we rolled across Mescal Mtn’s shelf. I had to yell “Sedona!” at one point.

Kurt fell back at some point, finally admitting to himself he wasn’t over his cold yet. He put in a good fight.

I nailed the slow techy stuff on Teacup/Thunder Mtn, thinking myself pretty special for gapping Travis enough that I could have attacked. I waited instead, and then stopped congratulating myself when I noticed he was riding 1×10 and a hard tail. I was happy to have the company since I wasn’t in race mode, and yet there is a race of sorts going on, so it was nice to have company that wasn’t a “threat” — since any attack he made would result in going off course. There are so many intersections that even though I made the track and have ridden some of the course, we made a lot of (minor) wrong turns.

slickrock on broken arrow – photo by Aaron McCombs

As we rolled through town, Travis admitted that after Broken Arrow he no longer felt like he would get hopelessly lost. I took this as his way of warning me that he might ramp it up. Admittedly we (I) had been slacking, and just when I was thinking I might get through this thing without torching my legs, I misread the trail briefly on Little Horse, he skipped around, and my heart rate went into the 170’s to stay on his wheel.

I must say, it was a rush to follow him through Little Horse and Llama. The guy knows how to handle a bike. On one hill I was definitely maxed, and simply ran out of power. It was tempting to completely let him go, but I knew it must have hurt him too, so I kept the gas on and watched the gap stayed the same. Lucky for me he was slowed by the occasional hiker, or a staircase that neither of us could clean at this effort level. I had to smile a little when I gained some ground on a couple techy descents.

It was probably only 20 minutes before we hit the Bell Rock pathway and he sat up. Phew. Too many people on the trail now and he said he wasn’t going to come in ahead of me after following me 80% of the race! He just wanted to get a “good, honest effort” in, and I’ll say we did that.

photo by James Foulks – maadjurguer.blogspot.com

After that it was the usual enjoyable AES after party as everyone rolled in and tall tales were told. In the end we were the first finishers of the correct loop — in ~5:16 or so. One of the fast locals was super cool about finding out after the fact that he didn’t ride the right course. Hard to say how it would have shaken out otherwise.

This race gets bigger and better every year, but one thing stays the same — the quality of the folks that show up. From the fast guys that fell back due to the chaos more than fitness or bike skill, to the unwavering perseverance of the heroes finishing up the entire loop after dark. It’s a great group and everyone’s enthusiasm is so cool to see.

We usually car camp it, but instead tried squeezing six people into one hotel room this year, and it was a good way to do it. Reminded me of Moab trips back in high school and college — squeezing bikes and sleeping bags into available floor space and then heading out to ride red rocks.

The ratio of racing to riding for me in Seonda is probably 20:1, which is a shame. It was great to get out and just cruise trails the day after the race, soak it all in.

photo by Aaron McCombs

And ride some new stuff (like High on the Hog, or is it Hog Heaven?).

Even if it is with crispy legs.

Aaron’s legs must not be as crispy as mine, though he finished strong in 5th, less than a half hour back.

Nevermind, that wheelie winded him.

Yeah, Sedona, I need to visit you more. Great weekend, and a much needed vacation.