Avid Chainless Challenge - No Brakes Mom!
by Tyler Maine
Jun 14, 2009
Chainless racing is all about braking technique or should I say no braking at all! One rider was heard saying "If you touch your brakes, you're pretty much just asking to lose." And really that's what it boils down too. You want to carry your momentum as far as you can on any flat sections and keep those itchy fingers on the bars while pointing it down hill.
Read on about today's race that Myles Rockwell and Dawn Lambert took the wins in.
Read on about today's race that Myles Rockwell and Dawn Lambert took the wins in.
New to Ashland for 2009 is the inaugural Avid Chainless Challenge, and yes it’s a race without your chain. The 3 mile course starts way above the town of Ashland and winds its way down old fire roads with great view points, but don't focus on those as you are trying to keep your hands off the brakes and your speed up. Braking with finesse could win you the race, while big handfuls of stoppers will punish you.
First thing in the morning, racers arrived at Lithia Park for sign in and to have their chains removed from their bikes for the event. If you got there early enough, you could even do one pre-ride of the course, but likely no more than that. After your bike was dialed in, it was time to load up and head to the start gate.
At the top of the course, racers all converged and waited out their start times. Personally I felt that the 2 minutes between racers was excessive and that one minute would have been closer to ideal - just get everyone up there to begin with, one port-a-john and send them off. This will also help in having more racers and riders around for awards and not rushing off to Super D practice if they raced early and didn't want to wait too long. Ok back to the race.
From the start line, you had to skateboard your bike or run along side it to get any momentum going before getting into your race tuck. The tuck was where the race was won or lost, ok and the brakes played a HUGE key too.
Racer taking a few steps to get going in the chainless event:
Myles Rockwell going through the speed trap in a tuck during the chainless event:
Having watched every racer go from the start line I began to notice a few things about this little race. Most were in it for the fun of it and simply wanted to experience something different then a lung and muscle race. The bikes were a mixed bag to say the least too, everything from old hard tails to world cup DH sleds and anything in between. Oddly enough they all had their pluses and minuses to them too.
The Avid Speed Zone was set up a few hundred meters into the race where racers were in full tuck and trying to maintain speed. The top AM and Pro men clocked speeds of 34 miles per hour, while the ladies each recorded speeds of 29 miles per hour. It was odd to see the AMs and Pros with similar speeds, but when you can't rely on your chain it's all about the tuck and no braking it!
Before his run Myles said "I'm not gonna lie, I wanna win!" and that is exactly what he did today by completing the 3 mile course in 7 minutes and 29 seconds, close to 4 seconds up on second place racer and Ashland local Nathan Riddle. Jared Hobbs rounded out the Pro men's field. In the pro women it was Dawn Lambert taking the win over Chelsey Stevens and Willow Koerber.
In the amateur men we saw Devon Lyons take the win with a time of 7 minutes and 57 seconds, that would have ranked him well in Pro Men, William Roussel snuck into second while Darrin Seeds took the last podium spot for the event. For the ladies Erica Schmid took the win in the Amateur women, with Sandra Ross in second and Melodie Buell rounding out the top three.
After all the racers went down the hill, I ran sweep to make sure that everyone was off the course and that no one required aid to themselves or their bikes. I had a chain and doddled in places, but still was able to pedal on the longer flats, my time was 9 minutes and 11 seconds on the 3 mile course - hmmm that means that I love my brakes. Check out the full results at Break Away Events to see how I would have fared out there if my time would have been without a chain too.
Back at Lithia Park a band played to entertain the racers that remained around for awards. The sun also shone it's head to add to the pleasant atmosphere.
Once the awards were handed out, it was time to get up to Mt.Ashland and get in more laps for Sunday's main event, the Ashland 12 mile Super D!
Happy trails,
Ty
First thing in the morning, racers arrived at Lithia Park for sign in and to have their chains removed from their bikes for the event. If you got there early enough, you could even do one pre-ride of the course, but likely no more than that. After your bike was dialed in, it was time to load up and head to the start gate.
At the top of the course, racers all converged and waited out their start times. Personally I felt that the 2 minutes between racers was excessive and that one minute would have been closer to ideal - just get everyone up there to begin with, one port-a-john and send them off. This will also help in having more racers and riders around for awards and not rushing off to Super D practice if they raced early and didn't want to wait too long. Ok back to the race.
Contrasting kits, same race!
From the start line, you had to skateboard your bike or run along side it to get any momentum going before getting into your race tuck. The tuck was where the race was won or lost, ok and the brakes played a HUGE key too.
Myles Rockwell going through the speed trap in a tuck during the chainless event:
Having watched every racer go from the start line I began to notice a few things about this little race. Most were in it for the fun of it and simply wanted to experience something different then a lung and muscle race. The bikes were a mixed bag to say the least too, everything from old hard tails to world cup DH sleds and anything in between. Oddly enough they all had their pluses and minuses to them too.
The Avid Speed Zone was set up a few hundred meters into the race where racers were in full tuck and trying to maintain speed. The top AM and Pro men clocked speeds of 34 miles per hour, while the ladies each recorded speeds of 29 miles per hour. It was odd to see the AMs and Pros with similar speeds, but when you can't rely on your chain it's all about the tuck and no braking it!
Avid Speed Zone
Before his run Myles said "I'm not gonna lie, I wanna win!" and that is exactly what he did today by completing the 3 mile course in 7 minutes and 29 seconds, close to 4 seconds up on second place racer and Ashland local Nathan Riddle. Jared Hobbs rounded out the Pro men's field. In the pro women it was Dawn Lambert taking the win over Chelsey Stevens and Willow Koerber.
Pro Men's results for the Avid Chainless Challenge.
In the amateur men we saw Devon Lyons take the win with a time of 7 minutes and 57 seconds, that would have ranked him well in Pro Men, William Roussel snuck into second while Darrin Seeds took the last podium spot for the event. For the ladies Erica Schmid took the win in the Amateur women, with Sandra Ross in second and Melodie Buell rounding out the top three.
After all the racers went down the hill, I ran sweep to make sure that everyone was off the course and that no one required aid to themselves or their bikes. I had a chain and doddled in places, but still was able to pedal on the longer flats, my time was 9 minutes and 11 seconds on the 3 mile course - hmmm that means that I love my brakes. Check out the full results at Break Away Events to see how I would have fared out there if my time would have been without a chain too.
Back at Lithia Park a band played to entertain the racers that remained around for awards. The sun also shone it's head to add to the pleasant atmosphere.
Future Chainless ripper!
Once the awards were handed out, it was time to get up to Mt.Ashland and get in more laps for Sunday's main event, the Ashland 12 mile Super D!
Sometimes racing is a bowl of candy.
Happy trails,
Ty
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42 Comments
- + 7
crazygeorge
(Jun 14, 2009 at 0:28)
How technical was the rest of the track? Was it mainly fireroad?
haha well i've certainly had my own chainless challenge when i haven't wanted to.. they don't mention that it doesnt just make it hard because you can't pedal faster, but that you also find it much harder to balance on the pedals, because there is no resistance from the chain which you are used to.
pinityoufairy, i completely agree with you
after riding for the past few months chainless, you start to get used to the lack of resistance, especially under breaking, but to start with it's really wierd!
after riding for the past few months chainless, you start to get used to the lack of resistance, especially under breaking, but to start with it's really wierd!
ok wait.....this means that the mens pro winner was going a little less then 60 mph????? (7 mins and 20 some odd seconds to get 6 miles????) jesus f*ckin christ
"By completing the 6 mile course in 7 minutes and 29 seconds"
Can't be right though, if they were only getting to 34mph at the speed trap.
Can't be right though, if they were only getting to 34mph at the speed trap.
thats quite a cool event and I was already coming up with ideas for if I was doing the race. like Pinityoufairy said its strange and difficult to ride without a chain because u dont have resistance but maybe u could find a old bottom bracket and destroy it further so that the old bearings give resistance. The tire choice is also quite important because if u take grippy tires they will not get up to speed but if u take less grippy tires u will have to brake more for the turns. and also depending on the course u could set up your suspension (or ride without suspension) really stiff so that u can push the bike more like u do on a pump track but if its to stiff u might lose control quicker and therefor brake more and loss speed.
and where there any rules about putting extra weight on the bike because extra weight always helps downhill
but maybe I am just thinking to much about the technical thinks 
and where there any rules about putting extra weight on the bike because extra weight always helps downhill
but maybe I am just thinking to much about the technical thinks
uyou wil be glad you thought of the technical things if this kind of race takes off and it becomes a popular sport.
[Reply]
On alot o0f tracks, its been proven that you can actually be faster chainless, as it puts you into a mindset to carry more speed.
Dragon DH seeding runs all used to be chainless.
Dragon DH seeding runs all used to be chainless.
that's one awesome idea, I used to roll down on my local trails like that, pretty cool thing I must say
[Reply]
i miss myles rock, every time i went in to Home Depot in Dtown to get somthing for work i saw him, and when i went to mountain bike specelist, i saw him with GT road bike for roadrage, and on starwars trails in Dtwon i was hike a bike up it cause it DH, and i could not get my bike up this onne part, a tried tossong my bike to the top but it would side down it was so steep and loose, and oh ya, Rockwell happened to be riding and zipped right up it with outthe tire breaking traction, lol he was riding a old 2003 specailized EPIC S-WORKS, and it was 2008, i guess he does not toss out his bike like some do when a new one hits his hands.
dang man I didn't think anybody noticed that he was there. I wasn't there but just seeing the video I was like MYLES ROCKWELL!!! People need to look up the legends, not just the new school
ya he is the shit, i lived in durango colorado and my house was like a half block from him, i looked up to him big time, sam hill and gee is cool but to see a old world cup rider win is something else, not downing sam or anyone else but he rides with 8 inches of travel, myles rode with like 3, and ya the courses were not as technical but it still was insane, he was a kamikazi, i just love that he is still riding
funny how its "Avid Chainless Challenge" when one of the key elements to winning is to stay off your brakes. seems a bit ironic dont you think??
Not ironic at all. They called it "chainless" because you're not allowed to have a chain. It's not called the "Avid Don't Pedal or You'll be Disqualified Challenge."
the joke was that avid makes brakes and are sponsoring an event where you try to use them as little as possible.
still not that ironic because the event emphasizes using the brakes well
still not that ironic because the event emphasizes using the brakes well
Well you want extremely precise brakes with good feel so that you can use them minimally if need be to decrease times or avoid crashes. So brakes still probably are important but more accessory.
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[Reply]
[Reply]
lol there was a chainless race like this at tavy woods in devon, england, a couple of weeks ago.... the track we raced on was a proper track with jupms and drops, rocks and rooots e.c.t....
was mega fun.
was mega fun.
[Reply]
We have this kind of cometition in Norway, Hafjell to. We have it a berm\flow track. And its super fun
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