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.
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.
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.
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!
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
but maybe I am just thinking to much about the technical thinks 
