Coconino 250 Stage Race 2010

[hungry gnome]

I got a call from Scott last night.  He reached the first stop at 4:36. He said that that was considerably faster than he went last year. Aaron was on his heals with a time of 5:10.  It looks like we have a race!   

[hungry gnome]

If I am reading the tracker right it looks like Scott left camp 20 minutes after Aaron and Lee.  Before the race I asked Scott if he could make the tracker do rough calculations for stage races.  Of course...something like this must be tested...kinda hard for Scott to do while riding.  Poor "blue dot junkies" will just have to wait.   

[Chad B]

A few observations:

1. Matt needs to keep moving if he can. The Sycamore Rim is best done during day light hours. He is doing amazingly well for only getting 3-4 hours of sleep the night before Coconino.

He is in the flat sections for the time being





2. Scott seems to be beating Aaron up Mingus. This will widen the gap between the two, especially since Scott left after Aaron. Some good amount of climbing still left, but it seems as though Scott is spinning faster.

3. Both Lee and Tim are starting the climb up Mingus. Stopping by Maverick to buy all the food/water for the next 24 hours is essential. The next stop is the Verde River, some 15 hours away from them right now. It is a heavy load for sure, at least 150 ounces of water.

Here is Lee during our first ITT of the route



This is the view from the top...they will be riding up to here (the background being Cottonwood in this shot). I think it is about 6k of climbing.



Stage 2 View



Keep up the work everyone!

[Chad B]

Today is not an easy day for the crew. They will be riding out of the Verde River in pretty sunny conditions. Everybody but Dan and Scott seemed to have left camp.

First you rock down Jaeger



Before taking the slow, railroadish (not quite though) rail road grade for miles. It sometimes feels like an eternity. Fill up water down at the river before making your way up to Bill Williams, the land of the switchbacks.



Hotel room and pizza tonight.......Mmmmmmmm. My money is on Aaron to close the gap between Scott.

Matthew Lee's SPOT either died or he took a long nap on the edge of Sycamore Rim. I am guessing the later and that he is sleeping in the back of his car right now in Flagstaff. 

[YuriB]

Did anyone ever hear from Matt? Hope all ended well.

[rhino]

What's Matt Lee's status?  Spot been still since last night?

[rhino]

oh sorry, double post on the exact same question. Didn't see Yuri's post.

[Chad B]

He finished last night per Scott. We are not sure about his finish time.

[Chad B]

Just talked to Scott. It seems at though Matt rolled in about 1130ish, just shy of the record. He reported having ridden through some tough spots near Wing Mountain. He continued by saying that some downed trees were on the trail, damaged from the recent tornado. He is in Flagstaff, unable to remember where Brad's house is at, so he is staying at a hotel (again, that is where he stayed last night also).

[Chad B]

Props to everyone for making it for everyone to (nearly) making it to Williams. Tim and Dan seem to be riding down Bill Williams right now.

I hope you are all enjoying a shower, pizza, warm bed and above all.....drinking an IPA. TroyM and I are drinking to Coconino Riders tonight....salud!

Yuri, you mind drinking one tonight also?

[Mathewsen]

Props to everyone for making it...I hope you are all enjoying a shower, pizza, warm bed and above all.....drinking an IPA. TroyM and I are drinking to Coconino Riders tonight....salud!

Yuri, you mind drinking one tonight also?

Hey ML here in Flag, joining the IPA club from the budget inn, (nearly empty) large pizza box on the bed. Cheers to ya--and Yuri, for the PBR in Oak Creek.

Dang.
Sweet loop. Big props to Chad and Scott for putting it together.

Chad, props to you for your ITT of this route in june. I just experienced first-hand 'what you did last summer'. `Tis a burly loop.

I thought for a while like it might be possible to do it faster but things started to come unraveled for me when i double-flatted coming down Bill Williams trail. There's a heinous little deciduous thorn bush flourishing on that mtn that will puncture tires, but then eventually the thorns can eject, leaving behind holes small enough for stans--no problem--but only if your tires are topped-off well enough to keep plugging `em. Alas, my reserves were apparently low. My front, almost dry when i put a tube in.

Yep, losing my stan's protection in thorn country got me a bit frazzled, but i'd have to say my under-estimation of the difficulty of riding the final stage in the dark was my real undoing. By the time i got to the (unnamed) trail off the Snow Bowl road (leading into Shultz creek), i had no stomach for, or forearm strength to style those boulder gardens on an HT in the dark. I felt like a pinball. The incessant dabbing, dismounting and kaleidoscope of shadows was just too much. I folded. Also (retro a bit) maybe it was just me losing my grip, but i swear i was going in circles on the Wing Mountain moto trail! Anyway, by the time i finished i was a sorry excuse for a mountain biker, yet pretty psyched to have survived the Coco-loco. I'm ready to come back and do it again! I would start 30min b/f sunrise instead of 8am, closer to solstice than equinox, and do my darnedest to get most of the way through the Lime Kiln trail into Cottonwood b/f darkness day 1. Lime kiln route finding for an out-of-towner was quite hard to follow at night. At times it was nothing more than a faint cow trail. Those kind of tweaks (and lots of good luck) would (hopefully) amount to a 36hour finish. That's the carrot with this loop, anyway...me thinks.
 
To the blue dot junkies: Sorry about my SPOT conking out before the end. I reset it on Mingus (how `bout *that* mountain!) at 2 am or so, and never pulled it out of the h-bar bag pouch till the end--it was powered off. From the tracker data, the batteries must have been jarred loose on that real MF of an MTB trail called Sycamore Rim (pronounced sick-of-more--cuz that's where one's head is at by this point). I've never seen that happen to a SPOT before, so perhaps it's a real testament to Sycamore. I flatted again there, and began to really curse the course designers at that point. The very narrow track between the boulders was muddy, making preloading and restarting post dabs/dismounts a bitch. I was quite happy to see the east end of it.

All-in-all good times, and i'm glad i made the trek. 250-350 mile events are lots of fun; all the pain and suffering of longer events without the hassle of sleeping.

[ScottM]

Awesome year for the Coconino.  We had a strong crew of riders and primo weather, even trail conditions for the most part.  I didn't think I'd be able to make this year's race, so I was pinching myself throughout, just unbelievably happy to be out there, schralping the coconino gnar.

I've put preliminary results on the tracker, let's see how they recreate here:

	Stage1	Stage2	Stage3	Stage4	GC
Scott Morris	4:36	7:58	7:46	4:58	25:18:00
Aaron Gulley	5:06	9:39	8:19	5:14	28:19:00
Lee Blackwell	6:44	12:41	10:41	7:19	37:59:00
Brad Mattingly	7:19	12:49	12:42	9:38	42:28:00
Dan Montgomery	8:04	12:49	12:37	9:38	43:08:00
Tim McCabe (*)	8:39	12:27	11:59	9:27 (*)	42:37:00

* - Tim took a slightly different route on Stage 4 and is not considered an official finisher.

Even for folks that skipped a portions of the route, I'd still like to have their stage times for the results.  All 9 starters in the stage race finished a loop, starting/ending in Flagstaff and hitting Sedona, Mingus and Williams.  That fact is pretty rewarding as a race organizer.  Other comments that are great to hear are things like: "That was the longest day on the bike for me."  and "I've done some hike-a-bike, but that was a hike-a-bike", or maybe "I can't believe how many cool sections of trail are linked together on this route."

Huge congrats to Matthew for crushing the route, on-sighting it no less.  My own opinion is that this route is meant to be ridden AT SPEED and with energy in the legs.  The stage race allows just that.  But, hey, more power to the thru-riders.

So, thanks to everyone that showed up and made the Coconino vibe what it was.  I am already super excited and plotting to aim for a sub 24 hour GC time next year.  Pics and a writeup from me to come.  Would love to see some pics from others out there too... in due time.

[tRoy]

nice time there Dr. Topo! 
Looked like I missed another good bikepacking party...

[Lee Blackwell]

Was a fine time out on the bike and the comraderie was great too
I've posted some pictures on picasa

paste this in your browser it should direct you to the photo album with captions!

http://picasaweb.google.com/leeblackwell777/Coconino250BikeRace2010?authkey=Gv1sRgCKzCr-fx29H_Rw#

[DaNM]

What a great event, we should all make a local event like this, run a race on it, sure, great look see at the area.
  This would be a good warm up bikepacking adventure for anyone looking for larger events. All the elements are there.  The biggest intimidator was filtering all the water for day three`s ride on a hot day, early. Hardly touched the supply all the way to the Verde river, climbed hot mid day Perkinsvillle gravel and finished well after dark on the Bill Williams rock rearranged {for your convenience} trail. and never touched the extra water i filtered from a handsome roadside puddle. Hotel and grocery that night set up a superb day 4 to finish. Sick Of More trail was  a great blend of ST with all the minor road riding that day. The Moto trails leading into Flagstaff are a great top off to a great ride.
 I had a good navigator on day 2 and getting up Mingus in the 13th hour was efficient vertical gain from a business standpoint. Bring it on Mingus, this is what it takes to get over Bill Williams the next day, those late finishers are impressive.
 I guess this is my report, this ride is a motivator. Hopefully I can edit anything I lied about or mis-told later.

[AZTtripper]

Coco Stage race year 2 was another great event, glad I could make it. It was great to meet some new bikepackers and hang out with some old friends.

Day one was a great warm up I lost Steve early on and ended up riding with Steve and Sammy for a while. It was nice to see the new gates after last years fence hopping. Great weather for camp one with great views of Sedona.

Day two what a great way to start the day dropping into Sedona on Munds trail with Steve and Sammy. The only down side to the day was all of the hikers. At one point this poor woman was struggling to climb up off of the trail, trying so hard to get out of my way. I was already stopped and just told her to come on up.

In the rocky section creek side I was waiting on some more hikers the first group came on through but the next two just stood there pointing at something. Then the finally moved over so I could get going, once I was up by the snake I learned what the hold up was.

[AZTtripper]

Lime Kiln was great this year I especially like the tall grass. The climb up Mingus was a grunt as usual but it was great to hang out with the Three Amigos.

The trail off Mingus was a lot better in the daylight this year. Steve and Sammy caught up to me at the first creek crossing. I was low on water and had to stop to take on a couple of liters. After the Magic gate we caught up to Dan and Brad at the Spring. We all rode together down to the river and then spread out on the climb back to the pines. Dan caught me at the Williams TH and we rode together for the rest of the day/night. Finishing up on the fun rocky descent.  

It was great that every one made it to the top of Mingus and that we all made Williams with or without Williams Mnt. Pizza in the room was as good as last year, hitting the Breakfast spot made for a much better start to day four.

[AZTtripper]

After a filling breakfast of huevos rancheros Steve and I rolled out together for some great views and fun rocking single track on the Sick of More rim. I was skeptical with all of the mud at first but I remembered lots of fun trickiness and wasn't disappointed.

After the road section it was all good fun on Wing Mnt. seeing the first of the down trees had been plowed away I was hopping to get off easy. As it was we had no trouble skirting around most of them.

At the AZT junction I just couldn't resist the new trail, seeing fresh bike tracks I figured it had to come out somewhere. In the end were weren't that far below the course but we were on a much easier trail. Until the trail ended of course, actually the unbuilt section wasn't that bad either and before long we were back on course. The final descent was as much fun as I remembered and a great way to end a great four days of riding.

[ScottM]

I guess this is my report, this ride is a motivator. Hopefully I can edit anything I lied about or mis-told later.

Words to live by.  I think there is a limit for how long you can edit a post here on bp , though I don't know what it is.

Thanks for the reports and pics everyone... keep 'em coming.  Tim, I love the stacked tree shot and of course the snake/rat.  Seems like the second go round on this loop is even sweeter than the first.  It sure was for me.

Dan, did you have any more pics?  I see some of yours are in Lee's album.

[DaNM]

A few more pics, not sure where to add captions, but one racer assembled his bike at nearly midnight the night before. Huge thanks to Brad for having just about everybody over.