NORBA NCS#2-Arizona
by Tracy Hambrick, Team Extremely Productive/Ellsworth

NORBA Nationals #2, Fountain Hills, AZ
March 18-20

Day 1-Wednesday, March 16, 2005- flew into Phoenix from ATL. Almost missed my plane because I was dragging that morning. Then the nice lady at the America West counter told me that all of their planes left from D Gates. I go down the escalator, onto the train, up the escalator and run down to 3. The gates go from 19 down to 1 at the very end and I had to run all the way to the end to discover that there was a Delta jet there and America West leaves from B Gates. Back down the escalator, on the train, off at B, run down to 3 and they have already closed the doors. Apparently I looked just panicked enough that the lady let me onto the plane of frowning passengers. I slept through most of the second Bridget Jones movie and arrived in AZ without further incident. I stayed the weekend with an employee of my sponsor and he was there at the airport to pick me up. It was very nice to stay in a house and he loaned me his truck for the weekend.

For those of you that have never been to Arizona, it is really a desert. All the pictures you have seen of AZ are correct. I didn’t know what to expect so I was thoroughly surprised that there were no trees but a lot of big cacti and gravelly sand. It reminded me a lot of California.

Anyway, my new friend lives in Mesa so that’s where we went. His 11-year-old son was staying with him for Spring Break so he gave me the tour of the house. After that we went grocery shopping for Tracy’s Special Food and back to the house to put my bike together. It was then that I discovered that AW had put a huge dent and 4 scratches in my brand-new Ellsworth that I hadn’t even ridden yet. Now let’s flash back to Monday when I picked up my new bike.

I race for the Grassroots Ellsworth team. They won’t deliver your team bike to your house so the LBS agreed that they could ship it there. I picked it up and took it to Andy’s where we spent 6 hours taking things off Old Ellsworth and putting them on New Ellsworth. Lastly, we discovered that OE’s front derailleur wouldn’t fit on NE because the shock is mounted differently. I called the LBS who told me that I was in luck because they were just placing an order that would be there on Tuesday. I told them that it was most important because I was leaving for AZ on Wed. They assured me that it would be there. Tuesday I left work and head straight there only to find out at 5:00 the night before I leave that he had ordered the exact same derailleur that he already had in stock. This LBS is not around any other BS’s so calls to other BS’s were useless though only one had the proper derailleur. We pillaged a number of bikes from their stock but couldn’t find the right one. A customer, Jeff Dinges, had stopped by before going to a night ride. His derailleur was the one I needed and he graciously offered it for the weekend. Now I was in business. The mechanic dialed it in the best he could, tweaking the front and back before sending me on my way. Now, back to AZ.

I take my host’s son with me on a spin around the block to make sure Ellsworth was properly assembled before exploring AZ. I dropped him back at the house and went exploring. The derailleurs still weren’t adjust properly so I went in search of a bike shop. Fifteen miles later I find one and roll in to explain my predicament. He tweaks some more and pronounces that the bike is adjusted as it’s going to get. On the way back to the house it still is wacky so I make a brain note to stop by Shimano in the morning.

Day 2, Thursday, March 17, 2005- drove to the race to get registered and pre-ride. Got registered without incident but pre-riding was out of the question because the Marathon was running on the same course. She vaguely told me to try back that night. I went to Shimano and Mike worked on my bike some more before declaring it race ready. He told me that my LBS had put the cable through the front derailleur wrong and had completely dialed out one of my back gears. Glad I took it to Shimano before attempting to race it like that. So, back to Mesa I went. On the way home I noticed that my right eye was VERY light sensitive and I couldn’t hold it open to drive. This is because that morning while I was putting on my contacts, toothpaste had gotten on the side of my contact lens case, onto my finger and then into my eye. I washed my contact off the best I could but apparently not enough because my eye was very upset now. As soon as I got home I took my contacts out and took a nap. When I woke up my eye was on fire. It hurt to close it but it hurt to keep it open because of the light. It hurt so bad I could barely think. My host and I started calling eye doctors to see if someone would give some advice. One advised washing it with eyewash so we went to the store for that. I washed my eyeball until it was excruciatingly painful to wash then called someone else. They suggested Natural Tears and sleep. He went back to the store to get Natural Tears while I tried to eat and stay hydrated. I put some tears in and tried to nap again. When I woke up again, not only was my eye still on fire but also it had progressed into a migraine. After trying to eat and drink again up came everything. So now I am minus one eye and can’t eat or drink the night before a race. So much for pre-riding.

Day 3, March 19, 2005- Time trial day. Eye is really pissed off. It is like looking through Saran Wrap and is extremely painful and light sensitive. Couldn’t pre-ride the course and have only one eye so my strategy is to survive and not lose too much time. My legs feel great because I didn’t get to pre-ride like I had hoped. During warm-up my HR was right on target. I had a great start but couldn’t get much speed because my depth perception was non-existent. They have all the tricky parts of their trail named on wood signs and at some point I came to “The Step”. Just as I was wondering what The Step was I ran into it. It was an 18” rock ledge. Oh, that step. It was especially funny because at one point there was a big cactus down across part of the trial. I came across it and thought “Man down!” Maybe I should be racing and not amusing myself. I wonder if they consider cactus obstacles? I was laughing pretty hard at this point. What else can you do? I made it through their fun, fast course about 3-4 minutes down and in 4th place. Bad but not deadly. Awards were given out quickly after the finish so I was off and back to the house eating, drinking and napping within no time. I wish I could have really given that trail a go because it was a lot of fun.

Day 4, March 20, 2005- Short track day. Eye not much better. Not as light sensitive outdoors but can’t hold it open while driving. Must be that greenhouse effect. It is still like looking through Saran Wrap. I got to pre-ride the course in between starts. This was another fun and fast track. Another racer had given me a heads-up about it and he was dead-on with his assessment. There was one short, bumpy descent ending in a right angle turn the left part of which was very loose. I took his advice and stayed to the left on the hill to be better set up for the turn and that worked. At the start, I stayed back because I had noticed that the first turn onto the back straight was loose. Sure enough, a girl went down and I stayed out of danger. There was a very brisk headwind down the back straight so I just drafted the girl in front of me until she would fall off and I would move to the next one. At some point I was just wandering around about 3 feet from the girl in front of me and a guy in the turn to the back straight said, “Get on that wheel, Ellsworth”. That immediately snapped me back into the race and I was back on. Pretty soon I was up with the four leaders so I just tucked in behind them and paced. This was good for my lack of vision as well as saving legs. On the next to last lap I decided I would go for the sprint win. We turned for home on the last lap and I went for the big ring. It didn’t shift. I flipped it down and tried again. It wouldn’t go and I crossed the line in 3rd, 1 second back with the chain clattering between the big and middle ring. I was screaming curse words in my head so loudly I thought my ears would pop off. I wanted to throw my bike. I wanted to scream my frustrations out loud but instead I exited the course, went back to the truck for my recovery drink and some food and went to cool off. Awards were prompt after the finish again so I was back home chilling out soon after.

Day5, March 21, 2005- the big day is here. Time for cross-country and my chance to make up that lost time. I still have great legs because I haven’t really raced yet. My HR was responding very well in warm-up and I felt great. Unfortunately, I still only had one working eye so it wasn’t looking good (literally). I saw Micah at the bike wash and stopped to ask him if he would take my picture on my new bike. As I stopped I noticed that my fork seemed squishy. I went back to the truck for my camera and tried to pump up my fork. As soon as I unscrewed the pump all the air hissed right back out. Emergency! I went back to Shimano and told them of my new problem and they suggested that I try the Manitou guys, who weren’t in yet. I guess I looked panicked enough for them so Mike took the core out of a tube and fixed my fork. He asked me how much air I wanted in it and I said 75. All during the race I bounced off things like I was a ping-pong ball with chicken legs. After the race I checked it and he had put 85 in it.

I started middle of the pack so I could have someone to follow. Sort of a bike-race guide. Those girls fell off by the second lap and I was left with one drafting me. I kept blowing my nose on her hoping she would back off and just as I was about to tell her to pull through and drag me for a while I lost her on a small climb. I knew there were at least 3 in front of me. I felt fantastic and wanted to catch them but I just couldn’t see well enough to lay off the brakes in turns and descents. If you got off the 12” patch of trail you were in that gravelly sand and in trouble. I just raced as hard as I could on things I could tell weren’t tricky and hung in to finish a little over a minute off the leaders. Not bad for a half blind girl. They ended up calculating the overall winner by points instead of time so I got 4th anyway. Not a bad weekend for my second race as an expert but I am really disappointed that I couldn’t give it an honest effort because of a stupid mistake. The trails were fun and fast so I’m sure the pros set some really fast times.

I checked with the awards guy and he said that our awards would be at 1. This would give me plenty of time to get back to the house and packed before getting to the airport. At 1:30 they still hadn’t started awards so I went searching for him. He said that the race director had pushed them all back to 4. OH NO. I raced back to the house to pack and get my host to take me back to the awards so he could drive me to the airport straight from there. I disassembled my bike with the speed of an expert mechanic and had it in its bag in 7 minutes. I showered, threw bike stuff in my gear bag, clothes stuff in my clothes bag and was ready again in 30 minutes.

The awards started with beginners, then sport and finally us. They skipped my category and then shuffled papers for 10 minutes before finally announcing us. If you are wondering why it was such a big deal that I get my silly ribbon, if I don’t send Ellsworth a picture of me on the podium, I don’t get paid. After another 15 minutes of badgering the official about overall awards I find out that they aren’t going to give them out until after the pros get their awards and they are only handing out 3 deep anyway. So off to the airport we go. I have 45 minutes to get checked in and down to my plane. There is a line at AW, I have to wait for my bike stuff to clear security because I lock it and there is another HUGE line at people security so I have to run for my plane again. Apparently I didn’t have to run as fast as I did because I passed the pilots of my plane on the walkway. Had another good laugh at myself. I had a middle seat but nice neighbors that gave up their armrests and didn’t sneeze or cough on me. I slept through some sort of burglar drama with Pierce Brosnan and Selma Hayak and then we were landing in ATL. Home again! My truck cranked on the first try. Hurray! I passed on the Steak n Shake because I didn’t deserve a treat for blinding myself. At 2:30 a.m. I was home to my ecstatic cat and in bed with her purring and making bread beside me.

Warning: if you ever go to the desert bring 4x as much water as you think you will need. Over 5 days I drank 7 gallons of water (we know this because he has one of those water cooler things), 64oz. of Gatorade and another 9 bottles of Gatorade provided by the race. I was still thirsty.

An eye update: My regular eye doctor says that I didn’t permanently injure my eye but it did lose half a prescription. I have a new contact in that prescription and my eye feels better every day. It is still a little mad but much better than a week ago.