Point One Newsfeed: March 2011

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Pro XCT #2 Fontana City National - Max Houtzager

Pro XCT #2 Fontana City National
Fontana, CA
Cat 1 17-18 (total field of ~20)
Teammates: Bobby Zidek, Tony Smith, Keegan Swenson
Result: 3rd

After the long drive including some lovely LA traffic, the new descent on the course stoked me out of my mind. Finally a real mountain bike race! After climbing up the 'wall', riding the the rocky-twisty-tacky downhill in a death train with all my teammates left me hooting and hollering (corny but true) down the course. The park no longer presented a sandy, dusty race infamous for the Fontana-lung in the middle of suburbia that I remember from two years ago in Cat 2. The rest of the descents offered flowy railable berms. I initially started well with the front group ready to kill it, but unclipped on the first corner, followed by bobbling with my pedals in the wet conditions. Dropping back in the field, I knew it would be vital to get to the front before becoming the caboose of a slow singletrack train, however this only led me to frantically try and make up positions and then bobble with my pedals again on an inside corner pass, really dropping back to last place. I then used a ton of energy to make passes and recover time from people's mistakes in front of me, but proceeded to make more errors on my favorite downhill. The field went fast on lap 1, and so it seemed crucial to go all out, however this only led me to race in a hasty, stressed manner which was not the fast. Of course thoughts of finishing horribly crossed my mind, but I knew that spot on the box beside my teammates was mine. After that descent I realized I had to get it together and ride 98% instead of 110% (mostly mentally not physically). I wouldn't let go in order to work my way up into 4th after passing the final AZ Devo rider Tyler Coplea, with Casey Williams and the 15-16 leader in my sights. It felt like it an eternity to catch them, but I saw the gap narrowing, and once I passed them I had every intention of making my gap as large as possible. Besides railing the downhills where you could actually recover and still enjoy them, this aspect of the race was thrilling, constantly duking it out with riders as I gave it my all to catch them and then keep them off my ass. I also want to mention how awesome it was when people from other categories were friendly and got out of the way quickly. It seriously made my day every time I could actually race my best and rip it up not impeded by other riders, so a big thanks to them. Seeing Tony and Keegan kill it ahead of the field up the wall on lap 1 looked killer, and I'm bummed I couldn't be there with them (the whole field between us...). The race could have gone better given the beginning, yet I learned valuable lessons about my strength compared to/what the field is like Pro XCT's and keeping it together/solid, and am super proud I was able to hold on and claw my way up to 3rd from last place, only 1.5 minutes from Tony. Can't wait to get faster and race with (hopefully next to) my teammates at the next big race! And get to more super fun gnarly courses! My S Works Epic absolutely destroyed the course too. The suspension felt like a trail bike when necessary fully using all the travel, yet I ran the brain fully on front and rear making it a road bike with my stiff carbon wheels when sprinting and pumping through corners. Straight up phenomenal.

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Mikey Sylvestri Bike Check

Check out Mikey's new Demo 8, complete with Podium Pedals.

Raw DM - Satisfied Customer

Check out our Split-Second DM, now available in beautiful raw aluminum! Thanks Johnnie for sending in this photo.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Prep mountain biking: Talented Redwood rider keeps busy competing, studying, writing, working and cooking

Max Houtzager was recently featured in an article for the Marin Independent Journal. Please click here to read the full story!

Monday, March 14, 2011

Brian Buell at SolVista Bike Park

Oldie but a goodie. Brian Buell of Team Geronimo at SolVista Bike Park last Fall.

Intense 951 test bike for sale!

Our custom Intense 951 test bike is for sale! Size is a medium. Frame is less than a year old, just received NEW paint job, stickers, cables/housing and bearings (no rides on it). Bike is in pristine condition, super lite (33-34 lbs) and ready to ride! $3,999 obo. Please contact info@pointoneracing.com if you are interested.

Point One Racing Split-Second DM 50mm
Point One Racing Podium Pedals
Fox 40RC2
Fox DHX RC4
Ti bolts throughout the bike
K9 +/- 2 headset cups
SDG carbon post and saddle
Kenda single-ply tires
Gamut P30 chainguide
Dura-Ace derailleur
Ti Dura-Ace cassette
Shimano Saint Cranks
Shimano XTR Brakes
Stan's Flow rims with Hadley hubs (plus brand new rim)
Gravity bars - 30" width
KMC chain

Norcal HS #1 Granite bay WIN - Max Houtzager

Norcal HS Race #1

Folsom, Granite Bay, CA

Varsity Boys (~35)

Teammates: Bobby Zidek, Eliel Antilla, Sven Beer and Taylor Smith

Result: 1st

Testing out new Carbon Rovals on Saturday got me stoked for this race. They feel way lighter, AND are noticeably stiffer, so shralping Tenderfoot (even with wet roots and 1.9 Renegade race tires), I confidently high posted tech sections, drops, and corners like never before, taking some high lines I only occasionally attempt on my Enduro, and equally fast. If only the race could of been on a mountain with technical downhill...

I knew the competition would be much more fierce with the entire league present, but luckily had 1st call up, so the start ended up the complete opposite of the last race.

Everyone seemed to learn from last time that it's hard to go all out for four whole laps, and no one wanted to pull, so the pace was gruelingly slow. Thus, I followed Taylor for lap one, riding a comfortable pace with the whole field behind us. We were just shredding corners on our Epics like last time! Except this time all the rocks were on the uphills since it was the same course run backwards. I really didn't want to work hard unless attacking for the finish, and also didn't want to waste energy trying to catch back up to the leader if other people made mistakes in front of me, so I made sure to stay in 2nd the entire race until the end. So I did just that as Bryan Duke led the remainder of the race for the majority of the time, throwing little baby attacks every now on then, mostly on the same downhills. I knew he wasn't working hard and is capable of a truly impressive performance coming off a CCCX win in the pro field a few weeks ago. The race was pretty weird as it wasn't super hard physically until the end, but the mental aspect killed the whole time, knowing that at any moment anyone could take the win. I also partially rode downhills like a total nancy, keeping it clean but wasting energy playing catch up, which wasn't very reassuring for what would soon take place on the critical final lap. Plus I felt pretty tired/low energy on lap 3, since we weren't going hard, similar to when your body warms down on a ride when stopped or finishing, but knew I'd have to open it up soon so really had to focus my energy.

Things did heat up slightly on the final lap with some solid attacks by Bryan. I planned to attack on a certain climb with a 1/4 lap left, but ~ 5 minutes before on one of the 3 lightly technical climbs Bryan's bike mis-shifted during an attack, so I took the opportunity and made my move early. I did my best to turn myself inside out to the finish, worried that I went too early and would just be reeled back in by the lead group with the semi windy straight road sections, or simply by Bryan Duke. It ended up successful as I held a solid 20 second gap to the finish!

Stoked on my first real varsity race and first varsity race win. Also, on lap 3 our lead group of 6 had to ride an entire road section slower than 2 MPH due to the evacuation of two other Varsity Riders' crash. Best wishes to Eliel and Jeff (Shen?), get well soon. And of course AMAZING job to everyone on our team racing today! We really took the top spots all over the place!