By: Embrocation Team 07/15/2011

About a year ago I decided that I wanted to race the Cascade Creampuff 100. The Creampuff is an iconic one-day 100 mile mt bike race in the small town of Oakridge, Oregon. This year, the course took us up the infamous 1910 fire road with the reward of descending Alpine trail a total of three times, totaling over 18,000 feet of elevation gain. My cycling background includes a fair amount of 45-55 mile road races, a few stage races, a lot of cyclocross and some XC mt bike races. In short, this whole endurance-racing thing is new to me and I had no idea what to expect. Luckily, I found a great training partner and friend in fellow Portland mt biker Rachel Bagley.

I was a mess for the whole week leading up to the race. Because I work in the bike industry, I can’t even escape my crazy race plans at work. Everywhere I went, people were asking me how I was feeling about the upcoming race and telling me stories they had heard about how tough it is. I was excited, but mostly nervous! I’d been training for months for this race, and I just wanted to get on with it already. So, it was with a measure of relief that I rolled out of the Westfir Middle School on Sunday morning at 5 am to finally race the Creampuff.


Climbing up through the Cascades at sunrise was beautiful. It was a clear brisk morning, and the views were amazing. I felt okay the first time up the 14 mile climb, but knew I needed to go slow and save enough for all three laps. The first descent was amazing; I was almost giggling with excitement about the race and the trails. Though there was a bit of snow at the top, but generally the trails were perfect and I felt great on the first run down. My confidence and excitement got the best of me, and I slipped out on a root while going around a corner towards the end of the descent. Not a big deal crash, but I face planted hard enough to slow me down and bring out my cautious side.

I knew the second lap would be a challenge, and it didn’t disappoint. After the first lap, I found that I couldn’t stomach solid food, so my nutrition plan went out the window. I ate as much gel as I could manage, but I lingered on the verge of bonking throughout the whole lap. I was hoping to see my husband, Greg, at the aid station at the end of the lap, and just rode the lap slowly thinking about getting some much needed encouragement from him before setting out on my third lap. Seeing him, our dog Zeppo, and friends Ira and Matt at the aid station was great, and I set out on the third lap in a delusional state that I was almost done, despite having about 5 hours left to ride.


I rode way to hard on the first 10 miles of the third lap. I was excited to be on the final lap, eager to finish, and really wanted to get through the final aid station before the time cut off. Regardless of the stupidity of my pace, that climb on my third lap was awesome. I was possessed with an impulse to ride as hard as I could and it felt great. I paid for it later, but it was fun while it lasted. When I finally reached the top of the climb on the third lap, I was too tired to descend with much confidence and any punchy little climb on the way down left me walking my bike. I felt pretty good, and was riding smooth, but my arms and back were fading fast and I was ready to be done. There were some amazingly tranquil and beautiful moments in that final descent, but none were as wonderful as coming out and seeing the little red covered bridge about 1,000 feet below marking the finish line. Those last few miles were pure bliss. I knew I’d made it and was feeling really happy with my results. I wound up 8th out of 22 starters in open women in my first real endurance event and had a time of 13:20.


My tale of the Creampuff would be incomplete without talking about Rachel’s race. She was such a big part of my training that I spent a lot of the race wondering how she was doing. She crushed it, finishing in 6th with a time of about 12:50 (almost 3 hours faster that her previous Creampuff endeavor!). I feel a huge amount of gratitude for having such a great training partner, thank you Rachel!

Will I race the Creampuff again? It feels more and more likely with each passing day.


Submitted by Abby Watson

By: Embrocation Team 06/23/2011

Betibash is one of the only women-only mountain biking events in Colorado, and was scheduled to happen in my back yard (literally) in Lakewood, CO. The Women’s pro purse had been upped to $3000, which is more then many USAC events, as we all know. Unfortunately, it was also another weekend I was scheduled to work in Loveland, Colorado until midnight as one of the ER physicians on both Saturday and Sunday evening. So after another night of pulling peas and carrots out of 5 year old’s noses I started home with the thought that I would wake up, and instead of riding by myself, actually ride down to bear creek park less then a mile from my house and take part in the local Betibash, put on by Yeti cycles and many other sponsors, some of whom live in my apartment complex.


The course was more than simple with 4 miles of nontechnical terrain with minimal elevation change, i.e. maybe a couple of hundred feet at an elevation of about 6000 ft, which is low for Colorado. I locked out every option I could think of on the Trek and headed out on my first ride on now tubeless tires, a little sleepy and maybe a little grouchy as well. When I arrived 20 minutes before the start, I saw a list of at least 15 pro women with names including Georgia Gould, Katie Compton, Heather Imirger, and Nicole Duke besides all the other local favorites I have yet to meet as I continue to ride in one of the most competitive areas of the country. Only here can I get dropped on the road during a mountain bike race, while at the same time having the fitness to hold my own as an NRC stage race rider with many of the domestic road pros. So we were all lined up and I was missing my first dose of caffeine and hoping I at least brought Gu with some caffeine in it. The gun went off and we were strung out from the start. Lap times were coming in at 12-15 minutes. I cursed my lack of sleep under my breath but told myself the race would be good for me. Who else uses a local mountain bike race against pros including Gould and Compton as an opener for Dairyland? These are some of the weird thoughts that go through my head while I am racing.


Anyway, it became quickly obvious the race was Compton versus Gould then all the rest of us. I managed to pass Nicole Duke in the stragglers of the bunch and finish my ride just in time to head home to another night of fishing for foreign bodies in little kids’ ears and noses, and promising myself that next time I am going to sleep before doing a Colorado mountain bike race—even a local one. That said, I am here at the Tour Of America’s Dairyland, in the land of crits, thanking my sponsors that got me here, but silently mourning my lonely mountain bike and the trails of Colorado.

*Submitted by Embrocation elite offroad rider, Rebecca Blatt, who throws down under our banner when not riding for the Kenda Pro team on the road, or working as an ER physician.

By: James Morrison 06/15/2011

It was supposed to be a sparsely-attended race in rural Maine. Just a handful of local guys and some regional fellows who made the short drive north from most populated regions. I wasn’t expecting the race to be easy; I just wasn’t expecting it to be as difficult as it turned out to be. Just a couple days before the Lake Auburn race, the promoter of the Connecticut Stage Race decided to cancel the event, leaving many of the area’s best racers with Lake Auburn as their go-to race.

Despite the stronger than expected field, Team Embro brought an A squad. Jackson and Sullivan have been posting solid results over the past few weeks, Kyle’s good form continues, and Jay is in the best shape of his life, so we knew we’d have a hand full of high cards to play.


The Auburn course is an 11ish mile circuit race. It starts by plummeting downhill for a bit, then climbing up a very steep little section of road dubbed “the wall.” From there, it’s on to a long, fast section of mild rollers – perfect terrain for copious attacking. After a series of right-hand turns, the final miles of the course feature a couple of stair-step climbs, the final of which comes through the feedzone and into the final 2K of the course – a long, straight, fast, false flat section that leads to the finale.

The attacks started fast and hard with Sullivan jumping off the front the first time up the wall, grabbing the first of the KOM points. On the long straight, more attacks, from every direction, from every team. In these first panicked moments, the team responded well: covering moves, closing gaps, making sure that each and every move had at least one Embro rider in it. That was the goal of the day.


Coming into the feed zone lap the first time, a small group with Jackson was off the front. A surge at the front of the group caught and passed Jackson. I jumped on it and about 1K later, I looked back to see that I was in a break with some distance over a strung-out field about 20 seconds behind. Coming over the wall a couple minutes later, we had slimmed our break to a few riders – Adam Myerson from Mountain Khakis, Dylan McNicholas of CCB, Robbie King of whatever team it is he rides for now (Boston Bicycle School.- Ed.) and Ryan Kelly of Noreast Cycling. A strong group to say the least and too strong for me, at least that early in the race. Dylan’s relentless accelerations at the front of the break put my non-warmed-up self into serious pain. After 3/4 of a lap and with the field breathing down our necks, I pulled the plug on my breakaway aspirations. I drifted back to the field, reintegrated and shortly thereafter the field scooped up the rest of the breakaway.


The rest of the race was relentless. Attack, surge, accelerate; each lap we’d shed between 5 and 10 riders from the field. The pace was so intense that the race had become one of attrition rather than tactical acuity. Nevertheless, a break did get away with about 2 1/2 laps to go featuring a handful of intensely fast riders – Tim Mitchell from CCB, the irrepressible Ryan Kelly, Dan Vaillencourt and Eric Tremble. They managed to gap the ever-dwindling field and hold a small yet significant gap. On every turn, we could see them in view, motoring along at a fierce pace. By the time we entered the final set of climbs on the last lap, the ‘field’ had been reduced to about 15 riders. Adam and I were the only Embros left. In a moment of relative calm, he drifted back to find me.

“How you doing?” He asked.
“Uh. Ok.” I answered as I tried to swig down the rest of my warm Accelerade.
“I’m pretty fried. You have anything left for the finish you think?” Adam asked.
“If I can get to 1K I can have a decent finish I think.” I said in response.
“Alright.” Adam said as he moved back to the front of the field.

A few minutes later Adam attacked, riding solo off the front of the field and establishing a 15 second gap coming into the final set of climbs. This was my queue to settle in and follow wheels. I knew there would be a move in the final couple kilometers. It was just a question of who, when and how hard. As it turned out it was Robbie King at the crest of the feed zone climb who put in a major dig. I went 100% effort for a few moments to maintain contact with the front few riders. We caught and passed Adam and broke off a good portion of the rest of the field. Coming into the final K it was about 8 or 9 of us. I moved into the best position I could for the sprint. In the end, I put down a decent sprint effort and managed to slot in behind Dylan McNicholas, which was good enough for 3rd in the field sprint. In the final couple k we had caught all but Tim Mitchell from the day’s main breakaway. Tim, in a typical display of raw strength managed to maintain a 20 second gap over the field to take a well-deserved solo victory. So, I was 4th on the day. Not a bad result considering the level of talent in the field. The team did a great job at containing the race early on and with Adam’s last-minute solo effort. All in all, a solid result and a great team effort.