The Amazing Bike Race

Last week I was lucky enough to participate in what may have been the most fun bike race of the year. I just happened to attend the Saturday morning NEBC ride (had fun, learned some new roads, got dropped, but we'll not get into that). After the ride Tim Dodd asked me if I was planning on doing the Amazing Race the next day, and that he and John were looking for a team mate.

This was the first I'd heard of the race, but since it was obviously local and sounded like an awesome idea I said immediately said, hell yeah! (I don't think I actually said that).

All I knew was to be at the parking lot next to Cycle Loft around 9:30 on Sunday morning, and bring a cross bike. Of course, since I don't currently have a cross bike, I brought my mountain bike. Luckily, Kurt from Cycle Loft was gracious enough to loan my his brand new Gary Fisher Presidio. I say luckily because even though about 20 miles of the course were off-road, about 40 miles were on road, and riding a mountain bike would have sucked. Big shout-out to Kurt and Cycle Loft for hooking me up for the day.

The race was 62 miles - starting and ending at Cycle Loft - and more than just a straightforward test of fitness, the race had a couple of non-riding challenges along the way -- also the ever-present challenge of not getting lost. Before we could leave the parking lot we were tasked with arranging the past winners of the Tour de France back through 1990. Child's play! John, Tim and myself were the first team to get it right and started off with the lead. After some awesome trail riding in the Bedford/Concord area we came upon the first challenge, which was our choice of each teammate having to ride a slalom course around cones while balancing an egg on a spoon, or a crossword. We chose the egg balance, and each of us was able to do it successfully on our first turn. Again, we were first team off! The course continued all over the place, leading through Lexington, Bedford, Concord, Billerica (I think?), Wilmington (where all teams had a mandatory 10 min stop to refuel at a convenience store), North Andover, North Reading, Wakefield, Stoneham, Woburn, and of course Burlington. One of the coolest sections of the race was a area of trails in the Ballardvale section of Andover, where we actually had to ride down along the MBTA commuter rail tracks for a section before we ducked into some really swoopy fast up/down singletrack, which was made even more awesome-er by the freight train that we just missed while riding down the tracks and wound up thundering along right next to us.

The third challenge was at Harold Parker state forest in North Andover, about 40 miles in. We had our druthers of each having to eat 15 marshmallows or doing a word search. Again, we showed our utter disdain for anything cerebrally-intensive and opted to cram 15 while puffballs of high fructose corn syrup down our gullets. Surprisingly, it wasn't that bad. I don't think it will be replacing granola bars and PB & J for mid-ride snacks anytime soon, though.

The next 20 miles were all road home, though North Reading Wakefield and Woburn, back to Cycle Loft. We worked really well as a team, each taking turns blocking the horrendous head-wind the final miles.

In the end we were the first team to cross the line. Total time, about 4:45; total ride time: 4:20-ish. We each won a pair of sweet Michelin cyclocross tires (now I have to buy a cross bike!), and best part - they even had a meal ready for us! Pulled pork sandwiches with all the Harpoon we could drink. A+ post-ride food.

In summary, everyone reading this should do this race next year! This being the first year, attendance was a bit lacking, but everyone agreed it was a great event, and the modest entry fees went to help to support a PMC (PanMass Challenge) team.

A huge thank you goes out to Michael and Kurt for all the work they put into organizing the race -- just the task of marking 62 miles of road and trails must've been daunting! Epic ride, for sure.


*photo credit to Michelle

Eating Other's Dust - Hodges Dam Race Report

I never quite understood the phrase 'eat my dust' as acutely as I did after finishing this race. Hodges Dam had driest conditions I think I've ever seen in a race - the complete opposite of just about every race I did last year.

It was also probably the most well-rested race I’ve done so far this year. I did absolutely zero riding in the three days leading up to it. While this made for well-rested legs, there’s always the chance/likelihood it can cause stale legs. For some reason, I knew I had enough training in my legs that a total rest away from the bike for a few days were what they needed, and that staleness probably wouldn’t be much of an issue. I contemplated ggoing out for an easy ride with some short sprints thrown-in on Saturday the day before the race, but just wasn’t feelin’. It. Being in a post-all-day-spent-drinking-haze from the day before at Dickie’s cabin in NY probably contributed to not feelin’ it.

Race day arrived and despite being physically well-rested, mentally I was in a bit of a fog. It was a 3 coffee morning; two hot cups at home and a large Cumberland Farms iced coffee was slugged down during my warm-up in Oxford. Due to some 11th hour heroics by Nate, I was able to get my bike in order to race. After putting on a new cassette and chain, turns out my chainrings were also fried. And of course, no shop in the greater Boston area stocks M960 XTR chainrings. Luckily Nate had a spare brand-new SLX crankset hanging around that he sold me for about what the cost of two new XTR rings would have been. Yeah, it's SLX not XTR and about 100 grams heavier, but who really cares.
I got somewhat of a warm-up in, but not much -- maybe about 10 min. I've learned that I really need at least 20-25 min of moderate pace riding before I start to feel good and can ride hard. Despite the lackluster warm up, at the start I took off really well. I knew from the first pedal stroke in my warm up that my legs were having a good day and I felt probably the freshest I had in a long time. I passed many riders on the dirt road leading up the hill about a half mile or so into the woods. I was second place going into the singletrack, and proceeded to hold this for another 1-2 minutes before redlining, and realizing, OH YEAH, THE LAST 5 MINUTES I'VE BEEN 75% ANAEROBIC!

It was at this point that I was quickly passed by a group of about 3-4 fast riders, including Jeff Langfried. I knew I had gone out too hard and was going to have to ease-up on the pace in order to get into a maintainable tempo, but at the same time I tried to say on the lead train of riders, but as fate would have it, I wound up getting a branch stuck in my rear wheel somehow and was forced to stop for about 5 seconds to get it out. At that point they had a gap that I was never able to close. I went from being psyched that I was riding on the front of the race to pissed-off/disheartened that I was in no-man's land so quickly and cut-back a bit on my pace to recover from what was a un-warmed-up and unmaintainable initial pace. Going into the second lap I could just barely see the lead guys about 30 seconds up going up the fireroad after the start/finish line, but knew with the pace they were riding, it would be unlikely I was going to be able to jump on.

From 2nd lap on out (4 laps total), I was able to settle into a nice groove, and finally started passing people. I guess I must've just had a bit more gas left in the tank than some of the other 19-29 Cat 1s because I passed about 3 guys in the final miles. This was the dustiest race I've ever done; by the end I'd felt like I had about 2 pounds of dirt in my lungs and kept coughing. Riding ride behind someone was blinding at times because of how dry the dirt was. Still, I'd rather these problems than all the issues that come with a mudfest. End result: 4th out of 12, and since 3rd place (Matt Mooradian) isn't from MA, I was 3rd place for the 19-29 Cat 1 MA MTB Championship. (picture of my tiny little USAC medal forthcoming). Jeff Langfried got 1st, a solid 5 min faster than me. Next race is the Root66 Norcross Scurry, which is tomorrow - this'll be my first time doing it, and I'm really looking forward to it. I'm a big fan of Saturday races. TODO for next race: get in a good warm-up.