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.