Fort Rock Revenge

To be honest, upon awakening to the sound of heavy rain at 7AM, my motivation to race was probably the lowest it’s ever been the whole summer, but with it being the last race at Fort Rock (the end of a 14 year era), and it being the last EFTA race of the season, I knew I had to do it. Having Nate to go up with also didn’t hurt. We got our free McDonald's coffees (which only meant we had to wait in the slowest drive-thru line ever for about 20 minutes), and headed up Route 95 through the chilly rainy morning towards Exeter. As I finished my coffee on the way up, I start to get excited about racing. The weather up north was actually not as bad; by the time we got to Exeter it wasn’t raining at all.

Turnout was a bit disappointing, but then I was reminded that the Vermont 50 was also being held today. Riding 50 miles on muddy trails in the pouring rain…jeeze, for once I’m actually glad I didn’t attempt the VT 50. My goal for this race was to clinch the EFTA title for Senior 1 Expert, which I was already pretty sure I was going to do regardless of my finish in this race, and second, to try to beat Brian from JRA, who has consistently finished 1-3 minutes ahead of me in every EFTA race this season (and most of last year). I got a good warm up in, heading down to Exeter center and back on route 85, and was feeling good. The race had a fun, relaxed atmosphere, and I was in a good mood. My race number was 13 - what could possibly go wrong!? I let a bit of air out of the tires, to put them right around 25, put a bit of air in the SID, and then it was time to line up. I was disappointed to see I was the only Senior 1 expert, but there was a strong showing from the Vet 1 and Vet2 field, and a lot of those ‘old guys’ are fast! They announced it would only be 3 laps for Expert, and a 4 mile course, so a total of only 12 miles, as compared to last year’s 18 mile course.

The first lap I didn’t quite get a hole shot, but was probably 4 or 5 bikes back from the front, and going at a good pace, keeping sight of the leaders until the first technical section where, of course, it bunched up. From then out, I was riding right ton Brian McGinnis’ rear wheel, until about the half way point in the lap, where I snuck by and hit the gas hard to try to put some distance between us. It worked. After the first lap, and going into the second one, I couldn’t hear the wail of disc brakes, nor see any riders behind me. I kept a pretty good pace going, but could tell the course was getting more slippery. I actually was really enjoying the course; although it was wet, it really wasn’t that muddy (no mud bogs ala Harding Hill), and other than one hike-a-bike section, the course had pretty good flow. Although they never showed the lap times, I’m pretty sure my first lap was my fastest. I’m not sure if it wasn’t getting enough sleep the 3 days proceeding, or if maybe I should have had a bigger breakfast, but I felt myself start to lose my technical edge about half way through the second lap; I was getting ragged around the edges. I think part of it was that the course was getting slicker, which started to affect my confidence in riding over the roots and slick rock faces.

Going into lap 3, I passed Elite rider Chris Gagnon, who looked to be having a bad day, I relaxed the pace just a bit, and focused on trying to ride everything smoothly and not crash. In retrospect, I probably eased-off the pace a bit too much, as about three quarters of the way through lap 3, I heard someone coming up behind me quickly, and, low and behold, it was Brian. He passed me almost like I was standing still, and I tried to keep contact, but bobbled on a rocky section after a wet bridge, and he got a gap. I knew the race was just about over, so I tried as hard as I could to keep him in sight. As we came out of the woods onto the approximately ½ mile double track trail leading to the finish, he was about 50 yards ahead of me. I gave it all I had, and closed the gap somewhat, but in the end it wasn’t enough, and he beat me by 7 seconds.

I didn’t beat Brian, but it was the most close I’ve come all season! Back at the Gloucester Grind in May he beat me by 6 minutes, in an equally technical, approximately same length race.( http://www.efta.com/PDF/results/2009/2009%20grind.pdf ) Overall the final race at Fort Rock was a very fun race. I got first for Senior 1 Expert (only person in it! ), and clinched my second consecutive EFTA Expert Senior 1 title. Next year I’ll be a Senior II, and have some very stiff competition, I’m looking forward to it.

With the mountain bike race season officially over, it marks the beginning of Cyclocross season and night ride season. While I’m avidly into the later; I have yet to get into the former. I’ve been keeping my eyes out for a moderately-priced Cyclocross bike. I did a road ride up to Gloucester this past Sunday to watch the Gran Prix of Gloucester, it definitely looked like a lot of fun.

Great night road ride last week, too. Did the Boxford loop with Nate. Left around 6:30, and within 20 minutes, it was time for the lights. With the super bright Planet Bike LED taillight, and my trusty Jet Halogen, at no point did I feel unsafe, or question whether cars could see me. Those quiet, dark (no streetlights) roads in Boxford are awesome to cruise down in the stillness of night. It’s just you, the bubble of light ahead of you, and the moon. The night scenery silently and effortlessly flies by, and it is simply, beautiful.

All the riding from here until the first snow falls will be for fun. No more intervals, recovery rides, or staying in on the weekends to rest for a big race. It’s the season of night rides, arm warmers, and beer. Bring it on.

Wampatuck Race Report

After my terrible luck at Treasure Valley (double flatted, threw bike into a tree at one point….in Team Breakheart we call that pulling a Kevin Scott), I was hoping I had gotten all my bad luck behind me. I really wanted to do well at Landmine because the last time I raced here was ’05, and I was a DNF due to…yes you guessed it, getting a flat and not having a spare. I needed to get my revenge on Wampatuck. Of course, in typical New England fashion we got 4.5 inches of rain the day before the race, and according to all the radar reports, it was centralized right over the Hingham area. So much for the prospect of this season’s first dry MTB race…

While going over the Anthem getting it ready for battle, I was having trouble getting my rear Crossmax SLR to seal up with my Maxxis Crossmark tubeless, but luckily I dropped by Nate’s house Saturday night and with some help from ‘Stan’, we were able to get it set up. Let me just say…THANK GOD I was running full tubeless for this race. It was so slippery, rooty, and rocky, that being able to run 25 psi saved my ass, no doubt. I saw multiple guys wipe out on the wooden bridges, -- they were indeed as slippery as ice…I know if I were running higher tire pressure that I would have had to with tubes I would have had nowhere near as much control over the slippery stuff.

Race day arrives and it’s dark and dreary looking as…well, as just about every race this whole season, and the entire month of June and July. Get to the venue with plenty of time, am amazed by the huge turn out, get a good warm-up in, and felt overall felt well-rested and ready to rock.

Due to USA Cycling’s vast bureaucracy and their rule against allowing one-day Cat 1 licenses, I had to race as a Cat 2 (I race in EFTA as a Expert), I plan to submit for an upgrade to Cat 1 for next season, but due to me only a couple USAC races this year, I didn’t have the results to submit for this season. So, call me a sandbagger if you want…

The gun goes off and I’m sitting in the big pack of about thirty Cat 2 19-29 year old riders, not a super fast start, not quite as fast as the Cat 1 starts, probably became there wasn’t really any hole shot. I start picking off guys in the first few minutes – that’s the thing with Cat 2, the fitness/bike handling skills are all-over the place, so you have some guys who will bobble the easiest sections, then some guys that are actually pretty quick. After about 15 minutes in I’ve passed about the whole field except for 3 guys. One really skinny dude keeps spinning his tire out on every root, and I keep trying to get around him but he’s not letting me…finally after 5 or so minutes of frustration I pass him on a downhill section, along with a woman rider who was walking. Now there is just me and one kid left, who doesn’t look that fast, but I quickly realize he is a decent rider. I initially underestimated him because he was wearing baggies, and using a camelback, but the thing was, he had crazy-good technical skills. Any technical downhill, mud bog, or rock garden, he would get a gap on me, but any time there was a pavement section (of which there were quite a few, or a climb (it was a pretty flat course, but there were a few mild climbs), I would gap him. The first time I passed him on a pavement section, I hammered really hard trying to make sure he couldn’t see me, and had left him out of my sights, so I was very shocked to hear him up behind me again about 20 minutes later in the midst of some technical singletrack. I knew it was him because he kept clearing his throat, like every 30 seconds. Weird, mildly annoying, but made it easy to know if he was nearby. And so we danced, passing slower Expert riders, tons of guys out there with flats or mechanicals, and pogo-ing back and forth, trading places. I was obvious ly the roadie, and he having top-notch tech skills, floated over all the rough stuff. I saw a few nasty crashes happen right in front of me; one guy endo-ed on at the bottom of a steep downhill into a mud bog; another guy was flying on a wooden bridge and slid out, with his head hitting one of the support pillars . It was an especially scary-looking crash; I said “Holy shit are you OK man?!” He got right up and said “Yeah thanks for asking”. Yikes, glad it wasn’t me. The slippery bridges were the number two complaint of the race that I heard from fellow racers, the number one complaint was the spare-in-spots arrowing of the extremely circuitous course. I stayed on course the whole time, though.

In the last 3 miles I finally put some good distance between me and throat-clearing dude. The last two miles (they did a great job with mile markers on the trees) were the longest….my handlebar started to slip in the stem, I felt the beginnings of a cramp in my left leg, and I feared the proverbial wheels were going to come off the cart and any minute I’d hear the throat-clearing guy behind me. Luckily I guess I had put enough time into him on the powerline climb, that even though the last few miles were basically all rock gardens (not my strong suit), I never saw him again. Coming up to the finish, I saw them carrying a rider out on a stretcher, and was forewarned to go extremely carefully on the last bridge. I did, and I made it across okay, but then proceeded to make a stupid mistake and slid out on some roots – my only actual wipe-out of the whole race, and it was within about 500 feet of the finish line, gotta love it. I got back on the bike and hammered over the big dirt berm, past the spectator area, and across the line. First place, nice!

So many things have to come together to have a good finish in a mountain bike race, and finally, they came together for me. The Anthem worked flawlessly (except for the handlebar moving right at the end of the race – I’ll need to pick up a 4 bolt stem), I was running the perfect tire and suspension air pressure, I was well-rested, and ate and hydrated right.

It was the first race this season where at no point did I hope for a mechanical to ‘end the suffering’, or ask myself, “why the HELL am I doing this!?” – I actually had fun.

Wampatuck is a great place to ride, this turnout this year was amazing, they said 400+ riders..it was one of the most well-organized bike race I’ve been to. The multiple feed stations were awesome, and although the course definitely could have been arrowed a bit better, I managed to stay on course. It was a pain to wait so long for results to be posted, but I don’ think anyone was expecting the turnout to be as huge as it was.

I think overall it bodes well for the future of our sport to see so many riders on a day when there were multiple other races being held (ESV Topsfield race, the EFTA Millstone Grind in VT). Congratulations go to Kevin Hines for scoring the Golden Bike. His time was freaking amazing…won by 7 minutes. Also, big props to GT Bikes for running such a cool promotion -- we need cheerleaders at races more often!