Big Ringer...

Wausau -- June 1st, 2008
--ROcK FeST!!! Oh yeah!
So what's the sweet sound at this concert? Pssst! Pop! Pop! Pssst! Accompanied by a chorus of expletives from the stricken racers at the WORS Wausau Big Ring Classic. Man, it was a race unlike any other I've seen. Checking out the results page shows the inordinate amount of DNF's but not the number of flats, multiple flats and tire changes that occurred.
Rough course, the Michelin Tire Man wouldn't of lasted 5 minutes. Which was about one minute longer than it took to hit the rock gardens on the first lap.
After missing out on the two earlier WORS events, due to the back injury and the Cable Off Road Classic, it was great to finally, finally get to task of racing the top boys the Midwest MTB field has to offer.
Arrived with Kate & the kids and barely enough time to sign up for the series, get the Expert License upgrade from Mr. WORS, Don Edberg, and spin through for a warm up. (Strange enough on the warmup I run across the Cheq. Bay Area's own Mr. Cycling, Dennis Liphart, doing some easy riding with family & friends at 9 mile.) This late arrival didn't bode well for starting position and as I'd come to find out later, grabbing up positions in the Elite race ain't exactly as easy as the Comp races were.
Nonetheless at the start I was rather calm and confident things would come thru fine. So with less than 10 of the 80 starters behind me the race started. The seemingly long lead out of double track was helpful in making the jump up in positions possible by the time the first single track hit I'd actually moved up alot. Much to my surprise for it being the Elite race I could put in some hard accelerations & others didn't respond so I pick up close to 25 or 30 positions. At this point I can't believe how well this is going, it's hard paced but I'm feeling great, swinging back & forth through the aforementioned "razor" rock garden. Strangely enough I take note of how many racers are already off trail fixing tire or bike problems. Wow, I'm glad I'm not those guys.....
Then shortly before the end of that single track section I hear a psst and then this flexy, jelly like feel to the rear of the bike. First comes, denial, like you know what happened but your mind keeps saying no way, it's just your imagination. Keep going, don't stop, it'll be fine. Well, once reality sits in a quick dismount at the next opening reveals I probably have less than 10lbs of pressure left in the tire. With the quick fill CO2 failing, no pump or spare I got to thinking this 10 minute race debute really leaves something to be desired. Fortunately a short way off course a kind spectator/volunteer had a pump which I thought I could try to help get back to the start line. But when the tire took the air & held I thought I didn't drive 3hrs to not race so I got back on course just as the COMP racers were going through. It made for a great time to race without any pressure to do well and just race for the pure joy of just going all out. The first 2 1/2 laps (of 4) were alot of fun, as I got to encourage alot of the COMP racers and urge them to hang onto my wheel. There's something about pinning on number representative of the Elite race (#'s less than the 1000's) that ensures you work even harder not to fall back to anyone wearing the 1000's #'s (ie COMP racers).
Don't get me wrong there's some really good COMP racers it was just nice to know I'd paid my dues racing there and had moved up a notch.
On this relatively hot day somewhere late on lap 3 despite 6 gels and 3 bottles of water I could feel in disbelief that somehow the tank was getting empty -- with one more lap to go, argh! So I rolled through the start of Lap 4 with another water handoff from Kate with the course pretty vacant as COMP racers had only 3 laps. Myself & only a handful of other flat tire refuges in the Expert race rolling in for the finish. It was a tough lap until the 7 & 8 gel pack kicked in and I manged to finish in 2:38..... still good enough to beat the likes of National MTB contendors and perennial podium finishers, Brian Matter, Mike Phillips, Tristen Schouten and the list goes on. So all in all not a bad time out for the first Elite race :)!!