Crystal Lake Classic: Rhinelander WORS #2

The tale of race isn’t always easily seen in the results. Sunday’s Crystal Lake Classic WORS MTB race in Rhinelander was something of that order. The training I’ve been putting in this winter & spring has been considerable more consistent and focused than has been my blogging.

Despite a somewhat erratic week, by Sunday I was feeling pretty decent. The nerves were up a bit because it was my first Elite WORS level race of the year where everybody (approx. 50-70 entrants) is every bit a damn good racer. The drive down from Ashland with Kate & the three kids went smoothly & surprisingly fast. Happy to hear/see that Paul Belknap from Ashland made good on his intentions and showed up for some racing action as well. His single speed set for some Open or Comp level races. Talking to him later he landed 13th on the day in the 2 lap Comp race and may have done significantly better without some challenges he experienced.

Arriving just a little on the late side, I quickly registered, chatted with Jesse Lalonde and got on the bike to get the body warmed up. Taking a longer route than I should of I got back to the start area, only they’d already called up the Elite racers & where lining up the Elite women, Open & Comp racers. I jumped into the back of the Elite field of approximately 50 racers with a few minutes to spare, enough time to hear the race would be going 3 laps… at 10+ miles/lap… and unless they’d moved a lot of the course to open trails the single track would make this one of the longest time-wise WORS races of the year.

The back of pack start was not to my ideal liking but the opening mile or two of this particular race course if I felt good enough should allow for me to move up. The countdown happened & at “goooooooo” everyone shot off. The dry, dusty gravel lead out with accompanying tight corners quickly stacked up riders & some minor crashes/mishaps happened. I held to the outside and pounced on each opportunity to move up as it occurred. I was surprised with the relative ease I was able to move up and through the wave of racers. Within a few minutes I knew I was feeling very capable and my interval training was paying off. How much so? Well, by two miles in I’d gotten into the top 15 and was holding the pace just fine. Not exactly a shabby group to be in. At some point Adam Swank & I exchanged positions and he looked to be riding really strong. Considering my previous year’s outings in the Elite level races where moving up was not only next to impossible just holding on was tough. Interesting however was that I didn’t feel that different, I dare say it almost felt easier than the other races. What rang true was the comment Coach Powers mentions about when you get faster how it doesn’t necessarily feel any different but your ability to do has increased.

In the ensuing miles of single track riding I kept expecting to see/hear a group of racers latching on from behind or looking to pass. It just wasn’t happening, in fact with each section we went through the more distant the racers behind became. As the race progressed, the lead group with the eventually winner broke away and smaller groups formed, for a good share of time it was myself & one or two other racers. In the later one third of the first lap, getting out of the last section of single track from behind come a couple of single speeders Jeff Curtes & James Lalonde (youngest brother of the infamous Jesse & Marko, it’s spooky at first when yourself racing next to the same Gary Fisher Jersey and tattoos until you realize it’s James). At first you could tell these singlespeeders were just duking it out with each other. If one would jump and attack the other would ramp it up in response. As they hammered at each other I was content to sit back and respond if one made a break. And as luck would have it, Jeff finally broke free as James couldn’t respond and with him I took off soon going to the front and telling him to do his best to hang on.

We had a nice gap in completing the first lap, still sitting in the top 15 and poured it on into the second lap. I recall someone saying we were less than 4 minutes off the front group. I knew the pace was fast, but I was feeling great and having no issues with holding the pace or pushing it. Still it was a long race to go. The first half of the second lap went well we were flying in the single track, I felt my abilities had improved ten times better than the previous weeks race on these trails. At some point, later in the second lap after about 75 minutes of riding I felt trouble coming on, & despite taking in water & gel regularly. Signs of fatigue were coming on much stronger than should be for a race of this duration.

Jeff & I must have slowed down somewhat as James got back on and then the two of them pulled away. I rode alone until being caught from behind by John Lirette. Shortly after he passed me down the trail he made the funniest move ever. I don’t know what he was thinking but instead of swinging wide to round a corner he took a more straight on path & ran through a tapped off area. He looked like a guy that was breaking the tap in the 100 meter dash. Fortunately I had enough energy to laugh at him and give him a hard time about his detour once he caught back up. I road with John & eventually a group of 3 additional riders coming into the finish of lap 2 and really needed to push it to stay with them. It was at that time I knew for whatever reason the tank was near empty and a third lap wasn’t going to be pretty. Better judgment should have perhaps had me call it a day at that point, but I headed out for a the third and final lap hoping I’d survive. And without the boring details of hallucinations in the agonizingly slow final lap, I wrapped it up on the day dropping 20+ places. Ouch!

A promising race but the engine isn’t set to go past 90minutes yet so it might just be a few weeks off the races and intervals training to pack in some longer riding and stretch out the body’s endurance abilities.