Good news, that crazy mission impossible previously mentioned 2 weeks ago is over. I’ve come out relatively unscathed… maybe not the kids so much, and Kate is probably adjusting to the aftermath (an inherent problem in coming back from vacation after leaving me in charge for 9 days).
By the time that Friday (Oct 7th) she was back rolled around I was getting the hang of things pretty well or maybe it was just the peace of mind I’d be getting help and a break soon.
Seems like it’s been much longer than 10 days since. Probably because of so much change that’s gone on. I fought thru a cold, many days of some decent laryngitis, and the last few weeks of my ribs healing up. Hadn’t seen much of my bike let alone have some close intimate personal time riding it.
Quite to my surprise when I finally got riding again a week ago, I found all the R&R time interspersed with a race wasn’t to my detriment, in fact perhaps to my advantage. A couple rides and interval workouts proved to show some surprisingly strong results, more on that later.
Missing the UPCross series and the early part of the MN series for cyclocross due to the broken ribs wasn’t ideal for my cyclo-cross race season but life had enough other fun stuff happening that, though I missed racing, I was surprisingly ok with it. Rest assured however I haven’t lost my deep ongoing desire for racin’… not sure I ever will.
However, at last here comes the update on what had to be one of the best weekends of racing this year – from the pure simple enjoyment of racing MTB’s. Oct 1st, with the support of CORC, Noah Michaelsen, Brian Kelley & a whole host of volunteers put together the DeerFly Chase MTB race. Kinda cool in that, it was a race I actually didn’t know about til the week of the race. It sorta flew under the radar, til I got an email from Nathan Lillie and later Noah about the race looking to round up some fast guys for some post Chequamegon 40 racing. They couldn’t have hit me up at a better time. I was on a break healing the ribs but had super good legs despite a headcold. Long story of how it worked out that I could make it but the main thing is it did.
Arriving about 20 minutes prior to race start after dropping the 4 kids off with my sister, just got to see a few guys I recognized. The always likeable Chad Sova, how can you not like that guy? Great sense of humor, loves to have fun racing the bike, and is super supportive. A top end racer and someone I’m just happy hanging with as long as I can in any race. Saw too Nate Lillie who’s equally a great competitor, funny guy and offers great encouragement to be racing with. Lastly, Mike Johnson, who I know since college, but reconnected only in the last 10 yrs due to cycling. Super guy & can be so strong on the bike when the conditions are right.
The start was a controlled roll-out for the first mile due to the open road, hills & corners until we could hit the first off road section. When we did it went fairly high speed from the word go as the 4 wheeler sped away. First myself, later Chad, and Mike Johnson pushing a hard pace. I really was anticipating only going for an easy ride and not really racing – having just come down with a headcold – but you get in that racing situation and it’s like a switch goes off in your head/legs and you can’t help but push it with whatever you have. Fortunately, my immune system didn’t compromise my legs & lungs that day. After trading pulls with Chad and giving a few hard efforts on hills we broke away from everyone else and on a particularly longer section we got into the always desired position of “out of sight, out of mind” even before hitting the single track. I was pushing a little harder than I thought I should and it could come back to bit me later in the race but for the moment it was a better proposition to stay with Chad than race by myself.
We worked the single track in a pretty steady pace, as the DeerFly Chase trails are a good mix of flowing stuff with some tight corners and technical sections. You definitely needed skills to race it well, not to mention slightly better tires for the conditions than what I was running. Chad was kind enough to take it easy on me and let us work together for the better part of the first half of the race. We’d built up a pretty good lead when I finally started yo-yoing off his wheel in some sections. That yo-yoing came to a permanent end however once I notice my rear wheel getting a bit squishy on corners. Sure enough it got bad enough I jump off and felt the rear tire… damn! it was going flat. Not able to quickly diagnose the leak I pumped it up and kept waiting to see when the first pursuer would be coming by. Well, it took a good 90 seconds and I felt I had enough air back in the tire to go again when the 3rd place guy come flying by. If my problem had been solved there the rest of the day would have gone well. Unfortunately it was the first of 3 stops I need to do to get the tire fully sealed again. I’d just filled up with new Stans No tubes sealant 2 weeks prior at the Chequamegon 40, so I was sorta bummed it didn’t do a better job of sealing a very small hole in my Bontrager XR1 tires. I’d given up close to 15minutes and 15 or more positions during the three stops it took.
Still I took it as an opportunity to race the second half hard and finish strong, perhaps I’d still be able to catch some other racers. Slowly I was able to, especially when the later miles of the race after being predominately singletrack when to two track, cx ski trail and gravel roads. Moving up to 10th place by the finish I had given everything I had, making for a great workout and fun no pressure race.
Met some new racers & re-acquaintanced myself with others in the post race activities afterwards. Aaron Sturgis “Sturgy” who race not only the DeerFly really well, but rocked a top 80 Cheq 40 race. Got to finally meet Matt O’Meara… what a guy! Best story and comment of the race goes to him.. something along these lines – it’s somewhere early on in the singletrack he has slight mechanical, drops back only to catch up. In a confident, borderline funny, cocky way he jockeys at the last second in front of Nate Lillie getting into a succeeding section of singletrack , laugh to a degree about having done it….. only to hear Nate Lillie express that he just as quickly went crashing down the trail bouncing off everything in sight, land in a heap. Upon discovering he was ok, they continued on. I heard a quote later from someone else that Matt was overhead saying “I guess my coolness got in the way.” If you know Matt, you can really appreciate where that comment is coming from.
The weather couldn’t have been more beautiful with a 49 degree race start later warming up into the low 60’s. The organizers had a excellent post race party with food, awards and swag. I unfortunately had to leave a bit earlier than I would have liked to get back to & pick up the kids and get onto the rest of the weekends activities but it was an awesome race and amazingly well put together for a first time event.
Thanks again to Noah, his volunteers and CORC for making the DeerFly Chase possible. It nice to have some post Chequamegon 40, other than WORS MTB race options. Haven’t found another since the 2001 Fat Back Boogie held at Telemark/Cable. So thanks again guys! Really appreciate and looking forward to future editions of it.
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