So how did things play out for the first race of the season?
Between the 2013 spring snow storms, none us are going to forget anytime soon , mother nature blessed us with a nearly perfect day for a good hard bike race April 28th.
Arrived at the Murphy Flowage Co. Park in Rusk County – east of Rice Lake a solid 30minutes before the race. Those that know me can enjoy the humor of that & may find me ruining my reputation for timeliness in 2013… ok, let’s get real…don’t worry, I don’t expect the trend of arriving early for races to continue.
The parking lot was full of friendly familiar faces. Todd McFadden, last years champ, sporting a shiny new ‘cross bike. Soon after I was greeted by Tim Andrews, then race director, Noah Michaelsen, Nate Lillie, Nikolai Anikin, and a bunch of guys from the Eau Claire area.
Going into the day -- I’ve been battling being sick several times over all winter long, and that day I was on the last days of a cough/cold I’d gotten earlier in the week. Left home feeling pretty draggy & only modestly better when I got to the race. I road around once getting there trying to get that sluggish feeling to go away but to no avail. I was really hoping the start would be easy.
Soon it was 10am & we rolled out. About 200 yards into the rollout there was the sound of “starters” gun… in reality? It had the unmistakable sound of a tire blowing. Probably not a good omen for that person racing this season.
Things started reasonably easy. Being the first race of the season, everyone is sorta juggling around who should be out front leading. The default sorta seemed to land on Todd McFadden who blew everyone away at last years Strada Fango, but more impressive & recently winner of the 2013 Arrowhead 135 & 3rd in the Fat bike Birkie. If he could translate on to skinny tires what he did on the Fattest ones he’d be the guy to stick with.
Todd did a good share of work at the front in the initial miles of the race but as things continued others came to the front for a while rotating thru (even a Fat Bike racer – I just can’t come up with his name for the life of me right now). Nate Lillie stayed like glue on Todd’s wheel. Mind you Nate was the only one of us in what would later form a lead group on a MTB, but not just a regular MTB, a single speed (37x??) gearing.
Eventually with a sizeable hill or two the lead group of 6 riders was established. Myself, Nate, Todd, Tim Andrew, Shawn Miller, Josh – “who I can’t recall his last name.” It’d stay this way over the subsequent miles that is until we hit “Noah’s surprise”….
Innocent enough looking picture,…. but this would be the corner where things got crazy. Up til this point the course at worst was some soft gravel, at best pavement. I can’t speak for the other guys but my eye’s kinda got big as there was crazy shit ahead…
Nate happened to be out front, myself in 2nd, followed by Todd. The course turned off onto a what is best described as a half melted winter snowmobile trail with two 6” wide ruts of running water. Next time your out try to ride a balance beam 6” wide with snow packed 3-5” high on both sides of your tire. Concentration & skill is less of luxury & more of a necessity. Of course the other option was bunny hopping on to the crystalized snow & squirming back & forth to stay upright.
Nate had joked earlier in the ride how he wouldn’t be sticking with us very long due to his single speed MTB & the rest of us on ‘cross bikes. He couldn’t have been more wrong that day.
His wider tires better floated over the snow & “ice cobbles” than anyone. I was able to use the ‘ole cyclocross racing technique & hold with him initially. As this road/trail keep going things begin stretching further & further apart though. Nate would put distance on me going downhill & after a few hills & particularly more snow laden sections without ruts -- he’d gotten in the grove of riding it & was soon out of sight. I turned around to see Todd initially 50 yards behind & later closer to a minute back as we struggled, twisted & turned our bikes to stay upright through the most difficult section.
Noah said later that section of trail was only 3 miles but it felt a lot longer. I enjoyed the challenge & really started to feel better pushing my limits going thru it. Sometimes when your riding your bike on certain terrain something just snaps in your head & you go on instinct to ride a hill faster or single track smoother. In my case it was a flashback to cyclocross and I was having the most fun I’d had in a long time.
Once I’d exited the snowmobile trail & was back on gravel it was a hunt for that dastardly Nate Lillie fella who so eloquently dispatched the many of us. So it was around one corner, then another & another… still no Nate. Then a long down hill… still no Nate in sight. Finally with a long uphill a mile later I saw him, later discovering he was over 90 seconds ahead. Behind Todd was probably just over a minute back & no one else in sight.
The terrain now really favored the ‘cross bikes once again & I was able to bear down & time trial my way closer & closer to Nate. I’d do time checks -- over the gravel & later pavement sections I was able to slice into his lead, down to minute, then 40 seconds, then 20 seconds, until 5 miles after initially spotting him I finally caught.
It was at this time, it was back to hilly roads & a lot of gravel. Initially I thought I had the advantage and lead out for much of it, but catching up to Nate had taxed me more than I thought & it was now Nate, once again pulling away over the soft gravel climbs, at one point over 40 seconds in front of me again. Eventually I caught up again and by the half way point of the 68 mile race we were stuck together for most of the rest of the way.
Both conscious of Todd being behind & very capable of catching up over long distances like this we pushed it, but still tried to conserve so as not to bonk before the end of the race.
Races like that get feeling pretty long when you’re the only two out front. You assume it’s a head wind in any of three directions you turn (honestly that day, I think it was true – it never felt like we had a tail wind, ever!)
At a midway point Nate had to stop for a water refill, as I kept going, sure enough he caught back on. Another time I bobbled my water bottle & had to stop go back for it & catch back on.
With one significant out & back hill to climb & turn around on I figured it give us a good gauge of how far back anyone would be. Though Nate easily out climbed me to the top we came down together with no McFadden in sight giving us probably more than a 5minute gap with 13 miles to go.
I know I was getting pretty gassed at this point & probably Nate as well as I turned to him & said “For two guys that like to talk as much as we do this ride sure has gotten quiet.” He thought that was pretty funny & so true. I think the other part was neither one of us could handle another gel/gu. We’d ate and drank to our capacity.
This story is all good & we getting ready for a great finish, with just one or two turns to make before hitting the home stretch. Only….. well, let’s just say one of the directional markers was misinterpreted by yours truly. This being a mostly unmarked, unofficial race there was always a strong possibility of a wrong turn being made. Nate was considering going left but followed me going right.
At one pt we ran into riders going the opposite direction, I’d thought they’d cut things short & were doing a cool down or something, but when we still weren’t at the finish 2 1/2 miles later the next rider we came across told us we were going the wrong way.
At this point I gotta say I became very impressed with the reserves Nate had in store to power back to the course & drive things home to the finish. Again on a single speed & fast rolling MTB tires -- I think he brought the right gun to the knife fight. He’s riding really strong, if he keeps it up I see a really good season happening for him. The 2 1/2 miles to get back on course & 6 miles to the finish Nate led a good share of the way.
Spotting McFadden those 5 miles was more than enough for him & Shawn Miller to finish ahead of us. I think Todd had to laugh just because the same type of thing essentially happened to him last year.
We finished up doing 73 miles in 4:35hr. I’ll be honest these long ones aren’t my favorite but it was a fun day & a great training ride. After chatting with everyone I made a bee line for the freezing cold river nearby to put my overcooked legs into – that felt awesome.
Thanks again to Noah & everyone who played a roll in putting things together. Had a great time catching up with you all. (Thanks too to Tim Andrew’s wife Laura for her sense of humor & in particular for the great brats she had to share too).
Up next… I’m going to try to some some blogging installments throughout this year on “Watts it take”. I did a number of races last year & plan to do all of them this year with a power meter. I hope to offer some insight on what kind of training or racing output it requires to finish races in a given place. Have any comments or questions feel free to shoot ‘em my way… til then ride hard & keep the wheels down.
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