Just as the race season feels like it’s getting started before you know it’s half way through… or at least it feels that way. The tail end of June brought a National level MTB race to the Midwest for a second consecutive year.
How do you pass on that opportunity? Well, usually you don’t. I gotta be honest, it’s always one of those races that tugs on me back & forth about going. It’s hyped up for what it is, but at a distance I’m less than enamored about driving too. I traveled so much years ago it probably burnt me out for the next 20years. Some say it’s a lifestyle and you just roll with it. I get stuck thinking of all the other stuff I’d prefer to be doing than sitting 8hrs in a car. So I can’t say it’s ever been my favorite place to travel too, but once there it’s a nice festival atmosphere, lot’s of familiar faces to see and friends to catch up with.
The race course in my now 3 previous experiences has gotten better each time around as the trails have worn in and improvements made. The trail itself has a soil content that makes it very smooth in most places interrupted with the normal rocks & tree roots. Subtract that out & alot of it is pavement smooth versus trails that are more bumpy. I’ve found some trails are more fun to ride than race and vice versa. This one has an enjoyable flow, smoothness but also challenging. I’d give the edge to riding it over racing it but it’s pretty close.
Racing it is just plain tough at times. Built on the tree laden slopes of a midwest ski hill it makes you work on the climbs and carve the single track on the way down.
My goals were simple – put in a top 10 finish in the 116 rider line up. Do-able? Yes. Problem. Yes – it’s called 116 racer lineup at he start. It’s a single track heavy course and even with an attempt to thin things out a 3minute(if that) hill climb to start doesn’t cut it.
Getting to the start 20minutes early, (if one can believe me – it’s true!) The closest I got to the front was the 4th/5th row that was lined 10-12 racers wide. With no further selection, it was simply based on who got there first or could weasel ahead.
I’d be curious what was the greatest advance made by any racer from starting position to finishing position. I’m wagering not beyond 15 to 20 places. So unfortunately, I don’t believe all the best racers really had results indicative of their abilities solely based on the amount of racers that were allowed to start & the course design. Read a few other blogs, including Tristan S. and you’ll get the same picture of that.
What happened? I got a reasonable start but 40 racers deep made moving up tough because with the snow fence corraling of the course there simply wasn’t room to pass. In fact as I stayed to the right side near the edge & close to the barriers -- one guy tried passing hard on my right we had some physical contact, he bumped me a little too hard the first time and that was his mistake because on the next set of contact I put him down & piled up into the snowfence. Honestly, --- it kinda felt good. Sorry dude. At least on a bike course my 6’ 168lb self makes me one of the bigger guys out there.
The 2-3minute climb may have slightly narrowed things down but not really. There was at least 15 people off the bike waiting to enter the single track when I got there. I assume the first 15-20 got in without too much problem. Only even when you got into the single track people were off the bike walking the first 50 yards due to the technical terrain & someone faltering. The lead obtained by the front guys became pretty much insurmountable at that point.
Didn’t stop me or probably anyone from stilling giving there best effort but didn’t feel like the fairest playing field. I went to work in the first lap (of four) steadily picking off one & two racers at a time, perhaps as many as 7 or 8 in that lap. Lap two was much the same, but I failed to get a water bottle hand off & ran low on water so lap three progress on moving up stalled. I’d caught up to Jon Lirette at the start of lap 3 but the engine started cough & sputter at that point. Matt Muraski was racing good and came up on me and passed and later Jon went by me again. I probably lost another couple positions in that 3rd lap, but was able to re-compose myself for the 4th lap unfortunately, I got held up by alittle by Michael Hemme when he passed me on the climb but couldn’t navigate the single track as well. I put in a hard charge in the final 300 yards of climbing & descending to distance him but it was too little to late to catch the others I was closing in on. Good enough for 31st overall in the Category 1 race. A far cry from the top 10 finish but given the circumstances it wasn’t to be that day. Certainly better than my 55th place finish in 2010. Another key to the Suburu Cup course was getting in a pre-ride. It requires knowing the lines to take through the technical stuff as to not get unnecessarily hung up on it in the race.
Great to see & catch up with friends there, from the SKJ’s, Tyler J. who parked right next to us. Adventure 212 guys – thanks Darrin, Chris and crew for cheering – I did was to rip your legs off and borrow them for the climbing in the final two laps…
Had fun cheering and yelling for the guys (& girls) in the Pro level races that followed. Tristan, Brian, Mike, Nate among the other local guys had respectable days and it was fun to see them mix it up.
Short track race was sold out (at least they were smart to cap that race) so it was back home Saturday night rather than staying for the weekend. And given the drive it was nice to be home Sunday for some nice R&R.
Up next a pretty mellow month of July. Probably the WORS Eau Claire FireCracker and some local races but mostly trying to fine tune the training for the big 6 weeks that start with Ore to Shore in August & end with Chequamegon 40 in Sept.
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