Addison Oaks Fall Classic XC

Sunday I raced my very first mountain bike race ever.  After a long season of riding on the road...boy was this a change in pace needed.  After my last road race Labor Day Monday I proceeded to hop on my mountain bike Wednesday and Thursday.  I felt so good on the trails I looked online Thursday night and found a MTB race that was Sunday.  I was like "ah what the hell, can't be to hard."  So I signed up feeling confident I had a shot at winning my sport division.   I could have raced beginner, but I though that would be unfair. I also figured I needed a solid race to really get me ready for Iceman in November, and with my upcoming vacations this weekend was my last shot at squeezing a MTB race in. 

So Sunday rolled around and I showed up at the race.  Saturday I had been doing some last minute upgrades on the bike, with more to follow in the next month to make it race ready.  My bike was still hefty, far off the pedigree of a racing mountain bike but I figured I had the power to ride strong with what I had.  As soon as I got to the race though I felt out of place, it was like starting all over again.  However though I didn't have any pre race butterflies.  My goal for the day was just to finish, and learn for Iceman.   Now generally in road racing its ok to race the course blind, not knowing where the roads take you.  More realistically its probably better to do more then 3 trail rides for the year prior to your first race.  So, I was racing the course blind and with less then 50 off road miles for the year.   Heh, I figured "I am fit, I can handle this."  You can probably see where this all is going, I might have been a bit to arrogant.  I grossly misunderstood the type of preparation that is required to race off road.

Finally start time approached, there was 11 others next to me.  My race was scheduled for 21 miles with about 15 of that I would say racing single track.  Since it was a mass start my strategy was to slot in behind the leaders and follow them till I learned the course.  I had done that last year on new trails with good success.  The whistle blew and we all took off, I had all the power in the world to run away off the front but I slotted in about 5th.  Then before I knew it we were on the trail and going uphill.  Before I knew it the top 3 had escaped, and I was still stuck behind 4th watching them getting away.  Passing can be tricky on single track, so most the time you have to wait for an opening to shot around.  The next part I didn't expect.  The guys in front of me were really that good, and my lack of experience was showing.  I couldn't corner as well and had to work much, much harder due to my inexperience.  I was working to hard, and the guys in front of me kept slipping away.  A smart person at this point would just ride there own pace, but I kept on going trying to stay on what I thought was 4th places wheel.  Turns out he was in a diff cat, and I was really in 4th with my teammate behind me.  I had convinced him to also enter his first MTB race that day.

Half way through the first lap I finally snapped, the hard pace was making me make mistakes and ride outside of my ability.  I near crashed in a corner with a rock garden, I finally waved my teammate by to let him lead for a bit.  This helped me recover a little.  I soon though lost touch with him, but this was due to a mechanical.  Going up one of the hills I shifted my front ring and my chain stuck.  This lead to me falling on my side, oh well that's racing.  It took me about a minute to fix my bike and get going, but I was well behind.  So I finally decided to do the smart thing and race the race at my pace.  The damage had been done from the early effort though.  Going into my second and third laps my body tired and I started to cramp.  The roughness of the trail was wearing hard on my upper body.   I ended up losing a few more spots and finished 7th in my class.  Overall a solid finish given the magnitude of the feat I was trying to pull off.  Next time I know what to expect and how to prepare.  Riding the single track trails is a blast though, next year I hope to participate in a few more cross country races.  Well, once I get some lighter wheels.  My current ones are way to heavy and do not help with me keeping up with the leaders when I have to work that much harder.

Labor Day Weekend

This past weekend I raced in my last road racing event of the season.  Boy, its been a long season.  However it has made the summer just fly by.  I can't believe that fall is almost here and college football has already started.   In a sense its a good feeling, I can finally kick back and enjoy life.  It will not be till the end of March next year that I will race on the road again.  However this doesn't mean I am done racing.  This coming weekend I will be racing my very first mountain bike race.  It will be a warm up for the Iceman Cometh race in November.  Those will be a story for another day.  

 

So the Debaets-Devos Criterium took place on Monday.  I was pumped up for this race, it was local and I was feeling like I was on great form after the suffering I endured in Traverse City.  The circuit was just over a mile and was shaped like an "L", with two tight 180° turns.  The weather was mild and windy...yep, its seems fall just showed up out of the blue.  The race was scheduled to run for 45 minutes.  The race started off with a flurry of attacks.  I joined in on attacking, everything in this race felt effortless.  I was defiantly on a good day.  I rode off the front a couple times really hoping to make a breakaway that would stick.

As a team we were racing great, we continually attacked as a team and worked very hard to protect the gaps by placing ourselves at the front.  This race was a blast, by far the most fun I have had in a criterium this year.  With three laps to go there was a small breakaway off the front.  I guess in a sense the team effort had really inspired me, so with two to go I went to the front of the pack to absolutely hammer the pace and bring the field back together.  I killed myself for for the last two laps finally letting up before the second to last corner, I had brought the field back together and worn some of the field out.  The race was now in the hands of my teammates, who I had positioned with my pace setting.   I sat up to coast the last little bit, I was tired.  However I was rewarded with one of my teammates taking fourth in the sprint.  All and all it was a great day and a great way to end the season.  We had won the team championship in Michigan for Cat 3.  I can't wait for next season.  However next up begins my mountain bike saga, with an encore climb to the top of Mt. Hood.

Full Results

Cherry Roubaix

Cherry Roubaix can be best summed up as the hardest race weekend in Michigan.  On schedule for the weekend was a criterium in downtown Traverse City on Saturday, and a road race of epic proportions near Sleeping Bear Dunes Sunday.  The criterium for this year was still mostly in the same location, however the route had been changed.  I for one wasn't really a fan of the new route.  It was a fairly standard 6 corner circuit with a few sections of brick road.  I've raced on enough brick this year and frankly I am just tired of it.

My race was scheduled to start at 430,  luckily the weather wasn't to hot.  The race was just 40 minutes plus two laps, so it would be quick and painful.  For me the race started as a disaster.  From the start nothing went right.  I didn't have good positioning off the line and to make matters worse the pace was set high from the gun.   I was doing a fairly decent job at carving my way through the field, but then everything went to crap for me.  About ten minutes into the race I had another racer chop my front wheel in a corner.  What this means is essentially he didn't hold his line in the corner and came across my front wheel, making contact.  This usually doesn't bode well for the guy in my position.  Luckily I was able to make a few evasive maneuvers and stay upright.  He had hit my wheel hard and defiantly felt the contact.  Going down the straight he looked back at me and I gave him the "death look".  I was mad. Not only had I almost wrecked, I lost all my momentum  recovering and found myself at the back of the field again.  

Oh well, so I had 30 minutes to work back up.  However I was doomed, every effort I made to move up was countered by either a crash or...yet another wheel chopper.   I was using up a ton of energy to work around these incidents.  Some races positioning is golden, and this was one.  I don't mean to be offensive, but there was a good group of riders in the field that need to learn how to ride.  It is essential to learn how to hold your line in a corner.   I had one rider literally cut me off in 3 straight corners, and he knew it.  I would sprint to pass him, and he would sprint to not let me pass.  Then he would cut me off in the corner and I had to work just that much harder to get up next to him on the next straight. To make matters worse there was a crash with 8 minutes to go right in front of me.  I had to back way off and lost contact with the field.  I busted my butt though and got back into the race.   However with three laps to go 3 riders in front of me decided to just give up and drop from the pack and race. Grr...they really slowed up in the corner and blocked me a little.  This created another big gap to the field.  The work I had done throughout the race dodging mishap had taken a major toll.  I couldn't bridge back, so I rode the last 3 laps in anger.  Out of 45 riders I took 30th.  I was a much stronger rider then the results show.  Some days just don't go to plan.

Cherry Roubaix Crit Results 

Sunday I was hoping for much better luck, road races suit me better.  The course though was a brutal circuit with about 800 feet of climbing per lap.  My race was 5 circuits for a total of 68.5 miles.  800 feet of climbing doesn't sound to bad, by the 2 main climbs average around 8% gradient making for a tough climb.   Another good thing about this race was it started at 840 AM, which was good since the forecast was for upper 80's in the afternoon.  

So my race set off in the cool morning air, which was actually a very welcoming thing.  Right off the bat a Ricardo sprinted off the front.  This brought out a good laugh since he might have been the biggest guy in the field and not a big threat for the day.  So the race started very relaxed and everybody was talking.  However by the time we got to the first climb is was back to business.  To sum things up the first 3 laps were boring, with a few attacks here and there to keep everyone awake.  The only casualty was one of my teammates who crashed at the end of the first lap.   Unfortunately he broke his front wheel and DNF'ed, but what was more unfortunate was that he was boring my front wheel.

The fourth lap the race was finally starting to shape up,  several serious attacks took place during this lap.  I found myself at the front of the pack twice turning up the pace to bring these guys back.  I did bring them back in though and lived to fight into the final lap.  However though at the start of the final lap I realized my day was done.  Which was ok because I did what I needed to do to contribute to the race.  Going up the first small incline of the last lap I got a funny feeling climbing.  My legs were dead. my muscles weren't cramping, they just had no power.   I was hoping I could just keep with the pack over the last two big climbs, but on the next and biggest climb on the course I got dropped.  It took everything I had to not walk up the hill, I wasn't breathing hard either.  I just had no power.  So I spent the last 4 miles by myself cruising to the line solo.  Its a real kicker to bonk like that so close to the end.   I guess the only thing I could have done was eat on the bike better during the race, maybe that could have helped.  Anyways I rolled across the line in 25th out of 41.  I was just happy to finish this grueling race.  Last year I had to DNF after I strained my calf muscle badly.  Next up, the final race of the road racing season for me on Labor Day.

Cherry Roubaix Road Race Results