The end of the season finally came and went and now I am left in a mess of bruises and pain. Heh, Iceman really lived up to its name. When the weather is right, this race really sets the men away from the boys. Last year the weather hit the 60's and people called it Niceman! Heh, I think they offended someone. This year was everything but that and more closer to Hell. Iceman is a point to point race from Kalkaska to Traverse City, MI. The day before the race a cold front moved in, added with some lake effect snow...you get the picture. The morning of the race I got up and it was 17° at my hotel, there wasn't snow on the ground though so I thought everything would be good. As I drove to the start it warmed up a little. At race start it was 24°. I was set to go off in wave 3, I was all set to race on a cold hard packed trail. Warming up for the race I about turned blue, it was damn cold. Things went bad for me before I left the line though, my camelbak drink tube froze. Only the bite valve was frozen so I stuck it in my jersey and it melted. That was just the start of that issue. My wave had like 85 riders in it, when the gun went we all took off in a made rush. 30 miles to go! The race had a nice 1-2 miles of pavement to let people settle down before we hit the trails. Before I hit the trails my drink tube had frozen again, this time at the shoulder...I had zero energy mix. I immediately went to conservation mode, I lowered my output to hopefully sustain making it to the finish and not bonk too hard. My fitness was good though and I still found myself passing much of my wave and slowing working up to the front. The first 6 miles the trail had tons of sand, I found myself just eating it as it got flung off the tires in front of me. The first sandy downhill also turned into a real mess. I practiced sand riding a lot, and honestly really made myself a solid technical mountain bike rider. That doesn't mean the people around me were though. Going down the hill about ten riders up I see the pill up happen. First it was one, then two riders down. By the time I got there is was like six, I bombed it off the side of the trail and passed it all without breaking my pace. Lucky I guess, but that's about all I got today.
It settled down a lot after that riding through the double track Nordic trails. Eventually I hit the first section of single track and encountered my first back up. It didn't slow me down to much, in fact probably helped me save myself given I had no energy drink/water. The interesting part was the trail was starting to show snow accumulation. As the trail was going from clear to patches of snow and ice. Next to my surprise I came across an aide station about 1/4 through the race. I snagged a cup of water mid stroke, chugged it and kept hammering on. I have never wanted a cup of water so bad in my life. However the real thought started to cross my mind, when would the cramps start? Heh, about mile 8 or 9 I think. I felt it in my hands first. So I stopped and took my camelbak and jersey off. I put the darn thing against my chest then put the jersey over it. I lost two minutes or more easily, but I know that this issue needed to be fixed. However though, it wouldn't unfreeze for another hour.
I still battled on, I was honestly still in the hunt for a podium for my age group. Even after the pit stop to change. So I hammered on giving what I could. I had to walk a few hills I could normally hammer due to traffic and cramps, but the race was still going decent for me. Well until the half way mark, that's when the real trouble started.
Going through the second water station the race came to a screeching halt for me, but not for the fact I had no water. As I was leaving the station a rider tried to pass me on the incorrect side. Unfortunately he lost control of his bike and hit me while I was drinking. Before I knew it I was on the deck and in a massive heap of pain. I had flown off my bike and landed on top of his bike with him partly under it. It took me a bit to get up, my hand was really killing me. However it was my leg that took the damage, I couldn't feel it yet and didn't know how bad it was. I think his day was over, my body damaged his bike. Mine only had a bad wobble to the rear wheel and slightly crooked handlebars. I don't know when to stop though so after taking a few minutes to recollect myself I got back on with my race. I still had a decent shot at podium with my fitness. I should have grabbed a few cups of water before I left though. I wasn't thinking straight I guess.
So I was back to hammering, more like a mad man now because I wanted to catch up. However my power was weak, the left leg just wasn't firing on all cylinders after the wreck. I made the best of what I had though and quickly got back to passing people that passed me while I was dead on the ground at water station #2. Well, maybe I was pushing to hard. On a section of snow covered double track a mile later I ate it hard on a corner. The front tire slid out on me at around 20mph. I hit the deck very hard this time, however the force was distributed all over my body. I got up fairly quick this time, I looked like a snowman. The bike however looked a little more worse for ware. The handlebars now were at a nice 45° angle. I gave the stem a quick nudge to try and straighten it, however its never a good idea to torque your wheels like that. So I sat there a second trying to decide what to do. I had no multi tool to re align the stem. Heh, Patrick Robb made my decision for me. He came flying by yelling something like "Benke get back up". So since I had already thrown reason into the wind so many times, I hopped back on the bike and kept going. Crooked bars or not I was going to finish. The sensible thing would be to stop, its not easy to ride a bike this way.
The next few miles I found myself just taking it easy riding with a group of riders through a section of single track. I tried to strike up a conversation...which brings me to a pet peeve. Why do people take racing so serious. I got some grumbles like, why are you talking to me. Riding my bike in its condition was putting a lot of stress on my triceps. So I was asking all over for a multi tool. Well finally after 2-3 miles I saw a guy off the side fixing his bike. So I bombed off the trail and asked to borrow his tool. He was nice enough to lend it to me despite the clear anger he was in for his bike breaking. His bike wasn't repairable. Mine was, so I took the tool and adjusted the stem. I got it close to straight. So...after another unplanned break I was back rolling again. At this point some junior racer had witnessed me pass him 4 times, only to have him pass me back 3 times.
After that the race got boring and slow, the trail was melting and turning into a soupy muddy mess. I kept just turning over the pedals passing people right and left. Finally as I approached the last aide station my camelbak unfroze. Since I was already bonking I needed the nutrition bad, I chugged on my drink tube. The next few miles I found myself returning to form, passing more people. However the hills over the last few miles were kicking my butt with one good leg. I had to walk more of them then I would have liked. Sigh, as I came to finish I felt a lot better. I struggled and once again found away to find my way to the finish of another race. As I crossed the line I did a massive bunny hop out of frustration. While my race time stopped at just over 2:11, my computer showed a running time just over 2:01. Heh, I really spent 10 minutes off my bike standing. To my surprise my time snagged me 12th in my 25-27 age group out of near 100 racers. That made me feel a lot better.
As I left for the day all I could think about was next year. I am going to take this experience and make the best of it for next year. While I was very well trained and on pace to podium, luck robbed me of that. Next year I am determined to step on that podium.
Iceman Men's Results
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