Iceman Video

Iceman Cometh 2011 : Raw/Unedited Cam Footage [Part 1 of 4] from Brandon Love on Vimeo.

I show up often in the first 9 minutes, but at 9:20 the guy with the camera follows me until I finally drop him.
...the video best describes the race, enjoy

Iceman!

Iceman Cometh has come and gone along with another interesting season.   My training prior to Iceman had been filed with sickness and work travel from Mexico to Kentucky.  I missed Peak to Peak unfortunately suffering the after affects of getting sick in Mexico.  So next year I will finally have to give that race a try and have a proper warm up race for Iceman.   Despite not racing in some time my legs were feeling rested and strong going into Iceman weekend.  I also changed up my preparation for this years race,  now that I am a more competent mountain biker I spent my time focusing on speed.  Riding dirt roads rather then working on trail technique. 

This years edition of Iceman would be traversing mostly the same course of the previous year with a few small changes to add some excited.  Despite the race being billed as a 27 mile point to point this years edition was rumored to be about 30.3 miles, making the sub 2 hour goal a little bit harder.   Given last years performance I had a lot to look past and a lot to improve on.  I also took the opportunity this year to arrive in Traverse City a day early to test the new finish loop.  I'm glad I did because it had a few fun surprises. 

Last year I experienced bonking, water freezing, bike problems and a busted leg.  So this year I brought an insulated camelbak along with a revised nutrition plan, tools, and the leg is still just a work in progress.  The weekend's weather was amazing, at race start it was still a frigid 32, but the skies were clear with sun warming the air to the mid 50's by afternoon.  Unlike last year where I got to start in wave 3, I had been demoted to wave 6 based on my finishing time due to my problems last year.  This would only mean I would have to pass more people and have less riders to pace with.  Basically from the start I would have to go on my own and just push the envelope.   My main goal for this year was revenge, break two hours, and also reach the podium.

9:15 my wave left Kalkaska and began our Journey to Timber Ridge in Traverse City.  Our wave started fast, I did my best to stay near the front but also conserve energy and warm up.  Unfortunately my gearing and lack of being warmed up led me to lose the top 3 guys in my wave.  If I could had stayed with them at the start I might have had a better time and a wheel to draft off some.  As we entered the double track trails I was probably around 20th, I mostly just tried not to push the envelope and not crash.  I knew I would be picking off riders soon enough.  After the fact I wished I would have pushed harder to get the whole shot, however its hard to say how much that effort would have hurt me later in the race.  I might of lost 2-5 minutes working through the pack, or risked bonking from the hard early effort and losing that much time later on. 

As I picked riders off though I gained more and more wheel suckers(drafters).  I would drop them time and time, but more would come back.  I could have let them take a pull, but it would have just slowed me down.  As I bridged gaps to groups of riders I always found myself doing all the work breaking the air.  If I did find a break of a momentary rider to draft off, I usually dropped them on the next hill.  This was the entire race for me, along with dealing with traffic lines on some portions of single track.  The penalty of losing my early start wave is exactly what I got.  Me generally being the faster guy not finding relief with other fast riders to ride with.  Iceman is a strategy race where pace lines and drafting can net you not just seconds, but like 10 minutes. 


I finished the race safely in just over 1:58, beating my goal of 2 hours.  I ended up 10th and missed my podium, but given the year I had the race is still a success.  Next year I earned my faster start wave back and will have fast riders to work with.  That should help with my new goal of breaking 1:50 and landing a spot on the podium.







Check back for Video soon!