The race started and ended at Mt. Holiday. A place, I spent a fair share of my youth during the winter time, endlessly riding the chair lifts and carving up the hills on my skis. The course consisted of some serious hilly sections of trails, roads through a subdivision and then some variation of the Vasa. Depending on whether you were riding the 10 or 20 miler. Which, made for a very interesting course with a wide variety of terrain.
The weather had been brutal the night before the race. Around 11pm, it was raining as hard I ever remember it raining. Things didn't look good for the race. The morning was a different story, the clouds had disappeared and the rain was quickly drying up. The race was a true XC mass start and race with Men and Women Experts and Single Speeds going off in one wave. I started with Melissa from the Team and Jimmie from Mom and Pop Racing. Knowing that it was a long race, wide open for passing, we started a little ways back in the pack. A decision that pre-riding the course would have told us wasn't the wisest. At the gun, I chased Jim through the pack until we reached the trail head. With such a big group, space quickly became a premium and Jim slipped away from me when I was pinched off by a group on the first climb. Luckily, the first climb did seem to thin the group out quite a bit and the group fell into mostly a single file line. I had made some moves as we hit the first serious climb and caught up to Jimmie and the group he was in at the base. This time the climb was basically all loose sand and the group was hugging the edge when climbing. Being single speed, I was struggling to stay upright and not rubbing people's rear wheels so, I dove out into the middle of the trail and eventually had to bail and run the rest of the hill, passing the group with Jimmie in it, in the process. After the crest of the hill, I seemed put a decent gap on the group on the decent and trail. That was, until, I hit the pavement shortly after. Which was where the group I had passed on the hill climb blew buy me, lead by Jimmie as I spun wildly, struggling to maintain 18mph and they blew by at 20+. Out of the sub, we hit the trailhead and I was able to quickly reel the group back in. Well, until we started hitting some flat and downhill sections. We'd stretch out and on the flats and I'd reel everyone back in on the turns and hills. However, I was noticing that was not the case with Jimmie. The gap was not decreasing but, increasing. I was making up some but, not nearly enough on the climbs. We hit a section of power lines with quite a bit of flat and downhill sections and that was all it took. I realized that Jimmie was likely gone for the duration of the race and I wouldn't see him again. I just didn't have the gearing to keep up.
For awhile there, I was hoping to be able mix it up with Jimmie for as much of the race as possible race. Especially, given I was sure we'd be able catch quite a few people just racing each other. Time for a new plan. I was pretty sure that I had just passed the lead woman and didn't see any single speeders. Which meant, I was not only probably in a pretty good spot in the race overall and pretty far in the front of the single speeders to. So, new goal. Beat the ladies and don't get passed by any single speeds. The second goal turned out to be not too difficult, the first however, was a different story. From that point on, I raced the same group of guys and gals. A handful of guys from Haggerty's team, the lead woman, also from Haggerty and a guy from RBS. It was a real shoot out for a long time. We'd hit a flat section, they'd all gap me and I'd make it all up and pass the group in the turns and/or climbing. I was pretty happy and held my own until we hit some very long sections of flat and downhill stretches towards the end of the race. At that point, I was simply out geared and got gapped. There just weren’t enough hills for me to catch the group again. As we neared the end of the Vasa, I was passed by 4 more geared bikes on the flats. Just nothing I could do at that point. Well, except for be a little more careful and stay upright in a loose turn. We hit the trail section near the pavement and I was shocked at how much I made up in trail. I almost caught everyone back up. All for not. We hit the pavement and they were gone. I think I looked down at one point on a downhill and saw 27mph. No way I could even pedal at that speed. I was able to reel in the group quite a bit again on the trail after the pavement but, not enough to be striking distance. The last hill before the decent to the finish was a beast. I was really hurting at that point and pretty happy when I recognized the area when I crested the hill. We were at the top of the ski hill and all that was left was a descent down the face of the main slope to the finish.
At the end, I was pretty happy to be finished. Turned out I was the 5th person in on a single speed in the 20 miler. The course was very demanding but it was in great shape and I had rode hard. There were a couple of points I lost focus and became complacent on the flats but, I am not sure I could have done much about it given my gearing. All of the rain helped keep the loose sand together and from kicking up. Plus, there were only a couple of muddy spots on the course. Tons of climbs and load, deceiving graded ascents. I was beat and the temperature must have increased 15 degrees during the race. It was near 80, barely a cloud in the sky and beautiful. I was also pretty thirsty given I lost one of my water bottles in a botched attempt to put it back in my cage near the beginning of the race. I headed over to the refreshment table at the end for a bit and pounded Gatorade and ate orange slices until I felt that I had had enough. Then headed out to see how the rest of the folks I knew at the race did.
Jimmie ended up 12th in the Expert Category and about 4 minutes ahead of me. Melissa ended up taking 4th overall Women’s Expert.
The race was also a bit of a Traverse City and EMU Alumni gathering. My former EMU teammate, Clint Verran ended up 3rd overall. TC alumni and honorary EMU alum ended up pulling of an overall win on his SS in the 10 miler. His brother Sam, TC and EMU alum, finished up the 20 miler on his SS in a respectable time. Mike Franko didn’t fair so well and was having trouble with his headset before the race. His race ended near the start when his bars twisted, resulting in a splash in one of the only muddy sections of the trail.
After the race, we all hung out at the beer tent and enjoyed some of Right Brain Brewery’s special brews for the day. I was so, beat and all of the sun seemed to seep the energy from my legs making it hard to even stand so, I headed back to my parent’s for a shower and a nap. I spent the evening hanging our around a keg of Sam Sheffer’s finest home brew, reminiscing about the race and the ol’ days at EMU and TC with the rest of the Alumni. Definitely a reminder of how much I miss those guys and need to do a better job of putting some time aside to get together with them.
So, Mud, Sweat and Beers is in the books. I am pretty happy with my performance, learned I am going have to turn some serious gears if I want to be competitive on a SS at Iceman and generally had a great time. This mountain biking stuff is a real blast.
Mud, Sweat and Beers 2010 Results
Click here for some pics during and after the race:
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| From Mud, Sweat & Beers |
47 days until the Lumberjack!
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