Ronde Van Stony

I had the pleasure of participating in the first and what I hope will be annual Ronde Van Stony race. Put on by my long time friend Mike Franko.
Pre-Race:
Things have been pretty busy for me lately and training in any way, shape or form has been pretty low on the priority list. So, I went into today's race with intention of having fun over everything else. Tom Sterling from the team and I met up at 6:45am at my new place and headed out the race together. Clearly we were on the team schedule because we ended up directly behind team manager, Brian Brown on the way out. To make things a little more interesting, we Trevor Terry, official honorary EMU Alumn and Ironman as soon as we exited it on Rochester road. We arrived at the race at about the same time as many other teammates on PrecisionMTB. Tom Payn, Jim Senska. Paul Mann and John Gonway rounded out the team. Melissa Mabry and Jimmie Colfesh showed up shortly after Tom, Trevor, Brian and I picked up our numbers. It was good to see everyone again. I haven't seen much of my cycling buddies lately so, my spirits were pretty high. High enough I didn't even curse when I dropped my Garmin on the ground and broke the display pinning on my number. I had it safely tucked in my jersey pocket. Clearly not safe enough. The sky was overcast and temperature was supposedly 50 degrees. But, it felt colder to me. We all made our clothing choices and began circling the parking lot to attempt to keep warm. The race was a mass, rolling start so, warming up turned out to be a pretty social and cool looking activity. The entire field was basically circling the parking lot with an occasional group breaking off to ride the finish. The other cool thing was it gave me the opportunity to ride with pretty much everyone on the team.
Race:
As mentioned, the race was mass, rolling start. I lined up with the Experts and tried to warm my already numb fingers by stuffing them under my armpits. Unfortunately, there was not enough time for me to gain feeling in my fingers before we were off. The start was pretty interesting. It felt very easy to me and I was pretty reluctant to put myself anywhere near the front. Mostly due to my concerns with my level of fitness but, also due to the fact the group was yo-yoing at little and I had to lock up the brakes a few times. At the start, Mike announced we'd head out about 1 1/2 miles before the race was one. The funny thing was, I didn't notice any change of pace so, I didn't know the race was on until we made the left into the two track trail. At that point, I figure out the race was on and was not happy with the position my tentativeness had put me in. I went right to work passing as many people as possible. Up off the saddle and mashing the entire time. Everyone I passed on a CX or MTB was seated and I was wondering if they were pondering how quick they would see the numskull burning himself up at the start again. The two track was pretty treacherous. There were ruts from trucks that would sneak up on you if you left the gravel two track. I had a couple of pretty good scares passing people but, avoided most of the wrecks the ruts and loose sand caused. I wasn't sure how much farther we had to go on the trail and could see a good sized group just ahead and decided that was where I needed to be and dropped the hammer to catch up. I was concerned if a group that size hit the dirt road and I was off the back, I'd surely never catch them. Soon after, a guy on a MTB that had either crashed or had mechanical issues attempted to mount his bike on the side of the trail. In doing so, literally road across the trail nearly blocking it. I called out an locked up the brakes and luckily avoided him. Unfortunately, it was only meters from the dirt road and I had really hammered to catch the group. There was a short but, steep incline just as we exited the trail onto the dirt road and I tried to put in a sprint. Unfortunately, there was nothing left in the legs at the moment. And I was all alone. Determined, I kept at it. Trying to convince myself if I kept at it, I'd catch them. However, the relentless, never ending hills had started and the wind wasn't helping. I kept pursuing the group but, they continued to gain. Eventually, I caught someone on a MTB and shouted to him to get on my wheel and I'd pull him along. Mostly because I was was hurting and hoped we could work together. He did take a couple of pulls for me but, mostly just for a short time when he caught me a the crest of a hill. Some where in the middle, I could see a PrecisonMTB jersey that had dropped off the back of the pack that I assumed was Tom. In my head I was thinking that if I did whatever it took to catch him that I'd be in good shape. The race was turning into a road race with drafting being a major factor and I had no idea what I was doing. I just knew I was in a pack of two and doing most of the work, it was hard and not idea. My pack of two fruitlessly continued to attack to catch Tom. Unfortunately, soon after, I noticed that more riders had dropped off the group ahead of Tom and they were forming their own, decent sized attack pack. My pack of two continued to give chase but, Tom's group was gapping us and I was tiring quickly. At that point we must have been 8 or 10 miles. That's when another group of 6 to 8 MTB and CX riders caught my pitiful, faltering pack. A couple of guys went past like I was standing still. I stood up to try and keep up but, I could almost hear the screaming in my legs. I spent the next couple of miles jocking for position with the unorganized group that had past me. Strangely, the hills that were completely zapping my legs were where I was able to make up any distance that group put on me. We rode that way for awhile until the group shrunk to about three CX bike and two MTB's. From there it was pretty much a routine of MTB riders from the Wolverine team and I taking pulls on the front. Occasionally, we'd drop to the rear and demand the other riders take a turn. At some point we picked up another MTB rider from the Wolverine team and lost the other MTB rider in the group. We movd along at a decent pace. But, the hills never ended. At some point, someone in the group made the comment that he couldn't wait until we stopped climbing because the downhill was going to be amazing. Clearly, he was not from area. Because the hills, choppy, bumpy roads never let up. Nor did the wind. Which always seems to be coming directly at you. When we hit the gravel two track towards the end of the race, our group literally fell apart. The Wolverine MTBer and I gapped the whole group almost immediately. I noticed right away the 700X35cm tire on my CX bike were nowhere near a anchored in the gravel as what I would have expected an MTB to be. I called out to the MTBer of go for it and that he didn't need our group any more. He reluctantly surged ahead. He started to gap me as I slowed in the corners after a couple of two wheel drifts gave me more surges of adrenaline and made me decide not to dare crashing anymore. The hills saved me from getting left but, one of the guys on a CX bike from our group passed both MTBer and I on the trail. He was older but, clearly more daring than I. After the loose, steep hill on the trail my legs were toast. I was proud I rode it and the MTBer and person ahead of him walked it. I passed the MTBer I was rider with when he had some mechanical issue but, he came screaming past me soon after. I ended up passing him when he slowed to ride with another Wolverine ride on a CX bike we caught. At that point, I was still rather close to the other rider on a CX bike from our group that had passed us. We exiting the two track I was happy to get on the hard packed roads again. That was until I realized the my tank was basically empty. My legs were finished. I dropped a few gears with hopes that my legs would recover but, the hills were back and made sure that my plan was thwarted. The CX rider from my group steadily pulled away from me. We rode up the road always and made a right turn. At that point the CX rider still looked catchable when a long, fast downhill started. I shifted to my tallest gear and was mesmerized with my speed of 30+ mph. So much so, when I finally looked up enough to see if I had gained any ground, the other rider was completely gone out of sight. I saw "Finish" painted on the ground and Mike standing at the end of the straight away waving me into the turn. I made the right hand turn and struggled through the long grass to the finish. I must have looked like I was out for a leisure ride as I crested the hill to the finish. I was toast. I definitely left it all out there.

Based on the results, looks like I pulled out 1:49 for 35th out of about 135 riders. Not bad for just showing up to participate. My Giant TCX performed flawlessly. To be honest, I am suprise I didn't bend a rim or cause some other form of damage hitting pot holes at 25+ mph.

Results

Garmin Data
The course was great. The weather was a little cold and the wind didn't help. I can't think of a better adjective than "relentless" to describe the hills. Which made for a challenging and rewarding day. However, I am getting a little PO'd I broke my Garmin.

It was also great to see Mike's family and Joel Gaff out on the course. I wasn't able to stay too long after the race and everyone was busy tallying results and breaking the course down so, I didn't get a chance to talk to them too much.

Lee Shaw reminded me that Iceman is only 6 weeks away. I have a ton of work to do if I want to come anywhere near my time last year. Especially, considering I am planning on riding the SS.