It's That Time of Year

Well, it's less than 2 weeks to this year's addition of the Treasure Valley Rally. Last Sunday me and 8 other BUMS spent a few hours cutting back the brush and leaf blowing the entire 10 mile course. Our good friends at 495 Rental supplied some extra power equipment to help the job go quickly. The course is in great shape with minimal amounts of water and rocks a plenty. We've (mainly Brett) even replaced a cart road section with about a mile of new single track for your enjoyment.

For prizing we've got a couple additions as well. If you're one of those really fast guys or gals that race elite, we have upped the payouts from previous years. Top 3 in both the men's and women's field are getting $250/150/100. On the men's side we're also paying $75 & $50 for 4th and 5th place. For the rest of you we'll have our usual well stocked swag table. On top of that, Bikeman and Carver Bikes has donated two 96er frames (one for the men and one for the ladies). While the exact logistics of how these are being awarded is not finalized, I think it's safe to say if you make the podium in your race (unless you're an elite, you're getting cash), you will have a chance at winning one of these.

With any luck we'll have a nice sunny day and everyone can enjoy a post race swim in the pond. Oh, and don't forget, first 100 pre-reg get their choice of a cool t-shirt (designed by Scott Nelson and Son) or a free meal, so get on it. That link again is https://www.bikereg.com/Net/18101.

I hope to see you all there.

12 Hrs of Millstone

Wait, what about the Gnar Weasels you ask. Great course, great race, it reminded me just how much I miss the Fort Rock Revenge. We need more races like this. I think everything else has already been said. Don't believe me, check out Dirtwire.


Now where was I, oh yeah, the 12 Hrs of Millstone. Where to begin with this one? Lets try the Monday before. That's when I noticed the rear suspension seemed just a wee bit on the plush side. a quick post ride inspection revealed I had yet another broken frame. Let me see this not the one, two, yup third time I've broken an Orbea aluminum frame. all three times it was the chain stay, but this was the first time it was the non-drive side. This is also the 2nd time I've broken one just before one of Casco Bay Sports' 12 hour races. The first time I broke my frame it was just before the 12Hrs of Bradbury. I ended up racing that on my Redline single speed that I use for commuting. Unfortunately, that bike was ridden hard and put away wet a few too times this past winter and was in no condition to be ridden in the woods. I stripped everything off the bike and ran the frame down to Providence Bicycle so they could handle the warranty. I was literally walking out the door chatting with one of the guys from the shop when it came up that I had a race that weekend. He said if I needed it they probably had a demo bike I could borrow for the weekend. At first I was just thinking, nah, I'll just borrow Russ' Redline (my loner bike the last time I broke a frame), but curiosity got the better of me and I asked them what they had. While most of their demo bike were had the Warrick location, they just so happened to have a Stumpjumper Expert(carbon) in size large at the Providence store. I suppose that would work. I filled out some more paperwork and found myself driving home with one of them plastic bikes on top of the car.

Big Thanks to Providence Bicycle for the sweet loaner. It looks fast, don't it?

I put my wheels and saddle on it and got out for a ride mid week, but didn't feel comfortable on it. It wasn't until I swapped in my stem and bar which gave me a little over an inch more of reach that I started to feel good on it. I just have to remember to put all their stuff back on it before I return it.

Thursday rolls around and I got a few moans from my kids when they found out daddy was going to be away for the weekend. That is, until I told them they could come. They didn't even hesitate. Now, I've got my routine down for these things, but planning for the kids, especially their food, definitely added a little bit of angst to the trip preparations.

Sorry, Wiley, you've got to stay home and keep Traci company

We rolled out Friday afternoon and got up Millstone a little before 7:00. Time to set-up camp and pre-ride the first half of the course before taking the kids up the hill to one of the quarries.

No, you cannot climb down there.

OK, you guys can climb on the rock pile

 We got back down to the field as the sun was setting.

It seems like every year we get one of these.

We made some dinner, hung out by the camp fire for a bit, and went to bed. A relatively uneventful night.  Well... until I got woken up by our neighbor's kid (somewhere in the 1-2 year old range) who was throwing a tantrum because, well, I don't even know why. I could faintly make out the father doing his best good parenting job trying to be rational with the child explaining how crying does not get you what you want. Let me tell you. When it's 3 am on race day and you're camping with 100+ other people good parenting goes out the window and crying definitely gets you what you want. Just saying. Fortunately, unlike the Stoopid 50 I didn't have ribs that felt like they were ripping out of my chest and I was able to get back to sleep once things settled down.

6:00 am still came pretty early. Got up, made some coffee and enough oatmeal for me and the kids. Modigity was doing the first lap again, so I wasn't in that big of a rush. I still had to make sure the kids got taken care of before I essentially left them to fend for themselves for 12 hrs. Let me say right now, the kids were fantastic the entire weekend. At no point did anyone go MIA, I don't think they were a burden to anyone else and, most importantly, no trips to the ER. Before I knew it it was 9:00. everyone lined up and the race was on.

Oh, did I mention Dan Vallaincourt (So get this, I posted a race status to facebook and spelled his name Vallencourt. I felt kind of stupid to later look up his name in the registration and see it spelled Vallancourt. I almost used that spelling here until I tried to look up some of his past results and found it spelled Vallaincourt. Go figure) was also on a 2 person team (Birthday Boys) with a buddy of his (who apparently can't spell Dan's name) from ME. We had know idea who his partner was or how fast he would be, but Dan and pretty much anybody is a competitive team. Dan quickly proved the point by gapping Jon and Chris by the midway point and building a 2 1/2 minute lead on the first lap. On top of that he was turning a double to start the race. Determined to minimize the early damage I was in full on TT mode for lap one. Unfortunately, this resulted in some early flailing from trying to hard and an over inflated rear tire. By the end of my lap Dan had put another 3 minutes into us and just like that we were 5+ minutes in the whole.

I didn't see Dan at all while I was waiting for Modig to finish lap 3 so I figured his partner, Jared Goodness, was starting out with a double. I had know idea what he looked like though so I didn't know our place when Jon came in. My second lap was much better. I'd let a little air out of the rear between laps and had settled down a bit. It was still TT pace, just a lot smoother. When I came in to pass back to Jon, Dan was there waiting, so somewhere in one of our laps, Jon and I had taken over 1st pl. I wouldn't know until a few laps later, but apparently Jared is not as fast as Dan. Jon had made the pass on his lap and I put another 7 minutes into him. Of course, Dan was now back on course devouring that time gap.

When I started our 6th lap (my 3rd) I had know idea what the lead was. I just knew he was out there stalking. The beginning of the lap was going well and I was easily getting through traffic. Then I picked up a stick and had to stop quickly to get it out of the derailleur. In the process letting a couple people I had just passed go by in some tight single track. I was quickly back on, and got by the first guy fairly easily. I made it to rider #2 just as we were coming to a spot with an 'A' line over the rock and 'B' line to the right of the rock. The rider to the 'B' line and offered me the 'A' line for the pass. I took, but the little voice in my head was telling me it was a bad idea. Although the backside of the rock is not a huge drop, maybe a foot and a half, it's not a smoother roll off either. As I was coming off it, I could feel my rib injury from the Stoopid 50 getting re-aggravated. Unlike, then, this wasn't a pre-ride and I had to deal with it on the bike. Most of the remainder of the lap consisted of half breathing as I tried to minimize the stabbing pain in my chest if I tried to take a deep breath. The only thing that took my mind off of it was a glimpse on Dan not all the far behind me as we made out way down Switchback. I managed to hold him off but we were virtually tied after 6 laps with Dan right on my heals as Jon took off.

You know that feeling after a hard XC race on a hot day? When even the thought of food makes you want to throw up and you just want to curl up in a ball and die... I mean go to sleep? That's how I felt in the mid day heat between laps. I just sat on the ground having my kids hand me ice cubes trying to cool down and get my whits about me. My one solace was that Jared would probably be out there on my next lap. I wouldn't have Dan hunting me and could maybe dial it back just a touch and get stuff under control.

I don't remember many details from my 4th lap other than it didn't suck nearly as bad as the previous one. By the time I had finished, we had built a solid 14 min lead over the Birthday Boys. Unless we had a mechanical or Dan started turning triple laps we had 1st pl in our group well in hand. Of course, this is about the time my kids informed me that the Birthday Boys weren't in 2nd anymore and that there was another team just a couple minutes behind us. Now, I had known there was a duo-single team lurking back there since my first lap, but I hadn't given them much thought given the battle within our group. Now that we seemed to have that under control, attention turned to maintaining our 1st pl overall standing and our lead was only in the 2-3 minute range.

My 5th lap started out well enough but quickly turned into cramp management for the 2nd half after the climb to the quarry. At least it was starting to cool off a bit and the leg cramps were the only thing that was bothering me at this time. I also lost a little time with a nice mid lap endo when a rider unexpectedly decided to stop on a down hill corner to let me pass. I was right on their tail and had nowhere to go but OTB. Fortunately it was one of those magical endos where you eject off the front, land on your feet and catch your bike before it goes bouncing off down the hill. They were very apologetic as I politely tried to reinforce the idea that stopping in the trail is bad while I tried to get the chain back on. After 10 laps we had a modest 2 1/2 min lead over Sock & Buskin (Adin Maynard & Adrian Husemoller). I might have it backwards, but I'm pretty sure it was Adrian who was on my lap. By the end I was pretty sure I'd be having nightmares about the white shirted singlespeeder who was hounding me.

Through all of this, Jon just kept cranking out consistent laps anywhere from a 1/2 minute to 1 1/2 minutes faster than mine. It must be nice to be young. I know there was a reason I made him go first.

My 6th lap went down hill fast. Seated climbing and the hamstrings wanted to cramp. If I stood up at all the quads would cramp. It all came to a climax on the last switchback climb. I got off my line on the 2nd turn and ran into a little tree (at around 1/2 a mile per hour). Just enough to cause the legs to tense and bring on full leg lock. I did my best Frankenstein as I tried to dismount straight legged and continue making forward progress up the hill. I managed to get the legs to bend and remounted once I got to the top. By the time I finished the lap our lead over Sock and Buskin was down to just 18 seconds. I looked at the time, did the math and concluded I only had one more lap to go. If Modig can just hold him off I can rally for one more lap. My kids thought I just wasn't going hard enough and needed to go haahdah.

Modig came through in first place and it was back on me to maintain it. I had already decided I was going to preemptively dismount and run/walk the three steep hills on course. Not that this would prevent me from cramping. In fact, I knew I would cramp the instant my feet hit the ground. That idea was that I would avoid tensing up and inducing another full on leg lock. That and I've found cramps from walking work themselves out faster once you get back on the bike than the cramps you get when riding. I'd occasionally get a glimpse of the white shirted hunter on a trail I had just been on. I had know idea what the gap was, only that he was back there waiting to pounce. My strategy worked on the last hill and I avoided the complete leg lock of the previous lap. As an added bonus I had worked the cramps out by the top and was able to drill the last mile or so of the lap. I came in and sent Modig out on the last lap. The other guy in the SS duo, Adian I think, asked about is teammate. I told him I though he was maybe 30 seconds back. 2 1/2 minutes later he rolled in and sent him out to chase Modig down. I guess we still had a little something left to put some time back into the 18 second lead we had just 2 laps ago.

I had gotten word that there was a quarry just down the road with easy access for soaking/swimming. I quickly grabbed some clothes and head down to clean up.

Honestly, this would have felt so much better if the water was 20 deg colder. Don't get me wrong, it was still nice. It's just not like sitting in the river in Pittsfield, VT.

All cleaned up, I grabbed some food and waited for Modig to finish. Jon had been a horse all day long and consistently faster than his counterpart. As long as he avoided catastrophe he should be able to bring home the W. In the end Jon added almost 3 minutes to the lead and we finished with 15 laps in 11:21:54.

Official results are here. If you think Our race was close, check out the solo singlespeeders. 1st and 2nd were just 21 seconds apart. Then again, it appears neither one went out for a final lap. Probably just some weirdness in the timing and they both came in after the 11 hr cuttoff.

Guy in a kilt, must be the singlespeed podium

Oh, did I mention Chris Gagnon won the men's solo again? Yeah, that happened too.

Men's Solo 

Women's Solo

I finally got around to feeding the kids at 10:00 pm. Surprisingly, they chose going to bed over hanging out at the campfire afterwards. I stayed up 'til about 12:30 before calling it a night.

The next morning was a quick breakfast, cleanup, pack and hit the road. Last year, Jon and I had sandwiched a ride at the Green Mountain Trails in between a couple of breakfasts at the Pittsfield General Store the following day (hence this year's name 2nd Breakfast). That wasn't happening this year. I think both me and the kids, just wanted to get home. We did do a little detour over to the Quechee Gorge and grabbed another breakfast at a place right next to it (don't worry, Jon, the breakfast wasn't that good. You didn't miss anything)

For all the success of the weekend, the real highlight was on the way home as I listened to my kids trying to figure out who they could get to do a 4-person junior team for next year. Maybe I'll just pit for them next year.

I can't say thank you enough to Pat and everyone else at Casco Bay Sports for everything they do to make this race happen. What an awesome weekend. Thanks for having me.

I've got some catching up to do.

Well... I've fallen way behind in the writing of the race reports. In my defense I've been busy building a chicken coop and trying to find a job.

The coop is finished. The job??? Rumor has it I'll hear something this week

Of course, that doesn't mean I haven't been racing. About a month ago (has it really been that long?) I hopped in the MBV and took a ride down to State College, PA with Thom Parsons for the Stoopid 50. Other than multiple stops at Dunkins and one lunch stop at the Wegman's in Wilkes Barre the trip was relatively uneventful. We rolled into Atkins Cabins around 6:30, set up camp in daylight and head out for a little pre-ride to flush out the legs and see the course. Neither of had done the race before so Thom got the lowdown on a "short" loop we could do check out the start and first piece of single track.

The course starts out with a modest 3.5 mi, 500 ft climb before you take a left turn onto the Tussey Mountain Ridge trail and climb another 150 ft.  I had been told be several people that it is critical to get a good start as the trail is technical and narrow with not a lot of passing opportunities and they weren't kidding. What no one had told me was just how spectacular this trail is. In addition to the rocky, technical goodness and the mountain laurel in full bloom, there's an extended section where, courtesy of a fire a few years back, you get to really appreciate you're riding a mountain ridge that's maybe 20yds wide with steep drop offs on both sides.

Taking a picture of Thom taking a picture of mountain laurel

I made it through all the tough stuff without any incident and the legs were feeling pretty good. Unfortunately, it's not the tough stuff that gets you. It's when you have that momentary lapse of concentration through something simple that you get bit. In this case I had my front tire slide out on a rock as I was about to hop a small log. Instead of clearing it, I stuffed the wheel into the log. In the process of trying not to go OTB I strained the rib cage muscles on my left side. This is the 4th time I've done this in the last 10 years but the first time it happened the day before a race. In fact, I had just gotten over a similar injury to my right side and that had kept me off the bike for 5 days. Needless to say I was not happy. Of course, when you're in the middle of the woods late in the day, what do you do but get back on your bike, keep riding and try to tell yourself it's not that bad. After riding the length of the ridge we hit a super fast, swoopy, bench-cut downhill, some more climbing with technical sections and then another fast downhill before dropping out onto a dirt road. Here, the course turns left, but we went right to follow the dirt road back to camp. Our short loop ended up being just under 17 mi. Probably half of it was road so it wasn't that long, but more than what I've typically done the day before a race.

I don't think I was all that much fun to be around that night as I just couldn't get my mind off of wondering if I was going to be able to ride in the morning. I even skipped having a beer hoping to avoid waking up in the middle of the night to pee. That ended up being another failure as light shower rolled through and woke me up at 3:00 am. Between not being able to get comfortable with my now aching rib cage and my mind racing thinking about what I was going to do about it, I didn't fall back asleep. When 6:30 rolled around and I finally gave up on sleeping I had zero motivation to race bikes. By 7:00, though, I had convinced myself to give it a go. I didn't drive all this way to not race. I tried riding the bike and didn't have any sharp, stabbing pains. How bad could it be? Besides, if I was completely miserable I'd just bail after Tussey and do the same ride we did Sat. After another hour or so of psyching myself up, I was actually getting excited to race.

I was a little slow getting to the starting line and most people were already staged. Fortunately, coning out the driveway for the camp put me maybe 6 rows back. Not ideal, but not terrible. The start is pretty neutral for the first couple of miles. I don't think it was until the road turned to dirt that the pace picked up and gaps started opening. I had done a good job of working my way through and closing down gaps and was still connected to the lead group (it was still a large lead group) when we made the turn into the single track. I'll guess I was maybe top 30 when I got my turn to hit the trail. There was jostling here and there as people bobbled on some of the rocks, but I was with a good group that was going at a descent pace through the first section. We got stacked up a bit when we hit the first big technical section. I managed to ride it and get by a couple people in the process. I could see the next technical section was a complete log jam and chose to preemptively dismount and run through the rock pile on the right. By the time I jumped back on I had passed another 6 or 8 people and had some clear trail ahead of me. Better yet, the legs felt good and the ribs weren't particularly bothering me. I picked off a couple more people before I latched onto a group moving at a descent clip. I took stock of the effort needed to stay with them and figured my legs were probably writing checks they wouldn't be able to cash at mile 40 but I didn't care. I was loving it as we were railing the first downhill. That is until I heard the sound of air rapidly leaving my rear tire. I quickly found the cut in the middle of the tire and went through all the gyrations of someone trying to get the Stans to seal it even though I knew it wouldn't.

There's an equally large slice at the bead. Brand new tire too

Although it only felt like a couple, the GPS says it took me 4 minutes to put the tube in and get going. Not too bad, though, I could still have a good day. The only problem is I'm now racing with a tube in the rear. A tube that lasted me all of 10 minutes before I pinch flatted on the last downhill to the dirt road. My thoughts of having a good result were quickly vanishing. They disappeared entirely when the valve broke on my other spare tube (yes I started with 2 tubes). Now I'm fishing through my tool bag for some stick on patches. I don't have high hopes given the  tube is covered in sealant but maybe it will be enough to get me to the first aid station. This stop lasted me a good 10 minutes. When I did pop out on the road there was someone there with a floor pump. I made another quick stop and filled the rear up to almost 40 psi. There was a brief moment where I considered turning right, heading back to camp and drinking all of Thom's beer, but I really wanted to see the rest of the trails. I forged onward.

It didn't take long before the tire was getting soft. Fortunately for me, someone took pity and gave me a tube. Thanks again whoever you were. I'll spare you the suspense and let you know this was the last time I had to change a tube that day. When I got going again I found my legs wanted to take out their frustration on the biggest climb of the day. My angry legs propelled me about 2/3rds of the way up the 3 mile climb until the pitch kicked up into double digits, we took a right turn, and it became clear we were still no where near the top. Reason took over and I settled into a more sustainable pace. At this point I just wanted to finish the race without flatting again.

You can tell the "race" is over for me when I'm spending the time to take pictures

Everyone was very helpful at the first aid station. They gave me a spare tube and also pumped my rear tire up to 35 psi. It made for a bit of a bumpy ride on the hard tail, but it did keep air in tire. The rest of the day was fairly uneventful consisting of semi-conservative riding through the awesome technical single track and pushing the uphills trying to just get the day over with. The finishing downhill was a bit of an adventure. It drops close to 600 ft in 0.8 miles with a relentless parade of rocks to negotiate. So much so there was really no line picking. Just try to keep the bike upright and get over what's in front of you. I made it down in one piece. I even caught up to a couple people, but no passes were made.

We cruised through the finish line right around 5:20. Not exactly the finish I was looking for, but I did finish. Which is a lot more than I thought I might be doing when I woke in the morning. Although I've been paying for it for the last couple weeks, the ribs really weren't a factor during the race. I felt them a couple times but they certainly weren't the limiter that keeping air in my tires was. I went back partook of the post race food and beer. The results got posted and said I was 66th out of everyone. There's always next year I guess.

This race is an absolute blast. I'm happy I got to see the whole course and I'm looking forward to doing it again. I was told the Chris Scott races are extremely well organised and this lived up to that reputation. Thanks again to all to all the volunteers and everyone that helped make this race happen.

I was completely useless on the ride home. I don't know how the hell Thom did Wrentham to W. Virginia to Vermont the following weekend. Thanks again for the ride.

Now let's see if I can get the Gnar Weasels report up before I head to the Millstone 12hr.

Rayburner 100K

Last Saturday was the 2nd running of Team BUMS' Rayburner 100K. Last year we did 10 laps of what was supposed to be a 6.3 mile loop. It turned out the loop was closer to 6.8 miles. So this year the event mastermind, Scott Nelson, set to work revamping the loop to try to get things closer to 62 miles. What he ended up with is a 5.6 mile loop so we'd be doing 11 laps this year to get us in the ballpark of 62 miles. I took advantage of a break in the weather on Fri and pre-rode the course. It used a lot of the same trails from last year although in a different order. "Bumpy Town" was replaced by a new trail I like to call "Swampy Town" and an actual hill was put in. Note, I didn't say climb. We don't have any climbs on our local trails. We have hills and this was about as big of a hill as you'll find in Rayburn. It was maybe a quarter mile but at around a 9% grade it was steep enough that you'll notice it. Especially as the laps wore on. All in all a great little lap. Scott put a lot of work into it and it showed. The other reason for the pre-ride was because I had swapped rear wheels (for one with a new tire on it) and wanted to make sure it shifted fine. It did and with the anticipated sloppy conditions I was happy to have some fresh tread beneath me.

I'm not sure how much the fresh treads helped, but they certainly didn't hurt

To make up for the great weather we had at both the Weeping Willow and Glocester this year, mother nature dealt us a heavy dose of the ugly side of May with spitting rain and temps in the mid 40's for Sat. Absolutely perfect weather... for lying in bed. Well, at least for most people. While I won't deny I was plenty happy in my warm bed, there's something about lousy weather that makes me one to get out in it. Especially if it's any sort of an event like a race. I'm not entirely sure why. Maybe I've convinced myself I've got an advantage since everyone else will be more miserable than me or perhaps I just don't want to be that person who doesn't show because conditions are a little crappy. Whatever the reason it wasn't too hard to get up, make some banana, walnut oatmeal and beat juice and get ready for the day.

I had very little energy on the pre-ride so
I was really hoping for the beet juice to work its magic this day.  

I packed the bag the night before so I was much better at getting out the door near the 7:15 target I'd set. By this I mean I left around 7:30 instead of 7:45 like the year before. Between the tents, tarps and other forms of rain protection people were setting up our staging area was starting to look like some sort of shanty town.

I thought about bringing my tarp, but it's full of holes. Fortunately, Jess Bly let me toss my stuff under his which was a much better set-up than covering my bag with my rain jacket. All set up, I headed over to the scoring table to sign in and drop off my surplus food. This year's selection was blackberry, mint & chocolate rice cakes, strawberry and cream rice cakes, and some beef and sweet potato turnovers. The turnovers were straight out of the new Feed Zone Portables cookbook. The strawberry and cream rice cakes were a bit of an experiment to make ones my daughter, who can't have cows milk or cane sugar, could eat. the sweetener was a little bit of maple sugar and just a little mild goat cheese provided the creaminess. They were pretty damn good if you ask me.

Last year my plan was to carry two water bottles and enough food so I only had to stop every 3 laps to reload. This year, with the slightly shorter lap, I took a lighter approach with just one bottle and planned to stop every other lap. I carried food, but had no intention of eating while I was riding. It was only so I'd have it with me when I stopped each lap to record my time rather than having to stop a 2nd time at my pit to grab it. Did it make a big difference time wise? Probably not, but psychologically having a plan and feeling organized made a huge difference. That and if I did forget to eat, which I did once, I would have something with me.

8:30 rolled around and 14 brave souls lined up for a long, cold, wet day in the saddle. A quick little racer meeting and at 8:35 we were off. The start was semi neutral for all of 20 seconds before Matt Chandler and went to work putting a little gap into the field. With conditions likely to deteriorate during the day, my strategy was to really push the pace early and try to establish a lead while the riding was good. I had a feeling as the day wore on conditions would make it harder for someone to make up a significant amount of time. I thought Matt was going to keep me company through this but he faded a little bit about halfway through then disappeared entirely. It turns out he got a flat on lap one and had to battle his way through the rest of the field for the next lap or two.

The first couple laps were uneventful. The legs felt good. The trail and weather were holding up nicely. You really couldn't ask for much more. There was a guy, Jim I think, manning the scoring table who giving me the gaps back to 2nd place. After turning a pair of 34 min laps to start things off I had a nice 5 min lead over Steve Witkus in 2nd. The course actually passes by the scoring table at a couple points during the lap and 1/2 way through the 3rd lap I learned the gap out to 7 min. Then things got interesting. I hit the ground for the first time on this little right hander in a new section in Scott's Small Intestine. If you couldn't guess from the name this is a tight, twisty trail with a lot of corners. For some reason this was the only one that deteriorated and I went done in a heartbeat. Fortunately it was soft and loamy and no damage was done (at least not to me). Not more than 2 min later I was down again. this time on a sweeping left hander on another new connector trail. It was become clear the combination of wheels and water was starting to take it toll and sections you rail a lap ago were becoming treacherous. The rest of the lap was fine until I got onto the last bit of single track. It turns out one of the times I crashed earlier, probably on the right hand turn, I bent the derailleur just a touch. There's a short, steep section right near the end and as I got ready to go up it the bike over shifted and stuffed the chain in between the cassette and the spokes. It was in there pretty good and took way too long to get it out. As I was on the cart road back to the scoring table I could see Steve on the trail I had just been on. Between the stop for water at the beginning and my "issues" during, lap 3 was 40 min and what had been a 7 min lead was now more like a minute and a half. So that's how it's going to be.

I managed to stay upright through lap 4 but the trail was definitely getting slick in spots. My split was back in the 34 min range and the gap was back out over 4 min. My next trip around the circuit I was starting to figure out the puzzle of where you could drill it and where you had to dial it back and just ride efficiently. Well... I thought I did. Perhaps I was a little overconfident in how much I had figured it out when I came to the rocky stream crossing after the big downhill. I had been riding this smoothly but must have come into just a little bit off line and the front wheel slipped of the first rock and I went down hard in the rocks/stream on my left side. Instead of just being wet, I was now soaking wet and had hit my left knee, hip and hand pretty good. Thankfully, this would be the last time I hit the deck for the rest of the day. I gingerly finished up the rest of the lap and headed out for hump lap. My knee and hip weren't bothering me too much and I turned a 36 min trip around the course after my crash induced 38 min previous lap. Unfortunately, the other Steve had turned a pair of 37s and my lead was hovering steady around 4 min.

By lap 7 I finally had it all figured out. Where to go hard, where to go easy, the set-up for the mud pits and the rock walls, I had it all dialed in. The course even felt like it was drying out a bit. By the end of the lap the lead was up to 8 min. Then it started raining and the temperature started dropping and things got interesting once again. My fingers started getting numb and I was getting cold, uncomfortably cold in fact. I had started the race with a polypro baselayer under my jersey but it just wasn't cutting it. I had a jacket back at the pit, I just had to get through the lap.

There were quite a few people hanging around shanty town when I finished up my 8th lap. Some people who had shown up to put a couple laps in, some who had just shown up to support the idiots who decided to race bikes that day. I spent a little extra time to eat and get my jacket. With just one to go after my 10th lap, I wasn't going to be stopping and wanted to make sure I had everything I needed for the last 3 laps. the real bright spot of the stop was when Karen Potter told me she was moving her Amherst epic to Monday (better weather). While I might enjoy the challenge of crappy weather riding, I really didn't want to spend another cold, wet day on the bike on Sunday. Jess and I tried to petition her to get us some hot coffee, but she politely informed us that once she got into her warm car, she wasn't coming back.

The last 3 laps were an exercise in finding traction. There were two uphill spots in particular where it was being sold at a premium. There was a short little uphill on the secret condo trail that was particularly difficult because the small trees the lined it prevented you from riding the edges that hadn't been ridden during the day. The other section was at the exit from swampy town (what was the start of bumpy town last year). Here you had a few more options taking alternate lines that involved pricker bushes and slippery rocks that still provided more traction than the mud. I didn't know what my lead was, but I felt like I was riding as well as anyone would be given the conditions. As long as I kept the bike upright and avoided any mechanicals I should be able to bring home the win.

My last two laps were almost identical with splits of 39:23 & 39:15 respectively. The total time for 11 laps was 6:56:45 only a couple minutes faster than last year despite the shorter course. Steve Witkus finished up in 2nd with a time of 7:11 while Matt Chandler rallied after his flat to finish in 7:21:57 good enough for 3rd.

Boy did it felt good to change into some dry clothes. I had my chocolate milk and fried rice and waited for Steve and Matt to finish up. After a while I started to realize enough layers for comfortably hanging out in the cold and wet and started thinking a coffee run my be in order. One of the little games we like to play here at the Higginchuk household is secretly turning someones heated seat on and seeing how long it takes them two notice. This is particularly entertaining in my car because the highest level, 6. if uncomfortably hot. Even when it's 0 degrees out. Let me tell you, 6 never felt so good on the ride to Dunkins.

Seat set at 6 and the heat at 75deg.
I see what Karen meant about not getting out of the car once she got in

 After our previous end of lap discussion it was only fitting that Jess Bly was finishing up just as I arrived with a Box O' Joe.

At this point we had 4 finishers and 5 people still out on course. A couple of them would still have 2 laps to go their next time through! The coffee kept me warm enough to cheer 3 more people to the finish including the evil genius behind it all, Scott Nelson. Unfortunately, some shivers started setting in and I had to call it a day before everyone finished up.

Big thumbs up to you, Scott.
Thanks for everything that went into putting this on

On the way out I did get to cheer/heckle Kevin and Mike as they finished up their penultimate lap. In the end 9 people completed all 11 laps and a host of others put significant time on the trails that day. Thanks and congratulations to everyone who came out. Extra special congratulations to Mike and Kevin who spent over 11 hours in the woods just because some knucklehead decided we should do 11 laps.

Results
Steve S       6:56
Steve W       7:11
Matt C        7:21
Jess B        8:24
Rick N        8:40
Scott N       9:04
Jim N         9:15
Kevin         11:02
Mike L        11:20
Russ          8 Laps
Laura         8 Laps
Pete D        6 Laps
Bill D        6 Laps
Brett         2 Laps
Karen         2 Laps
Mike C        2 Laps
John & Max B  1 Lap (maybe 2, it's hard to tell from the score sheet)

I thought about hosing the bike off while it was still on the car because I didn't want to handle it dirty again but the only hose that is currently set up wouldn't reach.

Obligatory dirt bike shot

I hosed off the bike, clothes, shoes, you name it. I got the laundry going, took a hot shower, sat down to a big plate of food and felt pretty satisfied with the day. I was particularly happy to know I didn't have to get up at the crack of dawn and do it all over again on Sunday.

Glocester Grind Race Report

I know we've had some nice weather in the past for this race but for some reason I always associate the Glocester Grind with 45 and raining. Given that, I was pretty excited for the mild temps and clear skies we had on Sunday. Not to mention the dry spring and the lack of rain the last few days meant we were in store for the driest Grind we'd ever seen. That doesn't mean it was dry, just not as muddy as we're accustomed to. You only had to go a few feet into the woods to realize conditions were as good as it gets

First mud pit on course. This is usually a soupy mess filled with water

As I was checking out the start Max Beaupre came through absolutely killing it on is way to 1st Junior in the Novice race.

I'm saving this picture for when anyone ever says they are too small to ride a 29er

Pre-riding during the Novice race was being discouraged so I headed out for a quick warm-up on the road. We had a little snafu with one of the kids soccer games on Sat. and I didn't manage to get out for a ride, but the legs felt descent. I put a spare water bottle near the start finish and headed over to staging.

We had maybe a dozen or so in the Vet2 group at the line. Unlike last week where we had over a 1/2 mile of double track to sort things out, the start at Glocester gives you about 100yds before you hit the first mud hole (pictured above). There were also reports of a not so new bridge maybe a foot wide that you had to go over. The alternate lines were taped off and there would be no running through the mud if someone muffed it, so there was a distinct advantage to being in front. I was 2nd wheel when we hit the woods. Fortunately, the guy in front didn't take my preferred line and a couple turns later I was by him and building a little lead. That lasted all of 15 seconds when when a root sent me into the trees. I don't know if there was already a crash behind me, but only Scott Hood passed while I was untangling myself. Scott quickly put 5 then 10 seconds into me and that's pretty much how the rest of the race went. I would occasionally see Scott a turn or two ahead and yell at him to slow down but he wasn't playing my game. I'd also catch glimpses of a couple JRA riders a few turns back, but no-one was closing in on me either. By the time we hit where they had logged the legs were starting to check out as well. It was clear I didn't have the extra gear to chase down Scott. I was going to have to just grind out the next 2 1/2 laps and finish up.

The Masters leaders caught up to me part way through lap two. Bob Bisson came by first and I rode his wheel for a bit until he crashed in the rock garden a little ways into the 2nd half of the lap. He came by me again at the end of the logged section. John Beaupre came by just after the super boney rock garden. I stayed with him for a little bit, but we parted ways just before the end of the lap.

The last lap was uninspired. I started picking lines instead of attacking them as thoughts of don't break something (me or the bike) started creeping in. I made my was around the course without incident and finished up in 2nd place in 1:33:53. Scott was first in 1:31:43. I looked back at the last couple years and 2 min seems to be the standard gap that Scott beats me by here. Business as usual I guess. Brian McInnis finished third not far behind in 1:34:37.

In a reversal of last week, John Beaupre also came in 2nd while Karen Potter won the Elite race. Fortunately, we hadn't come down together so we didn't have to listen to her on the way home ;)

Full results are here and the wicked gnaahly Dirtwire coverage is over here.


Doing things that challenge you is how you get better at something. Unfortunately, despite the fact I've done this race the past 7 years now, the Glocester Grind is still not in my comfort zone. I suppose that's why I keep going back. Well, that and it's only 25 miles from my house.

Weeping Willow Race Report

Last Saturday I headed up to Ipswich for the Weeping Willow. That’s right, a Saturday race. Usually Sat. races in the spring or fall are out for me due to kids soccer, but this was Willowdale. Exceptions would have to be made and rides for my daughter would have to be found. It turned out a couple other locals, John Beaupre & Karen Potter thought Willowdale was the place to be so we connected at the park & ride and headed up together in John’s truck.

I was a little worried about what the day had in store for us when I got woken up at 4:00 to pouring rain, but the skies seemed to be clearing during the ride up. When we got there around 11:00 it seemed like they hadn’t gotten the early morning rain that we had back in Upton. We noticed while we were registering that the people finishing up the Novice/Sport race looked pretty clean. Maybe today wasn't going to be a mess. 

By the time we got our numbers, anyone that was doing two laps in the sport race was already out on their 2^nd lap to we took the opportunity to check out the first few miles of the course and see what conditions were like. Perfect is what I would call them. As long as you didn’t take some of the questionable line selection that had been burned in (and washed out) during the morning race, the trails were like velcro. My legs, on the other hand, felt kind of dead during the warm-up, especially on any sort of incline. As counter intuitive as this may sound, this is usually a good sign for me. If my legs feel super fresh, they often vanish halfway through the race. If they feel a little bit heavy. More often than not it's going to be a good day. I’m sure it’s all in my head, but that’s how I seem to remember it. We rode maybe the first 3 miles of the course before heading back to catch the racer meeting and staging.

The first mile of the loop is a fast, double track, pace lining affair. There’s immediate hole shot to battle for. Things are pretty strung out by the time you make the turn into the single track. That said, with 26 registered in our group, you didn’t want to be too far off the leaders when you hit the trail.. I was front row on the far left with just Aaron Millet outside of me at the start line. The start seemed more peaceful than years past. I traded a few spots here and there but the pace didn’t seem quite on the edge as years past. I took this as a positive sign as I felt unusually comfortable hanging with the lead group. I was on the tail end of a group of 7 going into the single track with Michael McKittrick and Anders Larson ahead of me. Geoff McIntosh was at the front pushing the pace and about halfway through the first stretch Geoff, Aaron Millet, and two guys I didn’t know had started to build a gap. I knew we were going to be on a short stretch of double track soon so there was no need to freak out at this point. When we hit it I managed to get by Michael, Anders and one of the guys I didn’t know, but wasn’t able to completely close down the gap to Aaron and unknown rider #2 in the orange kit. Geoff had a little gap on the two of them and I proceeded to dangle about 5 seconds back through the next stretches of single track. By the time we hit the next long cart road section the lead group had come back together. Try as I might I just couldn’t close down the gap they had on me. I probably could have gotten by on just the Skratch I had in my bottles but old habits die hard and I decided to have a quick bite along this stretch.  I spent a little too long fumbling with the wrapper and lost all contact with the lead group as a result. 

The funny thing about this course is that even with some of the longish straightaways, you’re going so fast on them that there are really only a handful of spots on the course where you can see more than 5 seconds or so ahead or behind you. One of those sections is the slightly uphill stretch by the field coming through the start/finish area. It was at this point I spotted Geoff some 50yds. ahead of me. Maybe it was the potato I ate on lap one or maybe I just had legs today but I quickly started closing the gap to 3^rd place. I saw Geoff take a couple peeks back, so he knew I was coming. It reminded of a couple years ago at the Big Ring Rumpus when Geoff, after losing contact with Alby and Doug on the final lap, sat up and waited for me, rode my wheel for the last couple miles and took me at the finish. Even though there was a full lap of racing left I was determined not to let that happen again. I tried to make the most convincing pass I could but I knew Geoff had latched on and was right behind me. It was time for plan B, reckless abandonment. I railed the turn into single track, carried the momentum up the quick little hill and with the help of a miss-shift by Geoff, quickly put a little gap into him. I proceeded to ride the twisty, turny, roller coaster stretch of trail right on the edge of my abilities, perhaps even beyond them, and had built the gap to maybe 5 or 10 seconds half way through. This is also another section of trail where you get a chance to see the guys that are ahead of you. I saw Aaron and the guy in orange a couple times where the trail loops back on itself. I’d guess the gap was in the 20 – 30 second range. Big enough that it’d be hard to close down against strong riders but close enough that if someone made a mistake it would vanish quickly. Aaron was the first to falter flatting somewhere in the middle of the lap. He did let me know I wasn’t too far off of first when I came through. Unfortunately, I didn’t know who I was chasing. I just remembered he had orange on, but that's it. 

I felt surprisingly strong the entire 2^nd lap with the exception of the one climb where I felt completely gassed. I guess I know what I need to work on. By the time I hit the top I figured any chance of chasing down 1^st was gone. Still with maybe a couple miles left there was no reason not to kick it in since you never know what can happen. After the hill and subsequent descent there’s a short section of cart road followed by a section of single track before hitting the final half mile of cart road to the finish. Just as I was going into that final section of trail I caught up to a guy with orange on his kit and an orange helmet. I honestly didn’t think he was my target since I came up on him way too quickly. It seemed like every other pass it was taking me forever to catch up to and get by people. I was on this guy and by him in a heartbeat. He was incredibly cordial about the pass too. There’s no way this was the guy I was chasing. It wasn’t until I was almost out of earshot when I heard him yelling up to me asking my age group that I had the idea I might actually be leading. With just over a ½ mile to go I wasn’t slowing down to compare notes and just hammered it home to the finish. Sure enough, just seconds after crossing the line the mechanical voice informed me that I had won my age group. A few seconds later the man in orange, Kurt Perham, came across. Yup, that’s who I’d been chasing. It turns out after Aaron had flatted, he kind of went into cruise control thinking there was no-one that close behind him. Whoops. I bet he doesn’t do that again. Between Aaron flatting and Kurt's mental lapse I can't say I entirely feel like I earned the W (my first in an Expert race BTW). I guess being consistent pays off some times. I have made a few changes to the bike since last year: Magura TS8 fork (I was full rigid most of last year), Vredestein tires and a wider bar. Maybe I've just finally learned how to ride a bike, but it's handling like a dream right now. 

Beaupre came through a short while later taking the win in the Masters group. He had spent the entire race dueling Bob Bisson and was able to finally get some separation in the last bit of single track and posted the 2^nd fastest time for the entire Expert field. Fast Old Guys indeed. I looked around for Potter to see how she had finished up but it turned out they had made a start line decision to do 3 laps so she was still out on course. In the end a midrace crash by Karen allowed Crystal Anthony to get a gap that Karen wasn’t able to close down. Despite the fact that her 2^nd place was bringing down the overall average of our vehicle, she still got to ride in the front seat on the way home.

The men's Elite race came down to a three way sprint between Pete Ostroski, Billy Melone and Brian Wilichoski with Melone taking the W. 

Full results for the race are here. Dirtwire.tv covered the race and there are great photo galleries on the Riverside Racing facebook page. If you haven't "liked" them yet, you should.

Although I would have liked to have raced more than 1:20  (seriously, make it longer next year) this is still one of my favorite races. The single track is just so much fun and the race organization is top notch. Thanks to Riverside Cycles, Arron, Capt’n Dennis, and everyone else involved in putting this race on. For me, this is a can't miss race. Just don't keep doing them on Saturdays ;)