Last two Mountain Bike Races of the Year (Mike)

Its been a little while since I have last posted, however I have raced two mountain bike races, Bikes for Bovines and the Landmine Classic.

Serious before the Bovine Race

The Bikes for Bovines race was pretty fun, it consisted of a 30 minute climb, followed by some rolling climbs, then a fun twisty downhill, and finally some speedy sections till the finish.  It was raining just a little bit, so some of the rocks were a little slippery, however nothing to get too worried about.  As the gun went off nobody was really going for it, as we all knew we had a big climb to overcome.  About half way up the climb the pace picked up, with Adam Snyder leading the charge I jumped on his wheel, and held on as long as a could.  After I lost his wheel a settled back into a group of two other dudes, and we chugged along from there.  Half way through the lap I heard a knocking sound coming from my bike, and l looked down and my water bottle was falling out.  I quickly reached for it and tried to pull it out but I could not, I then tried to push it through and I could not, so in a last ditch effort I yanked it out, breaking my carbon fiber cage, and one of the sharp edges slashing my finger.  I started to bleed, however I was not about to slow down, so I stepped on it and got back to the group.  The rest of the lab went well, blood getting and my handle bars and all, however the light rain kept everything pretty clean.

The second lap came around and I wanted to drop my group, so I got going on the climb and never looked back.  I crossed the line in 2nd place, I had ridden the second lap a couple minutes faster then the first lap, and finished only about a minute behind Snyder.  Overall a really fun race, a lost a bottle cage, but a got my second consecutive 2nd place, pretty great.

Me and Nate after the race

After Collecting hardware, and Apples!

The final race of the Root 66 Series was the Landmine Classic, and it was shaping up to be a great race.  My finance Caroline was ready for her first bike race since moving out here, and the field was looking very strong, including the likes of Matt OKeefe, Tom Sampson, Neal Burton, John Foley, and Tim Daigneault name a few.  The race started off pretty fast with the Cannondale killers Matt and Tom keeping the pace high.  I was on their wheels until a hit a rock that I did not see and it threw me off the trail.  However I speed back up and next thing I knew Tom was sitting on the edge of the trail with his pedal in his hand, and Matt had speed off.  I kept up the pace however I came to a junction in which I had no idea which was to go, so I had to stop and wait for other rider to catch up and decide where to go.  Once they got there we decided to go left, however I was planning on going right, so it was a good thing that I waited.  At this point I settled into this group and rode along at a good clip for a while.  I got to the front and tried to drop riders, however the nature of the course did not make this easy, and I was unable to do so.  This went on for a while, until we reached two miles to go, and I really went for it, and as soon as I had put a little gap on I hit my pedal on another pesky rock and my chain fell off. As I watched Neal and Tim fly by I knew I had to be quick, so I got my chain back on and rode like crazy.  I caught them pretty fast, however I was out of gas, luckily so were they.  So I got back on pace, and Neal and I dropped Tim and it was off to the races.  We then ran into the beginners and had to swerve in and out right until the finish line, where some dude was running his bike in over his shoulder, essentially blocking me off of Neal's wheel, and going into the last turn I could not get around the bike carrier and Neal took second place, with my finishing in third.

3rd Place at Landmine, all right!

This was a great way to end out the MTB season, finishing 2nd, 2nd, and 3rd against some very strong fields. I will now try my hand at cyclocross, it looks like a lot of fun, and should be a good way to gain some high end for next mountain bike season!

Cyclocross in Syracuse

This past weekend was the first cx race of the season for me and it was a blast. For the first part of the weekend I was in Cleveland OH for a wedding. This meant during the three days before the race I was in a car for 14 hours, the day before the race I was awake for over 20 hours, and got 7 hours of sleep the night before the race. Needless to say, it was a fairly hectic weekend and finishing would be a huge task of its own.

The course had one major hill and two years ago it had some barriers at the bottom to make it a nice run. For the last couple of weeks I was planning on running up this hill, so I practiced mounting and dismounting so I would not fall on my face in the lactic acid haze that I would be in. This year however, the hill did not have the barriers but was made into a killer switchback through some sand. Luckily this hill was after a section full of mud with the consistency of peanut butter for about a thousand feet before it. The hill was a lot like adding insult to injury.

The start of the race was like inner city rush hour traffic. There were so many people in a hurry, and everyone was in each others' way. There were about 60 people going off the line at once in the mens open class. The start was about 4 rows deep and I was lucky enough to start in row 3 near the right hand side. I had to push it right off the line and I was able to go around most of the pack on the right hand side. Half way through the first lap I was sitting second wheel in a group with a handful of riders behind me. There was a fairly fast and tricky transition that went from grass to loose gravel. The guy in front of me started to slide and his front wheel washed out. I just barely avoided him in his close encounter with the ground. I had to thank my mountain bike skills that got me through that one. The first two laps consisted of passing people while being passed by other people. Every one was fighting for every second that they could. About half way through the race things settled down and I was able to concentrate on picking one person off at a time. I was able to catch the blown up remains of people who went off the line with too much enthusiasm. I must have gained about 5 positions in the last two laps. One rider saw what I was doing and stuck on my wheel. I could not shake him. On the last lap up the large climb before the finish he put down a great acceleration and I lost about 4 bike lengths to him. Down the backside of the hill I hammered as hard as I could and caught and passed him with about 50 feet to spare. That was one of the best finishes I have had all year.

One thing about a cyclocross race is the fact that unless you are in the very front or the very back, you do not know where you finished until the results are posted. I did not find the results before I left but, they should be posted soon. I can not wait to see if I placed where I thought I was in the massive pack. The results were posted online and I finished in a respectable 22 out of 73 starters for a mens open class. Not too shabby if I do say so myself.