The Maine Sport Run Off

Note: To the two readers who come here on a semi-regular basis a lot of what you're going to read here in the opening may seem familiar to you. That's because I'm writing this to also show up on Bikeman.com so I need to give some background that you're probably aware of. Of course, if you are one of my regular readers, you've sat through worse here so I guess there is no need apologize.

2009 has been an interesting season for me for a couple of reasons. At the end of the 2008 race season I made the switch to single speed because I was building a house and making the switch would allow me to still ride/race and have fun but it would take the sting out of not being as competitive in the races because of lack of training. Figuring I could always use the "I'm racing against geared riders on a single speed" excuse when I had my ass handed to me on race day. I was also looking for a bit of a change in my racing as well and since the house was SUPPOSED to be done in the spring, I'd have time to learn how to really race fast on an SS in 2009 and maybe actually compete against the geared experts who I've been jockeying with for years. Unfortunately, the house still isn't done and I still spend most of my free time working on it so this season has been less than stellar with a dismal (but fun) race in Orono, a fun race in Presque Isle (things were looking up!) and then a solid kick to the jewels at Rangeley where I seriously considered giving up racing when I finished 10+ minutes down on folks who I should be able to jockey with. Of course, I can't expect much when my typical training week this summer has included less than 6 hours of riding (and many with as little as 3!).

For some reason, I thought that the race in Camden would bring a change since it's a course I know well and enjoy riding on (one of my favorite places to ride in fact). The only problem was that the opening climb is a 20 minute switchbacky brute and not at all single speed friendly (racing at least). As a result I made the decision to run my lowest gearing ever at 32x21 and hope that the lower gear would help me enough on the climb that it would be worth the time lost spinning out on the downhill side of the course.

In a golden shower of divine inspiration I also decided to not carry any water with me during the race. It was a scary decision but I figured that losing the almost two pounds of weight would help on the climb and there were really no good spots to drink on the course anyway since there are NO SMOOTH SECTIONS except for the start/finish run where I stashed two full bottles to chug from as I rolled through each lap.

Ok, lets get to the race.

The start

I got to the line late and was forced to line up in the second row but still managed a good start and hit the climb 5th wheel with four elites in front of me (Andrew Freye, Wheels, Chris LaFlamme and Peter Ostrowski). I got into a good rhythm and managed to clean most of the first climb despite the slippery conditions left over from the 4" of rain the day before. Once to the top, I could just barely see Wheels in front of me and hoped to catch him on the sketchy downhill to come. It wasn't long before I had Mike Patrick on my heels and when he passed me I barely had time to comment on his speed before he was out of sight. Man, for a guy undergoing chemo for a brain tumor, that dude can rip! By the time I splished and splashed my way through the first lap I was sitting in 6th, had Mike back in my sights and was feeling surprisingly good.

As I rolled through the feed area, I grabbed a bottle and managed to guzzle half of it before the start of the climb. Divine inspiration indeed.

Once on the climb, I caught Mike surprisingly quickly and saw him accidentally start to take the short loop option (the elite/expert race consisted of two long loops and two short loops) and hollered to him to turn around and he was back on course when I got to the intersection. Mike was looking a bit peakid but I just figured he was hurting because he couldn't be getting a lot of riding in given the treatments he's been getting. I rode by with a quick greeting and continued on my merry way up the climb. This time things weren't so peachy. Since everybody had now been through the course once, the trails were getting greasy, not much mud yet but slick enough that torquing up the climb on a single speed became difficult. Thankfully, nobody caught me on the climb (although I was hearing phantom noises behind me) and I headed down the second downhill with no one in sight.

How is it that I can make a 29'er look small?

Given the amount of rain we had on the previously day, the course was holding up really well. Most of the single track was draining beautifully and there were only a handful of short puddles and muddy sections. At some point during this lap, I heard the ambulance take off and I was a bit bummed to think that someone must have eaten shit somewhere on the downhill.

By the time I finished the second lap in 5th place I was very thankful that I'd only be doing the short loop this time which cuts out 2/3 of the opening climb. I still had some good power on the short climbs but the legs were too cooked to do another 20 minute beast.

Lap three was pretty uneventful. I was catching lots of lapped riders from other classes but everyone, with no exceptions, quickly moved out of the way when they heard me coming. Something that was not necessary for them to do but much appreciated by me since I lost very little time making passes.

Lap four I was starting to lose hope of catching any of the elites in front of me but I still had gas in the tank so I pushed as hard as I could hoping to catch glimpses of my rivals in the twisties. About five minutes from the end of the lap I passed one rider hoofing it through the woods with what appeared to be a flat tire. I didn't immediately recognize him but found out after the race that it was Chris LaFlamme moving me into 4th place overall and first place expert.

One thing that totally bummed me out after the race was the ambulance I had heard earlier was for Mike Patrick. Apparently he was knuckle deep in a "small seizure" (his words) when I passed him and totally lost it shortly after I went by and needed to be helped off the mountain and was taken to the hospital. I was wracked with guilt that I didn't stop and help him but at the time I had no idea what was going on. Thankfully, I heard from him on Monday and he's doing fine.