Maine Sport Mayhem!!

Ok, time for the race report.

The Maine Sport Mayhem is run on the kick ass trails right out the side door of Maine Sport Outfitters in Rockport Maine. It's a small piece of property but somehow Mike and many others over the years have been able to carve out close to 3 miles of sweet trails from (I'm guessing here) less than 15 acres of land. You end up with a twisty, turney, rootey, bermy good time. As tight and twisty as the course is, it has great flow and is a total blast to race on. As an added bonus, because of the compact area of the race, spectators can easily see a rider in 4 or 5 spots on course without too much trouble. The only potential problem with the course is that if it is wet, it gets really hard to ride really fast. Last year that played to my advantage since I've raced on the course probably 20 times (they used to do a weekly series) so I know it like the back of my hand. But this year, things were different. Forcasts called for rain pretty much all week but in the end we had a few brief showers and a super dry course.

Now for the race.

Because of the tight nature of the course, getting into the woods near the front is paramount if you want to have a good day. Get stuck behind one slow rider and big gaps open quickly. With that in mind, I got to the start line first to get a primo starting position. Wheels lined up next to me after watching his kids throw down in the kids races. Both of those boys will be fast if they keep it up. Incidentally, Camden has a great bike scene proven by the fact that there were easily 30+ kids there duking it out on a mini course Mike set up in front of the store. They also have a Junior Bike League and a high school team that has won the state championship for something like the last 5 or 6 years straight. If only more areas were like the Camden area...

Anyway, I'm off topic. From the gun, Wheels, Adam Larochelle and a junior x guy got the jump off the line with me in fourth. Not exactly where I wanted to be but Wheels was sitting third wheel so I figured if I stayed with him I'd be ok. We crossed the open start field and quickly jumped into the woods and the first trick question of the day. Is it faster to take the straight (and shorter) route through the one muddy area of the course or hit the fresh side hill bench cut that is dry but twists and turns and is a bit longer? The first four of us chose the straight route but I noticed that a bunch of others took the high route and were going to pass us. F!!!!!! Thankfully, for us anyway, the first guy on the bench cut ate it right before coming back onto the main trail and held everyone behind him up. Good for us, bad for them.

Once into the windy trails it was apparent that the junior x guy, while fast, was not in his element at the front and Wheels and I quickly got by leaving Adam L. leading and W & I right on his heels. The three of us were moving along nicely and quickly opened up a decent gap to the rest of the field. About halfway into the first of four laps I was totally maxed out and not completely warmed up (gotta fix that next race) so I let a small, maybe 3 second, gap open between me and Wheels. I wanted to stay with them but I also knew I had to wait for the legs to open up. Shortly before the end of the first lap, Wheels snuck by Adam and started setting pace.

About 1/2 way through the second lap, Wheels had started to open a bit of a gap between Adam and myself. My legs were coming around so I set about trying to pass Adam. It took a couple of tries but finally at the beginning of the third lap, he took the straight, muddy route and I took the high line and picked him off. At this point Wheels was out of sight but I knew from my parents and brother that he was only 30-ish seconds up on me so I dug in and tried to reel him in. At some point during the lap I had the gap down to the 15 second range but soon after, Wheels must have decided to stop playing games and quickly opened it up to close to a minute despite me riding smoother and faster than I think I ever have there before.

In the fourth, and final lap I gave it everything that I had hoping that Wheels would fade from his third lap surge but I never caught sight of him and ended up finishing roughly a minute back, second overall in the pro/expert class and first in my age group.

Overall, I'm happy with how things went. Physically, I wasn't quite firing on all cylinders but I was close. My tech skills seemed to be working sufficiently and the bike performed flawlessly. I can't say enough how well the Dos Niner handles technical rooty and rocky trails. It just gobbles them up.

Two other tech notes. Sunday was the first thrashing with my new Ergon GR2 grips. It was definitely nice to have the big contact patch for my hands for this race. Last year, with the ODI lock-ons, I walked away with extremely sore and blistered hands. This year, not a hint of soreness. The only problem I had is more of a personal set-up issue that I'm going to deal with by a bit of tinkering. More on that later.

The last tech note is that if you're looking for a set it and forget it shifting system, look no further than a SRAM XO derailleur and shifter paired with Dry Cables enclosed cable system. I've been running the same cables and housing for two full race seasons now and the combo of SRAM's crisp shifting and Dry Cables sealed system and you have a nearly maintenance free system. (totally maintenance for me so far).

Photos to come.