Maine Sport Run-Off

Saturday night I had a fitful sleep for a number of reasons probably. 1: I ate too much seafood at the company picnic and I was worried about how it would effect me in the race; 2: I didn't have time to open the legs up on Saturday so I was wondering how they would respond; 3: because of the stress in my life recently my training, diet and rest have suffered and I didn't know how that would effect me. In short, I was concerned with my fitness level.

Sunday morning I awoke to blessedly clear skies and the promise of sun as the hours wore on. This was a great relief because the Snow Bowl is a very hard course technically when it's dry and downright scary when it's wet.

Oops, gotta take a step back here. After having multiple tire issues in previous races - too little air, not enough sealant etc etc - on Saturday I made sure my tires were aired up properly AND I doubled the dosage of Stans sealant so that if I did get a cut, puncture or roll a tire I'd have plenty on extra sealant. See, you can teach an old dog new tricks.

This one is for the ladeez! Pre-race nipple slip.

Back to the race, before the race Sunday, I did one more partial lap to see what the conditions would be like for the race. It turned out that the trails were greasy but not really muddy but the rocks and roots were very slick. People would definitely need to be on their toes.

At the line we had a smallish expert field. It's my theory that the sheer brutality of the climb and fast technical nature of the course has scared a lot of people away. To try to combat that Mike had changed things up a bit and was only sending us to the top for two of the four laps and only part way up on the other two eliminating about 10-15 minutes of climb per lap and the nastiest downhill portions. Hopefully word will get out about the tamed down course for next year, we'll see.

At the gun I was fourth wheel behing Wheels, Chris Laflamme and a younger guy I didn't recognize and had Andrew right behind me. Immediately onto the climb I realized that the legs weren't happy about the lazy day the day before so instead of digging in and imploding I got into a comfortable pace and hoped to limit my losses and make up time on the descent. By the top of the climb I was down to 6th place but started picking up spots almost immediately and by the end of the lap Wheels, a Chris and I crossed the start/finish within seconds of each other.

At the start with Chris and Andrew.

I once again settled into a comfortable but quick pace up the climb and let Wheels and Chris ride away figuring I'd catch them again on the downhill and at that point, if I felt good, make a move. After the climb topped out, I let loose and blasted the descent and caught Chris. As I rode up to Chris, Andrew (who had a flat on the first lap) blasted by us on a technical uphill section literally throwing fist size rocks in the air. I guess racing at the World Cup level will do that to you!

So, at this point I was sitting in third place and feeling good about my chances of catching Wheels but by the end of the lap I still hadn't caught sight of him and was told he was about 1 minute up. Sometime during that lap I passed Andrew as he sat by the trailside with another rolled tire (four that day) and was up to second place.

On the third laps shortened climb I tried to dig in but it was clear I didn't have my climbing legs on. My real hopes for a victory were gone but I still held onto the chance I could reel Todd in. 3/4 of the way through lap three, Chris caught back up to me (apparently he was having pedal problems earlier) and passed me like I was sitting still. Dude had the legs. I wished him luck catching Wheels and kept my hopeful pace.

Wheels doing the master of mud plate justice.

Lap four was uneventful, I saw noone and passed noone (other than other classes that is) and I rolled across the line in 3rd place overall and 1st in my age group of a whopping two people. Chris ended up winning with Wheels in second.

Overall, I felt pretty good all things considered and I had a blast. Did I have the legs to win? No, but I had the legs to have fun and be somewhat competitive and that is what counts. It was also nice to race again after a month and a half.