Well, we can basically scratch all that hoopla in my last post about not racing for a while. Last weekend, my brother Derek roped me in to doing an endurance mountain bike race near Merrillan and Columbia Wisconsin on the Levis/Trow trail system. This course was the toughest/nicest single-track riding I've ever been on. There were plenty of granny hill climbs, abundant roots, rocky technical uphills and downhills, flat/fast windy sections, boardwalks, and a few newer sandy sections of trail. The scenery was beautiful...I wish I had my camera. You skirt along rocky bluffs that provide you with views from several hundred feet above your starting point. It was a classy, well maintained trial that I'll visit again, but next time with a camera! Click here for an article on the trails.
Going in to this race I had mixed emotions on my abilities. On the one hand, I hadn't ridden any single-track since a trek up to Hayward last summer. On the other hand, I have been basically resting since the middle of May. I was so antsy to do something brutal that my drive to get totally worked outweighed my lack of experience riding single-track. Derek was planning to do the 50 miler, so I entered the same.
The start of the race was a typical Le Mans style start. There was a bike staging area, where all bikes were laid on the ground roughly 50 yards away from the actual start. When the bell rang, everyone sprinted to their bikes and off we went. I thought we'd be shooting for 4 loops on a 12.5 mile course to achieve the 50 miles, but just before we started we learned that the the loops were in fact 16 miles long...so now what? Just ride 2 or 3 in my semi-wounded state? We'll see...
My plan was to chase Derek for a while and see if I could hang with and/or drop him...haha, but on the first hill - PING! - my chain snapped! I have the oldest/crappiest multi-tool in northern Wisconsin, so I killed 30 to 45 minutes on my first lap trying to fix my chain. I really needed 3-4 hands to do this well...I ended up pressing my knee against the rear derailleur to ease the tension on the chain to press the pin back through the eyelet. This is really only a temporary fix anyway. Hopefully it would get me though the first loop - when a chain busts it's basically shot. Note to self: Always carry a few extra master links in the saddle bag... About 2 miles down the trail it happened again, killing more time and losing another link. Being a rookie, I'm sure I made the mistake of shifting while pedaling...oops. I was probably more focused on choosing good lines and keeping Derek in sight than shifting properly...but when racing, you have to keep it all in order! The chain was then short enough where I had lost my granny gear. Oddly though, if I accidentally shifted to the granny, it would allow me shift to it, but the chain and derailleur would then be maxed out and there wasn't enough slack to shift back down when needed. Now, each time I accidentally shifted in to that gear I would have to stop, pop the wheel out, move the chain back down to a smaller cog and start again. I felt like I was spending more time with mechanicals than actually riding. Bummer...
I kept cruising along anyway. I finished my first lap, slammed a Pepsi and some electrolyte pills and wondered where Derek was at on his 2nd lap and whether or not he'd be going out for a 3rd. My bike worked (mostly), so I went out for another lap...why not? This one was much quicker. I ended up getting lapped by the front 2 or 3 elite guys, so I was having fun chasing them for a while. I would get passed, then chase that guy - usually hanging right on his wheel for several miles...they might disappear but along would come the next guy...etc. etc. I think I got dropped once or twice, but mostly I kept shifting in to that stupid granny gear. I think I basically cut my time in half on the 2nd lap versus the 1st lap. It was fun! I am confident that I would have had a reasonable time without the mechanical issues. After the 2nd lap my brother Derek and his buddy Chris Hammer (yep, his last name is Hammer) were hanging out at the cooler. 32 miles on this tough course was plenty for the day! Here's sample of what the riding was like....
My body hurt for a few days...my rib and shoulder especially. I think I may have jumped the gun on this one. The awesome thing is...my legs actually feel OK - they were well rested and had the strength to muscle through all of the hill climbs. I really enjoyed the steep hills that force you in to the anaerobic gasps. Did I just say that? Simple road riding around here just can't match that, but I can see how the two can compliment each other. Explosive hill climbing power can be developed very quickly when mountain biking, while aerobic endurance on the road bike is also tough to match. At the moment, I don't have a ton of core strength, and I'm not accustomed to the amount of beating the upper body takes when mountain biking. I was always looking forward to the long flat sections of trail where you could really open up and roll the big gears. Not riding single track for a year, then randomly deciding to ride over 30 miles of it may not have been the smartest/easiest thing...but oh well! It's not really supposed to easy...
Overall, I had a lot of fun! I got to test out the Salsa El Mariachi on some of the best riding around. Those 29ers make the old 26 rigid that I'm used to riding seem like a little kid's BMX bike. That Salsa is a dirt eater! I would like to ride some more single-track here in the near future, but in my condition I should probably stick to gravel grindin'. That's it for now...cheers!
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