I had a rather busy weekend on the bike. This would be my first weekend ever racing two completely different bike disciplines back 2 back days and the first time racing the Mountain bike in 10+ years.
Saturday August 21st:
Winfield Twilight Crit
The day started at work for a couple hours then it was straight to Winfield for the ABD Winfield Twilight Crit with my MTB on top of the 4 Runner in addition to my Cervelo inside because I would go straight to Palos to pre-ride the 8 ½ mile mountain bike XC course for Sunday after this race.
I really like the Winfield Twilight course even though last year my first time racing it I was dropped on the climb on the second lap. This course is, as I consider, a climbers crit. In keeping expectations in line with reality, my objective was to hang onto the skinny’s as long as I could and if I could survive til the bell lap climb BONUS! Surely this year I should be around linger than 2 laps. Greg, Mitch, and I lined up at the start. It was good to have Mitch back in a crit, hopefully he’ll be able to do more next year. I had plan to help Greg if IF I was around on the bell lap. I wasn’t. However, according to my Garmin data, I was with the main field for 10 laps! Success relative to last year for sure. I actually felt pretty good those first 8-9 laps. Relatively uneventful up to this point.
At about lap 9, I think, coming out of the final turn the guy 2 wheels in front of me opened a gap in front of him, The ABD rider directly in front of me and I immediately recognized that homeboy had thrown in the towel right there, we jumped around him and bridged up to the whip by the time we hit S/F line. I was on the rivet now though. Hung on up the climb again, I was pretty gassed at the top though.
On the drop back down, going into the final turn, I took the inside line because the rider in front of me left it open (for a moment) and on the brakes; I wanted to use as little brake as possible since I knew my time was limited at this point. As we started into the turn I specicially told the guy next to me I was inside him, my front hub was up to his BB. Thinking he might maintain his distance from the curb through the turn that he started the turn with. However, this being the 4’s and the fact that Winfield brings out some riders that only race a couple times a year. I was weary that he might not hold his line, which he didn’t. Outside, sweeps right through all the way into the inside curb, swings outside on the exit as if he was riding solo or single file. No headcheck by the dude whatsoever so I was ready. My line ended up requiring a bunny hop over inside curb remaining mindful of the stop sign and pole on the drop off the curb. Jump back on non-line holding homeboy’s wheel and now he opens a big gap in front of him. I jump around him now and close the gap again by the time the climb starts but I was completely out of biscuits now and I knew it. Second lap in a row I wasn’t able to get any recovery from the top of the climb back to the bottom. That was it, OTB by the top of the climb, just finished it out from there. Super fun race and course with a little added spice this year. I hung with the bunch much much longer than the last time I tackled this course. Big improvement over last year. No time to hang and watch the rest of the days racing though, it was off to Palos to pre-ride.
Sunday August 22nd
Palos Meltdown 2010, Sport class, Willow Springs, IL:
This would be the first time toeing the line on the MTB in over 10 years. Going back to my bike racing roots. Jerel, John, and I pre-rode the course on Saturday evening. Jerel on her Cross bike (way to go!! I try to push you and you don’t back down, LOVE IT! That’s why you are becoming a better and better cyclist!) and John on his MTB with slicks, not recommended but he muscled through it! I liked the course, had some off-camber greasy rooted single track, a couple mild non-technical double track climbs, a fast as you can handle loose rock rutted no clean line go balls out and hang on descent in the first single track section. The final climb of the loop was going up “Gravity Canyon”, technical heads up climb, not steep just tricky.
We were timing chipped and started in waves according to age group. Not the typical start from my MTB heyday, mass start and drag race to the trail head. My wave was 57-60 strong so it was still important to get to the trailhead top 20 though. We start with about a ½ to ¾ mile run on mowed grass so getting to the front wouldn’t be an issue for me. First turn to the left on the grass path and there was 3-4 guys slid out and crashed up in front of me, sweet!, that’ll make it easier to get up front and get a little separation from the gun. I wiggled through it and it was game on. Pick off the slower guys in front of me and anyone else gassing themselves in the soft grass.
Went into the woods about 15th I was guessing. Couple guys spin out or just can’t go fast through the single track and I come out of the first wooded section about 10th. Time to settle into a fast pace that would leave me enough for the second lap. In any mountain bike race above beginner you have to always remember you have to ride all these sections again so its critical you don’t go too hard that first lap but hard enough to get away from the bulk of the guys behind you. At the first real and only technical rocky rutted descent I went full bore and passed 2-3 guys. Held them off going back up the other side. Settled into another rhythm and went through the single track. I had unclip a couple times through the slippy off camber sections simply because I was taking the section a bit too fast. That cost me about 3-4 spots by the time I got out of that section. I just told myself at this point to back off a little, there’s a whole 2nd lap to go and stop giving up positions being over-zealous. If you’ve never raced a MTB on a sunny day the best analogy I can come up is that it’s like the scene out of ‘Star Wars: Return of the Jedi’ where they are on the outer moon camp on the speeder bikes flying through the jungle in and out of the sunshine through the trees and shaded areas. It feels EXACTLY like that. It’s a killer rush! I get to the final climb and its tricky and requires my full attention to stay on the bike. Which I do and clear the climb without ever having to get off the bike, I had to unclip once to keep it upright but was able to keep momentum and within a few crank strokes able to get clipped back in. Now its just double track back the start line and onto lap 2.
On the second lap everyone was spaced out & positions relatively established. After the first single track section I knew I wasn’t going to be able to hold quite the pace I had the first lap so I settled in and went as hard as I could but not hard enough to send me to Bonksville. I got passed by 6-8 guys in the single track which was fine with me because a majority of the guys were using the double track as recovery time (which is how you would ride on a fun ride, but not how you race). I was going wee bit slower in the single track to recover and be able to spin a fast gear up the climbs and on the double track. Each double track and longer climb I was able to gain back some positions as guys just couldn’t hold my speed when I came around them on the flats, this where road riding pays off on the MTB and mountain bikers that never ride the road pay for it. On the final climb I took the more difficult but shorter lines, however, on the first big tree root step up, the guy in front of me takes the left line around it and falls right over toward me forcing me to shift my weight in a spot you position you can’t do it on. So I dink over too, 3 guys go by while I’m trying to unclip my underneath foot so I can get up, dude that fell first gets going front of me since he fell first he was able to get up first. I take one spot back, get a little separation and keep 3 guys in front close but not so close I didn’t have to take their line if I didn’t like it or think it was best. I ended up hanging up the front and rear tire simultaneously on a section and dinked over again. Got up really fast, got going quick, and got right back to where I was in the succession up the climb. We clear up and out of the climb and its straight to the big ring for the ½ mile double track and grassy run the finish line. I hung behind the 3 guys in front of me just a bit as I didn’t want to pass them too far out from the finish. We make a left onto a gravel double track sectio hard enough to thwart any attempt by one of them to hang onto me or stay close enough to come around before the finish.
n and the guy in front of me goes wide….that’s it, I drill it past these 3 down the gravel fast and hard enough to thwart any attempt by one of them to hang onto me or stay close enough to come around before the finish.
n and the guy in front of me goes wide….that’s it, I drill it past these 3 down the gravel fast and hard enough to thwart any attempt by one of them to hang onto me or stay close enough to come around before the finish.
1st Lap: 43:05
2nd Lap: 46:21
Total time: 1:29:26
Distance: 17 mi
Distance: 17 mi
Photo: Brent Coggan
Good enough for 16th out of 57 in my age group of 30-39 and finished 62nd out of 177 in the Sport class.
