Race reports: Big Frog 65/Fort Yargo (SERC #4)

This past weekend (4/28-4/29/12) I competed in two mountain bike races.  I’ve been considering competing in a mtb stage race (races multiple days in a row, finish order  determined by lowest cumulative time), and thought this would be a good test of my ability to do so.  The Big Frog 65 is the 65 mile “little sister” of the Cohutta 100 race.  It is named Big Frog because it follows a dirt road course through the Big Frog wilderness area in North GA.  I had pre-ridden the C-100 course with my buddies Van and Monte a couple months ago (two day adventure) and was glad to have signed up for the BF-65 vs that race!  I really like the Tanasi trail system which comprised about 30 miles of the race course, mostly in the beginning of the race.  The remainder of the course is dirt/gravel roads that undulate up and down the folds of the mountains.  I arrived at the Ocoee Whitewater Center (site of the 1996 Olympics whitewater events) Friday afternoon to register and pre-ride a little of the trail to test trail conditions as well condition of my legs.  Both tested out well, so it was off to the cabin I’d be staying in with my fellow Macon racers and families.  We had an excellent pre-race meal provided by Deb and Maria and then off to bed at a reasonable hour—such is the advantage of staying with families with toddlers vs single 20-something yr old partiers!  The predicted chance of thunderstorms did not materialize, keeping the trail conditions pristine, and Saturday morning dawned foggy and cool.  After watching the C-100 start at 7 am, about 200 or so racers lined up for a 7:30 BF-65 start.  The first few miles were on pavement climbing along the side of the highway.  I stayed within several racers of the front, but avoided being directly in the wind.  Going into the singletrack I ended up 8^th wheel—a little farther back than I’d wanted, but some guys cut me off.  Since the pace was fast and opportunities to pass limited, I was glad to see nobody was off the front.  After several miles we crossed the paved footbridge at the Whitewater Center where I passed a few guys and then up the first serious climb.  The guy I had marked before the race was Brian Schworm—he beat me the weekend prior at Conyers SERC.  Sure enough, he attacked on the climb and only one other guy and I could respond.  After about five minutes that guy stopped for what looked like a mechanical issue, and we never saw him or anybody else in our races again (we did pass several C-100 racers).  Brian set a hard pace and started to pull away from me on some technical trail.  I kept up my pace though and tried to be aerodynamic and efficient when the course turned to dirt road after about 21 miles.  After several miles I caught a glimpse of Brian, and he saw me too.  By the time we got to the second aid station at about 33 miles I had caught him.  The course did a big loop around and back to that aid station and we rode together, testing each other often until we returned to it.  I’d hoped to skip the stop, but after losing a bottle on a rough descent (the gravel roads are often as rough as rocky singletrack because of the speeds you reach) I needed to stop to refill my one bottle.  Brian attacked, or maybe rode away is a better way to put it, on the long climb after the aid station back toward the Tanasi trails.  I had him in sight for most of the way back…maybe a minute ahead of me at the most.  I was passing multiple racers still on their way out to the loop (which took us just under an hour).  Most would yell “way to go…he’s just up the road, go get him!” or something like that.  I was working too hard to respond to them much.  Arriving at the road junction at the Tanasi system, a group of JROTC cadets vectored me down the road to the left.  I yelled “thank you!” and went blasting down the road.  Just after I passed a jeep with other cadets in it, I skidded to a stop because something looked terribly wrong with the route—it had me turning back onto the trail where I’d come out hours before, and the arrows were mounted for the other direction!  I flagged down the jeep and asked the cadets if this was the correct way to the finish and they mumbled unconvincingly that it must be, because the markings on the road curved that way.  I explained that we were not supposed to return the same way, but they just shrugged…oh boy!!  I encountered a guy still riding up that way (poor fellow, that must have been a long day) and asked if he’d seen anybody come my direction and he said, yes he had just passed a guy.  Well, at least I wasn’t alone in my misadventure.  I rode on up the long climb and hoped to see anybody that could help me out—but I was entirely alone out there.  After cutting the course which had been laid for riding the other direction and then backtracking a ways, I was becoming despondent…I just wanted to get to the finishing trail and be done with it.  I eventually saw some kids at one intersection and asked how to get to the Thunder Rock trail and they pointed me back the way I’d just come.  I rode on with less and less enthusiasm, until I eventually ended up on the trail I recognized (from my pre-ride months ago) would correctly bring me to Thunder Rock and the finish.  Oddly, nobody else was on it.  Had they all been misdirected as well?  Was my lead so big that I was still in 2^nd place?  I doubted it as I’d already passed 65 miles by a few miles and had made a few stops to ponder what to do.  Still, I was happy that I’d at least get to cross the finish line.  When I did finish (about 30 minutes later than I’d projected when approaching the Tanasi trails) I was ushered over to a bunch of fellow finishers who had been similarly misdirected.  I was told that the consensus was to award finish places based on our recollection of what place we’d been in at the misdirect location.  I thought that as fair as we could do it, so I was awarded 2^nd place overall.  I really would have liked to have finished in less than 4.5 hours and with a 1.5 mile or so final uphill paved drag to the finish, maybe I would have caught Brian.  As it was, we had a great race, and I felt he was the stronger racer and deserved the win.  All the aspects of the race were great, other than to kids mistake—I know how things can go wrong even with a carefully planned race, so I am still very pleased with the job the organizers and volunteers did.

After the post race meal/socializing/awards, Mike, Grant and I headed back to the cabin (Monte and Van would be many hours later doing the C-100).  I ate some leftover spaghetti and meatballs and went into nap mode—time to recover for Sunday’s race!  Since the race in Winder GA started at 9:30, I needed an early start on Sunday’s drive—like 5:45 am.  The drive was very pleasant and scenic until the Gainesville area, and I arrived with plenty of time to get ready.  My expectations for myself were to race hard, but don’t do any damage.  My legs felt pretty good, but Saturday’s 5 hr race was at 2 hr race pace, so I sure wasn’t expecting a podium finish on Sunday.  Only 15 guys started, so getting close to the front going into the singletrack was pretty smooth…I was about 5^th wheel.  One guy went off the front after about 10 minutes and when I saw an opportunity, I passed the other guys all at once and started chasing—my legs felt fine!  It took awhile, but I did chase him down.  The whole time I was doing that I heard somebody else not too far behind.  It turns out that other rider was Rick Pile who I did battle with at SERC Tsali a month ago and who won the SERC series in 2011.  Rick stayed with me on all my surges…he commented that he could never stand and power up stuff like I do.  Rick is a sit and spin guy.  In the middle of our second of three laps I eventually started to pull away from Rick, and with each rider I caught and passed from the classes that started before us I tried to gun it a little more—it helped that they would each try to latch on to me and I would try to get rid of them!   I held off Rick, winning by a margin of about 1 minute 20 seconds.  I don’t know how well I would have raced again today, but I felt really good after the race…maybe time to try a stage race.