Another doubleheader weekend (5/5-5/6/12) with two mountain
bike races. After last weekend’s
successes the idea of racing 9 hrs Saturday and then a tough 2+ hr race on
Sunday seemed daunting, but possible.
Strangely, I’d be racing the same two venues in opposite order, but in the case of Yargo a
longer course in the opposite direction and Tanasi a much shorter course but
three laps and no fire roads. I set up
my “pit” at Yargo with some friends.
Fifteen bottles of various drinks (mostly water), lots of sports
nutrition, two sweet potatoes and a jelly sandwich. The idea was to drink a bottle every lap
(~50-55 minutes) and half a bottle at the pit where I would also consume most
of my food. Although it adds up to a
significant amount of time in the pits (I figure about .5-1 minute every lap),
I still have a hard time eating anything but a gel while riding. My chief rival from the last 9 hr solo, Greg
Gibson, was in attendance as were some other threats…but no Andy Johnston; he
must have been saving his legs for Tanasi—wimp!
The start was fast—about 2 miles of pavement. I entered the singletrack in 4th
position, right behind Greg. I could
tell Josh Fix (the guy who dominated the 6 hr solo races in 2011) was going for
the fastest lap prize, so I was ok with watching Greg chase hard while I set a
fast, but sustainable pace. I figured I
would try to stay reasonably close to his times and then hope he’d fade later….The
racing was for the most part smooth—lots of passing, usually folks were very
considerate, but one lady racer was anything but considerate, refusing to pull
even a little to the side. With three of
us trying to reason with her, and getting nowhere, we finally all had to make
risky passes. She spewed profanity and
suffered some bumping of her bike (and I guess ego). Other than Greg, I really didn’t know where
my competition was. He and I rode
together until the middle of lap 6 (about 4 hrs). He was always quicker in the pits, but I’d
catch him on a climb. After trailing him
awhile on lap 6, he pulled aside to let me go.
He’d been going a bit slow up the hills, so I decided to test him and
sped up a fair amount. It worked—he dropped
off after about ten minutes. I figured
he’d be pretty close behind, and I asked my friends (who’d finished the six hr
race) to check the standings after lap 7.
They said they had not seen him go by, but I figured they had missed
him, so I kept a solid pace. By the
start of lap 9 I really wanted to know the standings—they said I was a lap
ahead, but I couldn’t believe that! I
still kept my pace up, my immediate goal being to catch (lap) my buddy Trey
Woodall who was leading the 50+ masters’ category. About halfway through the 9th lap,
I passed Andy Applegate. Now I was
wondering if I would even need to do any more laps—my feet and hands were
killing me from all of the pounding. So,
as I rolled through the finish line of lap 9, I personally asked to see the
standings. Turns out I had lapped
everybody—Andy was my closest contender (Greg had stayed in his pit for two of
my laps, thus I didn’t pass him on the course).
So at 7 hrs 37 minutes, and figuring Andy couldn’t do two laps in 1 hr
23 minutes (and he didn’t come through on lap 8 until 7 hrs 46 min, so really
two laps in 1 hr 14 minutes), I stopped racing.
It was very nice to win a 9 hr race almost 1.5 hrs short of 9 hrs! I had plenty of time to eat, shower, and
clean up my pit before the award ceremony at 7:15 pm (race started at 10
am). After the awards ceremony, I ate
some more (of course) and set up camp right where I was parked. It was a bit difficult to sleep with my body
still settling down, but at least I didn’t have an overload of caffeine like
the last 9 hr race. Temps were perfect
for a night under the brightest full moon of the year.
At 5:45 am I was up again, and time to decide on whether to
drive 2 hrs to Ducktown TN to race again.
My stomach was a bit sour, my legs a little wobbly, but I felt up for it
anyway! I arrived at Tanasi with just
enough time to set up, register and barely warm up my tired legs. The race starts with a lot of climbing, so no
easing into things! I was a bit
surprised to be second wheel behind my new nemesis, Brian Schworm. Brian didn’t waste much time in riding away
from me and Rick Pile who was right behind me.
I looked at my heart rate, and it explained why he was riding away—it was
a good 10-15 beats per minute below where it needed to be. Rick eventually went around me. The route was familiar as a small part of the
Big Frog 65 route from last weekend—lots of climbing, a fast, rough descent, a
couple miles of pavement, then repeat two more times for 33 miles total. My strength improved a little each lap, and I
reeled in a bunch of riders from the classes that started ahead, but I could
still tell that the 99 miles of racing on Saturday was affecting me a lot. It turned out that Rick had missed a turn on
the first lap, and didn’t return to that spot so he was disqualified—too bad, because
he was racing well. So, I ended up in
second place—certainly better than I had expected. That should be the last time I ask so much
from my body—4 races, two of them long ones, in just over a week. Results are here: http://www.dirtyspokes.com/forms/results/12mtb_yargo_solo_9.htm
and here: http://www.goneriding.com/images/pdfs/SERC/results/12serc5y.pdf
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