Wave 7?!
Last year I started wave 3. Why are 148 people starting before me when I finished 48th last year?
Why do you care? You're 60 years old and riding a singlespeed.
These are good points I remind myself.
This year we are staying at Bill's house; only 7 minutes from the venue. The weather forecast has been flipping back and forth between perfect to apocalyptic. Hourly we are checking to see what The Weather Channel's latest thoughts on the weekend are. I guess Canada's on fire as well?
Saturday we wake to a barely wet back deck. It has sprinkled but not much. The long grass is damp enough to pre-moisten your shoes. I say my hellos to racer friends and pick up my number. One benefit to wave 7 is there's no rush. The volunteers are calling earlier waves to the side for emergency quick check in to keep the event moving on time.
When it finally is time for wave 7 to go off, there is a very nonchalant count down and an impression of a whistle sending us off. One guy is drilling it off the front. Who am I to argue so I make chase; I mean it's only 45 miles?
He's making a pretty good gap. I say to the guy chasing with me "he's definitely not wave 7". We are riding well together. The climbing is getting a little steeper and we are pulling back "off the front guy". I'm gaining a little gap on my riding partner closing the gap...
CHING!!!
I drop my chain! I start running until my guy catches me then pull to the side to let him by. Its all bench cut singletrack so there is no place to be out of the way to put it back on. When I finally find a spot, and line up the chain, chainring and cog to force the chain back on 1/3 of the wave have passed me.
With the chain back on I make haste and pull back a few of the riders who got past me. Mile 2.5
CA-CHING!!!
Oh, I'm not doing this for another 40+ miles.
I find a good spot whip out my hex keys and adjust the EBB to ludicrous tightness. The rest of the wave passes me and I'm seeing the leaders of wave 8 coming up the trail. If this doesn't work, I'm done.
I restart my quest behind the leaders of group 8, and quickly caught and passed by the first chasers, one of which is non other than Rich Pirro! We exchange encouragement and Rich begins to pull away. I feel great on the climbs but can't wait for the descents to end. Why aren't sketchy gravel tires better on wide switchbacks littered with gravel? I don't want to complain about the conditions, but am kinda wishing a little moisture hade made it's way through the canopy. The descents and my lack of ability on them is demotivating.
One of the features of the first half of the course is a roller at the bottom of Burnham Down. It's really not a big deal, but you come into it blind, and if you haven't stopped at the edge and looked down, can be menacing. The promoters know this, send emails and videos about it, as well as offering a B line with a 2 minute time penalty. The B line is actually faster so they have to have volunteers there to check who rolls it and who rides the B line.
Rich Pirro ain't riding no B line! But the helpful volunteers have stymied his attempt and he is realigning himself for his turn. He follows me over and we begin the climb back up. He lets me lead on the climb, even so much as letting me go back to the front after a curfuffle in a corner. He even lets me stay on the front for the descent back down to the midway aid station where we see the largest Red Tailed Hawk I've ever seen patrolling the trees.
At the aid station I am in no hurry. Christine is filling my bottles, and feeding me Oreos. Rich isn't rushing either but gets back at it before I'm done stuffing my face and schmooping. I'm not motivated, but I know once I commit, I'll be okay.
Being Vermont, now that we've descended we are going up. I like that. I'm also liking the terrain of the second half. It seems a little chunkier, maybe a little more of the tech I like and the descents aren't as wide open. I tell myself "remind yourself this next year; you are rewarded with the second half if you get through the first".
When you get back to the start/finish they send you out to do the first climb and descent in reverse. This is cruel, but knowing that I still have 4 more miles to go in advance makes it much easier than last year. Other than my feet hurting from being in stiff XC racing shoes for almost 5 hours I feel pretty good. Finally crossing the finish line I'm 13th in the 50+, 55th overall, beating the rain that would later turn the climbs and descents to rivers.
Dorking out
In my head my time last year was 5:05. This year was 4:58. Last year I ran a rigid fork and a 34x20 gear. This year, a suspension fork and 34x21, a gear I hadn't used in 15 years. Huzzah! Lower gear and suspension fork were faster even with the chain dropping and laissez-faire pit stop! Do you remember the part about me being 60? Last years time was 4:55.
But
moving time was 2 minutes faster this year or .4%. It was also much cooler, in a good way this year; last year was a scorcher! Using the magic of Straver segments I was faster on all but one of them that I had got a gold star on last year. Those were all uphill ones, I'm not getting any gold stars going downhill, just ask Pirro! Also starting in the 7th wave seemed to leave less people to pass. That didn't really make sense to me, and both years everyone was very gracious about passing and being passed, but it's a thing.
What does all this tell us?
All in all fork and gear choice really didn't matter (although my arms and shoulders are less wrecked this year).
Enjoy the ride, what ever that means to you. You want to dork out on prep and numbers; have at it. Stop at every rest stop and chat with the volunteers; go for it (one year I will do the VT50 and stop at all the rest stops and have a culinary tour of Vermont). Some combination of both; why not?
Enjoy the ride
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