Race Report: Hodges Village Dam / Mass State Championships

Ahh, mountain bike racing in New England...it just wouldn't be right if weather didn't factor in some how.

I left the house feeling surprisingly tranquillo despite the rain and the promise of strong competition.  This was going to be one of the first weekends of the season where there wasn't a competing mountain bike race dividing talent based on series allegiance or location.

Get to the venue, park next to Gerry, Michelle and their awesomely dry EZ-up.  I saw Gerry was registered in the Singlespeed class, and was wondering if it was a mistake, but no, he had in fact tasted the Koolaid and was joining the fun.

I ride up and down the course just enough to get filthy, and it's time to go.
In my head the two men to watch were Scooter (Scott Levreault) who was dominating the Cat1 SS until he decided to try the Pro/Open for a while, and Dan Barry, King Of Burlingame record holder and EFTA strong man.

The whistle blows and its  Holeshot Baby!...for about 100 meters until Dan and Scooter smoothly glide past me.  Scooter gets to the single track first, and Dan has about a 25 meter gap on me.  
As things twist and  turn I'm slowly loosing sight of him.  I can't see the pack behind me, or the two in front.

Great.  I'm riding alone.
Again.

But as I get near the back of the course I'm beginning to catch back up to Dan.  The technical nature of this part of the course is playing to my strengths (I guess?).  Right before we get out to the fireroad I get in front of him.

But just as on the opening fireroad Dan easily spins past me once we're out of the woods.

Harrumph.

He gets a gap and stretches it to the start / finish.
As he turns into the singletrack he has about 200 meters on me.

Again near the back of the course I catch him, and again when we get back to the fireroad he gets me back.
Hmmm, lets use some strategy... think, think, think...if I can get in front of him earlier in the third or forth lap, maybe I can get out of sight before he can pass me on the fireroad...


The third lap there is a lot of 30-39 y/o traffic.  I'm pushing pretty hard through the rough stuff to try and reel Dan in earlier.  Hodges doesn't really have any significant climbs but lots of little power climbs.  On one of these I hear a crack and this happened:

My bar breaks at the grip / brake lever.  My brake lever is just hanging by the housing.

I pull off the trail and put the lever back on the broken side, sliding it over enough that I have something to grab onto, yet still have a little leverage.

The leaders of the 40-49 y/o pass me.

Now I've switched to damage control.  As long as I can keep on riding I'm going to.  Riding with a short, sharp bar is somewhat uncomfortable, and quite awkward.   I clumsily make my way past some more 30-39s and try and stay focused on laying down power whenever I can.
Climbing is a joke.  With what the rain and traffic has done to the course, even the slightest rise is a running affair with my plastic shard of death.

But no one is catching me?

On my last lap I pass the women's field.  Other than running hills, there are no unplanned dismounts.  As I'm making my way up the last stretch to the finish I see a rider coming up fast.  After a lap and a half of riding with a broken handlebar I'm not taking any chances and I sprint for it with everything I've got beating him to the line.

He had gears.

I  held on for third.

Which was especially important because it was my buddy Cam's birthday and I told him I'd try and win him a medal.

I also won a t-shirt and a stick of stuff to rub on my junk to prevent chaffing.  Since I'm Charlie the "Taint of Steel", I have no use for such nonsense.
So I got myself a different reward:

  Sugar, caffine and salt yum!  umm, kingsized...

Looking at my lap times, I was about 3 minutes slower on lap 3 and 4 than 2 (2 was 2.5 minutes slower than 1, but the conditions deteriorated considerably between the first two laps; there were puddles well above your axles on lap 2).  In light of this...I'm not going to get all woulda, shoulda, coulda; That's racing!



I've heard chicks dig scars, does this count?

I'm so happy...

Photo credit: Blatantly stolen from Mark @ the Cycle Snack

I was going to title this post "The Bitch is Back" (yeah, I was thinking about it for a while...) but as I type this I'm near giddiness.
Today I raced my bike today for the first time in over 2 months. I even did pretty well. Got home and Kim was making eggplant parm. Racing my bike and eggplant parm...does it get any better?
Yes it does, but lets get on with the race report shall we.

Hodges Village Dam isn't a course that really suits me. It's a power course. The climbing in it is all short bursts. It is a fun course; very rocky, rooty and twisty, but courses with more elevation gain work better for me.
I tried to compensate for the lack of elevation with a big (for me) gear; a 33x17. Pre-riding I decided this was too big (last year I used a 34x18). I had the foresight to bring an 18, a chain whip, a wrench, but neglected to bring the cassette tool. Fortunately Andy Chambers was well prepared, so 10 minutes before the start I was changing gears.
After the call up, I noticed there was no line at the portolets so I even took care of a little last minute business.

We had a pretty big field, I heard someone say 15, but only like 9 finished.
The whistle blew, and I got a good start; second wheel. Steve Witkus from Bikeman was in the lead and just floated away.

I was comfortable in second but Carl Kresser in 3rd place was right with me. When we got to a switchback I got a glance back and we were all alone. I was surprised Kerry wasn't with us.
Soon after I jettisoned a bottle.

When we got to the fireroad at the back of the lap, Carl passed me while I was taking a drink.
He led through the feed zone and began to pull out a little gap.
That's cool I thought, if I can maintain 3rd I'll be psyched.

I found out why Kerry wasn't with us as I caught him walking his bike out of the woods (bummer!).

I had yelled to Mark in the feedzone that I had lost a bottle, but when I saw it on the trail, I stopped to grab it. I'm still comfortably in third right?

But then I started seeing Carl. Was I gaining? If this comes down to a sprint and I lose because I stopped for a bottle...I'd still be thrilled with 3rd.

On the sharp steep hills, his gear was a little too big...and he was riding flat pedals!
On the biggest climb of the course I finally caught him.

After the feedzone there is a long fireroad section, as I got to the end of it I took a quick glance, and had he wasn't there yet.

The third lap went well enough, but I was beginning to fade. No matter how many hours I put in over the past two months, just riding along isn't the same as racing I guess.

On the forth lap a parade of juniors and 50+ riders passed me, but still no singlespeeders; I guess I had just enough left in the tank.

Notes:

Thanks again to Mark for getting me a bottle even though I didn't take it.

I almost crashed one of the Pro women riders, Janis Sandlin, when I took the long way around and she took the correct line. She stayed upright, so she was cool about it.

The course took it's toll on bikes and riders. Many abandoned with mechanicals.

According to Garmin, I was significantly slower this year than last, which is odd, as last year the course was under water. The course was slightly different this year, but I doubt the change really had too much effect on that. When results are posted I'll be interested in seeing how my time compares to other riders who raced it last year.

I won a back pack! I need a back pack...how great is that!

Steve didn't just win the race he destroyed the Cat1 Singlepeed class. I knew the course would suit him from racing him at Winding Trails, but he just owned it! Congratulations.

I was impressed with Carl's performance at the Glocester Grind, so it was nice to race and meet him (I didn't know who the guy riding flats was until the podium).

On the last lap some of the CAt2's were pre-riding the course. That's cool if you stay out of the way of the racers on the course, but there were guys riding the singletrack backwards! Have some respect for the racers on the course.

The course was dry and dust. Surprisingly, I was as dirty as a wet race, and it was harder to clean up afterwords.

I wore a HRM for the first time in a race in over 2 years. Avg. 175, max 187. That's significantly above what I train at (just started wearing the HRM there too). I think I need to throw in a day or two of higher intensity.