Everyone has to have their bad races and MDM was one of them for me. I had a nice dinner of a salad, chicken breast and spaghetti. Got to bed at a decent hour with my bike and everything all ready for the next day. The race is local on trails I know pretty well. I am trying to put my major focus on the NUE races, but a nice 4 hour MTB ride is perfect Saturday training. I went to bed, but didn't get to sleep or stay asleep very well. I woke up the next morning not feeling that great, eating breakfast was a good indicator of this, I barely ate all my oatmeal and banana. Oh well, off to the races.
John and I setup a prime location for our pit stop which was halfway through the lap at the top of a climb. Leesa and Ginny chilled up there playing music, dancing and cheering on racers. We got all setup and headed down to the race start. Besides not feeling the best in the stomach I was feeling great. We lined up on the start line and got ready for a good 4 hours of racing.
Four hours of racing is pretty short for me and I wasn't completely sure how to go about it. I remember doing my six hour race last year and going pretty hard for the whole thing so I figured I could push it a little more than my NUE races for four hours. Ten seconds before the race started I noticed I didn't have my glasses on, they were on my helmet, but being in the front row didn't seem like the right time to put my glasses on. The endurance rollout was the most casual race start I've ever been in. We had a small climb up to the single track but nobody took off anything close to a pushing pace to hit that single track first. We were going so casual that I sat up and put my glasses on and still was sitting up front. I didn't want to pull everyone up to the single track... I didn't want to be that guy. I even took time to give Ed Dixon a good high five as I rolled past him. John Stavlas was an awesome friend and teammate and he jumped up front and pulled us up. He said he knew he wasn't going to win but he wanted to pull me up there to get us started, super kudos to you my friend!
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| First Couple Laps Make It Look So Easy |
Single Track with John leading our fun ride, we weren't pushing anything hard and enjoying the beginning of our four hours. once we hit the open climbs people started wanting to pull around so I did the same. I said farewell and thanks to John and took off. Tyler Monroe, Chris Newell and I sat up front for the first couple hours taking turns, but mainly Tyler was happy to sit up front. Tyler seemed pretty strong and I knew the pace was a little easier for him; I was worried about blowing up. The pace didn't seem hard to me and I wasn't feeling in the red, but when I looked at my heart rate it did seem a little high at times.
We rolled steady for about the first 2.5 hours together and I felt myself start slipping back some but I was doing alright. I was starting to see that I was going to be fighting for 2nd or 3rd as Chris and I took turns dropping back and then catching up. This is when Rob Campbell caught up and blew past me, I was in the middle of bridging a gap that had formed when I dabbed on a climb and had a big gap form. There was now a new pace for the front pack and I watched them leave me. I knew that it would be wise for me to let them go, I didn't have it in me to hold that pace for the next two hours.
This is where things took a turn for the worse. I saw Johnny May pass me shortly and now I was sitting 5th. I was hurting some already and I knew I had blown it. I was now the guy I try not to be; I had gone out strong and now struggling while watching the smart guys pass me. I just wanted to hold my position at least and maybe pick someone off. I did manage to catch back up to Chris and I was worried about passing him because I wasn't sure if I was pushing too much again just to gain a position to far from the finish.
There were three major climbs in this course, but two that I really cared about. One was a waterbars climb that was gravelly and fairly steep, the other was longer climb that took us to the end of the lap. I thought this final climb would be a strong point for me, it is a climb that I would normally excel at. This climb ended up being my nemesis, I could climb the waterbars, slower and slower but I was doing fine on it. The final climb I started cramping on every lap. I tried high cadence spin one lap, I tried low gear grinding another lap, I tried standing high cadence, then I found what worked the best, but still was very painful. Standing stretched over my bars climbing single speeder hunched over my bars so my legs were stretched the most was the best answer. I still had to fight hard to keep the cramps from completely setting in.
I had been drinking through the day and eating, I felt like my nutrition was on, but the temps were still a lot warmer than I am acclimated to so far for the year so I think this was some of the issue I was having. I think some was also attributed to whatever was going on with me not feeling well, and of course going hard in the beginning didn't help. I felt like I was bonking much harder than I should be though.
I held my 4th place and was dreading the 10th lap. I was hoping I would come in close enough to the cutoff that I wouldn't have to go at and still keep my 4th. I rolled through the lap with 10 minutes to spare, time for one more. I hit our gnarly rocky technical spot nicely and hit our hard corner into a climb and started pedaling.... no chain. I jump off and see that I still have a chain, but it has broken. I inspect the chain to see that I would have to pull out my chain tool to fix this. I was not about to fix some chain to fight for 4th or 5th. I didn't have it in me to fight for anything if I did get the chain fixed quickly, but I knew I would have to do it in less than five minutes. I turned around and walked my bike up the climb and finished with nine laps. I ended up only dropping to 5th and was happy with that.
I had chose dry lube for the race and don't know why I went that route, I really should have gone with wet lube. Halfway through this race my chain was super dry and gritty, I am sure this helped in my chain breaking.
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| Elite Racer, Lance Byrd, killing it on the rough mucky trails |
All in all, it was not my day. I still fought hard and pushed on when it got tough. I went back and hung out with friends and waited around for the Elite race to take place. These guys battled it out in a mudfest that we didn't have because of 15 minutes of downpour before their race started. I recognized it wasn't my day but still gave good credit to the guys finishing ahead of me. I look forward to Woodstock Wrecker and hope to be feeling better that day.
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| Go Home... Your Done :) |
Thanks to Leesa Tarter and Ty Long with NoFilm Photography for the awesome photos! Thanks again as always to Leesa for being the best pit boss ever and enjoying this sport with me!
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