Race: UNH Kingman Farm Classic
Date: 9/30/06
Distance: 15 miles (Actually 13.5)
Laps: 3
Weather: Sunny, high 60s
Trails: Muddy, wet, slippery
Class raced: B
Course marking: Poor to none
Number of races Courtney beat me in: 2
Race Report: More MTB racing? WTF Scott? I thought you were, like, a triathlete or something like that... Nope, recently MTB has been dominating my training/racing time. I haven't done a road ride in months, though that will probably change this weekend. I've got to say, I really love mountain biking. It combines the endurance of XC skiing with the balance, skill, and exhillaration of tree and mogul alpine skiing. That makes it a big winner in my book. If you check the results from last race, you'll see that I was a pretty mediocre C class biker. I decided this time to race up a class in the Bs in order to get a longer race and capitalize on my (perceived) greater endurance.
We arrived in Madbury, NH at like 7:45, but not without bottoming my car out on the access road to the park. I guess VW jettas aren't really "off road" vehicles, even when pimped out with 3 bikes on the roof rack. Anyway, I don't think anything important got broken. We hung out at the start for an hour and rode the course a little bit. It was super fun with some double track, open field type sections and a lot of technical single track with roots, mud, twisty descents, and some jumpable log barriers. The roots were wet and VERY slippery. If you missed hitting them at precisely the normal to the tangent of their curve, you were going to slide, and slide hard.
While I was warming up, and whole group of Dartmouth racers arrived, including C! She said she was going to race the Women's B race which started 3 minutes after the Men's B. That made me somewhat nervous. At any rate, we got to the line, I cleared the cache in my GPS receiver, and we were off! The race started in a field and immediately hit some wide single track, which descended into a 90 degree turn. CARNAGE! People went all over the place. I stayed on the bike and kept my wheels on the dirt and picked up a few places. We then climbed a little bit on a single track, and exited onto double track, which continued for about a mile through cornfields. Another crash occured when the pack came into a 90 degree turn at 22 mph. We climbed a little bit, and then returned to the woods.
The first thing that happened in the woods was a 1.5 foot log jump. I botched my first attempt, but managed not to break my bike or get railed from behind. We then descended into the gnarly , muddy, rooty, rocky single track. It was fun, but I managed to crash, again saving my bike but loosing places. I was now riding with S and O, my two teammates in the race. We hit the puddles and dismounted and ran through, and then got on some fast doubletrack. Another 90 degree turn and S went down. I slowed, but he urged me to continue. He later went to the hospital on fear of a broken leg, but it turned out to be a hip muscle injury. That left O and I in the race for MIT.
The next single track section was the switch back climb. The straights were flat, but very narrow, and the curves were VERY steep. The first lap, I ran most of them. We got to the top of the hill, and then had a nasty, switchbacked descent. It was hard to ride fast, but I did what I could and played it safe. That cost me at least two places, but I really didn't want to crash. We then had more field riding down to the start line, thus finishing the lap.
The second lap was certainly interesting. We hit the hard downhill turn, and like 10 people, including me, went the wrong way. I stopped after 100 yards and yelled at the pack, but they went on, thus cutting off a solid 1/3 of the loop. These riders were not disqualified, and I lodged no protest since UNH completely dropped the ball with course marshalls and marking, even though they had about 10 guys in the C race. Anyway, I got back on course and lo and behold C is right in front of me, kicking the crap out of the women's B field. I caught back on to her on the double track, but she lost me on the single track with her mad skills. Then on the climb I got close again only to watch as her chain exploded. I passed her, and rode through to the end of the lap. Incidently, C picked up her bike and ran to the finish, 1.5 miles away, and still took 2nd in the race!
Lap 3 I was off the back with a UVM guy, and so I concentrated on riding as much of the course as I could. I managed to clear all but one or two technical sections and was really psyched about that. I finished 21/29, 1:33. In general, I'm pleased with that result, especially since many riders in front of me cut the course. O had a great race and did not take the shortcut, so, well done!
We then had short track XC. The course was non-technical, and I had no legs for it. I got lapped right quick, and then it was just sort of like a Cake song. I was definitely going for distance, going for speed. All alone, all alone, in a time of need. I kept racing for appearances and finished in the back. Some leg strength would be awful nice. I'm going to have to work on that if I'm going to race road this spring, which looks rather likely...
After short track I chilled out for a while, enjoying the nice day. C decided to race women's A's and she came in 3rd, with a time of 1:31 for 3 laps. Damn, she's good!
This race was it for MTB season. I can't go to RPI or easterns, so, it looks like if I'm racing in the next month, its going to be...CYCLOCROSS.
Results are
here
GPS data:
XC,
STXC
