2017 SSCX National Championship - Hartford, CT
This race almost shattered me, both physically and mentally.
"Matt, are you fucking kidding me? You raced a season of UCI and you're telling me a silly SSCX race fucked you up?"
No, I'm not kidding and yes, it did.
I rolled in to the venue a little before 11 on Saturday with
@rsinger814 and Keb. Boy, was it cold. The car read 20 degrees when I put it in park. It had basically just started flurrying while we crossed the foot bride. Since my last visit on Tuesday the venue has almost fully come to life. Visual inspection showed a completely different animal of a course than I had raced earlier in the week. Two full days of mud racing followed by a hard freeze, semi thaw and re-freeze had created a monster with teeth. Despite having rolled the course after the semi thaw the ruts were still present and the falling snow would only hone them into jagged shark teeth ready to violently shred flesh from bone. Realistically maybe just bruise flesh and bone, but I like that violent imagery a little better. I think it helps account for the mental trauma.
I made my way to the heated KÜDÜ tent and started to change into my warm up kit. The only thing I'd pre-ride and race in was my hat. Dry is warmer, warmer is happier, happier is faster. Minutes later Ryan brakes the news. "Dude, it's
actually coming down now." HE WASN'T KIDDING!
I jumped on course at 11:3o for a couple laps. Immediately I began struggling on the first straightaway by the pits. There were countless ruts of all different sizes. I was basically surfing rut to rut to rut which is a horrible feeling. The bottom line of the hill was partially rideable and the run up was actually really easy since the ground didn't slide under your weight and there were countless foot holds.
Slip and slide was out so you went directly to the back side of the levee off camber. SLICK! Ice ice ice. North most section was pulled and you went directly to the ride down. Totally manageable, then of course near the bottom I caught a phantom rut and almost biffed it.
The woods were really sketchy. Some ruts had formed which really helped, but more then a few formed in ways that were dying to murder you. The quick up down were tough but still sort of rideable. I pretty much rode the whole south end of the course no issue, including the ice corner by the gazebo.
I got back to the tent and Matt tossed me the front file wheel. We talked tires and turns out tractor are the worst for what I'd be doing. These conditions are new to me. I sneak back on course for one more last to try the front file. I also tossed on the XM rear which has a wide shallow paddle tread. Adam Myerson caught me in the woods and invited me to his wheel. We rode together and chatted about the course, gear choice and tires. He said files all day, and was debating 42x18 and 42x19. He said my 17 sounded tall.
Good thing thats all I own. At this point I was still getting power down fine and riding everything. The front file was equally squirrelly as the XL, however in a more controlled way. It slid into ruts as opposed to the XL that seemed to just slide on, in and around in a totally unpredictable way. Both sets were aired to 21/21 and my rims were bouncing off the terrain.
Coming down the back side of the flyover I feather brakes and totally locked up the front and almost slid out. I let go, corrected then repeated the issue trying to scrub speed for the next corner a second consecutive time. No to this tire. It's a ski in every way, both positive and negative ways.
Change, pin, chill,
warm up.
Scratch that warm up. I made my way to the Kinetic tent and the guy told me "I mean, you only have 5 minutes." I caught up briefly with Dan L and a couple other folks, hopped in place then took my call up on the left side of the third row. I bounced around and thought about moving to the right but then ran out of time and stuck to the 3rd lane off the left rail. The field was huge and I hopped around for close to 10 minutes before we finally were started.
GO!
Spin spin spin spin, slide, slide, slide through the ruts, ruts, ruts! We hit the hill, I go low line behind a couple others and start hoofing. I make my way diagonally to the top, and merge in probably about where I was at the bottom. The back side of the levee was a bobsled run, bummer I brought a bike and not my bladed sled. Bodies were dropping and sliding one after another. I round the corner grabbing the post and make my way to the drop in. I have ZERO footing, no way I'm mounting for this. I run the hill, mount and spin up to speed.
Just then I hear "ON YOUR LEFT!" moments before I'm shoulder checked off my bike and into 2018. I hit the ice HARD. That fucking hurt. There must be at least a few inches on the ground by now but it didn't to jack shit to break my fall. I try to shake it off and someone yells "Go go go! You only lost 4 spots!" I get back on and rip into the woods. I come out, by the pits then shoot back in and am promptly ejected from a rut and sent off course. My bike slips out from under me and I high side with enough time to see an odd horizontal tree limb a foot off the ground that my head is seemingly in a direct trajectory for. Miss!
Barely. The check was fucked up, this near miss was equally fucked up. I'm slowing down. Those two ice naps took a lot of HP off of me and it's only lap 1.
It's really slick. My gear is way too tall to ride anything even slightly uphill. I'm mentally bouncing back and fourth between "This is fucking terrible, I hate this, I'm going to just DNF and ride down the boat ramp into the river," and "This is totally fuckin absurd, I'M HAVING SOO MUCH FUN!!!!!"
Basically every time my foot slipped off and I nutted myself on my saddle (4) and every time I slid down an icy off camber while running I got closer and closer to getting off course.
Coming over the levee I spot NECX regular Willie G with his comically HUGE flask, damn do I want some, but I decline. (dumb) I swing the corner but still slide down the ice towards the bottom and look up to find a huge lens in my face and think, "ohhh man thats going to be a great shot for this guy." I spot
@seanrunnette on the outside of the snow fencing on the hill, skate over and he opened up his arms. I needed a hug. Have you ever though that in a race before? I was bordering on shattered. I mount and finally ride the hill. Easy.
Two to go.
In the woods the leader catches me, then 2nd place. I spot Ryan and Keb as I ride the wrong line.
I didn't know I could get off my bike so fast.
One to go! Okay, I can do this all one more time.
My Horst Engineering vampire spices are like velcro when I'm running straight up hill. Bummer 92% of the running is off camber! LOLOL!!!!! Not too long before staging I caught wind of people screwing sheet metal screws into the rubber lugs on their shoes. These people were making easy work of every single ice feature I was struggling to exist around. Definitely going to keep that one in the back of my mind for the future.
Myerson passes me in the woods and I ride behind him until he finally drops me by after the barriers. It's the little wins today.
Done, over, finished. 62/119 The announcer is calling the top ten finishing around me, it's almost like I was in the race for a moment.
I limp on my bike towards the tent, slowly change and get my shit together. At some point early on I either impacted the inside of my right knee to tore something. I try rubbing around and it totally feels muscular. fuuuckkkk. I also impacted the front of my right knee close to the spot from Pisgah and landed on both hips in multiple places.
We drove through the storm back to my friend's place in Northampton and I got
TURNT! Sierra Nevada Torpedo mended my wounds while we hung and Lily cooked some great pizza. A trip out for some pool and more late night pizza settled me right down. The extra double bonus? ZERO headache Sunday morning and my knee felt like pure bruise, not muscle tear. yayyyy!!!
I don't have any other media from Saturday, so sorry, but you are stuck with all these damn words.
Currently feeling stoked that I did finish. I knew if I DNF'd I would regret it and I'm truly happy to have made it through the struggle. I didn't have any goals for this race but I was
really hoping to completely bury myself in the red one more time. I don't know if my HR even came up at all which is the biggest disappointment of the day. That feeling is going to be tough to deal with, but I'm looking forward to some base after a nice little break.
More words and a few pictures from the big show later.
