909 Challenge

Damn. I got absolutely shellacked yesterday. Nothing was working for me. Weak legs, on the edge of cramping on the 2nd lap, slow in the bombable sections where I'm normally pretty fast. I didn't wait to get results but I don't think I was even in the top 10. Two guys I beat a few weeks ago at Kittatiny (where I came in 2nd) were 2nd and 3rd I think.

Don't know what happened. I didn't feel so bad at the start, which was clean. My rear brake was rubbing and making a ton of noise but that solved itself eventually. The rubbing wasn't enough to affect my results. I also missed a turn and had to backtrack a few minutes. That cost me some places but at that point I was in the cheap seats anyway.



Apparently the 1st and 2nd riders in another Cat 2 class missed the same turn I did but shortcut the course rather than backtrack, then denied they did it when confronted about it. They did a lap 3-4 minutes faster than the Pro guys. Totally believable.
 
mfennell said:
Apparently the 1st and 2nd riders in another Cat 2 class missed the same turn I did but shortcut the course rather than backtrack, then denied they did it when confronted about it. They did a lap 3-4 minutes faster than the Pro guys. Totally believable.
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This turn by any chance? The one right in the middle? You can see if I kept going it would have connected back to the race loop and I would have cut out a bunch of singletrack.

I heard the log with the arrow was moved or something...not sure how or why..

This happened on the last lap of the cat 1 race and its pretty lame it didnt get fixed for the Cat 2 race.

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jShort said:
This turn by any chance? The one right in the middle?
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At the time I assumed it was the turn I missed - down at the bottom on the first 1/3 of the course - but it could have been that one too.

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There were arrows off to the side that I simply missed. No idea if there was originally a log there or not. Since I did this on my second lap, I'm comfortable declaring simple incompetence on my part.
 

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Hey Mike, this is Steve, one of the guys from the warm-up yesterday. Yes, the top 2 times in my class were totally unbelievable and it must have happened on both laps. I'm not sure how since most people had no issues with the course including myself. I did hear something about a family messing with some of the arrows though because "they were upset that mountain bikers were using their park" but I don't know any specifics, etc.
 
jShort said:
That one guy completely cut off 1/4 of the race
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He might not have been racing though, no idea.

edit...im told he was in the race...wow, thats some SERIOUS course chopping right there. Maybe he just ran his own race 🙂
 
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Ah, the upset hiker family...During our cat 1/open race as we were all racing up a short hill a couple minutes after the start of the race, a guy with his family in the middle of the trail yelled, "Slow down! There are children present!" I just said,"bike race." But, I think he was obviously well aware since we were the last group to start after the men.
 
Was very disappointed to see the gps's later. Marking situation was not good after they were messed with. A couple pieces of pink tape or (X Wrong Way) is the usual remedy for people riding at the limits of their sanity. There are lots of Stravas uploaded and looks like there were 3 common spots people took wrong turns starting with the cat 1 race.

I was the cat 2 40-49 that got lost at 1:04 as previously mentioned. On the second lap I followed the same log/arrow mentioned earlier that i found out later was moved. Right at the top of the climb was another set of arrows.

I had no idea there were issues until I saw leader coming up behind. I was really sure the leaders went off-course and added miles, let them pass to be fair since it could be either of our mistakes.

Since I knew I was on the tail of 5 and got spooked by the pass, I stopped and waited to see who was coming next. Saw 3, 4, 5 coming so sat back and let them go. I told them they were ahead of me as they came up. I knew I was 15 seconds behind 5 (you'll see at 1:02). Total miles ended up the same for some reason but missed Tunnel DH one of the fastest segments.

The big issue with cat 2 30-39 you can see right at the beginning at 00:14:19. That was the first turn in after the biggest doubletrack climb. Even our leader missed that turn, I had to call out to him.
 
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UtahJoe said:
Sucks he seems to have gotten shafted out of the lead or maybe winning the race.
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Luckily he got second place because both him and our winner missed the same turn together, I was third wheel and called whoa bad turn guys' it was only around a puddle to get back.

Overall, If it wasn't for the arrows, man that course is mtb at its best.
 
mfennell said:
Apparently the 1st and 2nd riders in another Cat 2 class missed the same turn I did but shortcut the course rather than backtrack, then denied they did it when confronted about it. They did a lap 3-4 minutes faster than the Pro guys. Totally believable.
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Well at least one of them has been caught red handed now....Im guessing nothing will be done about it. Sucks.
 
stb222 said:
Oh the irony

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Norm didnt have to get caught though, he told maddawg right after his lap what happened. This guy and another (as im told from people who were there) was called out and denied it.

That said wheres walter and sevenz now? Did they retire from fighting for justice?
 
I don't want to think that anyone knowingly cut the course. Kudos to those that when going off course, figured it out and turned back to get back on course. The 2 women that went off, figured out their mistake, went back and worked their way back up into the class and still got 1st and 3rd. Nice Job!

I know it is not always possible, but when you can, it is good to pre-ride just so you know where you are going. There are no police in the woods guarding markers. I think we all trust that no one will move them or no one will cut the course.😕 Sad to hear about this kind of behavior. These races are supposed to be about having fun.
 
UtahJoe said:
Norm didnt have to get caught though, he told maddawg right after his lap what happened. This guy and another (as im told from people who were there) was called out and denied it.

That said wheres walter and sevenz now? Did they retire from fighting for justice?
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Nortah always has an answer.

However, your point is a good one. Carry on.
 
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