Glen Park Singletrack Shakedown XC 7/27/19

DanBrodeen

Well-Known Member
RACE LOGO.jpg

MID ATLANTIC SUPER XC SERIES
VISITS STROUDSBURG PA FOR THE

GLEN PARK SINGLETRACK SHAKEDOWN
JULY 27TH 2019
XC has arrived at Glen Park in 2019! Host to the East Coast Junior MTB Championship and North American Enduro World Series Qualifier races, the Glen will not disappoint! Come out to see how you stack up against your peers on the World Cup inspired course featuring two distinct climbs and an enduro inspired flow trail finish to each lap on the Green Monster Trail! The PBC will be adding a spectator trail to the course enabling friends and family to navigate the course to catch the action in some of the best sections. Cranks Around the Campfire will be set up all day with their Cranks Kids Corner. They'll have activities to keep all the young non-racers engaged while the racing action goes down for parents and older siblings. Wabi Sabi food truck will be serving lunch starting at 11am (cash only). Check them out for delicious Ramen! Their restaurant Sango Kura is located in the Delaware Water Gap. Please consider visiting while in the area. They are a strong supporter of the bike scene as well as the Arlington Diner on N. 5th Street in Stroudsburg. The Pocono Bike Company is the official shop sponsor. They have helped provide the race with awesome swag and will be holding exclusive course pre rides starting 2 weeks before the race. Come check out their Wednesday night rides to get to know Glen Park.

Gonna be an unforgettable first MASS XC race! Registration opens soon! https://www.bikereg.com/glen-park-singletrack-shakedown



 
Last edited:

DanBrodeen

Well-Known Member
Join the Pocono Bike Club for Glen Park Singletrack Shakedown XC race course pre rides on Wednesday July 24th and Thursday July 25th! Event partners Pocono Bike Company will be hosting the rides from their shop on 601 Main Street Stroudsburg. Both rides will depart from the shop around 6:10pm so arrive early to check out the shop and fill out a waiver. Course is marked all week with arrows for self guided rides. Check it out!
https://www.bikereg.com/glen-park-singletrack-shakedown
 

Eickelbt

Member
Big plug for this event. Great experience, cool trails, great atmosphere. Hopefully it stays on the calendar- I'll definitely be back next year. Lots of opportunities to see people on course.

Also, awards took place quite soon after the races finished, which is certainly a positive. My feeling is that the gap between race finish and awards should never be longer than 50% of the winners race time, and they adhered to this to the minute.

Awesome job @DanBrodeen and crew!
 

seanrunnette

Brain Damaged Ray Romano
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Whoops, Wednesday already!
Not sure what I was expecting. @Norm and @UtahJoe took a peek on Friday and had nice things to say. Some mention of climbing...
Rolled out early to get a lap in before the fast boys went off at 9. The laps were short, so a half hour to play with meant a no-stress preride. Prologue through a field? Check. 500 yards or so of rolling wide occasionally toothy river road?
Check.
Wall.
Check.
Wait. Wall? Wall.
With no warm up, I found myself doing climbing intervals for the next 12 or so minutes.
To be fair, @DanBrodeen peppered the wall with lil flat bits that made it possible find a scrap of dignity, and air, in the midst of the donkey work. But still, wall.
Check.
Top of the hill groovy rollers, and pretty much the last place to pass before the finish line? Check.
Enduro-bro downhill?
Check.
Gnarly 180 followed by slick speedy bits and a water crossing?
Check.
Drama finish?
Check.
giphy.gif


Peeped @jShort's start. Looked ridiculous fast. He was out there with some cx beasts, so it was gonna be a battle. 6 laps for the speedy kids. They were doing the laps in the high 15s, low 16s. This, I would come to realize, is ridiculous.
@MadisonDan and I hung out on the field. He was very patient as I warmed up the CX heckling motor and only ruined one kid's childhood. We both agreed it was hot and this was a stupid idea.
Despite all the smart parts of me saying GO HOME! I lined up with the rest of the oldsters at 11pm. Initially, it looked like the pre-reg'd 11 racers mostly skipped and it was gonna be me, Rob Ost and some nice random dude. Podium!
Cut to: all the other riders behind us swarming forward. I guess we looked older than the 50+? So now we were 11. And some of these guys looked ripped. Sh*t.
Despite starting with the juniors, we were strung out pretty well by the time we hit the uphill. Sure enough, it hurt. The speedsters hit it and were gone. I was too busy keeping my front wheel on the ground on the switchbacks to count how many were off the front. I assumed a billion.
I dialed in on Rob, who's usually a bit faster'n me in cx season because of training, and was pleasantly surprised to find myself in a group of 5 or 6 of my peers, and not dying on the hills. Which meant I was going too slowly.
That's when Chris Ciocc, who missed the start, came through. With alacrity.
Chris ain't big. He climbs well.
And he sucks on downhills.
I suck at both those things, but I thought I'd hitch my caboose to his engine for as long as I could, and mebbe put some distance between myself and the rest of the oldsters.
So for the next 3.5 laps the race looked like this:
82280969-0W3A6773 (1).JPG

On the last lap, for a moment, it looked like this (I was told it was business casual):
82280968-0W3A7134.JPG

But that was literally the ONLY moment I was in front of him.
And to be honest, this was the result of him blowing a hairpin. I didn't WANT to be in front. But I did take advantage a bit and slow us down so I could recharge my remaining 2032 battery for the massive surge I'd make on the rollers at the top of the hill.
1564577880169.png

There. Was. No. Surge. Not there. The hill had killed me, again.
However! With the 2 minutes of descending came 2 minutes of not pedaling. Followed by the grassy finish, which was the water crossing, a sharp bump and three wide fast turns into the timing gate. No straightaways. I'd been sussing it every lap, looking for the line.
Chris was still leading at the water crossing, but I was feeling better. I gassed it at the bump, pegged to his right as we hit the grass... And realized he was sitting up.
Quandry: does one dust the guy who's been pulling you through the entire race in the last 100 yards because he has a brain-fart? In a cx race, 100% yes. Here, in Stroudsburg, on a 95 degree day, when we've been having a blast, and making solid polite passes together, calling out that BOTH of us are passing? No door slamming, no yelling, lots of please and thank you?
Nah.
So I scream "SPRINT!"
He does. He jukes left on the inside of the first corner, then starts to cross over, going for the inside right line, but I'm already there, elbows out, still a bit behind him. He gives me the line, but as I'm coming out, he's already full gas. I gun, but it's Chris by a wheel.
Assuming we've been racing for billionth-place we introduce ourselves, shake hands and get the hell out of the sun.
The results are posted and I'm 3rd. Mind blown. As I don't know the players, and I'm sh*t at spelling and math, I assume this means Chris is 2nd, and tell him this in the parking lot.
Turns out no. They reversed the sprint.
So five minutes before the podium, the penny drops. I ask the scoring folks to check the video. Sure enough, I'm a foot behind him at the line. @DanBrodeen is kind enough to give me Chris's number and I have the pleasure of telling him all is right with the world and that as he's already in Stroudsburg eating a hot dog, we'll miss him on the podium and his friend Carl will get his new water bottle and drink coozie to him.
Ost 5th, Me 4th, Chris 3rd and some talented rando's further up the food chain.
IMG_20190727_132352298.jpg

I think I would have been grabbing Chris's ass had he been there, so I think it's best he was gone. For his sake.
Our lap times were fairly pedestrian:
Sean.jpg


Vs @jShort's, which were breathtaking:
Jeremy.jpg


UPSHOT?
This race is awesome. The short laps meant you got to see folks more than once during the race. The music skewed toward Europop, which was a welcome change from the usual Nickleback. The food and coffee vendors were awesome, and organization was great. Never lost, never wondering where the bathrooms were. Parking was close and easy, blah blah blah.
In short @DanBrodeen and the Pocono Bike Club folks know their sh*t and take care of their people.
I really really hope this make the calendar next year, as it's absolutely worth the drive.
Just gotta remember to lose 20lbs.
 

Magic

Formerly 1sh0t1b33r
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Whoops, Wednesday already!
Not sure what I was expecting. @Norm and @UtahJoe took a peek on Friday and had nice things to say. Some mention of climbing...
Rolled out early to get a lap in before the fast boys went off at 9. The laps were short, so a half hour to play with meant a no-stress preride. Prologue through a field? Check. 500 yards or so of rolling wide occasionally toothy river road?
Check.
Wall.
Check.
Wait. Wall? Wall.
With no warm up, I found myself doing climbing intervals for the next 12 or so minutes.
To be fair, @DanBrodeen peppered the wall with lil flat bits that made it possible find a scrap of dignity, and air, in the midst of the donkey work. But still, wall.
Check.
Top of the hill groovy rollers, and pretty much the last place to pass before the finish line? Check.
Enduro-bro downhill?
Check.
Gnarly 180 followed by slick speedy bits and a water crossing?
Check.
Drama finish?
Check.
View attachment 101354

Peeped @jShort's start. Looked ridiculous fast. He was out there with some cx beasts, so it was gonna be a battle. 6 laps for the speedy kids. They were doing the laps in the high 15s, low 16s. This, I would come to realize, is ridiculous.
@MadisonDan and I hung out on the field. He was very patient as I warmed up the CX heckling motor and only ruined one kid's childhood. We both agreed it was hot and this was a stupid idea.
Despite all the smart parts of me saying GO HOME! I lined up with the rest of the oldsters at 11pm. Initially, it looked like the pre-reg'd 11 racers mostly skipped and it was gonna be me, Rob Ost and some nice random dude. Podium!
Cut to: all the other riders behind us swarming forward. I guess we looked older than the 50+? So now we were 11. And some of these guys looked ripped. Sh*t.
Despite starting with the juniors, we were strung out pretty well by the time we hit the uphill. Sure enough, it hurt. The speedsters hit it and were gone. I was too busy keeping my front wheel on the ground on the switchbacks to count how many were off the front. I assumed a billion.
I dialed in on Rob, who's usually a bit faster'n me in cx season because of training, and was pleasantly surprised to find myself in a group of 5 or 6 of my peers, and not dying on the hills. Which meant I was going too slowly.
That's when Chris Ciocc, who missed the start, came through. With alacrity.
Chris ain't big. He climbs well.
And he sucks on downhills.
I suck at both those things, but I thought I'd hitch my caboose to his engine for as long as I could, and mebbe put some distance between myself and the rest of the oldsters.
So for the next 3.5 laps the race looked like this:
View attachment 101356
On the last lap, for a moment, it looked like this (I was told it was business casual):
View attachment 101357
But that was literally the ONLY moment I was in front of him.
And to be honest, this was the result of him blowing a hairpin. I didn't WANT to be in front. But I did take advantage a bit and slow us down so I could recharge my remaining 2032 battery for the massive surge I'd make on the rollers at the top of the hill.
View attachment 101359
There. Was. No. Surge. Not there. The hill had killed me, again.
However! With the 2 minutes of descending came 2 minutes of not pedaling. Followed by the grassy finish, which was the water crossing, a sharp bump and three wide fast turns into the timing gate. No straightaways. I'd been sussing it every lap, looking for the line.
Chris was still leading at the water crossing, but I was feeling better. I gassed it at the bump, pegged to his right as we hit the grass... And realized he was sitting up.
Quandry: does one dust the guy who's been pulling you through the entire race in the last 100 yards because he has a brain-fart? In a cx race, 100% yes. Here, in Stroudsburg, on a 95 degree day, when we've been having a blast, and making solid polite passes together, calling out that BOTH of us are passing? No door slamming, no yelling, lots of please and thank you?
Nah.
So I scream "SPRINT!"
He does. He jukes left on the inside of the first corner, then starts to cross over, going for the inside right line, but I'm already there, elbows out, still a bit behind him. He gives me the line, but as I'm coming out, he's already full gas. I gun, but it's Chris by a wheel.
Assuming we've been racing for billionth-place we introduce ourselves, shake hands and get the hell out of the sun.
The results are posted and I'm 3rd. Mind blown. As I don't know the players, and I'm sh*t at spelling and math, I assume this means Chris is 2nd, and tell him this in the parking lot.
Turns out no. They reversed the sprint.
So five minutes before the podium, the penny drops. I ask the scoring folks to check the video. Sure enough, I'm a foot behind him at the line. @DanBrodeen is kind enough to give me Chris's number and I have the pleasure of telling him all is right with the world and that as he's already in Stroudsburg eating a hot dog, we'll miss him on the podium and his friend Carl will get his new water bottle and drink coozie to him.
Ost 5th, Me 4th, Chris 3rd and some talented rando's further up the food chain.
View attachment 101361
I think I would have been grabbing Chris's ass had he been there, so I think it's best he was gone. For his sake.
Our lap times were fairly pedestrian:
View attachment 101368

Vs @jShort's, which were breathtaking:
View attachment 101369

UPSHOT?
This race is awesome. The short laps meant you got to see folks more than once during the race. The music skewed toward Europop, which was a welcome change from the usual Nickleback. The food and coffee vendors were awesome, and organization was great. Never lost, never wondering where the bathrooms were. Parking was close and easy, blah blah blah.
In short @DanBrodeen and the Pocono Bike Club folks know their sh*t and take care of their people.
I really really hope this make the calendar next year, as it's absolutely worth the drive.
Just gotta remember to lose 20lbs.
Nice work Sean! Thanks for the write up. Very endurobro outfit.

Long time, no see.:(
 
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