LMC roll call

ArmyOfNone said:
Where is everyone w/ there reports?
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I was happy with the course, it was in good shape and went in the direction I was hoping for. Wish I could say the same for my race -- just didn't attack it the way I should have. I bonked at Stewart the previous weekend and even knowing LM was just 7 mi and a fast course, I was too hesistant.

I'm not sure if it was because of the late start but the Beginners had only 1 min in between each age group and that made for a real busy race. A 40-49er told me he past some 30-39 guys even before the bridge. Too close.

But a great time and big thanks to the Marty's crew and Campmor of course.
 
The course was in good shape and running real fast on the home stretch. In my opinion it flows a little better in the other direction and is a bit more entertaining with wet roots and bridges, but either way a fun fast course. Marty said it was the largest beginner turn out yet, which is great to see.

I chose to race gears class as to try to save some legs for Mt Snow next week. I think I made the right choice as there seemed to be a bit of low grade climbing. I usually warm up for and hour, but only took 30 min yesterday as part of my taper for next week. It took me a lap and a half to get going but I felt strong to the finish.

I heard there was an exciting finish line sprint for the winner of the pro class. Hope some of you were still there to see that. My teammate Ed ended up winning it by a wheels length. Fun stuff.
 
Somehow I managed to get out of bed early enough to make the Beginners race.

I was in the second row for the start. I jumped up to 4th fairly easily and my first thought was “wow that was easy”, my second thought was “wow these guys are going kinda fast”. The story for the rest of the race was, go up hill get passed by 2 or 3 racers then go down hill and ride somebody’s wheel (whom would drop me on the next climb anyway). I guess it really is all about the climbing and for some reason I didn't feel strong on any of the climbs. I wished I could have made some time up on the downhills but I just couldn’t see myself passing anyone going that fast.
With the amount of people passing me I though for sure I had a pretty poor showing, but as mentioned before the classes were started so close together. I ended up 6th in my age group and 31st overall. I guess all the people who passed me were in other classes. I’d also like to point out that my time last year would have landed me 3rd in my age group and 7th overall. Anyway I think I did alright for my first ever race. It was fun and I may try to do the Ringwood race in October, but I need to get into better shape.
 
The scoring was a bit off in the end, but I believe ultimately everyone is at his place. No idea why they had me and others at those weird places...

My race went fairly well... for about 3 laps. Then I blew up big time. I started on the wheels of the first two competitors but in the descent after the loose rocks fire-road climb I clipped a tree with my shoulder and went flying the other way. Time to get my bike untangled and everybody in my group had passed me. I probably spent a little too much energy passing them again to get back in third and that may have bit me back as at the end of lap 3 I started fading. I'm still a bit tired these days as I should have been able to keep the pace otherwise, but it's coming back little by little. I was close to DNF'ing but figured one more lap would help in the long run.

The course was fun (well, except for big trees running in front of me) and apart from the scoring issues it all went fairly well.

Kudos to all that came out to suffer in the heat. Norm it was great to see you out there pushing it on those climbs. I think I saw a skinhead Brit from the corner of my eye; he was cheering at the bottom of the orange trail ;)

Cheers,

Maurice
 
Did anyone in sport notice that the time for the first lap is wrong? Their timing is 3 minutes more than what I have on my watch.
 
heythorp said:
Ok now that is the second person that has had trees jumping out at them there. maybe there is some truth to it

I didnt stay around for too much of your race. I have some vid of you coming through lap one. the 2 guys that came through first were absolutely flying.
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Cool. Eddy and Aaron are from another planet. Aaron is showing great potential.

Maurice
 
Maurice said:
Kudos to all that came out to suffer in the heat. Norm it was great to see you out there pushing it on those climbs. I think I saw a skinhead Brit from the corner of my eye; he was cheering at the bottom of the orange trail ;)

Cheers,

Maurice
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Good to see you there for a few seconds. Too bad I couldn't keep pace at that point but I was just running what I could. That bike gets really heavy after 3 laps. Just not a good bike for that course at all.

So here I am slogging up this hill and a guy just buzzes by me. I'm like, "Nice climbing man," because we're all on lap 3, halfway done at this point. You can climb like this at this point, well I'm impressed. It turns out to be Maurice doing a pre-ride.
 
I guess I should throw in more comments.

* I prefer the course in this direction but if you really let it go at the end of the course those orange trail climbs hurt a lot more.

* By the time we ran (sport) the trails were in better shape than I've seen there in some time. I imagine the expert class got plenty of smooth singletrack. In weeks before the trails were really looking bad and I think the packs helped carve some smoothness into that.

* Someone once said the MASS series is run as much more of an all day event than the H2H series. Having done one of each race this year I'd say that's an understatement.

* If you have a bullhorn at the start of the race, use it to clue the racers in a little bit. Don't stand there holding it and then talk so nobody can hear you. Just a thought?

As for my race recap I won't gum up this board with it, I'll just put it in my blog.
 
i DNF'd. like maurice, i blew up...but unlike maurice i think i may have learned my lesson which is that i'm not much of a racer.

my first lap went really well, a full three minutes faster than i've ever run a lap there. the second lap, well, not so good. there will be a short recap in my blog thingy.
 
Jake,

I think the thing is that with all those other people racing, a 40 minute first lap is really like a 37 minute lap for you. The amount of energy you need to keep your line and pace with all that chaff there just sucks the energy out of you. So you probably toasted your race in the first 20 minutes but you didn't realize it.

I did sorta the same thing at the end of lap 1 so I dialed it back just a little on lap 2 because I was hurting at the start of it. Going up the switchbacks the second time was painful, and I said to myself I didn't know how I was going to do it a third time but I'd have to figure it out when I got there.

You need to learn how to pace yourself in those starts. A lot of those guys fly out of the gate, guns blazing. You get caught in that and it's impossible to keep that up.
 
I had my worst race of the season, but oh well we get a break now. I'm tired of pedalfests and am looking forward to some technical races in the fall, i.e. Chain Stretcher and Ringwood.
 
I loved being there yesterday. I didn't race - just not my thing, but it was great meeting more people from the board.

You know, it's pretty cool standing on the side lines and clapping/cheering people on. Yess I was that "skinhead" next to the bridge on the orange trail! I got a lot of "Thanks dude", "Cheers buddy", and one guy on a single speed, full rigid's "Can I borrow your lower back" - made me giggle.

I had a quick spin of the course between races. I liked the direction it took as I really like those downhills in that direction. The climbing was tough, just because of all of the routes and things. It must've been very tough to also take into account the unexpected stopping and direction changes of a person just ahead of you...

I did another lap just before the expert class and too a wicked spill on the quick downhill section after the upper car park on the yellow (?) trail. Fortunately out of site of the water station but I picked up a nice set of raspberrys on my shoulder, elbow and ankle, a chunk out of my knee and a lovely scrape about 5 inches across on my arse cheek - so I even got battle damage! It really tipped off a great day and a fantastic weekend of riding.

Well done to those who raced!
 
Glancing Aft said:
I had my worst race of the season, but oh well we get a break now. I'm tired of pedalfests and am looking forward to some technical races in the fall, i.e. Chain Stretcher and Ringwood.
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I raced both last year and the Chain Stretcher was the best course (technical wise) IMO. Ringwood had way too much "fireroad" and some parts of the race course were "smoothed out" where they took out a bunch of rocks. I miss those rocks. :(

No H2H for me this year. I am not in shape to be pedaling at that pace for 2 or 3 laps.
 
Here is the future of mountain bike racing.... Check out the face of determination on the 11 year old (#201) in the sport class. Yes, 11 yrs old and did 3 laps.
 
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