xc62701
Well-Known Member
Saturday was the Erie MTB Festival and I signed up for the Fatbike race. It was the 25 miler which I was happy about. I didn't think I would enjoy racing for 50 miles but I could wrap my head around 25 miles at this point in the season. I just wanted to have a good day on the MTB and enjoy the Port Jervis trails. Especially since both my kids were coming down with colds and I was doing the same. I woke up feeling pretty ragged but I was hoping maybe a good effort could blow it out. I put that behind me and just started thinking about the day. I was wondering why the race went off at 10, but when I got to the venue I knew why - or was thankful - since it was in the 30's. The sun was out and warming everything up nicely as it approached the start time.
A good 15-20 degrees warmer thank the morning - we rolled out as one big group behind the police escort. The fatty's tires were humming along in the middle of the pack until the police car pulled away and we were let go into the first road climb up to the singletrack. I tried to settle into a good pace but I wanted to go harder. I picked up the pace and it felt good so I went with it. I started picking off people one by one up the climb and it was good to not go backwards on the initial climb for once. We made the right hander into the singletrack and started cranking through the trails. Things were looking good as we rode solid single file until all hell broke loose. The lead group starts riding back towards me yelling that we made a wrong turn. I jumped off the trail and made a u turn along with everyone else and we rode back to the bad turn. We were all quesitioning what was right or wrong and I just went with the group as we saw the markings that we were supposed to see. I'm usually very good at seeing all the markings but I missed this one too. I was wondering if there was an arrow down like everyone else but there couldn't have been. We knew as soon as we got back on track and had to start making our way through traffic. And LOTS of traffic. We must have lost 5 minutes with the u-turn as we got caught behind lots of people. This was not a good scenario.
There were sketchball A-holes everywhere trying to pass. I understand that people wanted to pass but so did everyone. I'm one to make some tight passes but I will call out everything and communicate so others know exactly what's going on. Most around me were NOT doing this. There were aggressive passes going on everywhere that were pointless. The trails would open up at some point allowing passing. This wasn't going to make or break a 50/25 mile race. But it was what it was. I loved the fact that someone hooked my bars and crashed almost taking me down in the process, only for me to pass that same jerk a few turns later. There were even idiots cutting off complete switchback corners and making their own trails just to get around traffic. Not only is this a douche move, but those riders should have been disqualified. Anyway the race kept on moving on and finally settled down as traffic thinned 5 miles or so in.
It was great going back and forth with a few guys but it was interesting as I'd pass some and then a few of the fast guys that went off course would zoom through. Then I would swap back and forth with a few riders and repeat for the rest of the 25 miles. I generally didn't expect it but I felt good for the first 2 hours. I started to come back to the reservoir towards the bottom of the course and then I realized we would have to climb all the way back to the top. I was dreading this and I was already on the ground once and the energy level was dropping, but then we started on the amazing new trail to climb back up and my worries lessened. It was too much fun to climb that. I hit it steady and was just looking for familiar trails. Once I got on the familiar trails, I would know how many miles it would be to the end and just what effort I would need to make. I kept pedaling and after one turn I recognized the trails finally. I rolled in to the last aid station knowing I had the only a few small climbs left up to the flagpole and then descent into town so I was psyched.
As I rolled through I saw my teammate Phil and he jumped out in front of me. His wording later was hell no I wasn't going to let you pass me. He pulled away and I caught up to him as he was taking pictures by the flagpole. I waited up for him and started the descent. I was riding well at this point but definitely feeling the effort. Actually the worst part was that my rigid fork was killing my left elbow. All that rock made my elbow so numb that I had to hold the bar really lightly even on the jarring descents. I made it to the bottom where we had to roll the pavement to the finish and I was on the verge of cramps. I hit the one little rise and wanted to stand and my left quad stared to lock up. Phil rejoined me then and my legs were hurting. I had to take it down a notch and get to the finish. We rolled into the final straight and I told him to sprint it out. As he stood up I chilled and watched him take off across the line. It turns out he was second in the open 25 and I was first in the Fatbike! I was hoping for 3ish hours of racing and we crossed at 2:56. That was a solid effort and I'm super happy to finish as well as I did given I wasn't going for that. Maybe there is some juice hanging around in these legs after all.
A good 15-20 degrees warmer thank the morning - we rolled out as one big group behind the police escort. The fatty's tires were humming along in the middle of the pack until the police car pulled away and we were let go into the first road climb up to the singletrack. I tried to settle into a good pace but I wanted to go harder. I picked up the pace and it felt good so I went with it. I started picking off people one by one up the climb and it was good to not go backwards on the initial climb for once. We made the right hander into the singletrack and started cranking through the trails. Things were looking good as we rode solid single file until all hell broke loose. The lead group starts riding back towards me yelling that we made a wrong turn. I jumped off the trail and made a u turn along with everyone else and we rode back to the bad turn. We were all quesitioning what was right or wrong and I just went with the group as we saw the markings that we were supposed to see. I'm usually very good at seeing all the markings but I missed this one too. I was wondering if there was an arrow down like everyone else but there couldn't have been. We knew as soon as we got back on track and had to start making our way through traffic. And LOTS of traffic. We must have lost 5 minutes with the u-turn as we got caught behind lots of people. This was not a good scenario.
There were sketchball A-holes everywhere trying to pass. I understand that people wanted to pass but so did everyone. I'm one to make some tight passes but I will call out everything and communicate so others know exactly what's going on. Most around me were NOT doing this. There were aggressive passes going on everywhere that were pointless. The trails would open up at some point allowing passing. This wasn't going to make or break a 50/25 mile race. But it was what it was. I loved the fact that someone hooked my bars and crashed almost taking me down in the process, only for me to pass that same jerk a few turns later. There were even idiots cutting off complete switchback corners and making their own trails just to get around traffic. Not only is this a douche move, but those riders should have been disqualified. Anyway the race kept on moving on and finally settled down as traffic thinned 5 miles or so in.
It was great going back and forth with a few guys but it was interesting as I'd pass some and then a few of the fast guys that went off course would zoom through. Then I would swap back and forth with a few riders and repeat for the rest of the 25 miles. I generally didn't expect it but I felt good for the first 2 hours. I started to come back to the reservoir towards the bottom of the course and then I realized we would have to climb all the way back to the top. I was dreading this and I was already on the ground once and the energy level was dropping, but then we started on the amazing new trail to climb back up and my worries lessened. It was too much fun to climb that. I hit it steady and was just looking for familiar trails. Once I got on the familiar trails, I would know how many miles it would be to the end and just what effort I would need to make. I kept pedaling and after one turn I recognized the trails finally. I rolled in to the last aid station knowing I had the only a few small climbs left up to the flagpole and then descent into town so I was psyched.
As I rolled through I saw my teammate Phil and he jumped out in front of me. His wording later was hell no I wasn't going to let you pass me. He pulled away and I caught up to him as he was taking pictures by the flagpole. I waited up for him and started the descent. I was riding well at this point but definitely feeling the effort. Actually the worst part was that my rigid fork was killing my left elbow. All that rock made my elbow so numb that I had to hold the bar really lightly even on the jarring descents. I made it to the bottom where we had to roll the pavement to the finish and I was on the verge of cramps. I hit the one little rise and wanted to stand and my left quad stared to lock up. Phil rejoined me then and my legs were hurting. I had to take it down a notch and get to the finish. We rolled into the final straight and I told him to sprint it out. As he stood up I chilled and watched him take off across the line. It turns out he was second in the open 25 and I was first in the Fatbike! I was hoping for 3ish hours of racing and we crossed at 2:56. That was a solid effort and I'm super happy to finish as well as I did given I wasn't going for that. Maybe there is some juice hanging around in these legs after all.
