The Wheel Den: MMBA #4 ME Sport Runoff Report

2nd Overall

Sunday dawned a fantastic day to race after days and days of rain. I loaded up the family truckster and the fam and I headed to Camden, where the mountains meet the ocean. The entire drive was shrouded in a fog until we reached the outskirts of Camden and the blue sky emerged. I intially was thinking it was going to be in the 60's and overcast, but the sun proved warm and the air was pretty pleasant.
I warmed up a bit on the trainer then took up the opportunity to pace the kids' race. Fenix's heat was first and he finished a solid 2nd. Drake ran away from his group for a solo win.

"Let's beat dad!"

Course conditions were a concern based on the tropical rainforest weather pattern Maine has been in for the last 2 months. The Snowbowl is a challenge in dry conditions both going up and coming down. Racin' Rick did a short loop pre-ride and reported mud was actually at a minimum, but rocks and roots were a bit greasy. Of course I opted for mud tires, but opted out of applying Pam to the drivetrain. New news was the laps were altered from the standard: climb, descend, repeat, repeat. Today we were going to climb, descend, climb, descend, climb halfway, descend, climb halfway, descend. In other words, 2 long loops to the top, 2 short loops halfway up. I was not excited to hear this as the climbs are traditionally my strength versus the singletrack. But, I was intrigued by the change and curious to see how it would play out.
The starting group was small, but had the usual strong suspects in Rick, French Freye, Cat. 3 roadie Chris LaFlamme, and Ryan Littlefield whom I didn't realize until the finish was on a 29" singlespeed. The start was pretty mellow with no one eager to jump out front so by default I ended up leading the climb.

Rick and I in our standard side-by-side start

It sounded like everyone was pretty much intact behind me. About 1/3 of the way up Freye made his move to the front and I figured this would be the last I would see of him until the finish. Chris was then on my tail and after I bobbled a bit, he passed and I was now just ahead of Ryan. Rick was trying to defibrillate his legs after a Saturday comprised of lobster rolls, clams, and culvert rolling instead of riding! You'll have to check his entry here to believe it! Suddenly, Freye was on the dirt and I heard a quick hiss from his tire. We passed as he set about pumping in some air for the first time on the day. Chris had a bobble later on and I slipped by and we summited in that order. The descent is a tricky one and I was overly cautious this first time down not knowing what the conditions were and more interested in staying upright, feeling out the course no matter how slowly I rode. Being in front allowed me to take control of the pace. The short loop section was in great shape. Much of the trail was new, so it had plenty of terra firma on it and the roots were generally pointing in the right direction making it all very rideable. There was one tough section that started with a couple of big roots that required a step-up. If you didn't make it, your momentum was killed and not worth fighting so I ended up running it each lap, this would hurt later on! Early on, Freye had his wheels rolling again and passed like I was standing still! That's what World Cup racing in Canada will get you! Unfortunately for him, his aggressive style would nip him in the tire again and I passed him once more. Fortunately for me, this would be the last I saw of him as he suffered through 2 more flats for a total of 4 on the day!

Freye had more tubes than water in the Camelback!

I cruised through the start-finish in the lead spurred on by Babs and the boys. I'm not sure where Chris and Rick were, but I suspected close so I set my mind to climb strongly and hope to create a gap. All was well on the bottom half, but the top was giving me trouble as the switchbacks were just greasy enough to give me trouble maintaining momentum. I ended up running a bunch at the top, forgetting when the actual summit was, once again, this running would hurt later on. But I got to the descent, didn't hear anyone close, and rode down a bit more aggressively feeling good about traction and the course. It seemed like I had a pretty good lead going into my 3rd lap so I rode tempo up the climb and prepared for the short loop. About mid-way through, Chris came up fast! Then he passed. For some reason, I just didn't have the killer instinct in me today. I probably could have used a caffeine fix at the start-finish. I just didn't have the fire in me to stay with him. Soon though, it looked like my consistent pace was the right plan of attack as Chris rode the fine line of fast and crashing. He was battling his bike and half his pedal wouldn't clip in. I passed him again and we were together until the last tech section before the start-finish when I heard him wreck behind me again. I hit the last climb hard, but not all out and I didn't hear from him for a bit. Suddenly, he came charging up again about 1/3 into the singletrack. I bobbled and as I went to dab, my left calf seized. All the running finally took its toll. My foot was cock-eyed such that I couldn't clip back in and had to stop and straighted it out on the ground. Chris went by and that was the last I saw of him. I rode on in damage control-mode and he must have crashed a bit less and went on to victory. Rick followed shortly after and Freye just edged out Ryan.

Now a tradition, post-race hug for Mike Hartley who put on a great show