Dive in Head First

WORS #2 was this past weekend and after a relatively good start to the season I was still hungry for more. This season’s start off-road has to be put in perspective. Last year I placed 40^th at Iola and DNF’d at Crystal Lake, so placing 13^th this year at the season opener was exciting. I came out of that weekend with high hopes for a monster season.

Part of taking Mountain Biking more seriously this year has been making a full weekend out of racing. At Iola, Tim Racette and I stayed at one of our KS/TW teammate’s cabin about 20 minutes from the race. This past weekend it was about time to break out the tent and air mattress for a little camping. It was awesome that the venue had full shower, restrooms and food. It made everything so much easier.

Saturday was the usual pre-ride. I did something different than I usually do this time though. I took my first lap super slow and found all the lines. When you go slow you have a little more time to think and process everything. You also feel the bumps a lot more so when you make a mistake you feel it. The course was crazy dusty and just about as dry as I ever seen a course. But things were very fast as the course was dominated by fast open double track. On the flip side, the single track was bumpy and technical. My pick for ideal bike? Trek Top Fuel. The smaller wheels might not have been awesome on the flat open sections but were unbeatable in the tight stuff. And the soft tail made putting the power down a lot easier coming out of corners. Unfortunately I was on a hard tail, so my body was in for a pounding. I finished my pre-ride off with a fast lap at race pace, which took about 35 minutes, and finally another slightly faster lap which was just under 40 minutes.

Another teammate of mine, Matt Gehling was there as well and we got talking about the race. I knew I’d have a second if not first row start, so I was determined to make something of it. Matt was in total support. As he will say the plan should have been to go out super hard and then sit in, but all I heard was go out super hard…

After a solid warm-up I came to the line a little later than usual as I was called up and didn’t need to fight for a third row start. When I was called, there was not really any room on the front, but I asked politely and was able to squeeze in. Off the line I tried to play it cool, but that’s not really my thing and when Maciej went off the front, probably joking, I followed and it was on. When things settled a little more I tried to do my best to sit in and not push it too hard. I was trying to ride like I belonged there in the top 5. When the pace elevated I was the last man in the lead group sitting top 5! I wasn’t sure was to expect, but somehow I was sitting comfortably and making a point to keep second or third wheel trying to keep the dust out of my lungs. I never really tried to attack, but tried to keep an eye out for someone else to make a move. I felt things slowing a little and I knew I couldn’t hang, so my plan was to pull; keep the pace high and stretch the gap out to make sure that when I got dropped I could have a lot of space to keep my 5^th place. In hind sight not a great idea.

I went to the front and pushed it in the single track and got a small gap, and once we hit the open double track the gap only grew, so I didn’t let off. Again, probably really dumb move but it wasn’t all bad. From hearing stories, Jesse Lalonde asked the group when I took a flyer, “who the hell is that?” As far as I’m concerned, mission accomplished. If they didn’t know then, they know now. I remember thinking when I was off the front, I’ve got the element of surprise, they don’t know me, and maybe I can pull a big gap and stay away. Again, really dumb, but I know that now. They pulled me back middle of lap two and when I tried to catch the last wheel, it wasn’t there. I think I pissed them off a little bit.

There is a noticable difference in my face from
the beginning to my face a the end in this picture.

I finished lap 2 lap two solo with the chase group slowly pulling me in. On lap 3 they caught me and again, couldn’t hang on. After a bit of shuffling and some bad “I’m too cross-eyed to do simple math” I was either in 7^th or 8^th with bag gaps ahead and behind. I was pretty sure I was in 8^th, but turns out I was in 7^th, again, thinking is tough when you’re in over your head. Things stayed the same from there on out, every time I stood up and pushed it up a hill I was burning matches I just didn’t have. Usually if it hurts I can just indulge in the pain and push a little harder, but this was a lot of pain and I couldn’t catch the group in front of me. But I rolled in for 7th, matching my best ever finish in a WORS race.

I am incredibly pleased with how the race went. Ideally I wouldn’t have blown up so bad and finished 5^th, but I think I did what I wanted to do. I went to the front and showed my colors. I showed those guys that I’m here and they better take notice. Hopefully I didn’t piss them off too bad, but next time I won’t race so stupid. Next time I think I can hang on.