MisSOULa pt 1

In the gravel parking lot at the bottom of the mountain there was a car parked right near mine. It had a ton of bumper stickers but one stood out. It simply said MisSOULa. I can’t understand exactly why, but I just really like what that means. I’ll be a Wisco boy forever, but I left a little bit of my soul in Montana.

The weekend began early Thursday morning when like a little kid packing the car for a summer vacation trip, I was excited. I felt like I was playing hooky, probably because I was. I was skipping 2 days of work and class to drive out to a small mountain town to take a shot at a dream. If that isn’t surreal I don’t know what is. I knew it was a pretty big leap of faith, but I didn’t know how big it really was.

The drive began and continued all the way to Jamestown North Dakota, a small town just off I-94. I was determined to make sure that I didn’t waste any fun, so I did some research and found some trails just outside of town. I exited the highway and began my search. I followed the direction on my phone and took a left turn onto a very small country road. As the road began to get rougher I thought it was strange, but if the roads were this crazy, the trails must be amazing.

But shortly the road turned from pavement to gravel. And then it went from gravel to big gravel and from big gravel to sandy rocky gravel. I continued on. After a few turns the trails were said to be just ahead so I turned on to the road and it turned out to be a driveway. I pushed on, still assuming that a trail at the end of this road must be worth it. I looked around and realized I was in the middle of rolling farm field with nothing except a small farm house in the distance. Strike out!

I turned around and headed back to I-94 and went back to the interwebs looking for another trail. I found another one the next time over at the Fort Lincoln State Park. The trails were claimed to be pretty tame, and in the grand scheme of things they were. But for an nice easy spin they were just right. But even still, it had drops and tight switch back. Just goes to show that even easy trails are fun when you go out west. Just amazing!

After 2 hours of exploring and shredding I packed it in and grabbed some food. Then tried to get a few more hours of driving in before I pulled off at a rest stop in the middle of nowhere around 1am. I set up a tent and got some sleep. I woke up to a cold rain and quickly packed back up and hit the road. I was really living the nomad life it felt. But after a few more hours I was in the mountains and a few more hours after that I was in Missoula. I was safe and sound and full of energy ready to go.

 

I arrived in Missoula around 2pm on Friday which was just perfect. I got a chance to get a hotel and grab a little food before heading to the race course. The plan was to get a few laps of the XC course in and then take some time to prepare for the STXC race that night. And that is exactly what I did. I also checked out the venue. Marshal Mountain is pretty cool. For the WORS racers reading it’s actually similar to Mt. Morris except the mountain is actually a mountain. But the lodges are similar and the vibe was similar. I realized that I had a few friends at the race, Greg and Dave both guys who grew up in Wisconsin. It was good to catch up.

But the race course was amazing. It was a pretty straight forward traditional style course. Right up the mountain then right back down. The climbing was split up here and there with small sections of single track that would also go up and down the mountain. But once you hit the top of the mountain it was a huge rush down the mountain before hitting the finish line. The switch backs were crazy steep and the trails were all set on the thinnest ledge on the mountain. It’s all about not looking down, just follow the trial because if you did it was pretty freaky and a long way to fall. The descents were just on another level, words can’t even describe it. Alabama was much rougher, but Missoula just had plain elevation. If you want to go faster on a Midwest trail you can pedal down the hills, in those types of mountains you just have to leave your breaks alone.

 

With 4 laps done on the XC course I got some food and chilled out with friends for a little while before getting set up for the STXC. The pro XCT races have generally had a STXC race the day before the XC and I’m finding that the hard effort and long warm up required to race these races really helps open me up. But beyond that is a good way to go through you race preparation. I show up to the race and have a whole dry run through of my preparation, warm up and then a race. And when you’re done you feel very prepared, and the nervousness almost goes away.

So I got a good warm up in and made sure I was all set for a hard 30 minutes effort. I rolled to the course and got a few laps in then settled in by the group to get ready for the call ups. It was a long wait as I was the last one called up. But there were only 26 guys in 4 rows so I wasn’t that far back. When the gun went off I was amazed how fast the start was. I noticed that in WORS the starts have been getting easier for me, but at this new level of racing the starts are really challenging. Coming into the first turn the group was bunching up and a rider a few up got caught in the tap. I was lucky to not get caught up too much but I was basically last so I had to slow down a lot. From there I put in a big dig to try and catch the big group of leaders. I knew that if I could get there I would be able to settle into a rhythm and hopefully shot for a high finish. I was making moves but by the time I caught the guys in front of me they had already dropped off so I kept pushing to try and go around them. After doing this for 2 laps I was completely gassed and I let off. I ended up getting caught by a few riders behind me and we settled into a tempo. We started to catch a few riders but the leaders were coming from behind us so I put in a dig to try and keep from getting pulled. It proved to be useless except for the few spots I made up in the process. I was pulled with one to go.

 

It was late so I packed up quick and went back to the hotel. I had some Mikes Mix and a little food to make sure I was fueled for the next day. But after hanging out at the hotel for an hour I just passed out.

This is all for now, Check back tomorrow for the XC race and conclusion!