Another year and another Chequamegon has come and passed.
Not to make it sound like a chore, it’s something I look forward to every year.
I’ve been going since before I can remember and haven’t really missed a single
year, as a spectator or as a racer.
Steve Tilford gave a pretty good account of the race. If you’re
interested, his post is here.
http://stevetilford.com/2015/09/21/chequamegon-2/
I’ll summarize by saying that after the traditional roll out
of town things got going, but not as hard as normal. Noticeably absent this
year were any big names from outside of the off-road world. Chequamegon has a special
ability to pull talent from all areas in the racing world and see who stacks up
best, but this year it seemed like there was the raw horsepower of the road
world missing. We hit Rosie’s again going a little bit slower than we have in
the past making things a little bit dangerous, but some wet grass and mud and a
few hard moves on the front had things strung out like normal. But as I reflect
back I should have already recognized the hesitation was there.
Things progressed mostly as they do. The first 5-10 miles
are always about establishing a group at the front. Moves go from all over in
Rosie’s but it mostly serves to whittle down the group and once we hit burkie
trail it only gets smaller. But this year the group was bigger than it has been
in the last few year. I was doing my best to hang in there. It wasn’t killing
me which had me feeling confident for the race to come because at this point I’m
usually struggling to hang on. It’s usually the second hardest part of the race
for me, the first being when I get dropped later on.
The pace slowed as the group established itself, and like
before it seemed slower than normal. There was a lot of looking around and a
few moves, but nothing that could stick. That was until Jeff Hall went. At
first I didn’t know who it was, I was caught sleeping, and I think we all were.
But when I heard it was Jeff, I knew it would be a serious move, a race
defining move. But I, like most, figured it would be pulled back. I envisioned
the group eventually pulling it back and in the process setting up the winning
move going into fire tower or something.
But everyone seemed to wait for someone else to do the work.
I was content to play my card. I knew I wasn’t racing for a win, I was racing
for a top 5 so I placed my best that those who were racing to win would put
their effort in to earn it. But there was a hesitation from everyone and Jeff
was more than out of sight. This was before OO. The next 45 minutes consisted
of most of us realizing the win was riding away. There were efforts to bring
him back, but you would get one rider do a pull and the next rider wouldn’t
pull through. A few times there was cooperation, but never for more than 2
riders. An attack would always break it up.
During this time I also started to feel my back tighten up.
I have struggled a little with this in the past, but it’s hard for me to ignore
the crash I was involved in and I have to think that it played some part. I had
been feeling my back tighten up since in training. But it started to hurt and
the pace was getting faster as we made our way towards Fire Tower. I did my
best to hang on, but I just couldn’t manage and was dropped before Fire Tower.
But it was just before, because on the climb I could see the group up the trail
and had a chance to make contact if everything went my way. I nearly made
contact with Josh Bauer on the climb and pushed hard to make it happen.
I began to pay the price for that effort on the back side of
the climb as I slowly faded and lost sight of Josh. I continued to push but I
was mentally and physically beaten at this point. But as I made my way through
the last 8 miles of Burkie trail, I started to see him again. And as I began to
close that gap, so did the group behind me. Seeing them, and likes of Ian
Haupt, Isaac Neff, and others. I didn’t want to be caught so I pushed the pace
to try and catch Josh and work together. But when I did he had already decided
to sit up wait for them, but I still didn’t want to thinking they would catch
him and sit up as well. But they didn’t and soon I was in the group. I hung on
as best I could but the group split up in the last few miles and I was on the
losing end of that.
But coming into the final section, I had a little win as I
passed Josh before coming into the bowl area and then passed Isaac at the top
of the final climb much in the way they Brian Matter did when he beat Bishop
last year for the win, although my pass was for 16th place.
Overall, I was disappointed in my result. Yes I have reasons
but I’m not the type to be happy in a situation like that. I would be lying if I
said that the crash was the only reason I didn’t have my best race. Motivation had
been on the decline partly due to the crash also since MTB nationals. With all
the travel, it was starting to feel like a long season. I’m back home now and the focus is on a
restful off season, where I’ll mostly
race cross and then hit the gym.
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