One week after my season highlight, the Wildcat Epic 100, I decided to jump back into XC racing at the Taconic 909 challenge. My work plans, vacation plans, and a nasty summer cold had already taken me out of contention for top points in the series, so I went into this race with no expectations whatsoever. In fact, I probably would not have raced at all had 909 not been the only venue in the series that I’d never ridden, let alone raced. I’d heard nothing but great things about the course, so I had to check it out. I had just come off an easy week on the bike, but I wasn’t really sure how my body would respond after racing 100 miles the pervious weekend. I decided to just go out there and see how I felt, and if I still had good form I’d try to drill it. If not, I’d just take it easy and have fun, with no concern for where I finished.
Even though rain had been threatening all morning, it was holding off when the race began, with cool temps and overcast skies. Perfect race weather! From the start, the four usual fast suspects set a blistering pace that I had no desire to match. I went into the tight twisty singletrack in 7th and immediately began a leapfrog battle for position with Chris Ledonne, Steve (Estebon Rodriguez), and Willy (James Wilbur) that would last for a significant portion of the race. We had a nice chain in the first few miles of singletrack. When the trail opened up, and the first of the course’s two notable climbs began, Willy, Chris, and another rider who I didn’t recognize passed me. I was able to stay with them as they entered the next section of singletrack…a maze of tight switchbacks that weaved in and out of a tight network of trees.
While I wouldn’t describe the course as overly technical, racers really had to be very sharp on the bike to hold you line and not catch a handlebar on a passing sapling. My Superfly was just perfect for the course, which also featured a wicked series of near vertical drops ranging from ten to twenty-five feet in height.
Near the start of lap two, Ledonne started to fade and dropped back, never to be seen again, and the unidentified rider had pulled away. After the drops spat us back out onto one of the fire road sections, Steve, Willy and I were still all together. We looked and each other and exchanged comments, mostly along the lines of “Hey, this train we’ve got here is pretty damn cool” We dove back into the next section of singletrack with Steve leading and remained together for the rest of the lap.
Coming through the start area for lap tree, the train derailed; Steve had to pull off to grab a water bottle. I still had plenty left, so I sped on with Willy on my wheel. By my count I was in 6th when we started to pass some of the racers who had gone out hard at the start. One by on they were starting to crack, and I was feeling better and better as the race went on. At the top of the first climb, I glanced back and found that I had a bit of a gap on Willy, and I didn’t see Steve at all. I was pretty close to my limit so I couldn’t really attack, but I was able to hold my pace and the gap started to grow.
By the time I reached the top of the big singletrack climb I was riding alone. So with about 5 miles go to I lifted my pace just a little to be sure I kept my gap, and possibly to pick off some more races. I thought I was in 4th at this point, and then about 3 miles from the finish I came across Ben William (who had been leading) fixing a flat on the side of the trail. He threw up his hands as I sped past as if to say, “Hey what can you do?” Now thinking I had a podium spot, I buried it all the way to the finish. My right quad started to cramp badly within sight of the finish line, so I got out of the saddle to push it out, and gritted my way across. Willy came in one minute behind me, and Steve shortly thereafter. We all congratulated each other on some really fine racing and close competition. I soon learned that one of the racers that I thought was ahead of me had pulled out on the first lap, which put me in second place, my best ever finish in the H2H series! It turned out that the unidentifiable racer that passed me on the first lap had taken the win.
This was one of the most fun races of the season for me, and just a really well run event. It felt really good to stand on the podium again, especially since I went into this race just looking to have fun. It just goes to show that sometimes the beat results come when you abandon your expectations, and adopt a laid back attitude. Looking forward, I’m hoping to hold my form as long as possible, and turn in a good performance at my next stop…the World Cup race at Windham.