The mental battle leading up to race day can be more stressful than lining up with a handful of the midwest’s finest. What to eat? Did I eat enough? Tire pressure? The list goes on as does the local WORS series. The entourage of team 29er was in full force as Marko and I joined youngest bro James and team Jackass to round out a solid hand of big wheelers.
With the race calendar clean this race brought in what could have been one of the most competitive races of the middlewest. Mike P. fresh off some slamming NORBA’s. Bender and Peariso also riding the NORBA train and rounding out the powerhouse adventure 212 team along with Planet bike pro Tristan Schouten and Gear Grinder Guru Brian Matter. You may or may not recognize these names and if you follow the latter then you’re soon to be introduced to one of them along the trail. Did I mention Eppen? Brian Eppen the lone Iowan who would later prove he came to rage.
Goooooooooooooooooo! The stacked field of approximately 75 tore off towards the nine mile foliage like it was endangered. I had a left hand start which pushed me into the thicker strip of grass along the fence. I floated towards the center of the group and pegged it ensuring my safety into the ski trail. With only five riders in front of me I heard the clamor of scraping metal and cursing. Rider down! Avoiding the unseen pandemonium I surged passed the lead riders who seemed content with letting me. I pegged it for the second time in three miles and pulled the snake of riders up the first substantial climb into wood chip row. It was apparent that the players were in tow as I sat up and let Tristan, Eppen, and Ben Moore by. Being careful to sit in and recover from my opening lap surges I slipped into suit and enjoyed a new nine mile course. As we climbed up Ho Chi Minh I briefly second guessed my 36:16 but wrote it off the minute we hit ski trail and opened it up again.
My racer instincts began to wander as I kept focus on the three riders ahead. Who’s gonna break this group? At the moment nine of us seemed to be playing the accordion when the brakes locked. Not clear on what happened but it appeared that Eppen wrangled Tristan whether intentional or not. Ben slipped by and we fell back into line with the youngster pulling hard towards the first water station. I was lucky enough to douse my back as the uncharacteristically warm temps quickly reminded me what WORS racing is all about. My lead out recovery was coming around as I downed the precautionary clif shot and bolted towards the front. I was anxious to see who came out to play as I hit my favorite part of the course. With Eppen on my wheel I saw a gap and ran with it. Whether my competitors knew it or not I was beginning to turn the screws when Pop! Whew, not me as I glance over my shoulder and witness Mikey go to the gravel. Next in line was Marko as I motioned and yelled that “this was our break.” I led through what felt like the fastest part of the course at high speed which according to the garmin maxed at 32.6mph within the same 3 mile stretch to the start/finish area. I was going for the out of sight out of mind race which seemed to work considering our gap by lap one. I continued to pull at a medium pace through lap two where I threw a short but hard effort in to see where we were at. Eppen countered and kept wheel with Marko close behind. I was getting pooped.
On the open I sat up but no would pull through. I asked if this was a road race? Eppen: “Maybe.” Somewhere through the wood-chips we lost our Iowa friend. Marko went by like I was standing still and said get on. I had no choice and used my diminishing surge to catch his wheel. “What happened to Brian?”, I asked. He dropped. Marko continued to pull up Ho Chi Minh faster than the previous two laps. Fast enough for me to nearly pop or at least get sloppy and burp some psi’s. Luckily the AR casing of my dry x tire is enough to keep it beefy at 12! We began to rotate through as the fatigue crept in. Like so many practice sessions before we moved like clockwork. Marko would take care of the climbs with me pulling the flats and cruising the single track. Entering the final lap I punched it pretty hard leaving Marko with a,”damn this is starting to hurt.” I felt the same way as my spinning head regained focus and I let Marko once again pull my fat ass up the HCM. It wasn’t until the last four miles that I began plotting an attack. I knew that I was riding the single track well all day and the fact that the Lapped riders were beginning to show left me no choice but to go. Every lapped rider must have heard an echo. On your left, on your left as I used his own voice to gauge my effort. Sticking like glue it wasn’t until the final strip of single track that I got a gap. Hard to say how much but enough for comfort or was it. Coming through the double wide sections just before the finish I passed one final lapped rider. Seconds later I heard a stick snap? Thinking it was the rider I just passed while glancing over my shoulder to see Marko on my wheel! Despite what he might say, that kid knows what he’s doing. If it wasn’t for his molestache he may have been able to pull the sneak attack. We flew into the finish at max rpm’s with only .5 seconds separating us. While the overall competition fell victim to flats on top of flats I gained a new level of confidence as I’m sure Marko did also. That was a race!
While a large part of racing is fitness a portion of it is balanced with equipment. Whether you’re getting the flow from the local shop or an inside friend there’s a reason why you use the products you use. Believing in your sponsors and their equipment is huge when putting it to the test week in and week out that’s why I’m coining the week of June 8-14 “love your sponsors” week. Can I do that? Looks like I just did. Send them a card, hi five, a hug… well only if you feel it’s necessary.
