More tactical than most

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The MCC short bus loaded up Saturday afternoon and headed over to North Liberty (Iowa City) and the Sugarbottom Scramble, the Iowa state championship no less. We were running with a skeleton crew with Steve calling in sick and most others heading west for the NASCAR short track known as Branched Oak. We rolled in with enough time to recon a lap and reaquint ourselves with the flowy radiused curves of the sugarbottom trail system. Greg set a pace that quickly had Jay and I sitting back asking ourselves if our backs would survive the next days long 30 mile almost 3 hour grueler. My mind immediately went to gear selection and I made the descion to gear it down to 52.4 inches.

After a quick clean up it was in to Iowa City for dinner. It went something like this. Order from clueless waitress. Drink a beer. No food. Ask about dinner salad from clueless waitress. Drink a beer. No food. Inquire about said order from clueless waitress. Drink a beer. One and a half hours later with no food, clueless waitress admits she lost our order. Later. Dinner eventually came at 10pm thanks to Panchero’s. Four beers and one buritto later I figured I was ready to race. After a good nights sleep and a uneventful breakfast at the Hamburg, the Missouri valley crew was ready to race.

At the twelfth hour I opted for the singlespeed class being lured in by a 3 deep cash payout. We fired off the line 2 minutes in arrears of the experts, let the chase begin. Sugarbottom always starts with a haul up a gravel road climb and by the top I settled into third wheel beind Kent Carlson (Rasmussen) and Aaron Robnett. It wasn’t long before the front two opened up a 10 second gap on me as I struggled to find a 3 hour pace to ride. The deceptively hard course that twists and turns meant that 10 seconds was out of sight but not out of mind. For once my gains while descending were paying dividends and as we finished the 1st lap I was back on the wheels of the two leaders.

I had a feeling that the early pace set by Kent was maybe too much and as we started lap 2 the two front men weren’t gapping me like they were earlier. I decided to play the tactical roll and sit and wait. Kent was setting a rideable tempo but as we transitioned over to the more technical north side Aaron made the move and took over the lead.
A few corners later and we passed Aaron as he was picking himself off the ground after missing a corner. I had the urge to make a move on Kent and take the lead but I stayed calm and sat on the wheel. A short while later Kent would bobble a steep chute and the lead was mine. I maintained my same tempo as Aaron and I descended the next section and headed back through the start finish area with Kent now out of sight.

By the top of the gravel, I pulled over to grab a bottle for the last lap letting Aaron back by. I wasn’t too happy to be sitting in second again, especially when Aaron started opening a gap on me. A bigger gap too. It was clear he was making a move, my only thought was that it was a long 8 miles to the finish. Aaron was out to around a half minute as I forced myself to pick up the tempo. Through the start/finish area with a half lap to go I wound up the cadence and tucked in coasting up to Aaron’s wheel. As we entered the singletrack Aaron pulled over and waved me through. My first thought was to increase the pace and as I did my legs began to twitch. Was I being bluffed as Aaron sat back to see what I had left? I knocked my tempo down just a bit and a few corners later I couldn’t see him. Turned out he was cramping pretty bad, so did Kent. As would happen, I cramped least. My last quarter lap wasn’t pretty but it got the job done. 1st place, almost 3 hours in the saddle. Can’t wait to do it again.

Thanks to Nick Martin at Atlas Cycling for offering up the images.