Big Bikes

Wicked Official Single Speed National Championship Mt. Snow

Day Two: Why We Fight

Woke up an entirely different person on Saturday, it was just before 5AM but Dan had woken up well before me and had the coffee going, already a good start. There was a whole lot more singing and general silliness and shenanigans going on than there were Friday. Miriam opted to ride to the mountain with Montello due to the fact that he was spinning some smooth R & B jams, while Dan and I were getting ourselves pumped up with some Maiden, Halen, Misfits, Motorhead, Ministry, and all sorts of other assorted hardness and or loudness. It was working.
Since I had room in the car I’d brought my trainer, and despite Monty’s heckling “Dude, you’re the only guy warming up for the single speed race on a trainer”. I didn’t care, my legs were hammered from friday, and they needed help getting going. I spun solid on that thing for half an hour and hopped on my bike feeling good, I might have to make a habit of it.

Yeah, we're runnin' a little bit hot tonight
I can barely see the road from the heat comin' off
You know what I'm sayin'

There were a whole lot of single speeders on the line, close to forty I guess. Some of the guys up front looked like serious pros. There was a big mud puddle in the middle of the front row, I wasn’t deterred , I figured standing in the puddle wasn’t going to be close to the worst thing that happened to me all day so I sidled up and planted my feet in the dirty water. I gotta face the facts, I suck at starting, I thought the reason why I got so shot to the back at the start of friday’s race was due to my single-speediness, but no…I was got shot to the back of the SS start as well. I swear I was behind a guy who’s chainring was smaller than his cog, now that’s a climbing gear. I didn’t know how my body would react to three more laps after racing four on Friday so I took it easy, riding well within myself, just getting up stuff and trying to keep it smooth, fun, and efficient.
My strategy for the first climb, which with the new course design was basically the beginning of a massive larger climb was to jump off and shoulder the bike ‘Cross style up the first tier, hop on as it flattened out, then ride the rest of the course from there on up. What I saw first lap and throughout the race was that anyone who rode the first tier had to walk the second up to the singletrack, by conserving on the first bit I was able to move into the top ten on lap one by riding from the corner on. One of my favorite parts of the course aside from the descent was the technical, slightly uphill singletrack after the nasty, access road climb leading up to the next nasty, access road climb. A really nice addition.
One difference between this day and the day prior was the that I was just stoked to ride my bike during this race, I was riding all but one little section of the course and feeling good doing it. I was also moving forward, passing riders while no one was gapping up to me, not even the leaders of the many Expert fields, always a good sign. Not only was I riding within myself, I was riding with full self-absorption, I don’t remember much about how things unfolded really, just the riding. I guess that’s a good thing. I do recall chasing and chasing this one dude, he was always just out of reach until the last lap. I closed down on him on the final ski slope portion of the climb, passing him on the one of the rocky traverse sections. He out-sprinted me to the hole shot for the descent, but I shadowed him, breathing down his neck, waiting for a slip up…and he did slip up, literally. There was this near 90° corner on the descent that happened to be on flat ground. I had trouble cleaning it when it was dry and now it was a mess of wet roots, the only place I dabbed on the entire course. I went inside, not even thinking about cleaning it as the other rider went wide to the more rideable line, he slipped, I picked up my bike and ran in front of him, almost immediately passing two lapped riders, putting some traffic between us. I heard a decisive move was made in the same spot during the Expert 50-54 race, but it was shut down with some dodgy/aggressive tactics, i.e.; rider getting passed put a death grip on passing riders arm and dragged him back. The better, less dodgy rider would win the day though. Some things do work out in the end.

Dan, killing the big post-race breakfast at Dot's.

I’d roll across the line for 5th place, good enough for a place setting at the kiddie table to the right of the podium and a tin medal. The kid that won the SS race had finished 4th in the U23 race, which would have been good enough for a 10th in the Pro race, the guy’s no joke apparently. Local rider John Foley finished second with a kick ass ride, especially for a dude who races a single speed once a year.

Foley coulda won too if he didn't do the race while piggy-backing his kid.

Later we’d watch the Pro races, Mo had a killer ride with a 16th place in her second Pro MTB race. She’s already known for her mad skills on the ‘Cross bike, with her newly honed MTB skills she’s going to be a nightmare rolling come this fall. Watching Adam Craig own the downhill is always worth the hike and seeing Jesse hanging in the top ten on his SS up the first climb was pretty cool too. If you’ve been reading Big Bikes for a while you’ve probably heard me sing the praises of Greg Carpenter’s sick descending skills, well that kid had a crazy good ride with an 8th place in the U23’s, which would have been good enough for top twenty in the Pro’s, he put it all together when it counted. Kind of wish I could have done the same, but, hey…what you gonna do? Plenty more racing to be had this season, plenty more racing. Time to get back to trying my damndest to defend my lead in the Root 66 series and get ready for SSWC08 and The VT50 beyond that.
Thanks to Miriam for all the support, Colin and Linnea for the awesome cheering, Teri for the lodging, my parents, sister, and Noah and Lyla for coming up, I wouldn’t call it a successful weekend, but it was fun.

Swimming hole of the gods. West Townsend, VT.

Dan and Greg attempt to become statistics.