100 mile mountain bike races are really hard.... They are an epic adventure every time but man they take a toll on you (at least they take a toll on me).
I drove to the race with fellow friends/racers Jed Prentice, Mike Tabasko, and Danny Atkins. We left on Friday and the race was on Saturday. We arrived at the course at around 4pm and we did a short pre-ride and then had an awesome pizza dinner at a local spot. Teammate Greg Rittler joined us! It was so good to have a great meal before a big race. Even after the meal I ate an additional PROBAR and a brownie! I slept like a baby..
The next morning the race started off with a bang! Once we leave the town there is a really steep climb up a road before we make a left onto the totally awesome 20-30miles of fantastic single track! My plan was to go out hard and stay with the leaders. At about 1/2 way up the climb I heard bike crashing hard behind me. I didn't look back because when something like that happens keeping your eyes forward and staying under control is the safest thing to do. After the race was over I found out that Jed and Mike were both unfortunate enough to get caught up in the accident... luckily they both were still able to finish with great results.
I avoided the accident and was into the single track with the leaders. Ron Harding (one of the main single speed competitors) was with me but when someone crashed in front of him I scooted around the accident and avoided being slowed down.
After a few miles I found myself in a great group with Rob Spreng, Kevin Carter, and two of the 100k racers. There were only 2 riders ahead of us Mike Simonson and another 100k racer. Mike was about 3 minutes down the road. I was feeling pretty good and on most of the climbs I would gap our group a bit, but they would always catch back up on the downhills. It was great following Rob Spreng on the single track.. he is the undisputed champion of the most technical mountain bike races around (Michaux Series)! I was probably going 5x faster by following his lines through the trails!
Just before aid station 2, Spreng asked me how I was feeling. I told him that I feel great and since I am basically with the fastest geared racers there is no way a single speed racer will be catching me. As long as I keep good with my nutrition (1 PROBAR per hour + Cerasport + GU) I should be fine! Then we hit some road climbs and I got a small gap, unintentionally, then out of no where Gerry Plug (single speed racer) shoots past me. I immediately speed up and catch his wheel. He is really moving and I can hardly believe that us two single speed racers are sitting in 2nd and 3rd overall with only one geared racer about 3 minutes ahead of us... that is not right.
I talk to him for a bit and he is definitely feeling good. I figure this is going to be a really fun race between us!! I stay with him until aid station 3 (he is doing all the work on the front and didn't seem to mind... that is a bad sign for me since if he was tired he would have asked me to pull). At aid 2 I needed to get some air in my back tire, that gave him the few extra seconds he needed to escape the aid station with a 100k racer before I could leave. Rob Spreng was back with us and he left the station with me about 30seconds or so behind Gerry and his 100k racer.
I figured that with Spreng working with me to catch back up that it would not be an issue ... that was not the case. Gerry and his guy seemed to be increasing their gap ever so slowly and we were definitely not getting any closer.
At aid 3 Spreng and I could still see Gerry in the distance. Aid 3 is the spot where the 100k racers turn back and we continue on so now Gerry would be by himself with Spreng and I working together (kinda). However it didn't work out too well for me after that. Leading up to aid 3 was a pretty good climb and after aid 3 was more climbing. I left Spreng and was now chasing Gerry by myself. Somehow just a bit after aid 3 I missed a turn!! It was perfectly marked and there was no reason for me to miss it... it cost me 4-5 minutes and Spreng got ahead of me. After the turn it was all road and rail trail so it was impossible for me to close the gap to catch back up to Spreng and even more impossible to catch Gerry (who was flying even on the flats with his single speed!!).
I finished the remainder of the race by myself. It was tough... there was nearly 11k feet of climbing in total and a lot of the climbing was very very steep. I was super tired at the end but I was able to ride hard the entire time!
I finished just a little behind Spreng for 2nd SS and 4th overall. Just behind me Mike Tabasko who I carpooled with finished for a 4th place in the Open division and Ron Harding was only a few minutes behind me with a 3rd place in the SS! He was closer than I thought!
Video of the crash
After a few miles I found myself in a great group with Rob Spreng, Kevin Carter, and two of the 100k racers. There were only 2 riders ahead of us Mike Simonson and another 100k racer. Mike was about 3 minutes down the road. I was feeling pretty good and on most of the climbs I would gap our group a bit, but they would always catch back up on the downhills. It was great following Rob Spreng on the single track.. he is the undisputed champion of the most technical mountain bike races around (Michaux Series)! I was probably going 5x faster by following his lines through the trails!
 |
| thanks to Butch Phillips for the photo |
I talk to him for a bit and he is definitely feeling good. I figure this is going to be a really fun race between us!! I stay with him until aid station 3 (he is doing all the work on the front and didn't seem to mind... that is a bad sign for me since if he was tired he would have asked me to pull). At aid 2 I needed to get some air in my back tire, that gave him the few extra seconds he needed to escape the aid station with a 100k racer before I could leave. Rob Spreng was back with us and he left the station with me about 30seconds or so behind Gerry and his 100k racer.
I figured that with Spreng working with me to catch back up that it would not be an issue ... that was not the case. Gerry and his guy seemed to be increasing their gap ever so slowly and we were definitely not getting any closer.
At aid 3 Spreng and I could still see Gerry in the distance. Aid 3 is the spot where the 100k racers turn back and we continue on so now Gerry would be by himself with Spreng and I working together (kinda). However it didn't work out too well for me after that. Leading up to aid 3 was a pretty good climb and after aid 3 was more climbing. I left Spreng and was now chasing Gerry by myself. Somehow just a bit after aid 3 I missed a turn!! It was perfectly marked and there was no reason for me to miss it... it cost me 4-5 minutes and Spreng got ahead of me. After the turn it was all road and rail trail so it was impossible for me to close the gap to catch back up to Spreng and even more impossible to catch Gerry (who was flying even on the flats with his single speed!!).
I finished the remainder of the race by myself. It was tough... there was nearly 11k feet of climbing in total and a lot of the climbing was very very steep. I was super tired at the end but I was able to ride hard the entire time!
I finished just a little behind Spreng for 2nd SS and 4th overall. Just behind me Mike Tabasko who I carpooled with finished for a 4th place in the Open division and Ron Harding was only a few minutes behind me with a 3rd place in the SS! He was closer than I thought!
Post race interview with Thom Parson of DirtWire.tv
I highly recommend this race/course to anyone who wants to try out 100mile racing... Ryan O'dell really puts on a great race at Mohican 100.
well done! how does Gerry do it!?
ReplyDeleteAccording to Gerry's post race interview he attributes it to McDonald's! Ridiculous that he can eat that crap and still race so well.
ReplyDeleteCongrats Pat! Awesome result and one heck of a day.