One all…
The only
thing that seems to be coming early this year is the race season. It was the day
after the Tour of the Battenkill, the Singlespeed-A-Palooza was in a week, I hadn’t yet this year been in the woods
on a mountain bike, and I was ordered to attend a business meeting in
Pittsburgh. That’s just great, my first mountain bike race of the year is in six
days and I’m going on a four day business trip. Getting ready SSAP evidently is
going to involve riding some new trails. I
was advised that if you are traveling and you don’t know if you will be riding
roads or trails – bring a cyclocross bike. Into the car went my cross bike
along with the bulk of my cycling gear, one pair of business trousers, and two
business shirts. Monday night I was in Pittsburgh scouring the PTAG (Pittsburgh
Trails Advocacy Group) web site for riding possibilities with the hope that someone at Tuesday’s
meeting will have firsthand knowledge of current trail conditions.
At the close of the first day of business meetings I was
off to ride South Park. The South Park trails, for the most part, are flowy
singletrack with some roots and logs crossing and moderate climbs – overall fun
tails that were perfect for a cross bike. I was able to get in two hours of
saddle time riding and re-riding the trail network – a great way to acclimate
to riding in the woods.
Day
two I was able to squeeze in another two hours of saddle time at Frick Park of
Squirrel Hill, a tight network of nicely maintained singletrack and fire road
trails. The park is not big; the mountain bike loops begin and end at the Lower
Frick parking lot and use a fire road as the main climb. Repeatedly climbing
the fire road, I rode each of the three loops – then re-rode the best lines. It was a 10+ mile ride with
1500+ feet of vertical with significantly more climbing and technicality than
day one.
Day
three was a travel day. I woke at 2:59 AM and was on the rode by Pi (3:14). My
target was the trail called American Standard outside the Pennsylvania town,
Jim Thorpe. A trail categorized as “Intermediate Expert - Real Rocky Single
track” and seemingly appropriate challenge for my third day of my cross bike
training program. I found this review online which I consider fairly accurate.
“Loop starts out [on Route 93] with smoothish nice level
singletrack. Then singletrack turns to gonzo rock gardens that are very
slow going. Next there is a stretch of grassy fire road, to rocky fire
road downhill [where you pass a urinal nailed to a tree (trail namesake)], back
to grassy swampy fire road with lions and tigers and bears (Ok mainly just
bears and dear), after you get chased around the woods for a while [and ford a
creek], back on the grassy fire road, to the end, left on short section of fire
road and right onto LOTS more single track. Rocky single track. Suck the
life out of you rocky single track. More single track up some hills, left on
more rocky single track, to [Route] 93”
Summary:
three hours of exhilarating trail riding – a perfect capstone for the hard part of the training week.
Days
four and five are a rest day followed by the year’s first HRRT club road ride
with 100, 50 and 16 mile options. I opted to swing by the club ride stage area
to socialize a bit before doing my own thing; chasing the Dreamgirl for an hour
of easy riding with a few intervals scattered about. I was feeling pretty good.
Race day starts early with a two and a half hour drive to
a 9 AM start. Pretty much everything was new. New pro-level kit form Squadra,
new helmet from Cannondale, new flavor of GU (Shout out to Yuri for introducing
me to the ‘Abominably delicious’ Salted Caramel GU at Interbike – goes down
smooth and those amino acids keep me cranking) and a newly rebuilt single-speed.
One thing that’s not new is the competition. Don Rice is here. Don and I didn’t know each other at the time, but Don passed me in the last 100 yards of last year’s SSAP to finish a couple seconds ahead of me. Don and I lined up side-by-side. We shared stories of our rideless spring season, how new it is to be in the woods and how we hoped we remembered how to ride. Neither of us spoke it, but we each considered the other our mark.
The
first couple miles of the race follows a gravel road before turning onto the
first singletrack and snaking up and over Major Mike. Don took off like a shot.
I chased, slowly losing ground, confident that I’d see him in the technical
sections. The backside of Major Mike is a fairly technical downhill, especially
when it’s wet and today it is wet. There’s Don. The race course is punctuated
with short steep punchy climbs. Don is the third rider of four negotiating one
of the earlier punchy climbs that happens to be comprised of a relatively
shallow slope around to the left and darn near vertical to the right. Don
followed conventional wisdom and the conga line of riders to the left. Seizing
opportunity, I hammered straight at the steep on the right and with a surge of
one… two… three single speed stomps I was up and over the steep and past Don’s
group. I stayed out of the saddle, giving it my all to put distance between me
and Don, hoping he hadn’t seen me pass - he hadn’t. In retrospect, the most
challenging aspect of the pass was keeping my mouth shut. It was neither the
time nor the place to goad Don – no matter how much I wanted to. The move was
my interpretation of la course en tête
- defined by Merckz as ‘Attack becomes the best form of defense’.
Both Don and I spent the balance of the race looking over
our shoulders; me looking for Don, Don looking for a ghost. I was able to stay
sufficiently ahead and out of Don’s field of view thereby avoiding a chase.
Links to
additional Photos:
