Last weekend I traveled out to the Gettysburg area to try my skills in the Michaux Forest at the Curse of Dark Hollow. Got up early saturday morning and drove into Pittsburgh to pick up my traveling partner Bob Myers. Somehow over the years we have migrated from a Rep/racer relation more towards being good friends. We travel well together and do a lot of carrying on while doing so. Since he's a civil war fanatic the trip to Gettysburg makes it easy to persuade him to go along.
Rolling into Gettysburg saturday late afternoon left plenty of time to drive around the battlefields and even shop a little in the toy soilder stores. Then it was healthy steak dinner and retiring to the hotel where i made the mistake of introducing Bob to Angry Birds. I believe he played this game for 3 hours and clearly has become an addict.
Morning arrives and its off to find the race. The worst thing about the Michaux races is the real lack of info. Its difficult to find the start times and directions are poor on the site. Once you get on the right road you would think there would be a sign but not in this case. We watched no less than 4 cars pass the entrance and eventually do a U-turn searching for the lot. Come on guys throw a sign up!
The meat of the story
I quickly saw several competitors that were going to make this race tough and i'll admit the nerves started to shake things up a bit. I reminded myself that i've been riding a ton of long road rides with some intervals mixed in those miles and a 40 miler should be ok.
line up happened and today i took the younger class at registration so i could try to keep with the guys rather than chase them down." Why you ask?" did i decide this? Well my friend Brandon said the first 6 miles of singletrack was really tough and would take us 40 mins or so and i didn't want to be bottle necked behind a lot of people right from the start.
Off we go and the fire road start had most of the group riding reasonably. Then we hit the trail and gears were changing as the speed picked up. I was riding today with a plan which was to hang in there when they started turning screws. A few quick turns, some more road then a hard turn up a very loose steep climb. I watched Brandon and fellow team mate Mike Keefer break away and i got caught behind a guy named Rob. He was struggling with his line and as he zig zagged up the climb I got cut off and spun out in the rocks. He also rode away and caught up with the leaders. As I crested the climb they were just out of site. A turn or two and I saw my buddy Brandon preparing to change a flat (already!) well he's strong and he'll make up for it i'm sure. Another few turns and Mike is pulling a stick out of his wheel as I pass. I see him jump on behind me but i've got this good pace going and its feeling pretty comfortable for me right now. Next i've pulled clearly away from Mike.
It doesn't take me long and before 7 miles in I've caught the guy out front on a downhill. I can see by his pedaling and notice his braking that I should be able to hang back just a little and pull him in over a few miles. He seems to notice me behind him and it looks like he's attacking then letting off. There is no need to kill myself to bridge a small gap at 7 miles in with 33 miles left. However i don't want to let it increase any. Still riding a strong pace the gap disappears within the next 2 miles and i'm on his tire by the 10 mile water station.
This section of the race had us on rolling gravel roads which started taking us back up the mountain. So it was steadily climbing. Just my kind of climb not hard but enough to tighten the screws and roll over the risers with some wattage to maintain a steady pace. I pass the other guy and he grabs my wheel but a few of these risers and we turn into single track where I notice he's fallen back a little. I sense his weakness is maintaining the speed on these rollers but we just went back into the woods where his full suspension and skills will help him. To my surprise the trail did the same thing as the road. Rolled up steady but now in loose rocks. I left the Superfly hardtail in the big ring and layed down the power trying to hold steady. Not going any harder but just trying to race smart and hold steady. It worked as I eventually saw the gap growing until he was no longer in sight. Now i asked myself can i maintain this pace?
I actually was feeling pretty good and tried to keep a steady thing going but the rocks were starting to fatigue me and I could tell I was slowing up. Passing the 20 mile half way mark and I was still out front laying down an XC pace at a 40 miler. Oh don't kid yourself, i wasn't able to pull this off but i did a good job of trying.
Seems like the rest of the guys were being fed time gaps and they were wondering just who made me so mad and caused me to ride with a vengence. it was madness at all. I had a plan remember? Well since i was feeling this pace i committed to it and figured my best chances were to get as far as possible before they caught me. The closer to the end the better chance i had to finish well.
Somewhere around 30 miles in the course took a big climb in and here is where my legs started to tell me they wanted to slow down a bit. A few cramps which i got rid of quickly but Chris beck & Mike Keefer both pulled away from me on the climb. Halfway up my buddy brandon comes past yelling at me to put it in the Big Ring and climb. He knows me well from the dozens of training ride we did together at Blue Knob. Sadly i didn't have the Big Ring in my legs at this point. Cresting the climb and i was feeling better so i tried to get back into my original pace. Onward I went but the last 5 miles of this course were rocky and had dozens of downed trees across the trail. These proved to be difficult since you are already fatigued and now are trying to jump and stay upright in the rocks. I put a smile on for the challenge and continued in a forward motion.
Finally i crossed the line in 3hrs 52 mins and was less than 5 mins off of the winner (Brandon) with two other in between us in our class. I rode strong felt good handled the rocks and was still walking at the end! It was a success. Congrats to Brandon, Mike and Chris for reeling me in and kicking my butt! Good job guys.
The SRAM XX equipped Trek Superfly performed great. I had used the Bontrager 29.2 tires wrapped on XXX carbon wheels. yes I said Carbon Wheels at Michaux! they track very nicely in the rough stuff, i'm a big fan of them.
Thanks to Bob Myers for helping out and going along and to Mr & Mrs Draugelis for the encouraging words on the course. Its always a pleasure to see them and Jocelyn.... Brandon has a great family for sure!
(photo by Joe D.)
Stork
