RACE #1 CABLE OFF-ROAD CLASSIC


(photo by Jay Richars on skinnyski.com)




I'm perplexed about my pedal problem.
(photo by Jay Richards on skinnyski.com)

Sara and I got to Lakewoods to pick up our packets and bumped into Gary Crandall, the Chequamegon director and Mountain Bike Hall of Fame inductee. It's always fun to listen to Gary's stories and hear what he's been up to. He mentioned a slideshow he put together about the Fat Tire and showed it in Cable this spring. Hopefully we'll be able to see it sometime.

As soon as I stepped out the door I bumped into Jay Richards, owner of Maplelag Resort, MNSCS race director for the Maplelag Stage Race and pro mountain biker. It was nice to catch up after a long winter, but I was bummed out to hear lymes still has a grip on him (albeit not as bad) and keeps him from racing. Jay's positive attitude and ability to be around the races all the time is proof that all things mountain biking runs in his blood.

At the start of the race it was a blustery 38 degrees according to the Volvo and the wind was howling. I was hopping up and down at the start trying to stay warm, and unbeknownst to me, lodged a rock between my cleat and new Bontrager shoe (the new shoe by the way have really slick updated buckles and "cat's tongue" fabric that keeps the heel firmly in place). Anyway, it took me until the gravel to finally pick the rock out while trying to pedal/coast and thankfully the start was pretty mellow so I didn't lose much ground.

Sara had a great start and rode with Nikolai and Tesch for almost 13 miles before falling off their pace. She was happy considering she injured her leg pretty badly less than a month ago and this was her first real test. Since we rode the Hayward end of the CAMBA trails the previous weekend with Bontrager XROs, I decided they should work fine for the race. Even though the course was pretty muddy and slippery, the tires hooked up fine for us and we wouldn't have switched over to a more aggressive tire if we had it to do all over again. It's always a little tricky trying to decide which tire to use, but we usually go with a lighter, less traction tire and hope our skills are good enough to get us through. Sara had a super strong finish and ended up with the same finishing time as last year even though the course was much slower this year. She ended up 16th overall which is considerably better than last year. We were trying to figure out how many times she's won this race and we are pretty sure this is her 8th time.

I had no idea how the race would go since I haven't done one interval workout this year. I went hard once in Moab three weeks ago, but I have yet to get any structured work in. I've found that if I try sneak in any intensity workouts at the end of the school year I get sick and have to take time off so I have race my way into shape. So, I'm pretty happy I was able to push most of the way without cramping troubles. I rode with Brendan, Todd, Chad and Tyler most of the race. Before the last section of singletrack I rode some shorter climbs steady and the group whittled down to three before I missed a turn. We were basically all back together again with 12 miles to go. I led until the 5 or 6 mile mark with Brendan following until he went by. He said he felt terrible but I still couldn't match his small increase in the pace and I ended up losing him and riding steady until Todd caught me on last section of two track before the long railroad grade finish. I gave Todd some water and he proceded to pull me all the way to the finish into a seriously strong and persistant head wind.

The new Trek Fuels are the absolute perfect race bikes. They are unbelievably responsive and fly in all conditions. Thanks Trek!

Thanks to the Cable Off-Road Classic crew for putting together another incredible course. I think there was even more singletrack this year. Can one ever have enough?

Up next is Minnesota Series race #1 at Inver Grove Heights next weekend. We will also get to hang out with Ken and Maury at Trek Demo Days at Lebanon on Saturday and Murphy on Sunday. Demos start at 10 and go until 3. See you there!