Wallum Lake XC

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fowleezy
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Joined: Mon Jan 29, 2018 3:02 pm

Wallum Lake XC

Post by fowleezy »

CAT 2 19-39:

With the string of mishaps leading up to the race at Wallum lake this weekend, I was not expecting things to go well. I was still pretty sore from a pretty hard crash Wednesday night that had left my front wheel tacoed, and I had to swap wheels/discs after arriving an hour before the race stated (Thanks to Pare for the extra light wheel, sorry Cactus). This meant I had no time to preride the course, although I did check out the short single track section after the start per Busick's advice. Heading to the start line I noticed my seat was turning, but tightening the seat post was not helping. Turns out the top of my dropper post was unthreading, which had me worried but turned out to be a non-issue in the race.

Anyway race starts and I was in the front row for the first time, what a difference that makes. I was sitting second wheel after what felt like an easy start to the BMB guy who beat me pretty handily last week. I was surprised at how easily I was able to stay on his wheel after the way he dropped my group the week before. I kept waiting for him to punch it but he just never did. Since I didn't preride the course, I was planning on staying on his wheel for the first lap to see the course and then I thought I would try to make a move second lap. The singletrack was a little more techy than the previous races, and I was finding it really easy to stay with him in the long single track sections. Eventually he made a mistake and I just decided to pass him since I knew I was faster on the single track.

After passing, I was honestly shocked at how quickly the gap grew. I was loving the singletrack, some of the sections, particularly the downhills, had some good flow and you could really pin it. Every time I looked back the gap seemed to be getting bigger, and when I looked back on the long dirt fireroad section and didn't see anyone behind me, I though I might actually be able to win.

That's pretty much how the race finished up, I got through the second lap without seeing anyone else. This despite some heckling from fellow MRC'ers that "They were right behind me" and also for the fact that I stopped to get a water bottle (I still don't know how to drink and ride at the same time, that's not very "enduro"). It was cool to take the win, I think the course definitely suited me really well and it was a lot of fun. I'm ready to cat up, which probably means I need to start riding more than 45 minutes at a time. Hopefully I can find another race in the schedule that works this year.
chrismitchell
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Re: Wallum Lake XC

Post by chrismitchell »

XC mountain bike racing for the 3rd time in 3 weeks. This time @ Wallum Lake aka Douglas State Forest. I went in to this race with the same strategy that I usually do; try and hang with the back of the front pack for the start and see where I’m at. We had Fowler Jimmy and myself all in the front starting row which was pretty cool. I’d say we had top 3 for roughly a second and a half. Anyway, horn sounds and I have the all familiar site of Fowler’s backside gradually pulling away from me as we rip the uphill fire road start. That was the last I’d see of Fowler. I get passed by a few people at the start and then pull in behind to draft. During the next fire road section I pick off one more and settle in behind the 5th place guy for the last fire road stretch before the singletrack. Right as we turn into the singletrack I jump to the inside and lead the back half of the pack into the singletrack. I can see 4th in front of me but the rest are out of sight.

With a good section of singletrack upcoming I try to settle in and keep a good pace. I create a little bit of space behind me and start to reel in the guy from Stedman’s bike shop (to now be referred to as ‘Stedman’). He fumbles on a techy turn and now I’m right on his wheel, a second fumble and I go for the pass and make it through with some minor bushwhacking. With nobody in sight in front of me, my focus becomes creating a gap between Stedman and myself. I figure if I can get to the second section of single track ahead of him, I’ll have it made figuring that my tech was better (it wasn’t). We dump out onto the fire road and Stedman is about 20 yards back. We jump quick back into the next single track section and after fumbling through the first rock garden he is right back on my wheel. We cruise together for a while and before long we can see the third place B2C2 guy (now known as ‘B2C2’). This was a shocking development as I seemed to be bouncing off of every rock known to man. We hit the mud section and Busick’s recommendation from earlier comes to mind. Just go through the middle. Sure. No problem. I go full Cactus smash up to my axle in mud and water, I was so sure I was going to get thrown over the bars but somehow I got through. Stedman compliments my line and I can tell this dude is barely out of breath. I’m dying at this point and I know I can’t hold the pace we were on, I tell Stedman to go ahead. I keep him in sight but before long him and B2C2 are riding together with me hanging on about 30 seconds back. After a long downhill we’re back on the long straight fire road. I close down the gap on the fire road a bit while periodically checking behind me to see what’s behind me. I have a good 30-40 seconds on the guy behind me. Good. We head up the rocky uphill fire road to the start/finish keeping B2C2 and Stedman in sight the best I can.

I pass by Katie towards the end of lap 1 and she informs me that I’m in fifth. Now I know B2C2 and Stedman are 3rd and 4th. As I come down the fire road to the start/finish I see the BMB rider who I assume must be in 2nd. I pass by the MRC tent at the start of the second lap and Pare yells that Fowler is right in front of me (a blatant lie as I soon figured out). Once the course started twisting and turning again I am all alone catching occasional glimpses of people (and not knowing how far away they were from me). Right around this time I start talking to myself a fair bit, mostly just don’t screw up, keep it smooth and don’t try to do too much. I reasoned that the guy behind me would both need to ride fast and clean the rest of the race to catch me (a longshot on this course). In between my conversations with myself it dawned on me that if the BMB dude was second, Fowler must be in first. I was able to see the guys in front of me during some of the switchback sections, figuring they were probably closer to 30-40 seconds in front of me by this point. By the long fire road stretch before the final climb I realized that I wasn’t going to be catching anyone and I had a good gap to the guy behind me. From there I settled in and came across the line 5th.
Tough course this week, a lot more tech than the average cross country course. A fun time as always and a big shout out to Fowler on his big win (even though the real credit goes to Pare’s front wheel). Looking forward to the next one!
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cbusick
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Re: Wallum Lake XC

Post by cbusick »

CAT 1 40+
I had my typical bad start, sliding back to about 15th at the top of the gravel climb. Hit the first fireroad and picked off all the fools who only had 30 seconds of power and now were blown. I caught on to the back of the lead group as we entered the singletrack and counted back to place myself at 8th. Only one racer separated me from Pare, Brian and Oscar. 1 and 2 pulled away so it was a 5 man line on the first single track section being led by Pare, and nobody behind me. Then we hit the little fire road between single tracks and I moved up to be right behind Oscar (now I'm 7th). Four Minutemen in a row, and we were cruising along pretty well. Then Oscar bobbled on a mini rock garden and I took the high line to get past him (6th). Pare, Brian and I were close for a while, then Pare started pulling away when it went downhill. I yelled at Brian to go go go, since Oscar was doing the noble thing and opening up a gap for us. Pare totally dropped us on the "enduro section" which is a gradual downhill on the side of a ridge with occasional rocks that reminds me a lot of the trail in Billerica before the "big climb". I though he was gone, but after climbing for a bit on the singletrack he came back into sight. On the switchbacks I could see Oscar holding back a big line of riders a few seconds behind us, with a couple leaking through. At first I was discouraged because I thought it was our field, but turns out it was the 50+ leaders making their way through our pack.
The 50+ leader Scott Martin caught us just as we hit the rail trail and I jumped on his wheel with Brian falling behind (now I'm 5th) Brian was saying something about how he might have burped a tire. Then we hit that long uphill section back to the start finish. Following Scott's line I was racing at another level, just floating over the rocks on the climb. I saw Pare up ahead and it was like he was standing still. "That's a good wheel to follow!" he yelled as we flew by (now I'm 4th). We flew by the start finish and I eased up a bit to eat a gu and chug some water, losing Scott's wheel but I could see Rowell (2nd in 50+) coming up behind me so after the drop from the parking lot I let him by on the fireroad and followed him into the singletrack.

Then I started chating him up saying, how the only thing I didn't like about the Bowie Loop at Rasuptitsa was the fact that he didn't make everyone go that way. And oh yeah that's a tricky rock, haven't figured out the right line there either, and, oh is that Rich Piro (50+ 3rd) coming up behind us, better hurry, and so on. That was the great part about this race, following Brian, and now Rowell, I could recover in the single track, something that wasn't possible at Burlingame.

Rich passed us, and we caught up to another knot of riders, including Vlad (now I'm 3rd!!!!!). Rowell went full speed right through the middle of the mud puddle with me on his wheel and we passed them all, opening up a nice gap.

I was surprised that I was having such an easy time holding Rowell's wheel, in fact a little to easy. He was having more trouble on the rocks that I'd expect, maybe too much time riding groomed kingdom trails. "Mike, we're both in 3rd now, I might have to ask you to let me by so I can get away before Vlad catches back on" He agreed and moved over to let me by.

At this point, I was loving life. The course suited me great, I was in 3rd place, and was flying. As soon as I started actually having hope of pulling off a podium, my chain dropped when I did a stutter pedal through a rock garden. I got off and ran the bike through the garden, then pulled over to slip the chain back on, only to find it had snapped. I didn't have a chain break, or quick link, so I started the long walk/kick bike journey back, dreaming of what might have been.
-Chris Busick
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pace21
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Re: Wallum Lake XC

Post by pace21 »

To Fowler: “they’re right behind you!”
To Cactus: “he’s right in front of you!”

Can’t believe they both fell for the oldest heckle in the book :) :) :)
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cbusick
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Re: Wallum Lake XC

Post by cbusick »

We need some new heckles. Now that I think about it I fell for that one away Bradbury
-Chris Busick
Jimmy
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Re: Wallum Lake XC

Post by Jimmy »

Thoroughly enjoyed those write-ups. Nice racing boys! See you out there :)
Briana
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Re: Wallum Lake XC

Post by Briana »

I'm pretty sure Busick asked a couple guys: "Hey are you guys pre-riding the course"

Great all around race weekend with a little road and a little MTB

Brian A.
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JeremyC
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Re: Wallum Lake XC

Post by JeremyC »

Don't worry I'll bring my heckle game to Secret Squirrel. Who has the megaphone?
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