Landmine 2018

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cbusick
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Landmine 2018

Post by cbusick »

After TVR and Domnarski, the headbanger's series stood as follows:

Chris Busick 378
Brian Anderson 312
Jeremy Cratty 288
Edson Boaron 200
Esdras Pechim 190
Vladimir Capka 190

Remaining races are Landmine and The Freetown 50. If I could come out of Landmine with more than 200 points than the next guy,
I wouldn't have to race Freetown. This is important because I'm under some pressure to do the KT50 Next Saturday, and Freetown 50 is the next day.
It would be stupid to do that. But people who know me were concerned that this is what I was going to do and that it might jeopardize my commitment to the KT50.

As of Thursday night, things were looking good. Brian and Cratty weren't going to go to Freetown, so I just needed to finish in the top 10 and landmine and I'd clinch.

Then Esdras Pechim registered on Friday. Now I had to beat him by at least two placed to clinch. HAHAHAHAHA, like that was going to happen. Last Year's Landmine results:

Jim Frame (Corner Cycle)
Esdras Pechim
Kenny Fries (Scottee's Westport)

I'd beaten Kenny before, but the other two were out of reach. The banter on the start line didn't help. Someone was heckling Esdras from the sideline. Oh great it's the MTB god. Is that a motor in the downtube? What do people say to me on the start line? "Are you Chris? Is you wife here? I love her pictures!"

The started everyone under 49 at the same time, so I had no idea where in my field I was after the whole shot. I was on Dan Desmarais's (Scottee Westport) wheel and I didn't see any other Scottee's go by so Kenny was behind me somewhere. We were strung out in a line on the straight single track which was fine with me. There weren't any gaps so I wasn't losing time until Tim Pastika (the eventual 19-29 winner) mad a pass on some poor "I love Boston" guy and nearly took him out.

Now there was a gap. Dan and I passed "I love Boston" on the climb, which hurt like hell. I stayed on Dan's wheel, remembering Pare's advice to "use the draft as much as possible at landmine" He was closing the gap to a group being tail gunned by a corner cycle guy, but then couldn't close it anymore and started to fade. I went around him and yelled to hop on, hoping I could use him again later, but he was blown.

I nearly closed the gap when a corner cycle guy jumped back onto the course from the side. He then started fiddling around trying to get his pump back into his pocket. (I think this was Jim Frame) I stayed behind him hoping for a nice draft when he got his crap together and I wasn't disappointed. He closed the gap and got us in contact by Feed Zone 2. There we passed Kathleen and Christin Router who were pulled over on the side letting the testosterone train roll through. So this was good, I was back in contact with the lead group, or at least a big fast chase group. But this was bad, because I was blown and we were only 23 minutes in. When Jim suddenly pulled over to the side again it left me with a gap I couldn't close into the wind and I was on my own.

Then Colin passed me, which was pretty discouraging, and a sign that taking 2 months off the MTB and putting on 10 lbs wasn't helping.

At this point I started doing logistics for next Sunday. For the headbanger's the Freetown 50 is only 50K. I'll bring the hammock up and nap after the KT50. Maybe if I brought Andrew's car to work, Mo could use that to drive to my house on Friday. Then he could come back with me on Sunday and I could drop him at his house on the way down. We'd have to get up at 3AM, but maybe he'd drive a couple hours so I could sleep... I wouldn't have to commit to this until I saw the final registration for Freetown, if Esdras wasn't on it, then I'd be good. Maybe I should just register for Freetown so he won't try. Maybe if I register for freetown it will just encourage him...

18 miles in, I pop out of some single track into a small field, go around a corner and there's Esdras, walking back on the course with his bike on his shoulder, and his rear tire blown completely off the rim.

Me: "Oh no! That's terrible! Are you ok?"
Esdras: "Yes, I'm ok"
Me (after getting out of sight): "YES, no freetown for me!!!"

And then all the stress was gone and I could just race. I saw and picked off a Corner Cycle guy who turned out to be David Dornaus. Then Piro came by me.

Me: "Rich, what took you so long? I was starting to get worried that something happened to you"
Rich: "Really?"
Me: "Yes, I'm not going fast enough today to hold you off for so long"
Rich: "I'm tired"

I held his wheel nearly to the final bridge, where I said "hi" to Katie and rolled into the finish.

All I needed now was to be in the top 10. I think I was about 5th or so, but didn't know. I punched in my number to get my result and WTF!?!?!? 2nd!!
How did that happen?

Turns out a lot of other guys dropped out, including Jim Frame.

Thank you Stieger and Condon for the recon last week. If you don't know the 2nd "half" of that course, you'll despair that it's never going to end.
-Chris Busick
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KTeves
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Re: Landmine 2018

Post by KTeves »

Congrats Chris. Awesome!
KT
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JeremyC
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Re: Landmine 2018

Post by JeremyC »

That didn't feel like a 2nd place report. Which makes it awesome. Congrats and enjoy the KT50. See you at the Tiki bar
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jraguin
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Re: Landmine 2018

Post by jraguin »

Awesome Chris. I had no idea KT was in danger of losing one of the Chris', but I am really happy there is no danger now. Let's roll.
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oscarp
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Re: Landmine 2018

Post by oscarp »

The 2 month + 10 lb taper, it looks like it works!
Oscar
Briana
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Re: Landmine 2018

Post by Briana »

cbusick wrote: Sun Sep 09, 2018 5:36 pm Me: "Oh no! That's terrible! Are you ok?"
Esdras: "Yes, I'm ok"
Me (after getting out of sight): "YES, no freetown for me!!!"
Nice Work Chris,

I had similar thoughts as Miles took a header behind me at Quad.

Brian A.
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RobC
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Re: Landmine 2018

Post by RobC »

Chris, congratulations and great result!

Landmine was my first race since Myles Standish and my 3 day hospital vacation. Since it was a MTB race, I wasn't too worried about crashing but more concerned that my last MTB race was Willowdale in 2017. I felt more comfortable registering for Cat 2 but offered to race Cat 1 with Chris if I could possible help him and he was like, "no brah, I got this" (he totally didn't say that). So I'm in the Cat 2 40s and I don't know any of the names in my field but saw a tweet from Pirro that there were a lot of sandbaggers in the Cat 2 this year.

It's race day and my legs were feeling a little soggy after a much harder than expected 60mi ride the day before. I was also having an aneurysm trying to figure out how to hydrate for the race (bottle or pack). I decided on bottles, but then at the call ups I changed my mind and scrambled back to my car, threw on my pack and raced back to the start - phew, made it. The field of about 15 takes off and the guy who eventually took second place was right at the front, I came around from mid pack up to the #3 slot behind a big strong dude in a dope Cafe Du Cyclist kit. During the first couple miles of flat we were pulling away from the field and I was taking Chris's advice to draft (saw Katie taking pics, hi Katie!). When we hit the Prospect Hill the big dude attacked and passed the leader - he was absolutely hammering up the climb (strava says it was 3:40, we were 12th fastest on the day), but I was able to stay with him. The other guy was no where in sight on the downhill and big dude just kept drilling it. I was in his draft and still working pretty hard to hang on - at this point, I thought I'd just try to hold on for as long as I could and then hope for second place since no one seemed close to us.

We hit the first feed zone (mile 5ish?) and the big dude slowed down to ask me if I knew the course - I said no as this was my first time ever riding in Wompatuck. I told him the pace was great and we should be able to create a big gap together - at this point, I though he wanted me to do some work on the front so I went ahead, fully expecting him to be on my wheel, but to my surprise I dropped him quickly. Maybe he cracked a bit after all the work on the climb. I decided to just dial in a pace I thought I could hold for... wait, OMG there's still 20mi to go?? Well, my legs were opening up and I had good flow on the trails so I kept on the gas. Over the next 10 mi I was just passing other racers and started to noticed I'd gone through a lot of the Cat 2s and now passing some Cat 1s. I started getting excited about the finish when bombing down a trail I heard it, the dreaded PSSHHHH sound of Stans spraying out of my rear tire. Oh no, not now, not here...

I stopped and spun my tire so the sealant could do it's job on the puncture but it was too big and air kept coming out. I knew I had to put a tube in and thought I might actually have a big enough gap to get it done before big dude came through. I got to work and put the tube in, but my co2 air chuck failed - on to the hand pump. With the tire seated and filled I tried to put my wheel on, only to find the thru axle wouldn't thread! WTF? It just would not thread back in - it looked like the threads were stripped on my frame. And then I knew I was done. Much screaming and swearing ensued before I walked back to the parking lot (also saw Esdras with his exploded wheel and gave him some directions back).

At the 15mi mark I was averaging over 11mph, which (according to Strava) was about the speed of the Cat 1 40s winners. Big dude did get the win in my field - his average speed was 10mph. I was pretty heart broken yesterday but also encouraged that I should be able to hang with some of the Cat 1s in my next race.

Rob
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Mkidd3
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Re: Landmine 2018

Post by Mkidd3 »

Nice race lads! Congrats Busick!!
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cbusick
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Re: Landmine 2018

Post by cbusick »

Damn Rob, maybe I could have used your help, assuming I could hold your wheel
-Chris Busick
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