Raccoon Rally 2007 - MTB Race

I decided not to do the short track mtb race on Saturday night. I was still coming to grips with not making the finishing field during the road race, and without any short track experience, I decided to spectate instead. It looks like fun, and I will pre register for it next time, so I'm "forced" to jump in. Basically, it's the same format as a cyclocross race without barriers. The experts go 40 minutes plus one lap, sports do 30, and beginners go 20. The winning expert was one of the first to come off the 1/2 road race, and did 21 laps. I'd do it for "fun", cause I have a weird sense of fun.

Riding around on the MTB after the road race, I notice that my front wheel bearings are a bit loose. I played with it a bit, and they also are a bit crunchy. I'm not liking this much. I haven't ridden the bike much at all this year. In fact this was the first real trail ride of the year, but I wasn't expecting to have this kind of trouble. Brent and I stopped in to the Holly Loft booth and the mechanic adjusted them up for me, but it looks like it's time to invest something in the bike again.

Even though the family in the next site now had some boys to add to the talking, I was so wrecked, that I fell asleep at 10, and didn't stir until 6:30. They were talking again, but I still rolled over and slept till 7.... ahhh, almost 9 hours. Very nice, cause today is the 30 mile expert cross country mountain bike race. Very non-technical, but not a dirt crit.

This is actually, the 7th time I've been here in 10 years. Two years of beginners, two sports, and my third expert. My goal is to better last years time... and enjoy the race.

10:30 start time again. But there are 70 experts. This is a huge field, much larger than in the past. The dry weather must have drawn everyone into the longer race. Dave and Brent are here, and I'd like to finish between them... the best would be in front of both, but we'll see how it goes. The horn blows after a 1 minute rider meeting and we're off!

I picked a bad place to start and ended up about half way back heading into the woods. Dave was a bit behind, and Brent was a bit ahead. I'm not killing it, just settling in for the day. Into the woods, and my legs are feeling OK after yesterdays efforts.

Up the hill heading to the Snow Snake trail. About half way up, Dave passes me, so I tried to jump on his wheel. Not very successfully, as it takes some serious effort to stay on. I'm sure my mad trail skills will get me back to him soon, I'm also sure my legs will come around shortly, once I clear out yesterdays work.

He's got a bit of a gap on me as we turn onto Snow Snake. Last year, this turn was the split between us, so I expected to bring him back in short order. He's riding really well, and I just maintained the gap. I wonder if last years experience has helped his confidence on this course. I'm fine maintaining the gap until the path tilts up, and I just was not climbing well... not terrible, just not as well as Dave.

So, I settled in. It's early, and there is plenty of technical stuff left. First order, get out of Snow Snake. Snow Snake is the worst part of the course, once out of that, the race is easy. The Snake basically takes you down the mountain and back up 4 times... and the trail looks like a snake head on the map. Hence the name.

I was battling two guys the whole way. One guy on a cross bike, that had to walk the climbs the other on a full suspension bike. He had the advantage all over the place, but I would either descend better or climb better at different places, depending on the terrain. The first sport riders caught me at about 20 minutes again. I refrained from screaming at them....whatever.

I left Snow Snake at about 35 minutes, which seemed a reasonable pace for me, then I hit the gas to make up some spots and try again to get back to Dave.

Over the top for the first lap, I'm feeling the trail flow again. Now I remember how to do this, I only came close to overcooking one corner. For some reason, I'm not remembering as much of the course as in the past... but I'm feeling more comfortable, both in the climbs, and the technical stuff. This will work.

As the course starts descending the mountain again, I'm drilling the stuff, the guy on the cross bike is gone, I'm making places, but the guy on the full squish is still with me. He pulls up next to me at one point and says, "Great job on that last section. I figured if you could go that fast, then so could I"... I figured this is going to be my battle for the day then.

I dropped the next section in the big ring, and then had to do a quick shift to climb this wall.... I must of screwed the shift, because half way up, the chain jumped. At first I thought I just over-shifted, then I looked down as the chain came right off the bike. WHAT!!! Broken chain!

I had the tool, so I jumped off the trail, grabbed the chain, and got to work... as the whole world passed me. Lots of comments, and I did a bad enough job that I had to take two links off both sides of the break. 7 minutes later, I was moving again, and my chain was 4 links short.

It was really hard to get moving again. Motivation trouble. I can start picking up places again, cause I know I'm faster than all the experts that passed me. It takes me a little bit, but at leas this is the fun part. I can again rail the descents, and concentrate on pushing the climbs....

There is one section of the course that I've recognized since the first time I came here. The course takes a hard right hander, then drops for a long distance... probably 30-35 mph drop.... My first race ever and a guy goes down hard on his first lap and they had the ambulance come in to take him out. Each year since they've had someone there warning people about this section. This year it was just a "caution" sign. I came up behind a few kids finishing the beginner race, so I wasn't totally killing it, but was passing in the grass... and it felt great. I remember getting passed by the experts in previous races, and how scary it was, so I was trying to be nice. At the end of the descent is another long climb before the last descents of the lap. I wasn't concentrating, and tried to go to the 44/32 combo... not on purpose of course, but the short chain locked up solid!

I managed to NOT break it again, but nothing would turn. It took another 3 minutes to work it off the big rings, and get every thing moving again... That'll teach me to pay attention to my gearing now that I have a short chain... shift the front first, then move up the back.

It was even harder to get moving this time, my race was pretty much done. I was thinking, well, I'll just play now. I finished up the first lap, and started the second.

Let's see who I can out climb. The second lap starts on an abandoned rail bed. Constant grade to the top. Set it in the middle ring and spin the whole way up. Half way there, I caught a group of three guys that were taking it pretty easy. I stayed with them chatting for a few minutes. "I'm not having a great day today... broke my chain, but at least I'm riding in the woods, so how bad can it be?"

I decided in short order that climbing in z1 was just not what I wanted to do... so I asked for space and started climbing at tempo again.

At about 2 hours, I figured the winners were done. I was still working over the top of the mountain. I'd just entered the extra "expert only" loop. I'm not going to beat last years time for sure. For the most part I was alone, then I heard two of the guys that were on the climb coming up behind me. One of them was on a full susp bike, with a rear lock out. He came by me, and I jumped on his wheel. I was out climbing him, but he'd descend faster. OK, my work is cut out, unfortunately it was mostly descending now.

We went back and forth for the remainder of the course. Every time the course tipped up, he'd reach down and lock the suspension, then I'd come around him, and get a gap... I thought I had him as we entered the "caution" section again... then it was obvious how much faster he could drop...he came by me, and had a big enough gap to get most of the way up the last climb before I could get started... I picked off a few more sport riders, but it was over. The guy ended up putting 30 seconds on me by the finish.

Brent ended up 39th at 2:15:28 on a full rigid bike. Good enough for 14th in the 40+ group. Dave finished 43rd a full minute back, 9th in the 19+ age group. Next year he'll be in the older field. My time was 2:33. Not to bad considering I spent 10 minutes with the chain, I figure I lost a good portion of the 5-7 minutes convincing myself to race. I finished 61st out of 70...not last, and 24th out of 28 in the 40+.

For the rest of the Cleveland area, Ross Clark from Solon Bike finished second in the 30+ field with a time of 1:56:59, good enough for 7th overall. The winning time was 1:54:48 for 29 miles.

Full results are at: Heart Rate Up

Not my best outing, but also not my worst. I'm disappointed with the mechanical, but there's always next year. Now I get to shop for some new wheels and get the fork rebuilt. I also need to work off the rest of the ice cream from my vacation.... and work on getting a lot of sleep.

postscript: It turns out I was wrong about my time last year. I had a time last year of 2:29:54, so either the course was that much faster, or I am. I guess I could have beat last years time after all... I'm surprised that the course would be that much faster, as Dave also gained 22 minutes on last year. The winning times were about 10 minutes faster this year also, so that means Dave and I are both super studly mountain bikers this year.