2008 Bear Brook Team Report
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2008 Bear Brook MTB Team Race Report
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Date 6/1/08
Conditions: Warm and sunny, the course was dry and fast!
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The Course: A non-technical 10 mile loop for Novice, 18 mile for the rest. There is a water stop somewhere around 4mi in and 4mi to go. There’s also a nice long set of hiking stairs (double length) that will get your suspension working shortly after two large boulders that you’ve got to squiggle through. It felt like 1/3 smooth flowy single track, 1/3 with some small bumps or climbs and 1/3 fire road…
Look at the accommodations we had!
onto the results Summary:
Keith Reynolds - 5th Expert (27-34) - 01:32:52 Nolan Watts - 5th SS (open ) - 01:39:06 Kurt Johnson - 8th Expert (42-49) - 01:40:33 Michael Good - 9th Expert (42-49) - 01:40:57 Anthony Laskaris - 10th Expert (42-49) - 01:42:53 Norm Collard - 1st Sport (50+ ) - 01:43:41 Ted Yobaccio - 10th SS (open ) - 01:44:29 John Mosher - 5th Sport (42-49) - 01:45:03 Ryan Deroche - 4th Sport (18-26) - 01:48:18 Libby White - 1st Expert ( 1-17) - 01:48:55 Barry Greenberg - 10th Sport (27-34) - 01:52:48 Bernard Tan - 5th Novice (27-34) - 01:15:15 Jeff Palter - 6th Novice (35-41) - 01:24:20 Kristen Lukach - 4th Novice (18-34) - 01:36:31
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Reports:
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[Jeff Palter]
1st race since last year’s first and last race [injury.] raced novice vet 1 with a goal of finishing without crashing – meaning break nothing on the body or bike. Mission accomplished with a 6th place of out 10. Bad start, didn’t stay with the group and the got hung up a bit. Computer wasn’t working so I had no idea where I was distance wise on the 12 mile course. Fast double track/fire road sections helped to catch some people, otherwise some rocks and roots, but for me, I considered it pretty mellow – that’s me talking you know – so no crashing which was GREAT, and overall some earned fun on the day. Love the 29er rolling over things and had a good finish despite some ghost shifting, AND managed to roll down the “stairs” section without mishap. Overall happy with the race, and there’s always the next one. Great course, well marked, would recommend it to anyone, and great turnout by some of the usual suspects and some new faces. We would’ve hung out longer if the parking lot hadn’t turned into a Sahara-like sand storm pit.
See y’all at harding hill, the site of last year’s 1st and last race. JP
[a perspective from John Mosher]
[KR] John, would you share your first mtb race experience? .. we all know you race on the road and cross but we’ve never seen you on the single track before.
[JM] Let me first say I had a blast Keith you already have heard my story of woe (a wrong turn). I’m hooked. Bear Brook was awesome, I loved the course! There is always something new to learn and mtb’ing is just that.
[KR] How did you prepare for the race?
[JM] The growing excitement of mtb’ing had me dusting off bikes in the garage and I’ve been riding with some of the boys, those rides have been my training.
[KR] John, how did the race go?
[JM] The bike performed flawlessly as far as I could tell. I raced as suggested by many but not all in the Sport Vet II category. Within the first half mile the race transitions from a graded gravel road to a wide-ish single track climb. I just went with three guys from the same team and took second wheel into the climb. Passed the guy on the climb and never looked back, well maybe once or twice. The course is kind of a figure eight. I came thru the WS (water stop) for the second time and some guy who I just passed starts yelling “out of the way I’m the leader of sport”. OK I’ll take your wheel for a bit, again. Any way we come out of the WS and go around a gate flying down a graded gravel road, I hit 35 mph. We went three quarters of a mile to a mile when we come out at the bottom of the infamous stair case. Oops, serious wrong turn. We ask where we should have turned and got blank looks. Back up the hill. On the way we corrected at least a dozen riders who made the same mistake. Anyway, figured out where the left was we missed and proceeded on some great single track to the stair case and finished up the race. From the WS to the finish I don’t think it was more than 2 to 2.5 miles. So I added on about two miles to my race with an up hill that would have hurt in a road race. I finished 5th and I think something over a minute down from the winner of my group. We lost at least 10 or more minutes on the missed turn. Lesson learned. The gentlemen I was following on the way back from our missed turn mentioned to me that this was his first MTB race as well. Dohhhh!!
[Michael Good]
I raced – I sucked – What a disappointment. Let me try again:
I was really hoping for a good race. I had raced well at Bear Brook in years past and hoped that would pay dividends Sunday. Concern dwelled close to the surface however. I had felt great at Wednesday night’s hill ride, but woke up Thursday feeling unusually tired.I felt lethargic all day and kept hoping it was just allergies. Then I decided to join Mike Rowell for a “fun ride” Thursday night. Anyone that has ridden with Mike knows how that turned out, can you say “time trial”? The resulting tiredness carried into Saturday but by Sunday I thought I was feeling better.
As we staged for the race, it was fun to line up with two teammates, Kurt and Anthony. The course started out with about a mile of gravel road that rose steadily leading into a hard right up a rooty, steep climb. I knew from the gun that the legs weren’t there. Trying my hardest to get to the single track, I was losing ground. This is when teammate Kurt came around me and said,” let’s go!” I grabbed onto Kurt’s much needed pull and followed him into the single track where he pulled aside and let me pass with words of encouragement. If only the whole race had been that cool. The fact is I was red-lined and burning matches quickly. I dug deep and went through my checklist of things to do during these situations. MANTRA: relax, breathe deeply, loosen your grip, spin an easier gear, and go to your happy place. This seemed to work till about mile 13 or so. At this point the guy that I had been riding with and playing cat and mouse with rode away from me. I had no answer for his attack. Hoping I had created enough of a gap behind me all I could do was ride it in and stay safe.
All was going relatively well, I was even enjoying the increasingly technical aspects of the race. Somewhere around mile 15 or so, as if out of nowhere, I heard a rider approaching. The next thing I know Kurt’s talking to me. “What are you doing back here?” he asks. ” What are you doing up here?” I ask him right back. Seemingly surprised I tell him that we’re up in the top ten. With this new motivation (wheel rubbing) I found some untapped strength. Kurt and I passed one more of our competitors and then with a mile left I fudged the exit out of the staircase and Kurt gapped me. And that’s how it ended, Kurt 8th and me 9th. Now I have three weeks till the next race to recoup and try to do better
I really enjoyed the strong presence of NEBC/CycleLoft/Devonshire Dental at the race. I think there was almost 15 of us. With two CycleLoft trucks and a CycleLoft tent, there was no missing us. Great fun for sure.
[Anthony Laskaris tends to attract a certain crowd looking for Camelbak
bladders, tires, lube…
[Kurt Johnson]
After not racing for a year I figured I was good for last place; at the start I was on Mike’s wheel then when we hit the road I pulled him till the half way point of the hill (too fat to climb fast) for the next ten miles I road with Scott from ccb and a rider from JRA. I stayed in front most of the time so I could pick the lines Scott would come around me on the fire roads once in a while to give me a brake, at mile ten I dropped my bottle and Scott amazingly picked it up and brought it to me on the next fire road section. At the twelve mile feed zone Scott and the JRA guy lost my wheel and some how I found Mike Good’s wheel. We worked together again for the last 4 technical miles passing other riders. On the very last section of single track we caught Ted (singlespeed racer), merged onto the last section of fire road with Ted and then realized Mike was not with us. Ted and I finished the last 150 yards together. All in all it was a finish I was happy with and much better than I had expected. The best part was being back with all my racing friends.
[Norm Collard]
Weather was perfect for a Sunday morning mtb race. Barry G., Mark R. and I drove up together and arrived about 1 hr before start of race; The usual NEBC mtb gang was in attendance; Registered and a short warm up of only about 10-12 min; Bear Brook is a fun point to point 18.5 mi course of mostly fast non-tech single track and fire roads with maybe a few miles of technical single track all total.
Our line up for the race seemed to take forever as each category went off in 3 min intervals with Sport Masters as one of the last (just behind the Sport Vet 2 racers including Barry G, Mark R and John Mosher). My group had a dozen masters including Andy Sherman, last year’s Sports Masters champion; my strategy for this approx 2 hr race was to keep Andy close to me for the first 12 or so miles before making a move perhaps on an extended climb.
At the gun I’m in 2nd place after one rabbit-type racer takes off onto some fire road for the 1st mile, just as we turn into single track another master slips in front of me putting me in 3rd as we make our 1st somewhat short but technical climb. Shortly after the climb I pass the 2nd place guy and get on the wheel of #1 for the next 2+ miles who is moving at a decent pace until we hit some technical stuff that trips him up. I pass him and move into first between mile 3 and 4 and start passing some of the slower Vet 2 racers hoping to put some distance on my competition. But a quick check behind and there’s Andy right on my wheel. Andy decides to make his move and passes me as I’m slowed by another Vet 2 racer, but I quickly pass the Vet 2 guy and jump on Andy’s wheel. This is perfect, Andy sets the pace for me for the next 4 or 5 miles as we continue to pass Vet 2 guys including Barry and Mark.
I notice Andy is climbing better than I thought he could on some of the short technical climbs. Still, I’m keeping my HR in the high 150s and nicely settled in while Andy does the work for us. Around mile 12 after we finish a 2+min climb on some single track we break out onto a gravel road with more climbing. Andy is breathing heavy and figure this is a good time to make a move. I’m feeling somewhat rested and pedal away with ease on the extended climb and keep the pace high for the next 4-5 minutes into some single track and another good climb. Look back and Andy is nowhere to be seen. I settle in for the last 5+ miles which is a fairly technical section. I’m in no man’s land now catching an occasional racer here and there.
I put a final surge in after the final technical decent down the stairs section onto the fire road with about 1.5 miles to go. Surprisingly, on the technical downhill section, I here John Mosher coming behind me. (He made a wrong turn and had to go back and re-do about 1.5 miles in the Vet 2 field!!) As we come onto the fire road he jumps in front of me and I grab his wheel for as long as I can until he passes a racer that slows me down. Nonetheless, he gave me the final surge I needed. Take 1st place for the second time in the NECS series. 2 for 2. Andy is edged out by another Masters racer taking 3rd place about 2+ minutes behind me.
Congrats to all the other NEBC gang who had great results as well including Keith Reynolds in Expert Senior II and the incredible Libby White who not only won the junior expert women’s division but had an incredible finish time that would have put her in high rankings in many of the men’s divisions!
MTB racing is a blast!
[Keith Reynolds]
It feels like mtb racing is being rekindled. There was a competing USCF-MTB race over at Pat’s Peak and the numbers sound equally impressive; 200 racers here and 200 over there!
Once we setup the entourage in the parking lot I I spotted one of my rivals from last year, Jamie. This year he tried ditching the Jelly Belly shirt and going underground – but as he found out we are all watching and ready to rib one another.
Our wave started with 13 guys and I settled into 5th position on the narrow path leading out to the dirt road. There was some jockeying for position on the road as we all knew the single track was just ahead. Jamie put in a last minute attack and went into the single track in 1st position. After a few of the twists and turns we had some roots to deal with. He was looking a little unstable – sort of holding onto a jack hammer – and just then he slid out and found himself on the side of the course.
He called out that he was fine but everyone passed him saying oohhh—ouch—and then he needed to dust himself off and put himself back together… I didn’t see him again until after the finish. I also fumbled somewhere along the way and needed to let two guys pass but soon after regained my rhythm.
I was sitting somewhere around 7th until we started to hit some up hills. I was able to see a group of 4 which were slowing and I thought they could be the lead group, I was able to rejoin with a few good efforts on the short undulating hills. One AFD rider was being conservative.. I knew he was gauging his efforts. The two other racers I exchanged pulls with weren’t sure of our position. There was a lead Bikeman guy who I’d connect with on the technical sections but he’d pull far away from us and had a minute ahead in other spots. The rider in plain black helped my motivation, we kept reeling in the bikeman guy. Over what I’ll call the “bone yard” plain jersey lost all of his rhythm and on the subsequent hill I passed him for the final time.
The AFD rider came through blazing with 5 or 6 miles to go. I couldn’t match it at the time but was able to take on the bikeman rider before we got to the Water Stop for the second time. Here I knew the race was almost over so I kept the pace up until the end, finishing 5th in my class and breaking into the top 10 overall. I was psyched!
Lastly I’d like to point out how much of an inspiration Michael Patrick is, for those that don’t know about his story, he’s back out here racing for Gary Fisher in the Elite category only a few months after both chemo and surgery to remove brain cancer. His last MRI showed he was cancer free!
