2008 Orchard Assault MTB Race Team Report
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Conditions:
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Overcast with light mist to breaking cloud cover late, overall wet and nasty with temps in the mid 50’s. The trails were slick and greasy and the roots were deadly.
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The Course:
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The course was a 3.2 mile slog on some fresh loamy singletrack trail and a couple loops through and around some open field. There were a number of highly switch-backed climbs and descents of the same hill through a softwood forest. This was probably as challenging a race course as you would typically see, both physically and technically, given the conditions. Beginners did 2 laps, Sport 3 laps, Expert 5 laps and Pro/Semi-Pro did 6 laps.
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Results:
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We had nine NEBC members racing the various fields. Unfortunately we lost three to technical difficulties during the race, which was not an uncommon thing given the conditions.
- Julie Lockhart – Beginner Women 35+
- Cris Rothfuss – Sport Women – 2nd
- Cathy Rowell – Sport Women – 3rd
- Scott Brooks – Sport Men 30+ – 1st (5th overall)
- Greg Brown – Sport Men 30+ – (derailleur casualty)
- Michael Rowell – Expert Men 30+ – 2nd (5th overall)
- Keith Reynolds – Expert Men 30+ – 5th (8th overall)
- Michael Good – Expert Men 30+ – 6th (10th overall)
- Libby White – Expert Women
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Reports:
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[Julie Lockhart]
Goals – learn some more Mountain bike skills for the CX season. Truly met at this race … many wet roots and close encounters.
I had a sensational preview testing all the ways possible to come off of the bike in a single race. Therefore I missed my race start and had to be content with the learning done during the preview.
[Bernard Tan]
First of all, a big thanks to the seasoned veterans and fellow NEBC expert mountain bikers for helping me prepare for this race. It was certainly more than I bargained for in my first race, but to have teammates all around the course cheering made it all bearable.
All the questions I had about mountain bike racing were answered in my first race. Among the ones that I was most curious about in no particular order are:
1. Are courses relatively well marked? Yes, in this case.
2. How muddy and dirty can a race get? Let’s just say you can’t make out what make and model some bikes were after this race.
3. What do you do with all this mud and dirt? Try and grab the cleanest part of the bike and put it back on your roof-rack (hopefully you have one) and deal with the crap when you get home, or try and clean it by dripping water from your Camelbak (among a dozen different methods I observed).
4. How hard can a race be? This applies more for the experts than for me. 5 laps! Ouch!!! They tell me it’s as hard as it gets, but somehow, I don’t believe them, yet.
The course was 3.x miles of up and downhill with lots of leg sapping mud and grass sections thrown in for good measure. Pre-riding the first section of the course, I questioned what I had signed up for. I was supposed to do 3 laps, but given the conditions, the promoters decided at the start to cut it down to 2 laps and that was fine by me.
For those that know cyclocross or don’t know anything about mountain bike racing, the hole-shot is very important for eventual placing IF you can stay upright when it gets technical. I knew this going into the race. More importantly, I knew my skills or lack thereof and decided to just stay towards the back of the field. In true noob fashion, I fall off my bike when trying to hop over the first wet log not far from the start. There were many more close calls to come, but this would be my only fall through the entire race.
From this point on, it was my mission to cut my losses and make up some ground. Well, how the heck am I going to do this if the first half of the course was all technical sections and downhill mudslides? To my surprise I was able to make up a few spots on the uphill switchbacks. By this point the field was strung apart and in some sections I would not see any riders in front or behind me. So I keep slogging and sliding through the course until I come out to the first grassy section. With some roadie fitness, I eventually used this section to my advantage and picked off a few more riders.
By the end of the first lap, I have “secured” what would be my final position. There was one other rider within reach as we crossed the finish. He made a wrong turn before heading back into the woods and now I find myself ahead of him. I was a lot more comfortable with the course through the second lap. We played cat and mouse for a little while, but eventually I faded, he passed and I would not see him until the finish. All in all a great experience and the best part of it was to share it with teammates afterwards over a few drinks. Try it, you might like it!
[Cris Rothfuss]
I don’t know…after Kansas City, these conditions seemed somewhat reasonable to me. Or maybe I’ve just fully lost my grip on what is reasonable. In any event, I had a good time during this race. Except for the moment when I overcooked the first downhill while leading the race and wrapped myself in course tape. Of course, I had previously told Cathy that it would be very easy to lose control in this particular spot and that I intended to ride it within my capabilities. Yeah, well, anyway.
Cathy rode by while I was flailing to get started again and told me to stop panicking. It was very helpful to hear that. I spent the rest of the race feeling pretty good in that suffering and snorting sort of way that only a hard core race can inspire, but was never able to chase the race leader down. My favorite moment of the race, witnessed by many, was losing my balance right next to a male Sport rider who had stepped aside to let me pass on a steep switchback that had caused him to dismount. As I started to tip over toward him, I put my hand on his hip, pushed myself upright and kept going. You work with what you’ve got, right? All in all, a good start to this year’s MTB campaign!
[Cathy Rowell]
It was gonna be the hills that got me. Oh those climbs… There were only two really, both snaking up the same hillside from different places with multiple switchbacks. According to Cris, the second time uphill seemed to have “slicker than snot” roots or logs at the apex of every switchback. Add the mud and the pitch, and, well, it got me.
Only 6 women lined up for the Sport race, and my goal was to stick with Cris as long as I could. She had a great start, and ended up with the hole shot. One other woman was on her tail, and I entered the woods in third place. At the bottom of the first descent, Cris got a little tangled. After telling her to stay calm, I passed by her, only to biff it in an uphill corner, where she passed me back. After that, I never saw her again…
The first lap for me was pure torture – all out, as fast as possible, and biffing the second climb miserably – partly due to trying to rush through sections, and partly because I couldn’t see through my fogged up glasses. In the second lap (after ditching the glasses), I decided to settle in some, and managed a little bit better in the technical sections, although somewhat dejected that I had let the leaders get away. By the third (and final) lap, my technical skills were better, and my legs got back under me. I managed to clean almost all of the uphill climb (by now, the corners were so mired that the good lines were in the leaves on the inside or outside of the turns), and finally cross the line where I started – in 3rd place.
After 24 hours, I still don’t think I would describe this race as “fun”. I think it was likely the most challenging race we will have all season – at least I hope so! And, three washes with OxyClean and Tide later, the tough stains did sort of come out of the kits – that will teach us for going out and playing in the mud ;-).
[Scott Brooks]
The UMass mountain bike race for me started in November. On the way to a cross race, I realized that I wasn’t very excited about the start. Gone were the pre-race jitters and the excitement. Racing had become something that I did. The “specialness” of it was gone. Arriving at my first mountain bike race, I certainly was excited. The normalcy was gone and the specialness was back. I took my spot on the second row of about 30 competitors. I was signed up for the men’s 30-39 category. With no designation of categories and no organization of numbers, I had no clue who I was racing against. From the gun, the race was tough. Starting uphill I was able to move up a couple of riders before hitting the singletrack. For a roadie, the twisting and winding of the course was made more difficult by the wet roots. Being cautious but exercising speed where I could, I moved up to third place on the second lap. That didn’t last too long as I started to fade. By the third lap I was down on the guy in front of my by a minute and up on the guy behind by the same. I sat comfortably in fifth place and pushed myself. Final placing for the day was fifth in the sport class. Upon review of the results which were posted today though, I found out that I won my category!!! Not sure who I beat or by how much, but a win is a win.
[Greg Brown]
During the pre-ride, I seriously doubted the wisdom of this race being my first Sport race; it was already getting very slippery, the uphill switchbacks with logs to clear were right at the limit of my technical abilities, and I could not get my gears to cooperate and stay where I wanted them. Oh well, I line up anyway and see what happens. The first couple of laps were ok I guess – though I got caught behind a first corner fiasco, so straight away I was out of contention. I was content to just ride my own pace after that… That is up until the dodgy shifting became terminal – the rear derailleur decided to make its way into the spokes of my wheel. Fortunately the hanger sheared cleanly, and the (expensive) derailleur survived (I think). The spokes, however, sustained some impressive grinding where the chain had jumped in between the cassette and the spokes. In summary, I’d say the day had the potential to be fun, but ended up being expensive!
[Mike Rowell]
I pre-rode the course early in the AM and at that point, it wasn’t that bad. The switchbacks hurt, but were doable and there was mud, but you could avoid much of it, so I finished the lap, cleaned the bike, and spectated. The course layout was awesome for watching and cheering. The whole team was either racing or cheering, which was great.
As 1PM finally grew near, I started getting ready for my race, which was the last wave of the day. I shut the hatch of the van only to find that Cathy’s new Garmin Edge 305 was sitting on the bumper. The hatch smashed it. Ugh, I’m a loser! So I get ready and ride around some to prepare. At that point about 75 racers had made multiple laps of the course, and it had changed. On the start line we find out we’re doing the full 5 laps instead of an abbreviated race. At the whistle everyone sprints, I try but there is no motivation to go. Into the singletrack and I’m back so try and gain but tight, twisty, rooty, wet stuff isn’t very passing friendly. I manage to get a guy on the inside rooted line of a nasty switchback descent then settle in. We spit out onto an off-camber bank with a 6” wide track of loose, sandy stuff, and then back into a steep grunt switchback from hell. I dropped the chain going to the granny so ran suspending the bike by the post while shifting and pedaling the chain back on with the other hand.
From there it was a blur. I had no idea what place I was in and didn’t really care, but later got onto Keith’s tail and just kept slogging ahead. All I could do was try and maintain momentum toward the finish, at which point I could stop. I heard almost constant encouragement and praise, which all seemed sarcastically patronizing, since I knew the truth. Laps later I arched my head up from a sunken grimace and exclaimed to my cheering section ‘this sucks’ and it was silent, which was fitting.
Keith, however, was riding strong and fast. I can usually make on time on people in the technical stuff but not on Keith. He was hammering. Unfortunately, about half way into the final lap, Keith’s ‘suitcase of courage’ was empty and I was able to catch him. The one glint of fun during the whole race was when I was trying to take him in the air over a dirt-jump at the top of the nasty ‘slip & slide’ section, which was basically a mudflow. I couldn’t get by him but he let me pass when it flattened out into the fields. The finish came and went and I was finally able to stop. We cheered as the team and everyone else finished.
The brightest spot of the day was hanging with the team, cheering for each other and especially going out afterwards.
[Keith Reynolds]
I had seen this race run a number of years back, so I was committed to going this year. Similar to what we saw of postings of last year, things were low key – just a couple of college kids trying to raise funds for their cycling club. No fancy timing was necessary; the strips of mud, greasy climbs and a mix of singletrack would sort out the field. The two days prior had rained leaving some standing water in the low lying fields and on some of the run off areas. This got tracked up as the day wore on and conditions only worsened. At the start I moved into the front to enter the singletrack and then grunt up the switchback climbs. Half way into the lap I was passing one of the pro/semi-pro guys who said at the start “maybe I’m in the wrong group looking at Matt Boobar and the two others”; either I was pushing too hard or he was right. Not long afterwards two juniors came around me and attacked and my legs didn’t have much to respond with – so I focused on riding smooth and climbing those switchbacks. Around this time Mike Rowell tagged up behind me and we rode a couple laps within talking distance. Around lap 3 I lost track of what was going on; so I thought we were on lap 4 when we were really on lap 3. Cathy even tried to clear this all up for me, but I was off in my own little happy place avoiding reality. As lap 4 came to a close I thought this must be it, give it that final push… up the last twist into a hill finish with no one on my wheel. The finish line cemented my fear that this was lap 4 – oh NO! Onwards I crept, motivation plummeting and the final ascent through the switch-back hills wore me out. Mike Rowell came around and a stick caught in his derailleur, with a little back pedal he was in fine shape to keep the same pace through the fields and for the final dip into the woods. I faded further with more guys passing, adding injury a single speeder came along looking strong. Then the final twist to the finish a guy jumped on my wheel and was pressing hard. For a small victory I held him off with less than a wheel’s length. Congrats to everyone for competing in what will probably be the hardest of conditions. Thanks for all the cheering, it brought out the sun! The post race beer and fried pickles at Amherst Brewing Company was well enjoyed in the company of teammates.
[Michael Good]
I knew this one was going to hurt. I had been at the venue all day watching and cheering on teammates. I had seen their suffering. I had seen the promoter reduce the races by one lap each for the Novice and Sport because of the muddy conditions. I know that muddy conditions are not improved by having people race multiple laps on the trails. With the Expert race going last I was expecting the worst. After being told earlier that the Expert race was also going to be shortened one lap from five down to four, I mentally prepared myself for the experience. As we staged for the race the Promoter announced that they had reconsidered and the Expert race would indeed be the full five laps. UGH!!! The sun was making an appearance and temps were rising, this was going to be tough.
I chose not to pre-ride the course. Instead, I just talked to the folks that did and to the racers as they finished. I knew it was going to be muddy, I knew the course was deteriorating, but I don’t think I got the gist of how much climbing there was each lap. A big ouch with the combination of leg sapping mud and prolonged switchback climbs.
Anyway, I went as hard as I could for as long as I could. I suffered as one only can suffer in a mountain bike race. I got almost two hours of MTB race intensity training in on a day when it was raining at home so that was great.
I finished tenth overall in Expert in a small field, so not too bad. The real racing starts in two weeks when EFTA kicks of the New England Championship Series in Gloucester, RI with the Gloucester Grind on May 18th. And there is no climbing there; mud perhaps, but no climbing.