2008 Pat's Peak MTB Festival Team Race Report
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Conditions:
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Bright, sunny and hot with temps in the upper 70’s and above. The trails were mid-summer dry and dusty for the most part with only a couple of very minor wet spots.
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The Course:
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The course was a 5 mile loop on surprisingly good ski area XC trails. The elevation gain was about 850’ per lap, and you felt it all. This consisted of a mix of access road and ski slope cross-slope, climbs and descents with a large amount of fresh singletrack.
The start was up a grass hill onto a short access road climb into a sharp right around a snowmaking pond with two tricky offcamber pipes across the trail. Around the pond into the woods for a nice singletrack climb, over some roots/rocks up onto the ski slope and then cross slope for a bit and a fast down into a sharp access road turn. More cross slope over some rocks and a fast down into another gravel corner them into the woods for a sligtly rocky and rooty singletrack climb. Back down the slope and then cross slope through a few woods sections between trails with some wheel grabbers, then up, up, up on a baking, steep ski slope climb, around the top of a lift and quick gravel down to a hard right and let it rip down slope through washboard with two waterbars at 25mph plus and a steep offcamber cross slope back down through some rocky stuff around and start the 2nd hell climb. The 1st part was ski slope/access road/ski slope with a wall at the top. Then into the woods for a windy singletrack climb to the very top and a ripping long twisty downhill descent all the way back to the bottom and up a little rise then down and over a cool chicken-wire covered bridge across the snowmaking pipes and under the line for the lap.
Saturday at noon was the start of the 6/12/24 hour endurance race which had both solo and team categories. Sunday was the XC race with Sport doing 3 laps, Expert 4 laps and Pro/Semi-Pro did 5 laps.
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Results:
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Once again, NEBC had a solid presence at the festival with one in the 6 hour solo event and one in the 12 hour solo event. Day two saw six registering in the XC and five making it to the start line unscathed. We also had great representation on the podium racking up at least 5 podium spots. This extends the incredible success rate that the team has been having all season.
Excellent work to everyone on a very, very challenging course.
- Don Seib – Men’s 12 Hour Solo – 2nd
- Greg Brown – Men’s 6 Hour Solo – 6th
- Wayne Cunningham – Sport Men 40-49 – 2nd
- Scott Brooks – Sport Men 40-49 – 5th
- Teri Carilli – Sport Women 35+ – 3rd
- Cathy Rowell – Sport Women 35+ – DNS (derailleur hanger)
- Michael Rowell – Expert Men 40-49 – 1st
- Cris Rothfuss – Expert Women 35+ – 2nd
http://www.root66raceseries.com/results/index.php
In the team competion we scored 283 points which should help move us up as well.
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Reports:
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[Don Seib]
Had planned to do the 12 hour 2 person category but my partner had a stomach bug this past week and wisely opted out. Decided to try the 12hour solo to build up some endurance. Most advice hinged on pacing myself so did exactly that. 6, 12 and 24 hour classes all left at the same time on noon Saturday. I let a huge group go off the start and went out at an easier pace and ended with a 33 min 1st lap. HR most of that lap was higher than I knew I could sustain for 12 hours, so backed it down. First few laps were a good time and was enjoying the nice day and great terrain. I spent considerable time in my easiest gear. Tried to drink at least one bottle each lap and downed a lot of GU. Figured out quickly this wasn’t a race against other people it was race against yourself.
Around lap 7 I started to question the sanity of the 12 hour duration and with my mind wandering crashed at speed on the big descent. It was a good wake up call to pay attention to the course. Caught up with Greg Brown on lap 8 and rode with him off and on for the next 2 laps. Laps 10 and 11 started to hurt a bit more and tried different cadences, gears and pedaling styles. I had muscles trying to cramp in really weird places. Put my light on at 7:30 (thanks Mike/Cathy for the extra batteries) as the woods had gotten dark and didn’t want to crash again.On lap 12 the scorer told me I had done 11, not 12. I had read race reports where people lost count of their laps at these events and was determined not to do so. While riding lap 13, I recounted the day many times, and because I was a bit frustrated, rode harder than I should to make up time. Coming back through the scorers tent, found out they had read my scoring sheet wrong, and indeed was finishing 13…big sigh of relief.
At that point the scorer let me know I was in 2nd place and 3rd place was slowly gaining on me. I did lap 14 a bit harder and when I came through the tent to start the 15th I was struggling mentally and physically. Lap 15 was a bit surreal and I considered getting off the bike to lay down multiple times. Finished that lap at 11:01 PM and at that point could have quit, as you have to be riding at 11 to be scored in the 12 hour class. Decided to do one more to ensure I kept 2nd place. Knowing it was my last lap actually somehow made it less painful.
Statistics for the day: 16 laps, 80 miles, 13500 feet of climbing, 20 bottles of water, 10 GU’s, 146 avg HR, and last but not least, 2 kids and my wife who provided outstanding support. Very well run event andwill do it again next year.
[Greg Brown]
Six hours is a long time to ride a road bike, but a mountain bike? On a tough, climbing XC course? I was starting to realize on the drive up that I might be in for some pain… Would I cramp up? Did I have enough of the right food? Enough Gatorade? Can I do this without an iPod? Would I suffer a flat tire, broken chain, etc etc etc?
Soon enough I made it to the parking lot and after a quick & easy registration decided to pre-ride the course. And oh what a sweet course it was. Plenty of singletrack through dark, wooded sections. A few crossings of the ski runs – both uphill (ouch!) and downhill (wheeeeeee!), two long grinding climbs and a blazing fast, flowing singletrack descent. I know I was pushing a bit hard for a pre-ride, but it was so much fun…
Anyway, the race started and I stayed in the front group for the first lap – a bit stupid, since that meant hitting my LT threshold for the whole lap. Besides a bit of bunching up behind a couple of crashes and avoiding a poor bloke with a broken chain, things started to string out, then it was just a ride against oneself. It quickly became hard to tell who was lapping whom. My first few laps were fast (around 35 minutes each), but soon enough I had to dial it back in. So far my HR had not dropped much below 160 (166 is my LT by the way!)
I took breaks to change water bottles, sit down and grab a bit of real food (turkey on pita bread, PB & honey on pita bread etc ) after 3rd, 5th and 7th laps. I could see the more hardened endurance riders were just plugging along with no real off the bike breaks, but hey, this was my first ever MTB ride longer than 2 hours. In fact, I reflected (and indeed had quite a bit of time to do so) that until March this year I had never even owned a MTB…
I had a bit of a wayward lap (couple of stupid crashes) during the 4th hour – I guess I was getting tired. But I settled in after that, sucked down an Enervit (wow, what an instant energy BLAST! Sure this stuff is legal?) and came good for the last few laps. By now I had a succession of songs running through my head just like a phantom iPod. Unfortunately the playlist went haywire, and somehow I ended up with mellow top 40 tunes like Colby Caillat (what?!?!) and Jordin Sparks (double what!?!?) “soothing” me up the long grinding climbs. I tried to conjure up some AC-DC at least, but to no avail.
I finished my 9th lap at 5:50hrs, and so could have (should have?) gone out for my 10th, but by then I was out of water and had pretty much achieved my goals so decided that my race was finished. Indeed there was no chance of overtaking the guy in 5th place, so there it was.
I was 6th out of 33 starters – very happy! All in all a great experience. Can’t wait for the VT50 and Hampshire 100 now.
Camping at the venue was great too. I camped with a fellow NEBCer (Don Seib) and his family (thanks so much for their support and hospitality) who was still racing the 12 hour. The lodge bar was open so I recovered with a cheeseburger and a beer whilst watching the lights of the racers still on the course.
[Wayne Cunningham]
This race was fun but not much racing. The opening lap set the spot I finished in. Starts with a climb then short single track then climb short single track then climb for a really long time. After one endo (got to stop doing that) in one of those single track sections and a dab or two, I was passing and closing on others all the way to the top. By the time we started back down I was in second place with a gap going into the woods. On the single track way down I stared to hear someone closing on me. It was Dave from the Coyote Hill race. I did the best I could to hold him off until the climb started again. It worked and I did not see him again. I could see the leader on hill ahead but could not close on him. I focused on the riders from the other fields as targets and tried to improve on the single track and by the third and final lap I was able to ride it clean. I finish in second place and my arms were quite tired. You think you’ll rest on the downhill parts but you that so much pounding you don’t really recover that much.
[Scott Brooks]
I had two goals for the race. First goal was to qualify for nationals (needed a top 15 finish) and to take it easy on the first lap to pace myself. In the starting queue, I took a quick count of heads and found that my field was one of the larger of the day and had 21 starters. The advice I had heard from most people was you just had to finish and you would qualify. With 6 more heads then spots, I knew I needed to do better then just finish. Being new to mountain bike racing, no one was familiar to me and assumed that they were all better. I stood there waiting for my field to be called to the line pondering the race, and when we were called I wasn’t paying attention and went from the front to the back of the pack. Hmm, not a good first move. When the whistle went off, something inside my head went off too and I attacked the group, going around a large group of riders and to the front. Within the first 100 yards I was at the front of the field and climbing hard, opening a gap behind me. At this point I actually realized goal number two was over and focused on the race. For most of the first lap I tried to push my pace without blowing up. The three distinct long climbs were just that, long. Neither overly steep or technical in nature, they just sapped the strength. Over the third climb and I started the long technical descent. (Racer note: on Thursday I broke my full suspension frame and with the assistance of Anthony at the Loft was able to secure a hard tail rig to race. Note to all, the first time a new bike is ridden by you is probably best not to be at a race. Afterwards someone asked what I thought about the bike and I said we had a rockstar relationship; we went hard, had violent fits with each other and when it was all over best that we part amicably. Still, major accolades to the Loft and Anthony for their help!!!) With heavy hands on the brakes, I just about crawled down the mountain. Weaving around large rocks is tough, doing so downhill while trying to pass riders from earlier fields is just about downright impossible, so I continued my crawl. This impossible action was not conveyed to five riders who had caught me and magically jumped from behind to in front on the same tough downhill. Having been there and watched, I’m still not sure how they did it. As we broke the woods and the downhill, I could see the five riders just in front of me and pushed to catch them. On the uphills I would pass two or three, then on the downhills they would pass me. At one point one of the guys asked if I would pull him up the hill if he helped pull me down. On the final lap, I knew that same rider was just behind me so I pushed really hard on the uphill and let the brakes loose on the downhill, riding at the edge of comfort and control. When I broke through the woods I was confident that I would hold my position and qualify for nationals. Mission accomplished, final result 5th!
Note 2: It was pretty surreal to be riding along a fire road in thewoods, pass a house with with people in the front watching the raceand hear “Hey, that’s Scott Brooks”.
[Teri Carilli]
Having spent most of the spring slacking off, this was only my second race all season. Goals were modest: 1) finish 2) don’t get caught by the expert men’s field that went off two hours after me . 3) Do a better job pacing myself. Don’t get sucked into going out too fast and blowing up. I accomplished all three.
Before the race, Cathy and I went out to warm up. I got caught up behind someone in the first bit of singletrack and when I finally caught up to her, she was walking and said, “My race is over.” Turns out her derailleur just snapped off. At the start line, the field was visibly relieved when they heard about Cathy’s bad luck (and their good luck.) Turns out that the NEBC women are making a name for themselves. While waiting for the start, I was quizzed:
Random rider: “Who are you? Are you the fast one that was at Coyote Hill?”
Me: “No, that was Carrie.”
Random rider: “Oh! You must be the one from Brialee.”
Me: “No, that’s Cathy.”
Random rider: “Have you done any races?”
Me: “I did Winding Trails.”
Random rider: “Oh! You’re one of those two SUPER fast ones.”
Me: “No, that’s Cathy and Cris.” (realized later Cris wasn’t there so I’m not sure who she meant. Certainly not me as I came in DFL that race.)
Given the uphill start, I didn’t totally gun it at the whistle (see goal 3). Hit the reservoir about 5th place. Was passed by 2 or 3 riders on the long uphill to the ski lift. At the end of the first lap, Cathy yelled to me, “You’re in 4th! THAT’s 3rd right there!” and pointed at the rider about 20 yards in front of me. I picked up the pace and pulled along side that rider on the uphill near the feed zone. She looked over at me and asked, “You going to move over this time when I say on your left?” I thought she was kidding as I like to think I’m a pretty fair rider and had I heard her would have moved over if I had room on the trail. But she looked pretty serious. I decided to just eliminate the issue by putting as much distance between us as possible and sprinted up the rest of the hill, around the reservoir and through the first section of singletrack. Never saw her again.
The rest of the race I was pretty much on my own except for one woman I would leap frog. I passed her on the climbs and she descended faster than me (really need to work on that.) On the last climb, I couldn’t take it anymore and again accelerated around her and put enough distance between us so she wouldn’t catch me on the long twisty downhill section. Finished 3rd in the 35+ age group. Thanks to Cathy for the intel during the race. It made all the difference knowing where I was at.
[Cathy Rowell]
My race at Pat’s Peak ended before it even began Sunday. When I registered, I even requested my number – 977. I’ve won two previous Root 66 races with that number, and I figured it would bring me some luck – not yesterday.
Teri and I headed out to warm up and pre-ride some of the course before our race started. I was loving the course, and came out of the first piece of singletrack, over a bridge following the line of the rider in front of me to the left of the mud puddle. MISTAKE! Should have ridden through the puddle.
Somehow, something must have caught my derailleur, and I snapped the hanger completely off the bike. Teri rode up, and I told her my race was done. Helmet off, I walked the bike back down the slope to the cars, but we didn’t have a spare hanger, and no one around had one either. Sweetly, Teri offered me her bike to race (note that Teri is about 6 inches shorter than I am – that wouldn’t have worked well, but it was great of her to offer!), and Wayne also offered me his (glad I didn’t take him up on it – he went on to finish 2nd in his race!). I dejectedly took off my riding gear, and went to the sidelines to cheer on all my teammates as they started their races.
I was bummed. What I saw of the course looked like fun (although I didn’t get to see the worst of the climbing, or the washboard descent), and I thought I may have had the opportunity to do well there. So, I spectated, cheered, took photos, offered [unsolicited ;-)] advice, and provided course intel. Not a great day for me, but the team was successful overall!
Also had an interesting observation from Colin (who races for IBC) – he commented on the number of NEBCer’s showing up at the MTB races this year. Apparently, we’re making quite an impression!
[Mike Rowell]
Going into this race I was woried that I’d be racing alone as nobody pre-registered for my category. Arriving that day and registering, I was still the only one. Fortunately familiar faces including my friend Dave and primary competition Jeff started to arrive and although we had a small field, I had people to race against. At the start Dave took the hole shot. I jokingly yelled up to him to ‘give it hell’, which he did. I fell in line behind him with the rest of the field in tow. Dave ripped around the pond, up the 1st climb down the 1st descent, over the bridges and up the rooted, rocky section but paused a bit and I snuck by him. I didn’t really think I was making a move or launching an attack, I just went to the front and rode my normal Thursday night pace (or so I thought).
A gap developed and before long I was running into the back of the field that started ahead of us. From there I just worked at picking people off as I encountered them. On the climbs I took it easy and spun in the granny. The final extended singletrack downhill was enough to recover on, though I got behind a racer going slower than I’d have liked but not slow enough that I could pass, which had me a bit nervous. I made sure to hit the ‘ramp of doom’ and pull a little crossup for the crowd (of one). Around for the 1st lap I checked my split and was amazed to see 26:53 for the lap. Through the feed zone with Cathy and Teri cheering I took a new bottle and kept marching along. Throughout the race I forced myself to drink more than I normally would as the heat and sun were baking out on the ski-slope climbs.
The next lap was more of the same and when I came through I checked my split and it was in the mid 27’s, then up to the feed zone and Cathy said I had a couple minutes on 2nd. More heads down racing against anyone I came upon and the laps spun by with my splits holding in the mid-upper 27’s and the gap on 2nd expanding steadily.
The final lap I tried to kick it up a little while still riding conservatively to retain my position. This worked fine. On the final climb I caught and passed a Corner Cycles rider from the race ahead of me. He had a very nice full carbon, integrated seat-mast, sub 20# Look hardtail. I thought it funny that I passed him on the up with my 29#, 5” travel full suspension pig. Not so funny when he caught me back on the screaming singletrack downhill. Kudos to him! I came through the finish and managed to hold my position.
One note of interest as to mountain bike races. Almost everyone that I passed or who passed me, I would yell encouragement to and without fail, regardless of how badly they were suffering, they would do the same back. This is nice.
[Cris Rothfuss]
Suffering succotash! I knew warming up that I had left my good legs at home, which struck me as a problem on a course where I had expected my advantage to lay in the extended climbing. We had 3 pros and 6 experts take the line together, one of whom asked me if I was going to bust out a super fast cross start. I said “yes” because it seemed that the only place on the 20 mile course where I might have an advantage over these seasoned XC racers was during those first 300 meters. I did not take the hole shot, but was perfectly happy to tail three of my competitors up the opening climb. I then proceeded to crash hard over a pipe that I had been worried about crossing over. See the hay bale, hit the hay bale. I lost enough time getting untangled from another rider and shaking off the crash that by the time we hit the second extended climb, I could see the leaders ahead still….but quite away ahead. I had also been a bit skeptical about being able to ride the long downhill as fast as others in my field, and I think that proved to be the case. Think you are slow, you are slow. So, the first lap was a bona fide disaster and I was relegated to riding the next two laps alone, in second to last place of our combined field, suffering and feeling downright sorry for myself. For the final lap, I decided to at least try get over being so pitiful and salvage some small victories. The first of which was regaining the requisite aggression to ride the lower course singletrack clean and well. The second of which was to finally see another woman riding ahead, track her down and pass her on the final big climb. The third of which was to ride the long downhill the best that I had all day and well enough to stay ahead of the rider I had just passed. I ended up 7th of 9 in the combined field and 5th of 6th amongst the experts (2nd of 2 in my age group). Not spectacular, but I learned a bit about what to expect physically on these ski area courses and the mental toughness that is required to excel in XC racing (where I’ve got a ways to go).