2008 Domnarski Farm MTB Race Team Report
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Conditions:
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Mostly sunny, and calm with temps in the upper 70’s. Overall, excellent weather save the rain the night before. Given the rain of recent the trails were slick and greasy and there was ample standing water and huge mud-bogs.
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The Course:
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The beginner course was a 3.4 mile subset of the main 10.5 mile course which started on a slight down and quickly hit a steep, wet, rock singletrack up. Riding was possible but running was the hot setup. There was ample climbing with an extended mile plus climb early on, a few nasty washed, rocky, loose jeep road climbs and a really nasty section of technical rocky climb following a loose access road scramble up. There were a few sections of new singletrack that were excellent. The area was mostly Jeep and ATV roads/trails and thus had that ‘bombed out’ feel with gobs of craggy exposed granite.
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Results:
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Once again, NEBC had a good presence at the race in the various XC fields. Additionally, we had a 100% podium rate, which ain’t bad :) Congratulations to Kristen on her excellent win (time to upgrade to sport maybe) and Catherine on her stellar performance in 2nd. I think that everyone saw just about their best results of the season at this race despite the 3 habanero difficulty rating.
And what a season it has been. I can’t tell you how many podiums NEBC/Cycle Loft/Devonshire Dental has seen this season but I can say for certain many, many, many of them. We have also had multiple National level podiums. The exposure, attention and respect that we have gotten as a team has been incredible. I’ll pull together a report of the full stats a bit later on and make it available to all.
I also want to say how proud I am of each of you and also to be part of this team and see so many people who are really excited about the sport and about racing. Congratulations and many thanks to all of you for bringing me back into it.
- Kristen Lukach – Beginner Women 19-34 – 1st
- Catherine Womack – Beginner Women 35+ – 2nd
- Mike Rowell – Expert 40-49 – 1st
http://www.root66raceseries.com/results/index.php
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Reports:
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[Kristen Lukach]
There had been a heated debate via the Root66 message board about how many laps the beginner field would do at Domnarski Farm (one lap being 3.35 miles with a doozey of a hill climb to start each lap). The guys were pretty firm in doing two laps, the women voted at the line for one. I got the hairy eyeball from more than a few racers for suggesting we prolong the season a little and do three laps….(hey, next April is a LONG way off and I’m having a blast!).
About 35 yards past the start line the fun began, off the bike for the first run-up, remount and begin the gritty granny-gear spin to the top of the hill. We climbed…and we climbed….and then climbed some more. About 15 minutes in I started to wonder if my insurance would cover altitude sickness….at 20 minutes I decided it might be nice if someone sent up a Sherpa with extra O2. Finally, I reached a bend in the trail and to my extreme relief, the hill started to break. Phew! That was rough.
After all of that climbing, we were rewarded with an amazingly fun descent with a little something for everyone…some small rock gardens (after Wompy…don’t most rock gardens seem small?), thick patches of peanut butter mud, some slick off-camber turns, some exposed rock face and lot and lots of water!! Some of the puddles were ridable, a few could be bypassed at the side of the trail but some were just plain deep! I may be short, but it still took me by surprise when I tried to run with my bike through one particulary nasty looking puddle and the water came up to mid-thigh…who knew you’d need swimmies and a snorkle for a mt bike race? It was a hot, muggy morning though, and the swim was refreshing. With half a mile to go I reached a mud bog, thick and deep and goopey, spanning the entire width of the singletrack. Completley unridable. It made me smile to see three or four of the beginner men bush-whacking 15ft off trail to avoid the mud. I guess they didn’t want to get dirty? I let out a whoop to let them know I was there and took the plunge trying to make as much of a mess as possible…isn’t that half the fun?
All too soon I was at the finish line, my first mt bike season official over. As I sat on the bumper of my car, scraping goo off my shoes..(and legs and face and ears etc), I couldn’t suppress a big perma-grin. I have caught the bug, I’m officially addicted to this madness! Congrats to all the NEBCers who came out and raced this year, thanks for a great season. Now, bring on cyclo-cross!!
[Catherine Womack]
The beginner women did one lap of a 3.5 mile loop—at the end of the race it was clear to all of us that we could have easily done two; my legs have never felt so fresh after an MTB race (I guess this means I should have pushed a lot harder—well, live and learn…)
Domnarski Farm is not a course I will look back on with nostalgia—it is relentless climbing for the first mile and a half. A lot of it is technical, including the very first turn from the start line (which is already up a hill—people were breathing hard just getting there from the parking lot!). I watched the experts and sport folks go up the first left turn into a seriously technical rocky washed out section with some water, and only about 3 people rode it. I was off the bike a good bit during the first 15 minutes, in which I was totally maxed out. But finally we got to the top, and I was ahead of about 4 people.
Once getting to the top, it was fast cruising—mostly doubletrack, a little rocky but not bad, with only one really technical downhill (which I kind of skidded down, partly clipped out—not elegant, but it did the job). My biggest problem was getting disoriented on the trail at one point, seeing black arrows (the previous ones were red, and I was worried about straying onto the sport/expert trail), and not knowing if I was going the right way. I rode all the way back to where the person behind me was to make sure I was in the right place. This was a big bummer—I lost several minutes, but I really wanted to make sure I finished the race. I gunned it at the last to get past the person who was now riding with me, finishing much behind my expected time, but still in 2nd.
I did meet my race goals: 1) finish; 2) do not hurt self; 3) do not finish last.
As a result, I took 3rd place for the series for beginner women 35+. I did not qualify for a prize because I did not do 8 races (did 6), but still, I am pleased. It has been a good season, and I have learned a lot and had a lot of fun.
[Mike Rowell]
I went into the Domnarski Farm race, the final race of the season, looking for some redemption over my lackluster performance the previous weekend. As such, I recognized that I needed to take it easier the week leading up to the race so to be relatively fresh. It worked to my favor that the race was on Saturday, so there wouldn’t be any chance of me being stupid enough to do a hard race the day before only to spend myself before I even started.
We lined up with a good sized group including series leader Brian R. and GearWorks/Spinarts Bob B. (both of whom stomped me the previous Sunday), Corner Cycles Mark S. and Grey E. and Psycho tri-guy Alec P. as well as a host of other fast 40’s.
Off the line I was 4th onto the first up which was within 50 yards of the start. I chose to run it and managed to get to the front. From there I was able to ride quickly and cleanly on a wet, sticky, technical single-track section leading into the first climb. A gap of about 50 yards developed so I stayed on the gas up the long switchbacked climb. At the top I was out of sight so just kept moving as quickly as possible. I recall moving steadily through the age groups that started ahead of us. Through the access road waterholes I saw Pro SS-er extraordinaire Thom P. broken down fixing his bike; bummer. Into the fresh singletrack, fun stuff, keep moving, steady, calm and safe. Break out onto the paved road section and I see crossin’ young fella’ Colin R. and exclaim “isn’t this going to feel good tomorrow (at the Amesbury cross race)”, then ramp it up to 30mph on the slight down, moving well. Now we hit a crappy washed out, loose rocky Jeep road climb and descent. Ride careful, no flats. A little more singletrack then a miserable loose steep Jeep road up, up and up. In the woods I caught SS hardman Rob S. and said hello. Some washed out gulley scramble up and we finally hit the rumored $10 climb; a very short, steep, slick rocky climb that the promoter offered $10 to anyone who could ride; I walked. From here it was down, more mud and bogs, more Jeep road, more mud and bogs and around for the lap in just under an hour, which I knew was solid.
Through the finish grab a new bottle from Cathy and march on. Lap two is about conservation and steady maintenance. I knew that I had a gap but wasn’t sure how much and had no way of knowing so just had to keep on it. I took the long climb at my pace, nice and steady. At the top I drank, took a gel (yuck) and drank some more. Unfortunately, I was drinking with my right hand and came quickly to a technical down. D’Oh! Grab the bottle in my teeth and reach for the bars; missed, Oh crap, rookie! Endo over onto a chunk of granite, knees first, then the bike slams into my back, jet my arms out to catch the the bike so as not to let it hit the rock and scratch it. Back up, shake it off and move on. Cleanly through the descent and the muddy Jeep road and the fresh cut, yell at myself to keep myself on pace, more this that and the other thing. Along the way my waterbottle cage came loose and was about to fall off so despite not wanting to, I stopped on the rocky washed Jeep road climb to tighten it with the allen from my multi-tool, which I stupidly strapped around a spare tube with velcro and had a bear of a time separating the two one handed in my back pocket while doing 25 mph on the road section leading into the Jeep road. After that excitement came the really lonely point in the race, where you don’t see anyone except for a couple stragglers from a different category that started after us. I made a bid at the $10 climb but only made it 1/2 way up. Now the long descent back down; ride it safe and be conservative, but not too conservative. It’s erily quiet at this point in the race and all the while I’m waiting to hear the clang of chainslap as someone comes up to me from behind and passes me. It didn’t happen though despite my second lap being a few minutes slower than the first lap and I managed to cross the line before anyone got me. That was the end to the MTB race season which I was looking for.