2009 Pat's Peak MTB Team Race Report - 7-12-09
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Conditions:
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The conditions were bright, sunny and hot (at least by this summer’s standards) with temps in the upper 70’s and above. The trails were tacky in many spots with a number of full on mud pits and wet rooty and twisty descents.
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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 950’ 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 single-track.
The start was up a grass hill onto a short access road climb into a sharp right around a snowmaking pond with two tricky off-camber pipes across the trail. Around the pond into the woods for a nice single-track climb, over some wet, muddy roots/rocks up onto the ski slope and then cross slope through some boggy wet grassy sections 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 slightly rocky and rooty single-track 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 water-bars at 25mph plus and a steep off-camber 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 single-track climb to the very top and a ripping long twisty downhill descent all the way back to the bottom and up another extended rise then down and over a pallet bridge and under the line for the lap.
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Results:
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Excellent work everyone on a very, very challenging course. Stellar NEBC results and a big round for John, Tim, Les, Kristen and Cathy for their podium finishes.
- Michael Rowell – Pro/Cat1 Open Men – 13th
- Keith Reynolds – Cat1 Men 30-39 – 4th
- Scott Brooks – Cat1 Men 30-39 – 10th
- Michael Good – Cat1 Men 40-49 – DNF
- Cathy Rowell – Cat1 Women 35+ – 1st
- Tim Dodd – Cat2 Men 50+ – 2nd
- Kristen Lukach – Cat2 Women 19-34 – 3rd
- Les Bethel – Cat3 Men 50+ – 2nd
http://www.root66raceseries.com/page/9-race-results
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Reports:
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[Mike Rowell]
I reluctantly registered for the Pro/Cat1 Open race, again, thinking that not many people would show up. In the line to register I saw Jonathan Page. On the start line I noticed that we probably had the biggest field of the day with about 25 starters. I lined up next to road pro and cyclocross hit man, Jamey Driscoll and hoped for the best. At the start I decided to go out easier than normal and settle in. This was working well and I was maintaining toward the middle for the first lap. On the second lap I started to feel better and was moving up some. Coming into the final mile or so I flatted on the “Jump of Doom”. I was able to change it up pretty quickly but the bead didn’t seat so I had to stop, air down, seat the bead and air back up. Not good. I was passed by many people and lost Todd Wheeldon, with whom I was pacing. Once I got going again it took a while to re-focus. Once I did I was able to make some progress and ended up passing a number of people back, though I never did get back up to Todd.
Lesson Learned: Even though the “Jump of Doom” is small and people are cheering, don’t do it. Rolling your tire and causing a flat and ruining your race is too high a cost. Racing conservatively is often a good plan.
[Keith Reynolds]
The team prepped, dropped bottles at the feed zone and got to warming up on the road. The course was up-up-up with plenty of sun exposure; I heard warning of off-camber roots in the descent. We staged pointing straight up the ski slope, heading into a chairlift pole. I made sure to coordinate with Scott to avoid bumping this time. He jumped into first position up the hill and I wasn’t far off. The climbing sorted out the field into a single file by the time it narrowed. While climbing I thought about being oxygen starved and maxing out. Those thoughts soon ended because we were forced to deal with the mud. Almost every ski trail crossing involved a wide slosh of mud that had been churned by all the racers over the past day.
Somehow I found my climbing legs yet forgot to pack most everything else in my gear bag. I went through a few more errors out on course; lost a shoe in the mud, slid off of a wet root and fell and then my handle bar came loose. Once I sorted myself out it was time to focus on racing and catching the few guys I was trading spots with earlier. For the most part guys were descending like they had motors, sure makes me want to work on that. Thanks to NEBC & friends for cheering on the sidelines.
[Michael Good]
SKI AREAS ARE FOR SKIERS.
Any attempt to put an MTB race on a ski mountain is an awkward fit at best. Pat’s Peak lived true to expectations. Ton’s of exposed fall-line climbing with little or no reward in terms of quality riding. Most of the course that was not straight up the hill was riddled with mud, running water, saturated grass, and temporary bridges made out of pallets laid haphazardly in the mud.
On my FIVE STAR course rating system Pat’s Peak managed a generous rating of two out of five stars. That’s one star for the 300 yards of ridable uphill single-track that there was and one more star for the Pub that stayed open for us after the race. Other than that I found nothing redeemable about the days offering.
As I reflect back on it, this race may have actually been more interesting if it had been run in the opposite direction. The long extended downhill was predominantly single-track. It would be interesting to ride up that single-track and then bomb down the open-exposed ski trail roads.
As far as my race went, I started having rear tire troubles at the start of lap three. I stopped three times to try and put some CO2 in the tire in hopes of stemming the leak. In an error in judgment I used all my available CO2 trying this method and when I finally gave up and went to put in a tube I had no air to pump up the tire. Result: race over- DNF. With the tubeless tire system I have historically been getting no flats. I didn’t have one all last year! Now this is two races in a row. Very frustrating to say the least. Hopefully it’s all out of my system now and I can go back to racing, not walking my bike for miles each race. UGH!!
[Cathy Rowell]
Last year, I didn’t get to race at Pat’s Peak because I ripped my derailleur hanger off on my warm-up. I was determined NOT to have a mechanical during my warm-up this year, and to see what this course was all about. Well, it was about climbing and lots of it. Oh, and that bright thing in the sky we haven’t seen in two months? It made a grand appearance on Sunday, making it hot. And thunderstorms the night before (not to mention two months of rain) made for lots of energy-sucking, stinky, bug-filled mud. Oh, and I almost forgot about the wrong turn I took in the first lap taking me downhill to the lodge when I should have been going UPHILL…
Short story on my result: if your glass is half empty, I lost; if your glass is half full, I won ;). Where were all the other Cat 1 women????
[Tim Dodd]
This was my first MTB race, and it was really hard. I raced Cat 2, sport 50+, I took the hole shot and went hard from the gun, my hope was to drop people on the hills to buy time on the technical sections. It worked pretty well except one guy could stay in contact on the hills and catch when I had to put a foot down. We did one lap and I was over my threshold HR for the entire lap, I had to shut it down let the guy pass and pace myself the rest of the race finishing second.
I had beers with 3 other 50+ guys after the race, this never happens in RR!
I promised to race Snow with them in a couple of weeks.
It was a hard but good time.
[John McGrath]
Well.. with visions of Coyote Hill with the storms the night before I was not looking forward to Pat’s Peak. My worst fears were made worse when some of the 24 hour guys suggested not pre riding the course as it wasn’t in good shape. Anyway… I was there and I was riding.. This time around I decided to drop in a follow some more experienced guys as the last 2 events I just out like a hole shot in CycloCross and ended up falling and with a puncture. This time it seemed very easy and half way through the 1st lap I passed the lead rider. He passed me on the technical down hill but once it started to go up again I repassed him and that’s the last I saw of him… 1st place was great.. maybe I am getting the hang of this. (not really… I’m bad in the technical areas..)