2009-07-19 Harding Hill MTB report
Conditions:
There was standing water/mud from the serious rain leading up to the day of the race.
The Course:
The course was a 5 mile loop on a combination of carriage roads, and single-track mountain trails that see use once a year. The elevation was broken up within different sections and had a sustained bog section of mud. There was one major descent with a couple of baby head rocks waiting at the apex of the turn and a cheering section with fans. Most mentionable is the group start; there were no waves for age groups, just ability. Everyone lined up and went for the hole shot.
The Elite Women and Experts did 4 laps, Sports did 3, and the Novice group did 2.
Results:
- Cris Rothfuss – Elite Women – 1st
- Norm Collard – Expert Master – 2nd
- Keith Reynolds – Expert Sr2 – 3rd
- Nolan Watts – Expert Vet2 – 7th
- Anthony Laskaris – Expert Vet2 – 10th
- Michael Good – Expert Vet2 – 13th
- Les Bethel – Sport Master – 10th
Reports:
- Norm Collard
4 laps on 5 mile fast but muddy course with several good climbs.
This was my 3rd or 4th time racing this course and it hasn’t changed at all. The same 4+ muddy sections. First time racing Expert on this course and thus one add’l lap than prior years. Mass start for all experts put me in the middle of the pack for the first mile or so. Pace was much faster than sport class as I could usually make my way to the front fairly easily in the sport category. Not so today. Tough to hold position. About mid way thru first lap, the field broke up and found myself in a pack of 8-10 racers as we settled into a similar pace. Had Michael Good in front of me and figured he would be a good pace setter for me. However, he tripped up a bit on one technical rooty section and I passed him offering some encouragement as I slipped passed. I spotted Paul Curley during at the starting line and figured I should look for him during the race and try to hold with him. Much to my surprise, I passed him with relative ease on the big climb about 3/4 through the 1st lap. Next, I snuck up to Anthony L’s wheel and stayed with him for about a lap or so (sorry Anthony, I never spoke up…breathing too hard) until I got tripped up on a rooty muddy section and he slipped ahead. Never did catch up with him. 1st 2 laps were relatively fast and once I got some distance on Paul Curley, I was fairly confident that I was in 1st place for Masters. So, decided to ease up and recover a bit for the 3rd lap. It was nice to have my wife, Myra and 13 yo daughter, Miranda at the race cheering me on. Miranda handed me a water bottle after lap 2. Well done. For most of the 3rd and 4th lap, I was switching leads with one other racer as we passed novice and sport racers. I monitored my lap times and realized my 3rd lap was almost 2 min slower than lap 2. So, 4th lap I figured I needed to step it up again. However, my legs were not as cooperative as I experienced a slight cramp on one of the climbs and had to ease up a bit to recover. Fortunately, the cramping stopped fairly quickly. About 2/3 through 4th lap I again stumbled in a technical section that I cleared several times before. Much to my surprise as I stumbled, there were several riders on my wheel including Paul Curley who slipped pass me. In my haste to catch his wheel, I stumbled again and had to run with the bike up a short incline before I could re-mount. Paul was really hammering at this point and I just couldn’t stay with him and a couple of others had slipped ahead of me as well. Once I regained my rhythm, I kicked it up and passed a couple of the racers that had just passed me but couldn’t catch Paul. I finished about 30 seconds behind him in the end for 2nd place in Expert Masters category. A good race overall but tactically, not so good as I shouldn’t have relaxed as much on the 3rd lap and more importantly should have paid closer attention to racers closing in on me on the 4th lap.
Post race I chatted with Michael who had a good race but I know he’s usually stronger and faster than me and thus I was surprised he never passed me after the 1st lap slip up. We were comparing notes and I mentioned that I thought I had the masters’ race after passing Paul in the first lap. However, Paul caught me by surprise and passed me with about a 1/3 of a lap to go. Michael mentioned that might have been his fault. He had also passed Paul Curley in the first lap. When Paul caught back up with him around the 3rd lap, Paul asked if Michael was a “master” to which Michael replied “No”. Paul then asked if there were any masters ahead of him that he was aware of and Michael admitted “yeah, one of my teammates is ahead of us”. Doh!!! So, Paul no doubt decided to “race” and caught me with less than a lap to go. Certainly not Michael’s fault as I should have kept the pace up myself and kept an eye on where he was more frequently on the 4th lap. I suppose won’t have the advantage of Mr. Curley not knowing who I am the next time we meet. Still, happy with my 2nd place to Paul. Maybe next time?
- Cris Rothfuss
I’ve been racing expert, as opposed to pro/open/elite, in part because I’m not truly the latter in XC racing, but mainly out of avoidance of the longer length of the races. I consider myself a CX racer afterall, and 2+ hours is a heck of a lot longer than 40 minutes. But, after getting called a sandbagger by Mike R (hey!), I decided to suck it up this time and register for the elite race. And so what happens? Mo Bruno registers for expert (based in part on my logic about race length), leaving us in opposite-world and me as the only rider in elites. So off I went with the elite men (who immediately disappeared), with a 2 minute lead on the expert men and women, resolved to try to hold off Mo for at least a lap. The expert men (with John Mosher in 2nd) arrived soon enough and since they were in the important, early, furious part of their race, I did my best to get out their way – track-standing here, riding into the bushes there. Mo caught me just before the end of the first lap. Drat. Shortly thereafter, my front derailleur consumed my chain – which is to say, I suffered a massive chain-suck (no doubt due to the 5 pounds of stinky mud packed into my drivetrain). Off the bike, tug, yank, back-pedal, curse. Bike upside down, tug, yank, curse some more. Back wheel off, repeat, no dice. Start wondering what the shortest walk out is. The remaining experts all pass. The sports start streaming by. One friend yells “Cris, that sucks!” Good one. One last yank of desperation and voila! Chain freed. After what felt like eons, I headed off and tried to summon my long-lost competitive spirit. I thought about how Heather Irminger had won the XC national championship the day before after flatting. So I decided to suck it up (yet again – notice the theme here?) and just keep pedaling. “Just keep pedaling” is a mantra that gets me through a lot of rock gardens and mud bogs, and it worked equally well in this situation. I pedaled, got back into a groove, had fun riding behind Eric Marrow for much of his last lap, and then caught back up to and had a nice, fun little battle with an expert woman. So, all in all, not a bad day at the races.
- Les Bethel
I assumed that Harding Hill would be another one of those big climb races,
since it’s at Mt Sunapee, but I was surprised to learn that this course was
relatively flat and non-technical. But this was the muddiest course I’ve
seen, with several sections of significant mud. It was all ride able except
for one section, that I’m sure the big guys managed. A large field of cat 2
riders all started at once in a field leading to a smooth dirt road. I
decided to get into the hole as quickly as possible, which turned out to be
a really good idea, since there was a crash behind me, and a delay for
everyone behind. I passed a couple of guys and a few people passed me after
getting onto the dirt road, but then surprisingly I did not pass anyone,
and no one passed me for the rest of the race (except for some experts/pros
lapping me). It got to be a bit lonely. I got into a good rhythm and went
as hard as possible. I was generally satisfied with my pace, although I
should have gone much faster on one short bit of moderately technical
downhill, and I was pretty awkward in the mud a few times. I guess I should
hit the mud as fast as possible, but I often slowed on the approach and
then pedaled as fast as possible once I figured out the line.
After the race I noticed that one guy in my age group finished 10 seconds
ahead of me, and 3 others one minute ahead. Even though I finished mid
pack, I was very happy with the result. The cat 2’s are a lot faster than
the 3’s, and my skills are definitely below average in this group. If I can
just improve my descending skills I could finish much higher.
- Michael Good
It was a beautiful day for a bike race. Bright blue skies and moderate temperatures made for a great day in Sunapee, NH.
This particular race has been around for over ten years now, originally starting as The Sunapee Lions Race. The basic course hasn’t changed much over the years. The starting area has been moved and we now ride the trails in the opposite direction but the actual terrain hasn’t changed much. I find it to be one of those courses that I can never quiet remember until I’m racing on it and then I can remember every rock and root. This is a good course that favors the power riders. Lot’s of tractor road riding with two significant climbs and two slightly smaller ones. The single track, of which there could have been more (isn’t that always the case), was rooty and rocky and this year held several mud puddles. For the most part all the mud was of the very wet variety, making it ridable but very sloppy. I give this course three out of five stars. The promoter’s need to seriously consider re-routing around a couple of areas that are super muddy even on dry years. Other than that the only thing missing is a few more sections of sweet single track.
As for the race, we started out in the middle of a field in a mass start. There was no break up by age groups, just, “All experts- on your mark, get set, go!” A complete cluster start. I literally did not see anyone that I knew to be in my age group the entire race. It’s hard enough to try and keep track of your approximate placing within your field in a typical mtb race. This format really just turned the race into a twenty mile fast ride.
I started the race with tired legs and this was not the course to try and nurse tired legs on. I hurt and suffered most of the way. On the bright side I feel like I rode real well technically. Many racers were telling stories of big crashes in the mud puddles and on the wet roots, but I stayed upright all race. And finished with no mechanical malfunctions for the first time in three races!
All in all a fun race and a fun day. We debated going for a while but I’m sure glad I went.
- Keith Reynolds
I lined up in such a hurry that I didn’t even notice I had missed putting my number plate on. Thanks to Dave, I went scrambling back to the car and got that settled. Then I returned only to see Nolan with the same issue. We laughed it off and sized up the starting position. Nolan and I shot off and hugged the right side only to be among the swarm of people, trading spots when someone got bogged down in the mud or dabbed on a corner. It was madness and pure joy at the same time. John Mosher and a few others were setting a blazing pace, which strung out the field so much so that once I entered a fields I missed a turn with no one in sight. Luckily one of his teammates yelled up to me so I could make the correction. I was sure 90% of the field was going to miss that turn too.
Back on track, I was loving the terrain and rode consistently through to the finish. The course was familiar, as I’ve done several times. During lap 3 I had Tyler Monroe in sight, amongst him were intermixing other fields which made it more difficult to progress. In one of the turns I caught something and went down, driving my hand into the ground. Ouch! Soon I caught up to Tyler and he was like, “where’d you come from?” From there I was able to put some time in on lap 4 and finish strong, riding even the mud bogs. In hind sight I wish I had run the long section of mud rather than have the additional cleaning chores.