2009 Stonewall Farm MTB Race Team Report - 8-23-09
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Conditions:
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The conditions were mainly overcast with some occasional sun and it was warm and humid with temps in the 70’s. The trails were partially rocky with some light running water, tacky in many spots with a few of mud pits.
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The Course:
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The course was just less than 13 miles long with a leg crushing 2000’ plus of vertical per lap, gained primarily in one sadistic 7 mile section at the start that was primarily sustained up. Climbing surface consisted of everything from pavement to dirt road, to unimproved dirt road, to loose, rocky washed out dirt road/stream bed and some loamy single and double. There were also a few ultra steep, wet but tacky scrambles that you could ride, but at a huge tax penalty. For all of the climbing you did get some difficult, technical, fresh cut single-track descents as well as some open flowing twisty single-track. To balance it out you also got a couple miles of ultra fast railroad bed bringing you back around for the lap.
Cat3 did one shortened lap, Cat2 did one full lap, Cat1 and Pro did two full laps.
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Results:
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Excellent work everyone on a very, very challenging course. I’d have to say that this was definitely one of the most difficult races and courses that I have ever ridden. Stellar NEBC results for all and congrats to Kristen for her excellent finish and the top podium spot.
- Michael Rowell – (Pro/Cat1 Open Men – 4th)
- Keith Reynolds – (Cat1 Men 30-39 – double flat bent sidewalls DNF)
- Wayne Cunningham – (Cat1 Men 40-49 – 5th)
- Cathy Rowell – (Cat1 Women 35+ – 1st)
- Ben Pagano – (Cat2 Men 30-39 – 5th)
- Kristen Lukach – (Cat2 Women 19-34 – 1st)
- Janet Ramos – (Cat3 Women 35+ – 3rd)
http://www.root66raceseries.com/page/9-race-results
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Reports:
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[Mike Rowell]
I knew going into this race from the intel that there was to be a lot of climbing. That fact wasn’t fully grasped until we were told that the first seven miles were primarily up with a sustained three or so within the first half mile. Because of race conflicts, the fact that this race was billed as hard and the fact that it is nearing season’s end, I suspected that turnout would be low. In reality it was, but there were still a fair number of racers. One really neat thing about the start was that they staged all of the Pro/Cat1 racers by category and age bracket but then let us all go at once. It was great to start as part of such a big group. It was mayhem for the first half mile but the climbing that followed quickly forced the selections.
On the climb I settled in with the lead group, which consisted of almost the entire Pro/Cat1 field plus a few of the strongest Cat1 field racers. The pace was stiff but I was able to maintain, until we started to hit some muddy sections that forced you to take specified lines and strung the pack out. Gaps started to form. At that point I was searching for my legs and Keith came by my. I paced behind him for a bit as he was climbing very well, but my group was making a little gap so I was forced to hop out of the comfort of the rocking chair and chase back up a bit.
I managed to make a pass but lost the place later on, just as we dipped into the single-track at the top. I found this section of fresh cut, loamy, off-camber single-track which was punctuated by wet rocks and roots to be very difficult. I was getting no traction and sliding out and thrown around everywhere. Shortly in I caught a wet root which slid my front wheel into a crook and threw me over the bars onto the ground. At that point I saw a Cat1 racer coming up to me but jumped back on in front of him. This rattled me some and I struggled even more through the end of that section. Next up was some double-track and another nasty climb up to the feed zone followed by a small road stretch and then the nastiest climb of the day. This was a super steep, grassy, wet climb that included a few monster water-bar mounds and was where I was caught and passed by the Cat1 racer. Once we finished that climb we hopped back into single-track and I passed the rider back and started pushing hard, never to see him again. I could however see Jonny B., who had attacked at the start and was the only other Cat1 ahead of me, but was now fading a bit. I caught him at a high speed log hop and drilled it on the super fun tight twisty downhill single-track. Next thing I recall was dropping onto the rail-road bed and going into TT mode, looking steadily at 23mph. About a mile and a half in I looked back to see JB TT-ing up to me. We worked together and at the turn off the RR bed we saw a bewildered Kevin H., who had missed the turn and was just coming back onto the course. I settled in behind them through the lap, grabbed a new bottle, ate some squishy stuff and prepared for the pain ahead.
On the climb I hung for a while but then settled into my own pace. The lap was almost wholly spent solo save the folks I passed who’d had flats. There were lots of them, including JB who double flatted. I was able to ride the lap mostly clean and nobody caught me but I never did see Kevin again. Turns out I finished just under a minute behind him but over 8 minutes from the winner. I was happy to see though that I was 5 minutes up on the fast Cat1, granted JB flatted. Overall I was happy with my finish.
This was a truly epic race. It was so hard in every way imaginable, but I really think that it was a good race, at a great venue. My thought of the day was that we need more old-school epic adventures like this, where you need to be prepared and make trade-offs. There were more flats than I have ever seen in any race. My perspective on that is simple, higher tire pressure is safer and tubes still work just fine. Yes, you will give up performance but the potential cost outweighs the benefit ATMO.
[Keith Reynolds]
I bumped into Janet on my way to register and found she had a great race and she was totally psyched about having done the race. I warmed up with the team and got a good look at what the “hill” was. I decided locking out the front shock was going to be key, then as soon as the jeep trail continued I better remember to unlock it. Went back to the start area and we got to socialize a bit with other racers before the start. Everyone lined up together and we were off; I mixed in with the front of the group and was feeling great during the 7 mile climb. Neil who’s been in first for most of my races was right there with me but at one point I think he pushed too hard on the final bit of the hill. I got into the fresh cut single-track just behind a tentative NERAC rider; I passed and enjoyed the mostly off-camber section. Then in an effort to get back with Neil, I opened up when the course allowed. I came upon an empty stream bed and landed both my wheels on a pyramid shaped rock. With both tires deflating, I pulled over and tried my best to get the Stan’s sealant working on the tire punctures & dented rim while everyone passed. With just one tube and no seal forming, my race was cut short until I realized there was a far walk ahead. I stopped at the feed station and passed out some goodies to racers while I enjoyed some Gummy Bears. After a leisurely return to the start area everyone got together to hang out and enjoy the nice day. I saw multiple flats roll in to the finish, including one still riding on carbon rims, ouch! Congrats to everyone who came out and gave it their all, this course was hard!
[Wayne Cunningham]
I remember this race from last year and I still went anyway. I knew it had a lot of climbing and a fast finish on the rail bed. I had forgotten about all the single-track in the middle. At the line up there were more riders than last year. We were called up by our groups, but all started at the same time. I was in the third to last group with the 50 plus and the women behind.
On the long starting climb I stayed steady to keep contact with the back of the pack. As we got closer to the top, I picked up a few spots, but I lost momentum as I got bunched up behind them; I had to stop and restart, losing the spot or two I had gained. Going into the single track another rider from my group had gotten around 2 more timid descenders, and by the time I could make my way through, a large gap had opened. The first time through I had a lot of dabs and wasn’t riding the technical sections very well.
The second time up through the climbing I was able to chase down 2 riders, though neither was from my field. I felt more comfortable going through the single track this time, and was able to ride nearly all of it. After some back and forth with the 2 riders I was able to hold both off through the finish.
Overall, despite some nasty scratches from a raspberry bush and a head-plant that left dirt and other green material in my helmet, it was an ok race. This was the first race I did last year after upgrading, and I improved my time somewhat, so that was good.
Thanks for reading.
[Cathy Rowell]
It’s funny to me that people at bike races pay keen attention to what you ride. Of course, my normal race bike is pink, so it stands out, just a little bit. Given the hilly nature of this race, I decided to try my new carbon hardtail instead (sadly, it is not pink), and heard comments from at least a half a dozen people on the equipment change before the race.
In the entire Pro/Expert category, there were THREE women. Yup. THREE. One in each category. I have posted comments recently on my blog and on FB about the future of women’s racing in NE, and those have been primarily targeted at the road scene. The MTB scene is worse – way worse. These fields are never typically “big”, but at the beginning of the season, there are usually about 12-15 of us who line up in this category to race. Is it the weather? Too much racing? Time for a break for ‘cross? While I am unsure where they have all gone, I do know that racing against oneself is not much fun, and really serves to undermine my motivation. Knowing that all you have to do is FINISH the “race” as the lone competitor doesn’t really make it a “race”.
At least at Stonewall Farm, they set the entire group of Pro/Expert riders off together, and let the first climb sort things out. Yup – it got sorted all right. My good friend Alex J and I ended up on the tail end of the sorting… The good news was that we were together. Alex and I have done a lot of racing together, and it’s always fun to have company. Despite the fact the we are in different age categories, there is still a competitive aspect to our friendship as well – I want to beat her, darn it! ;)
We made it up the first part of the climb, down the first fast descent and into a field where Alex stopped. She had pinch-flatted on the way down, and now I was on my own to suffer the remaining 3 miles of the climb, and the rest of the race. Yuck.
This race was HARD. The climbing was unrelenting, the singletrack was daunting, and the mud-hill from nowhere was demoralizing. I slogged through the first lap, and then another go round of the course before FINALLY coming to a finish – 3 hours and 34 minutes AFTER I started. Yup – the winning Sport racers had passed me and finished, the winning Experts (ok, ALL the Experts) had finished, cleaned up and changed, and then came me – right before Mike sent out the search hounds ;).
[Ben Pagano]
It was an offhanded decision to ride this race as I originally intended to be traveling this weekend, but I figured what the heck let’s do it! Coming off my downhill crash at Diablo three weeks ago, my overall fitness had declined in the last couple of weeks having been hardly able to walk let alone ride for at least a week. But I was feeling pretty good for Sunday. The race started with all Cat2’s going off at once, I think they did this for the other categories as well. This wasn’t necessarily a bad thing as things sorted out pretty quickly and many bodies went to the back which was motivating. Right away off the pavement the road began going up and it wasn’t long before I found myself spinning up a loose, muddy, rocky incline that was steep enough to separate the groups but the kind of climb you can just about settle into. A group of about 10 riders started to pull away from me, and remembering the lessons from Pat’s peak, I just let ‘em go! I figured that if they were strong enough to sustain that effort they would beat me anyway, if not I’d pick them up later if I rode within myself. The climb just kept going but I was getting a bit of a rhythm and felt pretty good. When we finally got into the single track I was a little eager and slid out on a rooty section raising a caution from a tailing rider. I stayed off the brakes and focused on the lines and kept my weight back and butt off the seat. I think my descending skills are starting to improve. After the aid/water area it was a hard left onto the road and then back up this ridiculous climb, which most everyone walked from what I heard. I pushed the bike for a while and remounted when it leveled out. There was a good stretch of fire road coming into the end and myself and a guy with the Gary Fisher 29’er kit on were trading positions. I didn’t know at the time if he was in my age group or not and I don’t think he did either as we both kept bringing the pace up. At one point I overcooked a corner and layed the bike down, feeling like a jerk as I almost ended GF guys ride in the process. He proved to be an excellent bike handler and rode around me. The final fire road stretch was fast at times about 22 mph or so. I had opted to ride with a bash ring and remove my big ring as I’ve had my bike set up like that for recreational and training rides. That was a mistake as I was maxed out and spinning like mad putting no gap on the GF guy. We sprinted to the line and he took it. I finished 5th overall, not too bad for a newbie. I’ve got some work to do on the fitness side but I feel like my technical skills are coming along nicely.
[Kristen Lukach]
I haven’t been doing this mountain biking thing long enough to fully grasp the notion of 2000′ of climbing within a 13 mile loop. The whistle blew and we rolled out as one big group across a field, down a country road and immediately turned left at the base of what became a very, very, very, VERY long climb. The field took off like a shot and I was dropped like a bad habit, already in my granny gear, huffing and choking back my breakfast and trying to maintain enough speed to not keel over sideways. Did I mention that I didn’t warm up even a little bit? Awesome plan! My heart-rate was so high I felt like it was going to explode sideways out of my ears like one of those obnoxious squeeze dolls you can buy at Spencers. There weren’t too many folks behind me at this point. I crossed over to the other side of the road in search of a better line and all of a sudden off of my back wheel I hear a male voice, “Hey, come back I was drafting you”. I just laughed and inquired how that was working out for him. We were doing a whopping 2 miles per hour.
A half-mile or so after the initial surge, the pack started to spread out and people started to implode. This thing just kept going up relentlessly. If you stopped riding you were toast. I passed people where I could, trying to pick and choose the places that would cost the least amount of precious energy. The end of this hill was nowhere in sight. JUST KEEP SPINNING is all I could think about. My head was spinning about as fast as my feet. After about 5 miles of climbing I was sitting in second place in my age group but I was royally cooked and gearing up for a bonk to end all bonks. I had already blown through both of my gels and a hand-full of Powerbar gel blasts and none of it was pulling me out of my “I really just want to curl up in a ball on the side of the trail, funk”. Then, I caught a glimpse of a lime green jersey about 30 yards up the hill. For the first time in literally 390 days, 1st place was in sight! Hellooo adrenaline rush!! I found my will to live, my legs and my competitive spirit all in about a two second window and gave chase. When I caught up to her, it was in the only real muddy section of the entire course. I tried to find a dry path all they way over to the side of the logging road to pass, snagged my foot on a John Deere tractor and almost ate a face full of mud. I hate it when farm equipment jump out you like that. I may be a clumsy doofus, but I was suddenly a clumsy doofus in 1st place!
We climbed for sooo long that I got to the point where I actually gave up on looking for this big stupid hill to end which made things a whole lot easier. I was feeling unusually good by the time I reached the top (but still, six miles of uninterrupted climbing…on a mountain bike…in August. Pheww!) The trip back down the mountain proved to be just as challenging as the ride up. On multiple occasions I wished that my arms were about 5 inches longer because I was having a hard time getting far enough off the back of the bike. At the start line we were warned about a newly fallen tree that had been ramped up that morning. I guess they didn’t bother ramping it on the far side, because next thing I know, in super slo-mo, my front tire swamps into a hole and I am doing a handstand on my handlebars, feet and bike dangling over my head, just waiting to see which way I am going to tumble and wondering how bad it is going to hurt? I like to endo at least once in each race.. It gives the racers and spectators in my immediate vicinity their daily dose of schadenfreude. After that it’s all a blur. The single-track was fairly new and kind of a mess, but it was pretty fun (slightly scary) but well worth all of the climbing. At the 8 mile mark, we were met by volunteers handing out ice cold water and Hammer gels. That was a pleasant surprise. One more hike-a-bike climb and it was smooth sailing back to Stonewall Farm. Awesome race! Now that I’ve gotten some sleep and my legs have stopped screaming, I’m actually looking forward to doing this one again next year!
[Janet Ramos]
The race started out with a fast and furious mass start with the cat 3 men & the junior’s. Then we cruised on some double track that seemed to go on forever until we jumped into the woods onto single track. My glasses were totally fogged up by now since it was humid and I was panting & sweating like a pig. Next was the ¾ mile climb where I pushed my bike pretty much up the whole thing. Whenever there was a flat section I jumped back on my bike but it never lasted long since there were so many wet roots and rocks. I came upon a guy who was walking his bike up the climb too and I said “it seems like we should be in the Quest for the Holy Grail” since it was dark & damp and smelling of pine trees. After cresting the climb I cruised down some sweet single track. :) This is my third mountain bike race so far this year so I have been a bit of a chicken on the downhills but today I let go of my brakes so my confidence is improving (thanks Cathy Rowell). The rest of the race was fun single track, some muddy sections and a wooden bridge that I ran across (honoring my inner chicken). Now this part will tell you that I am not a true mountain biker at heart (yet) as the ending trail of the race turned into the double track that was at the beginning. I totally cranked it up and hauled butt as fast as I could to try to make up for lost time when I was off my bike earlier in the race. As I crossed the finish line everyone was cheering for me like I was the race winner – it was sooooo cool. So we beginners did a modified loop of the real loop that the higher level folks did but it was still a tough course. Another fun mountain bike race for this beginner chickie – and I’ll be back for more.