Two days, 70 miles each day, 3 stretches of off-road gnarly root and rock and tree fun, 2 creek crossings, 4 hammerfests through grass and mud in roped off town parks, many miles of gravel chip road, and even some nice stretches of paved country roads in there somewhere as well. Scoring is based on cumulative time over the two days. This race has more variety than all your other races of the season put together.
Last year House and Martin won the $1000 first and $500 second places, but the field was smaller this year, and I felt like I had a good chance to do well.
If you are smart you do this race on a cross bike. If you don't own a cross bike, you do it on a road bike with cross tires or heavy duty road tires. If you are me you try to do it on your road bike, with your lightweight road racing tires.
First day: I had 2 flats in the first off-road section and spent the whole day thereafter working to catch the leading group. Good legs today and I was passing people all day, working with various guys before I dropped them on a hill or they flatted, etc, etc. When I finally made it up to the lead group I was super pumped and ready to nail the finish. Then we hit the last off-road section and I blew another tube. Lots of time spent cursing and changing the flat as all the day's work went for nothing. By the time I rolled in I was in 8th place 14 minutes down on the leader.
That evening: visit the bike shop in Ft. Wayne and try to sweet talk the manager into giving you a good price on some heavy duty Bontrager reinforced road tires. She manages not to succumb to your killer charm - you end up paying full price. But they are flat proof, or as near as you can get without riding solid rubber tires. Also, gorge at the all you can eat pasta at Olive Garden.
Second day: Only one tree and root and rock session today 2 miles out of town. No flats, although I did lose some time on the leaders who were all cross guys when I crashed into some bushes. Lots of open road and town park grass fests to make the rest of the day more exciting though. Andys helped me bridge up before he flatted at the creek crossing. I made it up to the lead group and rolled through for a while. 20 miles out from the finish I attacked our group of 6 and soloed in for the win. Made up 4 spots on the g.c. and ended with 4th overall.
Total damage: 3 busted tubes, 1 sliced tire (repaired with clif wrapper), 1 broken bottle cage, 1 broken bike pump mount, $70 for a pair of reinforced tires, $8.50 for all you can eat pasta, $1.00 to tip the ice cream girl because Jack is too cheap to tip, and $3 spent unsucessfully trying to win a stuffed animal out of those kids vending machines. After all expenses and winnings, I came home with $5 for the weekend.
Thanks to Andys and Jack from COBC for a hilarious weekend, those guys know how to keep things fun.
They were giving away tons of raffle prizes after the race and I scored a sweet Zipp carbon bottle cage to replace the one I broke.
