Last of the Mohican's......Okay not last, but sort of felt like it!!

Awesome shot from 
Butch Phillips Photography of what we saw all day!

Well this last weekend it was the great trek out to the state of Ohio for the Kenda Mohican 100.  Going into this great race I knew that I was in for some wicked steep singletrack climbing at the beginning with some steep gravel climbing in the middle as well as a long, long, LONG rail to trail section at around 50 miles to make you hate yourself more and more!  Did this race last year and got me hooked on the NUE 100 milers and happy with my choice to now do nothing but the long stuff.  More miles for the $$$ you pay!  

Driving out to Ohio and any race now for that matter is pretty straight forward for me now.  600 miles usually of sitting and relaxing with my co-pilot in the car next to me usually whining because she can't see out the front window.  The weather was great on Friday driving out until around 60 miles from my destination where it decided to dump like a monsoon on me all the way to Loudonville.  Once there I was able to sneak in and get my packet picked-up before they closed for the night and off to set up camp.  I am getting pretty proficient at camp set up as it usually takes about 20 minutes and I am in the tent relaxing or getting the goodies ready for the next day.  This race I wasn't able to get all my stuff set out like normal as it was pissing down rain for the whole evening so I choose to just relax in the tent and get everything ready the next day.  Again proficient at this so it doesn't really take much anymore.

Race Day

Time to take on the challenge as I woke at around 4:45 like normal for a 7 a.m. start.  Went to town on my new breakfast courtesy of Apex Nutrition.  I know am taking in a great tasting smoothie that has all the goodies in it: beet root powder, greek yogurt, L-Glutamine powder, whey powder, frozen berries, banana, oatmeal, chia seeds, honey, and coconut oil.  This really tastes great and is good for the early morning wake up as it goes down quick and freeze it before I leave Iowa and it is thawed but cold the next morning.  Also threw in a normal bagel as I think my body still expects this on race morning.  Able to get the bike all dialed in and ready pretty quickly and all my essentials packed in my drop bags and back pockets.  As I rolled to the start I was second guessing as has been the story lately about my gearing choice.  I choose to go 36x19 for this race with the long rolling gravels that make up the middle portion of the race.  I was second guessing because I knew that this gear was going to be a little steep in the beginning section of singletrack that is about 30 miles at the start.  Wishing I would have gone 20 out back (as would be the case probably would have made life way better!!! Oh well live and learn).

Start of the RACE!

Opening Singletrack Bridge Crossing
SLICK!!!

This race has a nice roll out through the middle of town and then it is up a wall that leads us out to the singletrack. This wall is just that in that it is about a mile to the top and straight up it seems like.  As we were going through town at normal start pace, everything suddenly went silent as the front group heard what sounded like a car running straight into the field with crashing metal and tubeless tires going off like gun shots.  Found out later that there was some touching of bars at about 30 mph and a pile up ensued.  Want to see the pile up, check it out here Mohican 100 Starting Pile Up!!  After the thanking my lucky stars I got out of the group that went down it was back to business and trying to find the right wheel.  Found Gerry's wheel as I always do and settled in for the long climb.  Blair and Harding came zooming by and I felt that I should change it up and went with them but realized that there speed was way to fast for the way that I wanted to start.  Oh well back to normal pace.  Got up the climb okay, not really struggling as I thought I would with the gearing and was sitting nicely behind the lead pack as I entered the singletrack.  I knew the opening section had two long steep climbs that I planned to run as I ended up doing.  A big set back in my race happened though here at the start.  As we descended the first big down hill, before entering the singletrack section, both of my bottles decided to catapult out on the fast descent.  I had to make the choice to stop and fetch them as I also had made the choice to not have any replacement until aid three that was about 45 miles in.  Probably the down fall of my race if you ask me.  Through the next 30 miles of singletrack, I was able to pick my way through all of the people that had gotten by me (LOTS!!!!!!!) and found D.Rapp riding at the front of a line.  He was setting a good pace so settled in behind him for about 2-3 miles and finally had to say bye and it was off.  Somewhere along the way I lost one of my bottles and this would prove disastrous as I would get way behind on my fluid intake on the hot and humid day that it was.  Cramping was sure to happen (more later). I was able to hook onto James Mayuric from Team CF/Pro Bikes for quite a while and we moved along at a good pace for the remainder of the singletrack and into the opening gravel sections.  Somewhere along the way he got away from me (Don't remember that section of the race, bad!!!)

Once onto the gravel it was time to spin my butt off as I knew there was alot of it and there were some good climbs mixed in.  Rode through checkpoint 2 catching on with some riders and then loosing track of them and getting back and loosing again.  I was really yo-yoing throughout this section as I was actually starting to cramp a little no more than 40 miles into the race due to lack of my normal fluid.  Body hated me the whole race.  Finally climbed up to the 3rd aid station and it was here that I would get my riding partners for the remainder of the race, Nate Annon and Ryan H.  These guys literally probably saved my race as they were great company through the next sections of rail trail and gravel until the last singletrack.  I was able to push through some wicked full leg cramps in between Aid 3 and the rail trail and held onto these guys.  During the rail trail we were taking pulls as best we could and it just so happened that this 9 mile stretch, the wind gods decided to be nice to us and gave us a tail wind to play with.  Yes!!!!  We were cooking with Ryan taking the last 4-5 miles at the front of the rail trail as Nate and I were all spun out.  Little did we know that we were riding in 4-5 singlespeed as we had no clue if Ernesto was in front of us somewhere.

Glad to FINISH! Now for a shower!

Aid 4 came up and we were glad to see it as this meant that it was 30 miles to finish (or less as we all knew!!!)  Coming out of the aid we knew we wanted to start together as it was better to ride together than solo.  I knew from last year that from here there was some wicked steep climbs coming up on the gravel and knew that being singles, Nate and I would more than likely walk away from Ryan.  This did happen as Nate and continued on after the first steep up and push on together.  Neither of us wanted to let the other go as we were pretty content to ride together till the last singletrack.  Over the next 10-15 miles we rode as much as we could, walking some of the steeper ups as neither of us had the legs to push our gearing up the hill.  I knew I was fading for sure over these last sections as the cramps had returned and I was running out of gas even with Clif shots and plenty of fluid.

We arrived at the last aid together and it was 8 to go to the finish on some awesome singletrack around Mohican Adventrues. This is some of the best riding in the race and really quite flowy.  Coming up to the first steep up in the singletrack, I decided to dismount and it was game over.  I knew Nate had it so I let him go and just rode into the finish.  Feel sort of disappointed that I let him go but honesty after the long day of cramps, I just didn't have the legs to challenge and really didn't feel like challenging.  If I would have known I was in 4th I would have maybe given it a go, but hindsight is 20/20.

Singlespeed Podium!

Overall after finishing in 5th Singlespeed and 12th Overall I was a little disappointed initially knowing I wanted to get a higher finish, then I found out that Gerry killed it and won the OVERALL!!!  Then my mind changed as I realized that the field of riders here was top notch and I feel that I am improving with every race.  I am realizing that fitness wise I am ready to challenge alot of the riders, but the mental aspect of the riding I have alot to learn.  Every race I learn something new and hopefully I can take all I learn and apply in the future to move up the ladder and give a challenge to these fast cats that are killing the Singlespeed field.  Maybe be a different story up at Lumberjack as I should have some fellow Team Noah Foundation members to push through and hopefully mix some things up and give people a run for their money.  Thanks to Ryan O'Dell and all the volunteers as Mohican 100 as the Aid stations were excellent and the course was the best marked I have seen in all my races. Finally feeling better now so out to ride.  OUT!