Dakota Five-O....Should have, could have, didn't!

Well I have had a week to try and recoup from this past weekends escapades out at the 13th Annual Dakota Five-O.   This race is always an A race for me as I want to go out and have fun and ride fast on these awesome trails in Spearfish,SD.  If you take a look at past post you will see that this was the third trip out to the Spearfish area this summer and obviously I have fallen in love with this great area of the Black Hills.

Heading to Spearfish

Well enough of that, time to talk about the race experience.  This year was a little different than past years in that I arrived in Spearfish later on Saturday afternoon, instead of on Friday as in year’s past due to having to work on Friday’s now!!  Sucks, I know.  But I arrived pretty early in the afternoon around 3 p.m.  I was able to get camp set up very quickly as I have become pretty efficient over the year at this and I was set up in about 30 minutes and off to get the race packet.  After packet pickup I rolled around Spearfish for about 30 minutes to shake out the legs from the drive out. I was feeling ok but I felt that my body was a little off, and boy would I find out Sunday just how off it was.

Well got the normal pre-race routine taken care of by around 8:00 p.m. and it was off to bed early around 8:30 for the early 5:00 a.m. wake-up as the race start for Wave 1 was 7 a.m.

Race Day

5:00 a.m. came pretty early for me and as has been normal for about 2 weeks, I didn’t get much sleep over night.  I got up did the normal routine of get dressed, breakfast and roll around for a while loosening up for a bit before the line up.  As I rolled around I got to say hi to many of the friends I have made over the past couple of years of racing around the country and see some people that I haven’t for a year now. Well got to the line about 10 minutes before start, took a front row slot and awaited Smokey, Perry and the drop of the hands!! 

3.2.1........GO!!!!

Usually the roll out is like a bat out of hell, even though it is neutral, but this year was different as Perry Jewett decided to make it a nice easy roll as we went through town waving to those on the side’s cheering us on.  Held my own throughout the roll out and was feeling OK as I rolled along around 15-20 mph up past the Passion Play parking lot and down the hill to Hill St. and Tinton Rd. where the race would take off.  Well this year, when we hit the gravel it was game on!!!  

Tinton Rd. is generally not that bad for me as I am able to hand usually with the lead pack or the front of the chase group.  This year there was non of that.  Oh boy was that a fast start!!!  As we rolled up Tinton I watched as the lead group slowly rolled away from me as I was peaked out in RPM’s and Heart Rate!! Soon enough the Chase group was formed and we were about 10 secs. off the Lead but this was cooking along strong as well and soon enough I found myself in no-man’s land as I also watched the Boise twins, Tom Flynn and Josh Krattiger, from Pro Liesure Bikes, rolled away with group 2.  I knew that this was dangerous as I tried to scramble to get back on there wheel, but there was no chance as I was completely depleted already in the red zone and unable to get back on.  I was able to hold off the charging 3rd group on the road and eventually made it back to the tail end of the chase group once we entered the singletrack.  Tom and Josh looked to be leading this group and I wanted to move up to them but the trail is to tight and again my body wasn’t liking me already so I just settled in and hoped to feel better as the trail widened up.

Dakota Ridge... Beauty Unmatched!!

Well the top of Tinton came and I was able to get with a good group including Ryan Feagan and John Eppen as we headed down the road section to the bottom of Dakota Ridge.  This gave me some life as I felt that I should be able to start picking spots back up as this is my bread and butter as a singlespeeder, climbing the difficult stuff and pulling back those that escaped.  Bottom of Dakota Ridge came and Feagan thought about passing me but let me go thinking I would climb a little faster.  This gave me a push as he gave me a little motivation to get going up the hard climb. About half way up the climb I knew something was not right. I was completely gassed!!!  I was feeling like absolute piss and when I went to give power my legs were not having it!! 

Well I survived to this section to get to Aid 1 with Eppen and Billy Colson (who I rode with alot in Back 40).  This felt like a kick in the pants as I rolled through the Aid Station barely able to push the pedals over.  I got through and down the fast downhill that leads to the nice long climb over the sheep flats feeling ok and this would be a new singletrack climb out and boy was it a dozy!!  Phil Busching came up behind me here and was riding pretty good up the hill but decided he needed to answer the call of nature and I jumped onto BIlly’s wheel.  This may have been the life saver for me as Eppen had escaped with a few others earlier and Billy is a machine!!!  I never looked up once, rather just kept glued on his wheel for about the next 20 minutes.  Billy was able to pull back many guys as we kept going up and up and up!!  

Well once we topped out it was downhill to sheep flats.  This was the second time in the race that I knew something wasn’t right.  I have grown accustomed to pulling many people back on downhills as I for some reason usually ride these very fast and a little smoother than others.  Not the case today.  Numerous time throughout the next 20 miles or so I would loose contact with the group I was riding with on the downhills, only to claw my way back to them on the uphills.  

Somewhere out there!!

Pretty much from sheep flats to the Bacon station it was status quo as I was able to hold on to my position but not able to put any power into the pedals to make up some time.  I thought during this whole time that Tom and Josh had for sure put 10-20 minutes into me as I just sort of rolled along at what I felt was a snail’s pace!! Well the climb up to Bacon station, about 3 miles or so, was horrible for me as I had a hope that this would be a place for me to make up time and it was not so.  I just didn’t have anything for it today.  

Once through the Bacon station this year, it was all downhill, except for a little up hill walk due to very sandy and cow riddled section that I don’t know anyone would have been able to ride.  One surprise coming down from Bacon station was going by Cam.  Cam has always been a marker for me as he is one of the best riders in Iowa.  Come to find out he felt just like I did and just didn’t have it today!!  Well able to keep Billy and Eppen in sight and I thought for sure I would get them back on Tinton as I have come to know this like the trails in Decorah and can usually fly down this.  Not this year!!!  I was barely able to cruise down this, third sign that something was up with my body!!   I got onto Tinton Rd. and looked up to see no one around so I just said screw it and hammered as hard as I could down the road.  I may have topped out over 150-160 rpm’s but don’t know for sure.  I finally saw the locals ahead and decided I needed to try and pull them back to make something of the day.  I think I may have rode my fastest downhill on Tinton Rd. to date and started up to the Passion Play stage with about half a block to get onto those two.  Unfortunately they turned around and saw me and decided I was not allowed in the local’s only club as they kept the gap and I finished by myself as I spent a lot of the day.  

Overall sort of disappointed with the day.  I had hopes of a Top 10 Overall and 1st SS in my mind before the race.  Pretty much halfway up Tinton Rd at the start I was hoping to just make the SS podium and not get passed by Kim Eppen!!  HAHA.  She’s Fast!!  I ended the day at 4:07:54 (about 10 minute’s slower than last year, SUCKs!!!)  and 3rd SS and 28th Overall. Even more disappointing was that I was only about 5 minutes off of Tom and Josh who ended 1st and 2nd SS, respectively.  These guys are great guys, strong, strong riders and I look forward to future battles and spending some time on the trail with these guys!!

3rd SS and Drunk as hell in this picture.
Drowned my sorrows all night!!!
Notice that we are the lost and found group!!

After the race I made a decision to take some time off as I think I have beaten my body up this summer to much and it showed in this race.  No riding for the last week, except for my commute over to St. Ben’s here in town pulling the trailer on the Pugsley. Today was the first day back on the bike, 5 days of rest in the bucket!! Hopefully the body decides to come back around as I get ready for the Marathon race at Mullet Fall Classic and also try and defend my title down at the BT Epic!!  Thanks for reading.  Check out the Team Noah guys as they finish up the NUE season.  Look forward to next year as we get set to take this Team to the top!!  OUT! 

Dakota 50- Garmin File