The second race in the 2014 NUE series is now over and done with. Cohutta 100 in Ducktown,TN was this past weekend.
Weekend Start with Team Noah Teammates
Started the weekend off by making the trip to St. Louis to load up with my Team Noah Foundation teammates. Headed down on Thursday around 1 p.m., starting my travels in my new race rig (SUPER COMFY SIERRA 1500) in the pouring rain and proceeding to travel for 7 hours with non stop rain!! I must have followed the storm all the way down. Arrived in St. Louis on around 8 p.m. at Emily Korsch humble abode. After settling in with my travel gear it was off to experience a Stranger Donut. This place was interesting with a long line awaiting us as we decided what weird concoction of donut to get. Ended up getting three donuts to chow down on Brats Revenge, French Toast, and a Cinnamon Roll Donut. Have to say I skipped out on the Monte Crisco (Ham and Cheese, Jelly Donut), not adventurous enough. After eating and hanging with fellow St. Louis Team Noah Foundation riders and supporters, Emily and I returned to her apartment to retire for the night as I had a long drive and both were planning on getting up early in the morning.
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| Opener Self Shot! |
Friday morning brought a wonderful St. Louis morning with roosters crowing and birds chirping. The weather outside was absolutely perfect for some early morning openers. I decided to head over to Forest Park where Emily mentioned there was a bike path all the way around the park that should provide good riding for a shake down of the legs. This place was absolutely gorgeous!! As I rode the path around the trees were starting the blossom in their purple and white flowers and made for a very enjoyable ride. After the openers, I proceeded back to the apartment and off to get morning grub as what would be my mainstay for the trip, St. Louis Bread Company (Panera)!! Love that place (ate at it 4 times on this trip!!)
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| "Ouchy" (Ocoee) Whitewater Center |
Adam and Maria showed up around 9 a.m. and we proceeded to load the beast down with all our gear, bikes and loaded up for the 7 hour drive down to Ocoee White Water Center in Ducktown,TN. The drive down was fairly uneventful with multiple urination breaks (MARIA) and also enjoying the phone conversations with insurance companies (MARIA)! It was great traveling with the Team for the first time to a race and getting to enjoy their company and get to know each other as we traveled along.
We arrived in at the “Ouchy” White Water Center around 7:30 p.m. which was just in time to get signed in for the race, get our free swag (Thompson Stem!!) and get our drop bags all filled and put in place. After signing in, ran into DRapp and Ryan H. who happened to have a camping spot at the nearby campground so we decided that would be a perfect place to head to next after a stop at the local grocery store for some supplies. Set up camp pretty quickly as I now have a really quick Tent Cot for my race housing and it was off to bed around 10:30 p.m.
Race Morning
Morning came really quick after getting not nearly enough sleep but ready for the day to start as it was going to be a beautiful day with highs around 80 and clear sky’s. Tore down the tent quick and ate the morning meal and was all ready to head over to the start around 6 a.m. Got there with plenty of time to get all the gear out and run over the bike to make sure everything was ready to go. Legs were feeling good and rolled a short warmup to get ready for what lied ahead. As has become standard now at the races, I was able to line up front row next to DRapp, had our pre-race prayer and then without warning GO!!!
Race On
After the abrupt GO, we were off and up the opening 2.5 mile road climb. I found good position as we headed out of whitewater center and was sitting in the lead group going up the hill. I was able to grab a few wheels of some of the top geared guys that helped me stay in position as the pace ramped up. As we crested the top of the hill, the speed quickly went higher and all of a sudden I found myself now in the chase group as the leaders had kicked up the pace on a slight downhill before the opening singletrack. I was able to hold my own as we approached the turn into the singletrack and seeing that DRapp was pushing to the front of the chase group, I followed suit and dropped in right behind him. He had given me some knowledge the night before on what to expect on this opening stretch and I am glad he did as it was fast and tight grouping, couldn’t see much ahead.  |
| Courtesy of Maria E. |
This opening singletrack was pretty tame as we flowed down to a bridge that was back at the whitewater center and out into some climbing singletrack. I wasn’t feeling overly worked in this section so I just kept pushing on as we settled into our pecking order that was moving pretty good without many holdups. During this section of singletrack before the first aid station, DRapp unfortunately dropped his chain. Given the timing I made the decision to push on as I was sitting nicely with some faster geared riders that I knew would be helpful in the what was to come, non-stop fire roads!!
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| Courtesy of Maria E. |
Made it to the first aid sitting well, somewhere in the Top 20 overall and feeling good. From here on out it was pretty much status quo among the group I was riding with. I was able to hook up with a couple different geared riders over the next 30-40 miles of fire road climbs and was feeling pretty good as I would hold on the best I could, taking a draft on the flats and downhills and then if was my turn to set the pace as we went uphill with me just riding what I had to in order to keep pushing my gearing forward. I choose to ride a 36x20 which some thought was a little steep but I don’t think I would change it now being able to look back on the race. The out section of fire road was pretty straight forward with lots of climbing and then finished with a kick butt down on the infamous Potato Patch. As I rolled this section, there were many times I caught myself gawking off the side of the road at the beautiful scenery that surrounded me, mountains everywhere!! A couple of times the gawking got me in trouble as I would hit a larger rock in the road or drop into a pot hole that would send me swerving a little. Have to give some kudos for this section of the race to Roger Masse from Team Rare Disease as he and I spent 30-40 miles together pushing these hills and him giving me some draft on the flats. Thanks Roger!!
After stopping at the different aids that I had planned at the beginning of the race it was into the Pinhoti section of singletrack. This section was pretty tame and flowed nicely giving my mind a good break from the monotonous fire roads that I had been riding for the last 30-40 miles. Got through this section feeling good and then bad luck started, CRAMPS!!!
After exiting the singletrack my legs started to feel a little funky. I don’t know what happened to cause this; heat, pushing to hard during the opening miles, or bad nutrition, but my legs were feed up with riding from here on out. This couldn’t have come at a worse time either as it was time for the hour long climb up Potato Patch!!
Had my legs been fresh, I think that I would have loved this climb, but since I was dealing with cramps, this climb was totally mental for me as I keep myself pushing forward with the sole thoughts of the downhills that were to follow. DRapp and James from Florida came up behind me on the opening part of the climb and I tried as best I could to stay in contact as I dealt with the pain in my legs. I don’t think that up the entire Potato Patch climb I never went into full blown quad cramps, but I was on the edge the entire climb!!
Well I topped the climb about 20 secs. behind the other two SS and was feeling lucky to make it up in the condition I was in. On the downhill I took it easy giving up a little time in order to try and get my legs under control, but to no avail. Up the very next, steeper climb my legs finally took their revenge, FULL BLOWN QUAD STRAIGHT LEG CRAMPS!! This was the first time this race that I had to get off the bike and wasn’t able to do anything, couldn’t move, nothing! With 40 miles to go in the race my mind thought of the worst, DNF, but I told it to shut up and began to walk/run up the remaining part of the hill. I made it to the top not loosing to much time as it was steep enough that my running kept me close to the geared guys spinning up.
For the next couple of steep pitches, I was resigned to walking/running as my quads would go completely straight if I tried to put anything into them. Well at this time I had resigned myself to 4th/5th place SS as I didn’t know who was in front and didn’t think I would have anyone catch me though either. Pushing on I was able to get to Aid 3/6 and filled up with new bottles and took a 30 sec. break hoping my legs would come around.
For the remaining fire road section I was in complete survival mode. I pushed my legs and body as hard as I could without going into full blown cramps, pushing the downhills as hard as I could to try and make up time. Over this time, I did scare the crap out of myself a few times as I went full blown down some very loose, and steep downhills. Needed to do something to try and make up time.
Got to the last aid fine still holding my position nicely, only being passed by a couple of gear riders that I would find out later, had taken a wrong turn and were actually in front of me most of the race.
Last Singletrack!
So I hit the last singletrack wanting this race to end as I felt I had not accomplished my goals in the least bit and wanted nothing but to be done! On any other day, with fresh legs, I do believe that this section of trail would have been a blast. Unfortunately this was not another day and my legs were gone to a better place, so I was in complete irate mode during this section!!! I kept swearing and screaming as the trail that I felt should have went straight down to the finish, continued to climb and throw uphill pitches in my face. OH GOD this will never END! Finally got into a downhill that I could see the end was coming as we descended elevation towards where we started. Right before we exited the singletrack a figure came flying up behind me. This can’t be, PFLUG! Come to find out, 5 miles from the finish, he had taken a wrong turn that sent him off course about 30 minutes (sounds vaguely familiar to my TRUE GRIT) and he was pissed off and riding hard. As he went by and I realized who it was I gave a thought to chasing and then I remembered that I had nothing left in the tank and resigned myself to ride in and salvage what I had.
Race Results
Well I was mildly disappointed yet relieved to find out that I had finished 5th SS and 17th Overall out of a very talented SS/OVERALL Field. I know that I can ride faster and it just wasn’t my day for a top result. 2nd-5th SS were only separated by 5 minutes so had I been able to push I probably would have ended up very well, but not meant to be. Team Noah Foundation had a good day with Emily Korsch 8th Open Women at 10:38, Adam Clarke 18th SS at 10:58 and Maria Esswein 19th at 12:50. Long day in the saddle for all but a very good day nonetheless spending time with great people in the mountains of Tennessee/Georgia! Props to Brenda Simril on her Overall Women’s Win and the other top 5 SS (Gordon, DRapp, James, and Pflug), always fun racing and riding with you guys!
Post Race Festivities
Well after the race was all said and done, showers taken and all packed up it was on the road back to St. Louis. It was my hope that we would get back in time that I would get to take a nap and then hit the final stretch home to Iowa, being back in time to get some work done on Sunday. That just wasn’t in the cards though. We were moving nicely through Tennessee and Kentucky, with fatigue finally getting the best of me. I took a nap in the passenger seat while Adam took the wheel for the next 100 miles. Sometime in this stretch, the truck ran over something and we ended up with a flat tire somewhere in the tip of Illinois, lots of construction and nothing Adam did!! After getting to a BP station that was obviously closed, the Team got out and tried our luck at changing the flat. Well seized on lug nuts proved to much for the tire iron so after calling the helpful service of Booger, really the name on the side of the truck, we were back on the road after only around a 2 hour layover!
Arrived in St. Louis at around 6 a.m. which was just in time for the sun to come up and for me to continue on my journey north. Pulled into Decorah around 12 p.m., did some other work around the house and then it was to bed at 8 p.m. Max of 2 hours of sleep in a 40 hour period, a 8 1/2 hour mountain bike race thrown in the middle and lots of miles on the road, my sleep deprived condition finally spewed this long arse report out! Thanks for reading. More to come!!
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