Up this weekend was the Iowa Games Winter Fat Bike Race/ CVAST Winter Weekend in Waterloo,IA. This race was taking place at George Wyth State Park, a place I have always wondered about as far as where it was and what was there. Well it really is quite a beautiful place. What probably helped to make everything even better was the fresh 2-3 inches of snow that fell on the morning of the race.
To the Race
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| Trail really never looked this good during the race |
So going into this race I felt that I was just going down for a little training ride not knowing how many people would show up. This race is probably the shortest race that I will do all year as it was only scheduled to be an hour race. I was planning to put in a hard effort and get a good workout but didn’t expect the competition to push me as hard as I did end up have to push. I didn’t put to much into this race as I drove down morning of leaving with just enough time from Decorah to pull in, put the bike together and toe the line. No warm up for me today!!
The course was a flat, ski groomed trail that ran on mostly double track, flat terrain. The course was just over a mile long with two loops overlapping in the middle. The race really did turn into a cyclocross race on snow, with fatties. The middle overlapping section from the beginning was going to be a pure running section as it was potholed to start the race due to the large tent area in the middle for spectators and the roaring fire.
So at the start line, I took a look around and didn’t recognize many, as is becoming common in Iowa as I don’t race much here anymore. One thing that surprised me was a group of riders coming up and asking “ How do you know Dwayne??”. Hmmmmm. Confused I asked how they knew him and come to find out they were from St. Louis and came up to ride their fatties in snow for once! Ha! Shout out to Mike from Pfu Cancer and all those from St. Louis that I didn’t catch names of. Great seeing you at the race and congrats on your finishes!
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| Dale Waack Photo's- Check out his great shots of the race on the CVAST Facebook Page |
Game On
So the start was as expected and I took the hole shot from the start. First on trail and the story was over. I was able to ride about 20-30 feet at the entrance to the trail and then it was onto foot for about 30-40 yards. After this I was on a mission to open a gap. The trail on the first lap was miserable. Very soft conditions where I just kept the pedal down and went where the bike took me. I was able to put down right around a 10 minute lap to open the race and had about 10-15 secs. on second (Mike from Pfu Cancer) and knew I would have to kept the pedal down in order to get some distance.
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| Dale Waack Photo |
Second lap through lap 6 were more of the same. The trail throughout the race got better and better. Every lap the groove got a little more pronounced and packed in. I was able to negative split most of the race, other than lap 3 or 4 where I got caught up behind at least 20 lapped riders. It was nearly impossible to pass since the trail outside of the groove was 5 inches of soft, soft snow. When I did choose to pass I punched it and jumped out of the groove and just hoped that I could keep the front wheel straight. During laps 3-6 my lead gradually grew as I was putting at least 15-20 seconds a lap on second and could see this every time I went through the running section and opening section of each lap.
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| Dale Waack Photo |
I was able to come through Lap 6 at 57 mins. flat so I had one more lap to go to finish the race. This was actually the best lap of the entire race. I was able to clean the opening section of trail (only lap to do so) and boy was it every fast. It was during this lap that I laid down my fastest split by putting in a 15 mph. effort in a great section of trial. I felt as though I was flying through this lap with no dabs other than the running section and exit to the trail with a pretty much mandatory run up.
Finish It Up
Well I was able to finish the race at 1:03:55 which was a good days work. Know it was a tough push when I had an average heart rate of 169 and max of 179. Pretty much had it pinned the whole day. Ended up 1st Overall for the second race of the season. Really enjoyed the race and CVAST put on a good race for their first year doing this. Will return to this one was it is very close and great to support a group that is making an effort to spread single track in Iowa. Two weeks till the next race which should prove to be a good test as I travel up to the Triple F Frozen Forty in Minneapolis. Time to relax in my Elevated Legs and get ready for the week ahead. All for now. Race GPS FILE
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| Trying to not shiver to bad! |
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| Blue Ribbon Winner |
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| Chatting w/ the St. Louis Contingent Post Race |
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