Up and at em for another day of racing! I had a big waffle breakfast with my Sister to get the day started off right and rolled over to Court Square at 9:30 for a trip up Massanutten way. This would be the first day with sprint points up for grabs as well as one KOM and Super D section. It set up to be a beautiful warm day, but I had no idea what I was getting myself into. After ripping on the Highball yesterday I pulled out my old favorite, the 26" Santa Cruz Blur XCc with Maxxis Ardents, gotta stay comfortable and in one piece for the long hall.
In other news it looks like Nick Waite was not in for the full pull and now I'm riding with the weight of the Men's Leader's jersey. I loved the women's cut and all the extra room to breathe but I'm not sure how I feel as a marked man after day one. There is a long way to go and yesterday was the "easy" day. We rolled out at a mountain biker 9:30 as one big old group on the roads out of Harrisonburg. My leaking camelback was doing a great job keeping me cool and ready to go.
A quick pee break and regroup and the first sprint point of the tour commenced. Dan Wolfe attacked and split the group up with 5 up the road. I ended up 2nd with Bryan Fawley getting me at the end even with my best attempts to let him take his mountain bike where it belonged right off the road. Charlie Snyder, YT5000(??), and Dan took the remaining points
In other news it looks like Nick Waite was not in for the full pull and now I'm riding with the weight of the Men's Leader's jersey. I loved the women's cut and all the extra room to breathe but I'm not sure how I feel as a marked man after day one. There is a long way to go and yesterday was the "easy" day. We rolled out at a mountain biker 9:30 as one big old group on the roads out of Harrisonburg. My leaking camelback was doing a great job keeping me cool and ready to go.
A quick pee break and regroup and the first sprint point of the tour commenced. Dan Wolfe attacked and split the group up with 5 up the road. I ended up 2nd with Bryan Fawley getting me at the end even with my best attempts to let him take his mountain bike where it belonged right off the road. Charlie Snyder, YT5000(??), and Dan took the remaining points
Time Section 1
After a little more time spent spinning up the road and a regroup for water and fuel we got our first taste of dirt for the day as we meandered up to the field where the first timed section would begin. They had us line up moto-style as one huge line across the field, with a couple stragglers making it two people deep. Then without any exciting gunshot people just started riding, and boom, it was on! The trail was so nice and Dan Wolfe and I headed up the hill putting a little gap on 3rd (Bryan Fawley) and pushing hard because we knew he'd be coming to get us when things got technical. It was a nice solid climb until it wasn't, specifically when we hit the ridge and it became 75% hike a bike on some seriously rocky trail. We soldiered on, Dan in front always further ahead then I would have liked as I attempted to keep my heart rate somewhere not sky high.
Finally it broke and a killer descent ensued where I caught up to Dan and then decided to see what it felt like to endo just before the creek crossing that marked the bottom. Finally feeling good after all that hike-a-bike I was ready to ride, the trail on the other hand had other ideas. Bryan caught us at the bottom and the three of us trudged our way back up the hill. Sometimes ridable but mostly too steep or too much of a creek bed with monster rocks to ride. It became a sufferfest quickly. More people joined us but I don't know who. Eventually Dan just cracked and was gone as Bryan and I continued. As I kept practicing pushing my bike up the trail Kyle Lawrence came running past me, literally running up the trail. That was the decisive move for the stage as he took the victory and I finally got to the top of the walking and enjoyed the gravel descent down to the aid stage. Thank goodness for all the good food, I was suffering and not exactly stoked on riding bikes. I threw in some more Skratch Labs drink mix to keep me going and was feeling good again. The hanging out between timed sections is what makes this event so good. It was a blast to cheer everyone coming in. Plus there was plenty of bike fixing that had to occur to make sure people could keep rolling.
Brief Segment 1 Results:
Kyle Lawrence 1:23:23
Bryan Lewis: +:17
Bryan Fawley: +1:17
Dan Wolfe: +3:15
Ian Beckner: +3:30
Sue Haywood: 1:44:45
Lizzy Clawprong: +13:50
Jen Wolfson: +24:24
Finally it broke and a killer descent ensued where I caught up to Dan and then decided to see what it felt like to endo just before the creek crossing that marked the bottom. Finally feeling good after all that hike-a-bike I was ready to ride, the trail on the other hand had other ideas. Bryan caught us at the bottom and the three of us trudged our way back up the hill. Sometimes ridable but mostly too steep or too much of a creek bed with monster rocks to ride. It became a sufferfest quickly. More people joined us but I don't know who. Eventually Dan just cracked and was gone as Bryan and I continued. As I kept practicing pushing my bike up the trail Kyle Lawrence came running past me, literally running up the trail. That was the decisive move for the stage as he took the victory and I finally got to the top of the walking and enjoyed the gravel descent down to the aid stage. Thank goodness for all the good food, I was suffering and not exactly stoked on riding bikes. I threw in some more Skratch Labs drink mix to keep me going and was feeling good again. The hanging out between timed sections is what makes this event so good. It was a blast to cheer everyone coming in. Plus there was plenty of bike fixing that had to occur to make sure people could keep rolling.
Brief Segment 1 Results:
Kyle Lawrence 1:23:23
Bryan Lewis: +:17
Bryan Fawley: +1:17
Dan Wolfe: +3:15
Ian Beckner: +3:30
Sue Haywood: 1:44:45
Lizzy Clawprong: +13:50
Jen Wolfson: +24:24
Time Section 2
After enjoying the food we set out at some good quality PP to the next timed section further into the deep backwoods of Massanutten. An untimed KOM section split the group up as I let Dan Wolfe set the pace and create a group of 2 a little ways before the top, he took the spring finish as my bike decided it didn't feel like shifting. After the regroup our next timed section began. A slight climb and then a rocky roll across the ridge to a Super D section. Carp told us how sketchy and technical the Super D section was, and if Carp is telling you that, it's way worse then how he is describing it. No doubt guys were going to get some serious time on me down that descent. I rode hard across the ridge but still got caught going across the rocky and technical ridge by Kyle and Bryan (this is gonna get confusing) before the Super D. From there I bled time like nobody's business. Including a dumb wrong turn at the bottom I lost 6:25 seconds to the fastest man down the hill and 5:24 seconds to Bryan Fawley. Then came the salvation for my Tour de Burg. A long, gnarly, steep climb back up the hill before a final descent. As the climb began the clouds finally opened cooling us down and making the climb up the rocks a lot more slippery. I charged that hill as hard as I have any hill in a long while. I knew I lost time so off I went, with each turn and view up the hill my worry grew, I wasn't seeing anyone. Eventually I made my way up to the 5 guys ahead of me all at once. Never looking back I went a litter harder to gain some time back before the descent where I was sure they would catch me.
Fortunately for me this descent had a lot more flow and just as the thunder began to boom I went down the best descent of the week. Rain pouring and Thunder pounding I couldn't help but smile ear to ear as I ripped down this descent. Nothing too technical just a hang it out there kind of descent. The Blur can eat that type of descent for breakfast, it just allowed me to hang of the back and sling it around however I wanted. I won't argue that 29ers are bad, but that 26" bike is just so much fun! After an almost blown double track switchback I slid around it just got more fun. I could hear who I thought was Kyle coming behind me and I just kept my head down and tried to stay on the bike. Not 100% successful but I did hold off the guy charging and it wasn't who I thought, Dan Atkins just crushed that descent and slotted in second for the day, just 4 seconds back! I couldn't have had a larger change of attitude between the two sections. That section of single track was some of the best stuff I'ver ever ridden. Perfection in a single track trail. Plus the end wasn't a bad place to hang out and regroup. Quickly coming to love Harrisonburg riding and this event.
Brief Segment 2 Results:
Bryan Lewis 1:22:21
Dan Atkins: +:04
Kyle Lawrence: +1:55
Bryan Fawley: +2:04
Ian Beckner: +2:14
Brief Segment 2 Results:
Bryan Lewis 1:22:21
Dan Atkins: +:04
Kyle Lawrence: +1:55
Bryan Fawley: +2:04
Ian Beckner: +2:14
Death March Home
Each and every person coming down that descent had just as much enthusiasm and as big a smile as I did. Unfortunately it came to an abrupt end, because, well, this is le Tour, not an easy ride in the park. Once we left the regroup and feeding point we just had a PP section back to town via some road they knew was there but didn't really know how far it was. Turns out it was darn far, like 3 hours worth of far. At first everyone was okay, it was beautiful, but as the double track got worse and worse it truly became a somber death march with few words being said. Eventually we got there. Unfortunately it was not without incident for me. Someone decided to sabotage my GC dreams by kicking out a good sized limb into the middle of the trail on a steep descent. With no time to do much I tried to hop over it but to no avail. The limb ripped my front tire off and down I went. It took me a second to make sure all was well but I received nothing more than scrapes. The tire seated back on with some CO2 and the Stans that somehow stayed in there. Onward we drug, still with 45 minutes till the pavement at that point. The pavement was welcome with another hour home it began pouring on us. An epic way to end an epic day. That ride will no doubt go down as one of the craziest adventures of my life. What a day. 8 hours of saddle time, I could not have been happier to finally get home. Another sprint right before Harrisonburg saw Bryan Fawley increasing his sprint lead with Dan Atkins, Charlie Snyder, myself, and Sam Skidmore grabbing what was left of the points.
All in all it was a good day to enjoy with some more great food under the lights. I was beginning to make some headway on the leader's jersey as I increased my lead to 7:21. Still a long way to go and if I believe what everyone says then anything could happen. That being said let's see what happens, the 1 road day is tomorrow and I'm fairly certain I'll be plenty comfortable, then again anything can happen. Time to keep charing but also avoid the flat monster and stay on course. The Full Pull group shrunk by about 10 today. Attrition has begun.
The Damage:
Men's Leader: Bryan Lewis
KOM Leader: Dan Wolfe
Sprint Leader: Bryan Fawley
Super D: Sam Skidmore
Women's Leader: Sue Haywood
DFL: Steve Poulson
Survive and Advance,
BSlow
The Damage:
Men's Leader: Bryan Lewis
KOM Leader: Dan Wolfe
Sprint Leader: Bryan Fawley
Super D: Sam Skidmore
Women's Leader: Sue Haywood
DFL: Steve Poulson
Survive and Advance,
BSlow