LowCel 

The race this past weekend was Tour de Lake in Spencer, WV. The course is 18 miles long but it feels more like 25 miles. This course is always hard since there are very few chances to relax. It seems like all you do is hammer for the duration of the course.

The race starts out on the road with about a 200 yard sprint and then a sharp right hand turn then it goes what seems like straight up a rough paved road with a bunch of pea gravel on it. The hill goes about 200 yards then it flattens out about 200 yards then another sharp right and we started up a pretty steep 1/4 mile dirt climb. By the time you get to the top of it your heart rate is maxed.

We (sport) started out with the single speeds and high school classes. The experts started two minutes before us and the beginners started two minutes behind us. We took off and I did my best to stay close the front. By the time we finished the second climb I was around 6th or 7th in my class. The first 1/2 mile or so after the climb is relatively flat and wide. This provided plenty of time to pass. I was able to get around a couple more sport racers and entered the singletrack in 4th or 5th. Within another mile the field started thinning out and I believe I was in third at this point (I thought second though).

The first 6.3 miles (not including the first mile) is very technical with a lot of short climbs, roots, rocks, tree crossings etc. It keeps you on your toes. I was able to trade positions with Chris Flick a few times which kept things a little more fun. After the first half of the first lap there is a turn around and you start up a climb. The second half of the first lap is 3.6 miles. This part starts with a long climb which most of us elected to walk. There was too much traffic at this point to worry about riding it. It was shortly after this that Chris left me and I never saw him again.

This half of the lap is a lot of fun, a little more flowing I guess. The most interesting part of this lap was when I was almost nailed by a deer that jumped directly in front of me, less than five feet. I was going along the trail and he jumped straight across it going downhill. That would have sucked!!!!

Anyway, first lap ends and I am feeling a little tired. Time was 1:02 (1 hour 2 minutes). Not too bad of a time. Well now the second lap starts with the dirt fireroad climb. Next you go through the field like singletrack for about 1/2 mile then take a right and start a single track climb. At this point I found out that my legs were about shot. Way too early to feel like that. I made it up that climb (hiked a good bit of it) then hit what they refer to as a fireroad. It was about 1/2 fire road 1/2 singletrack. Basicly he just went up hill for three miles with some short little downhills thrown in (that you still had to pedal). I spent most of that three miles in my small front ring. I was definitly losing some time here.

After the three miles you start down finally and get to the turn around point again. So far I had gone right at 4.5 miles on the second lap. The second half of this lap has a lot more climbing than the first lap as well. At this point a couple more riders had caught up with me, one vet expert and one vet sport. We chatted a little as we ran up the climb and then exchanged postions a few times. When the climbing finally came to an end we started downhill again. At this point I decided to see if I could relocate a big tree that was standing beside the course. I tried my best but it didn't budge. My shoulder and leg did though. I hit that tree as hard as I have ever hit anything and have some nice marks on my shoulder and leg to prove it. I got lucky and didn't crash though, I just kind of bounced off of it. I was able to shake it off and keep riding.

Well, made it down the hill now only about two miles to go. Now there are a bunch of little dips with some rocks and roots in them with steep short climbs coming out of them. Every time I stood on to mash on one of those climbs my quads started cramping up. I was starting to get pretty scared at this point. On a plus side it started a very light drizzle, man that felt great! I continued on the course and those short climbs and kept coming close to cramping. With about 1/2 mile to go I passed the vet sport I had been chatting with earlier, he was cramping up as well and let me go by.

Nothing else really exciting happened. I did the last 1/2 mile and went through the finish line with Jessica Mayle and Nate Annon (who had finished earlier). At this point I thought I had second place wrapped up. I found out a few minutes later that I had finished in third. One of the guys got away from us at the beginning and I had no idea. I honestly don't even know who he was, this could have been his first race. Anyway, congratulations to him and best of luck in future races. The second place finisher was Chris Flick, man is he fast. Hopefully he moves back up to expert in the near future and gives some other racers the opportunity to get on the podium.

Summary, I had a good race, finished third in mens sport 18 - 34. I felt like I gave it everything that I had and I have no regrets. I was able to hold off the cramps which is much more than I can say for last year. I cramped up so bad last year I was almost in tears. I was still back from first and second by around seven minutes.

Here are my numbers from the race.


zone 1 - 2:35
zone 2 - 5:24
zone 3 - 5:10
zone 4 - 28:45
zone 5 - 77:35

Time - 1:58 (official time including two minute delayed start 2:00)
Avg hr - 165 (highest ever, threshold is 167)
Max hr - 181
Climbing - 1801
Distance - 18.0
Calories - 1253

Place - 3rd.

free_pizza

dang, for a minute i thought each lap wass 18 miles!

good job though!

dminor 

Wow! Sport 18-34? That's brutal - -up against all the young bucks. Good job getting another podium, Lowcel! More good things to come, I'm sure.

erhan

That sounds great. How is your standing in the series now?

LowCel 

free pizza - A 36 mile race would kill me right now. My training has been set up for primarily 1.5 - 2.5 hour races. Anymore than that I would bonk so hard I wouldn't even be able to turn the pedals.

dminor - Thanks. A couple of years ago the sport classes were 19 - 25 and 26 - 34. They combined the classes a couple of years ago. It's tough being an old man (30) and racing against 18 year olds.

erhan - The series hasn't been updated for a while but going by what I think the numbers are I'm pretty sure that I am in third after five races. I have only completed four of them though. I believe I have 71 points, second place has 72 and first has 74 points. This can / will all change quite a bit. Only the best six scores plus the championship race will count. There are a total of eleven races plus the championship race in the WVMBA series.

I am still planning on doing five more of the races plus the championship. Hopefully I will be able to replace my fifth place finish with a better score. Be nice if I can add a win or two as well.

erhan

It's really tight. I hope you can win or at least finish two or more races in front of those guys.

apclassic9

WVMBA split the sport class to 19-25 and 16-30 for one year, and got just as many complaints about the split as they did about not having a split... just one of those "can't please everybody"... and went back to 19-34 because of 1- the complaints, 2 - decrease in sport riders overall, and 3 - it cost the race promoters more to have that extra class. The 19-25 class was almost non-existant - maybe 10 riders duking it out. Since most of WV's races are non-profit, it was a strain, so 2 classes became 1 again. So, I guess if the younger sport class becomes really large again, WVMBA will take another look at it - if sport riders go to the meetings in the fall, and can back up their numbers for splitting the class again.

RE updates on the point series - if the race promoters don't send in results, WVMBA can't post them. Bother Dave Lawson!! I know iplayoutside & WVMBA has.... there's more to just having a race than most riders realize, but there's no excuse for not submitting results for 2 weeks!! (but that's just my opinion...)

LowCel 

The results for that race are finally up, I'm not sure how accurate they are though. They have Jessica (beginner female) as doing two laps in one hour. She only completed one. That's no big deal since she was the only beginner female it just makes me question the accuracy of the rest of them. That score board was the most unorganized thing I have ever seen at a race. They had all of the sport male in one row (high school, 18-34, vets, women, masters, etc.).

apclassic9

Yeah, they did that the last time they had a race up there, too, and they results were screwed up. Guy never goes to other races to learn & get advice, but, whatever... I don't quite understand how this race got in as a point series, anyway - he never went to a meeting.

LowCel 

IPlayOutside posted some pics from the race. Here are a couple of pictures of me from the race.




For some reason I always look like I am in pain....... I guess that could be because I am generally suffering pretty bad during the races.