The Philipsburg 46, near that town in Montana, is a point to point race that features about 12 miles of high elevation remote singletrack. The extra, like, 35 miles are getting there and then to the finish on main street in town. Because of all the road riding and fast descending I put a 34t chainring on in place of the 32, which I thought might be needed. I don't have a sram freehub/cassette, so no 10t cog back there and I wasn't sure 32x11 would cut it going into the finish.
A few of the guys in my mountain bike group were doing it, including Alden, who is 76 years old. The logistics of the start were to drop your bikes off the night before and then catch a shuttle to the start from town in the morning. Alden has a cabin up Rock creek near the start and he invited Norm and I to stay there Friday night. We just drove ourselves after leaving a car at the finish the night before. Alden also started about an hour early so as to not make everyone wait too long at the end.
Anyhow, the start of the race is 20 miles up a dirt road with about 2000ft of gain before getting to the trail. Fairly early on we were down in a valley and the road was covered in mud and standing water. Rob was setting the pace and slowing down a bit for the puddles which was nice but we were all soaked and covered in mud in the first like 40 min of the race. Thankfully the last wet section was a creek crossing (like above the hubs deep) which cleaned off some of the mud. But my shoes were filled with water and it was like 45 degrees and overcast, and I hadn't brought anything other than shorts and a jersey to race in because the forecast was 70 and sunny. A lot of us were a little cold, but then the road pitched up a bit. Justin Raynes attacked shortly after that. I feel partially responsible for that after the climb up the pass at bearmouth. But also I hear he had some issues a previous year and was there for redemption. I had never done it, didn't have a track/elevation profile on my garmin, and only had a vague idea of what to expect, so I stayed in the group, which was already down to 5 - me, Doc Rob, Toby, Jeff Sheehan, and a guy named John from Idaho. I knew it was going to be a near 4 hour race with a lot of elevation and didn't want to go too hard too early. Rob was leading and I was comfortable, but Justin wasn't getting any closer so Jeff and Toby picked up the pace and our group broke up. I could have stayed with Rob but after a few minutes I decided to bridge up to them. Mistake. Pretty big match burned, I gave up on sticking with them, Rob caught me, then it wound up not really mattering. The road flattened out/descended a bit, at least one guy (Jeff) stopped for water at the aid station, and we went into the singletrack pretty much together.
I was worried about getting left behind if I stopped, so I wore a pack and had all the water and snacks I would need for the whole day from the start. I'm wondering if the time lost to fill a bottle and stuff cookies into my face would have been worth the trade off of riding without the extra weight. I'm not entirely sure who out of our top 6-7 overall stopped and who just did it with 2-3 bottles. I had 4 bottles worth of water in total and went through nearly all of it. Once we were on the singletrack I needed to get some calories in me, which maybe wasn't the best timing. A few guys picked up the pace and I was trying to eat and drink and then I was a little off the back of everyone. I would up just riding my own pace and kept up on water and nutrition but got caught and passed by one guy and lost 4+ minutes to the top 3 by the time we got back onto road. That single track section was really cool, and worth the whole ride. Open ridgelines, some fast sections, slow technical parts, some good dirt, sketchy descents down loose rocks, and a few steep climbs that had us walking. I;m stuck wondering if I could have gone just a little faster through there, as a few minutes over an hour and half isn't much. But I was reasonably comfortable, stayed upright, kept air in my tires, ate and drank enough, saved some energy for the finish, and generally enjoyed the ride.
On the way down I made good use of that 34t and pushed really hard into town. I tried to keep pedaling, take good, fast lines, and stay aero. Did the hands on the fork crown tuck at times and still could have used another gear. As we were getting closer I passed Toby who was fixing a flat (his fix didn't go well, blew out, and he crashed on the fast dirt road descent. Seems mostly ok but I think he was in 2nd when the first flat happened), and I was closing in on two guys with a few miles to go. But there was some confusion with the finishing bit. I got on the highway expecting we take it to main street, and a sheriff doing traffic control yells "hey, wrong way!" I look up and see the two guys on a dirt road going off at an angle, turn around and get on that road, and then come to them stopped at a closed gate. Now we're wondering where to go, I suggest we just cut across to the highway and go in the way I was planning as I knew where the finishing line was but had no idea where the road we were on went. We did that and just finished in our previous order. Turns out that was the course and the gate should have been open (they fixed it before most of everyone else came in). It didn't really effect the order of the top finishers but it would have been nice to finish the racing at the actual finish line.
On the way down I managed to wave for the camera
Justin stayed ahead and won by 6 minutes over Jeff and Rob who finished close together, and then I was with the next group. One of the guys was in 40+ which put me 5th in open. Pretty decent finish although I'm wondering if I could have stuck with the next couple guys had my strategy been a little different. I mean, probably not because I know them and they are faster but maybe climbing for an hour and a half with 2 bottles worth of water instead of 4 would have left me feeling better at the top. The guy who got 2nd did stop at the first aid station for water and it seemed to work for him. And then no extended podium so no prizes for me although I did take home a 6 pack of beer.
It was a little bit more than 46 miles
https://www.strava.com/activities/1672488393/
results: http://competitivetiming.com/results/185314O
They had a bunch of different little pins at the start because the town gave the race organizers a bunch of stuff. Fluffy kitty was my spirit animal
Last night after the race I camped out with the director and my friend who did the timing, and another guy who rode here for the fun of it.
Things got a little wild last night downtown. Latest I've stayed up and the most beer I've drank in months. And then I bought and ate a bunch of candy today. And it's my birthday this week. I guess in a month or so I will have to start thinking about getting in shape for cross.
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