After all those other not really great results, I've been a little less confident in my fitness. I'm also slightly heavier than I'd like. On the plus side, June was all big weeks, racing, and hard efforts for the "Pete Mitchell Inverted Enduro," and I've been doing alright at Wed Worlds.
Last year I was 5th at Philipsburg and pretty happy about that. I didn't have any real goals other than to hopefully be in that ballpark again. It's a point to point race that starts with like an hour and a half of climbing up a dirt road to hit the singletrack, which then continues on a general upward trend, following ridgelines, and then you are back on road to finish on main street in town. The downside of this race is that while ~50 miles long, only about 13 miles are on trail. The rest are road to and from it. But finishing on main street in pburg is pretty cool.
Going into it my main concerns were sticking with the front up the road climb, and then not cutting a tire or crashing on the trail. It's pretty rugged backcountry riding, but because of all the road sections I went with my flimsy kenda sabers with the plan of just being careful on the trail and doing my best to avoid sharp rocks. My water/nutrition "strategy" was also a little risky. It was going to be warm, and it's almost 4 hours with 5300ft of climbing, and I started with two bottles, 3 packs of shot blocks, 3 gels, and a clif bar. One bottle had sugar in it at least plus there are two aid stations, at either end of the singletrack, and I thought maybe I'd stop at the first on and refill water and cram some food in my face (lol yeah right).
The road climb was fairly spicy right off the bat when a guy we didn't know from Butte (Kevin) rolled off the front. Doc Rob was like, I think he's pretty strong and so the chase was organized, with myself, Rob, and Ira from Helena doing most of the work while Robert Mazza and Shaun sat in and everyone else was ejected off the back. We caught him and then had 6. Through the faster section down in the valley doc Rob took the lead like last year because he wanted to pick the lines through the puddles and washes and sections of road chewed up by logging equipment. I was fine with that, chilled on the back, and the road was actually pretty dry, a benefit of doing the race this late. Last year we were all wet, muddy, and cold like 5 miles in.
We stuck together up the road but I was starting to think it was too easy and didn't really want all six of us going into the singletrack together with everyone well rested. I was also expecting Robert to make a move, as he is light and fast and was top 3 in most of the wed night races. So I decided to attack first. But there was an early start rider on the road (you could start at 8 instead of 9 if you thought you'd be out there a long time), and when I went to cross into the other tire track I got stuck on the rut and crashed right in front of everyone nearly causing a pileup. So that was embarrassing and I went to the back in shame for awhile. Then attacked again.
This dropped doc Rob and Shaun (sorry guys) and strung Kevin and Ira out a bit, but Robert had been patiently sitting in the whole time and was right on my wheel. Obviously I didn't stop for a water refill and rolled into the singletrack first. On the plus side I had actually been eating and drinking a little up to that point, while last year I waited until we were on trail to try to start cramming shot blocks into my mouth which didn't work very well. Rob got in front of me when I lost the trail in some open grass, I followed him down a descent, and we put some space on Ira and Kevin pretty quickly. Then we hit a climb and Rob rode away. I figured, well, he's gone, I just need to try to hold onto second. I had gone really hard on that move on the road and was feeling it, and felt like I was going way too slow. I had to walk up a lot of stuff, ran out of water, and didn't eat much. But, I kept air in my tires, stayed upright, and carried good speed on the flat/downhill sections. My goal was just keep moving efficiently and not exerting myself too hard up all the really steep short climbs, even if it meant a slow shuffle.
Dan, Robert's brother, didn't race but was up there taking pictures
full gallery here
I had hit the lap button going into the trail which gave me a pretty good idea of where I was. Mostly my feeling was "fuck, I still have a long way to go and am out of water." But no one had caught up to me. Then, surprisingly, I saw Rob up ahead as we were nearing the end of the trail. We hit a section of flat/downhill and I closed in and got on his wheel and even went by. For about 12 seconds, because then we hit a climb and I pulled off and started walking. He kept riding and rode away again. But we were almost out of it and I hit the aid station knowing he was not far ahead (about 1:20 it turns out). I got a water refill plus some scratch, had a gel, maybe a shot block or two, and started to chase down the road. The fast rolling kendas did their magic and I stayed tucked as tight as I could and thought I started seeing some wisps of dust in the air. Then hit a slight rise and oh shit my legs are cramping and I can't pedal. Maybe if I stand up? Oh no I'm not going to make it over this little hill and everyone is going to catch me while I curl up in a ball on the side of the road. Finally the road points back down and I'm back to coasting, sort of trying to pedal, but basically spun out anyway so I could rest and hope the scratch and water and gels would kick in.
From aid station 2 down the road to the finish it's about 15 miles. It starts out a little narrow and rough and gradually widens out into gravel. When the road came out into the open I could see Rob, and he was pretty far ahead and we were almost to the pavement. But I was catching up. Then I'd try to pedal and get the starting of cramps, coast over a flat spot unbearably slowly, and he'd seem farther away. You cross the highway and take a little dirt cutoff into town for about 2.5 miles to main street. From the turn onto main street to the finish line looks to be about 1k. Getting to the highway, it's like, wow, I'm pretty close now.
I caught Rob before main street, maybe a mile or two from the finish. I was going a little faster, and wasn't going to give that up and definitely didn't want to bring him with me. So, road tactics. Attacked past as hard as I could, not even sure if my legs were going to work, wondering if they would cramp up and leave me struggling to the finish, which is a little bit uphill. But they did, and there I was riding up main street in the lead, and pedaling suddenly seemed easy again even. Winner. Overall. Course record. I'm still kind of in shock about it.
Rob had to leave before the awards but we took a half-assed cat3memes podium picture first
I won a lot of candy from the sweet palace, and took home some of the extra beer. And hung out and camped another night and went to the brewery and some bars with Cory and Garrett.
https://www.strava.com/activities/2529461842
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