Author

Kyle Wiberg on Aug 3, 2009

Race name: Tour of EGV and WORS Alterra Classic Race date: Monday, Aug 3, 2009

Sunday August 2, 2009

The plan: 9am Tour of Elk Grove Master 35+ cat 3/4 followed by WORS Alterra Coffee Bean Classic Comp class at 1:30pm followed by Culver’s.

Part 1: Tour of Elk Grove Master 35+ cat 3/4

Dry, sunny, lite wind, 72 degrees is just about perfect race conditions for this course. I had scouted this course the day before in the wet conditions of the dangerous cat 3 race and I was just lucky enough to hold on and cross the line safely which seemed to be quite the challenge for that day. Poor Tom and Tyler were not so lucky but word is good on their recovery. This master’s race was a wee bit slower, but much smoother. Things were looking good for Newt, Seegs, Bryce and I as we pedaled round and round enjoying the fast dry corners. Staying upright in the U-turn sprinting blender turn. We still rattled off 20 miles in under 45 minutes.

Having upgraded to the Three’s not too long ago, I have been working on kicking my racing and fitness up a notch. During this race I felt much more comfortable. I was able to hold better positioning and get near the front with 2 to go and tried to attack the sprint at 400 meters to go. I was able to pull Newt up on the last lap and tried to get the leadout going for Newt and Seegs. Newt was able to grab 5th, I held on for 13th and Seegs got 22nd. Not too shabby for the first race of the day.

Part 2: WORS Alterra Coffee Bean Classic, Crystal Ridge, WI. Comp or Cat2?

Alterra at Crystal Ridge uses a great course with a lot of climbing for such a small place. It offers a lot of tight twisty singletrack. The beautiful weather extended beyond the Cheddar Curtain, but the course was super dusty. The start of WORS races are almost always done in waves by age groups and categories. So you have about 10 to 40 people in a wave, and by the time us old farts bolted off the line at the uphill start is was a complete dust storm coating the lungs with a fine grit. But just like every other mountain bike race, you can pretty much tell your end result by who makes it to the singletrack first.

My prospects or expectations at this point were not looking so hot. It was my first Comp race and I hadn’t even ridden my poor neglected mountain bike since last season. With all the wacky weather this year, I could not believe that the Double Trouble was already here. Once I hit the singletrack, I realized it certainly had been a year since I had ridden like this. What is all this crazy stuff you have to do with your arms? Balance, brake timing, turning, pulling, yanking, hopping, dodging, rubbing, all of this arm stuff needed to be re-calibrated. DOINK, oops there is the crash. There goes 4 or 5 spots. Seegs yells “get back up get back in, NOW!”

By the end of the first lap and a few swigs off the water bottle, the dirt was once again flowing thru my veins. The smile was ear to ear. Groove is on. Descending is a blast. Hopped over the front of the whoops at full tilt and caught some air on the little down drop. Up to the big ring for the flat meadow, then all the sudden, guy in front of me falls down for no apparent reason at like 25 mph in the gravel. Ouch, I get up. I check on him and tells me to continue. Road race flashback. How do you crash that? Bizarre. There went 4 or 5 more places.

Lap 2 is going great. Jamming thru the singletrack with some space in front of me. Until, I come up on two guys who in the midst of battle are trying to pass each other in one of the little areas between two different sections of singletrack. The first guy in an attempt to hold off the pass drifts left, running second guy into the trees. Well, they both went down. They got back up, but the real battle started. Bad words, threats, rubbing tires, it was escalating into fisticuffs. Luckily, they heard my reality check and realized that Sunday is a great day to ride your bike in the woods. Racing continues.

Again, I gritted up the steep little kicker at the very top like a goat with a tin can in it’s mouth. Got past 4 people right there but then had to brake check all the way down behind one of those rigid 29er guys. Murrrphh. Then just as the going is real good and places have been clawed back. The back tire goes phhhhft phhlattt a tat tat. No spare tube. Arggh. Oh wells. It was fun while it lasted, but my Double Trouble has gone Duh Oh.

But that Mike Sequin guy, not only was he the only other person to sign up for the coolest duathlon of the season, he stomped that course. He was the singletrack slayer. Seegs left it all out there on the trail having just barely enough energy to coax it up the final hill and collapsed in faketigue just after the finish line. He was moaning that he was tired and some lady even came to ask if was ok and gave him some water. Then out the corner of his eye he sees Greg Heck making his way to the last climb. Seegs pops up and runs over to the last hill and starts yelling at Greg. “Let’s go, Pedal! UP UP UP!” That, barely old enough to race a regular masters race, kid really responded to his teammate’s chant. Greg smashed those pedals and laid waste to 4 or 5 poor saps on the final climb. It was a really great finish to watch.

Andy T raced the Expert cat 1 even though he gouged a big hole in his scalp with a tree branch in warm up. Matt somehow did some damage to his ankle but he and another fine person whose name escapes me deserve big thanks for a great job with the bottle hand-ups for our race.

After the race you could tell from the blank vapid stares and the large intake of watermelon thru dirt caked faces that everyone thought the price of admission was well worth it. I was so happy to have a great teammate and friend along for this year’s edition of the Double Trouble Day. It really was a tough day but good company makes it easy, especially when you know someone else is going through it with you. Then, we all went to Culver’s to replace those spent calories. The fun just kept rolling.

There are not a lot of places or events where you can make your own duathlon. This years edition was certainly harder than last year’s, and next year’s will require a greater effort for training and targeting. So if you’re like me and can run about as well as C3PO, mark your calender for early spring when chicagobikeracing.com posts the road race calendar, then check wors.org. Oh wait, what’s that you say? On September 13th, you are thinking of doing the 4 man TTT followed by the Comp or Expert at Treadfest in Lake Geneva? Awesome idea.