Iceman 08

Once again my favorite race of the year has arrived. With the threat of ill conditions I began to wonder if the cross bike was a good idea this year, mainly because of the handling characteristics of the cross geometry. Greg offered me his Fisher 29’er, and Paolo offered me his blinged out Bontrager wheels to roll on. My dirt bike is a little more suited to the technical trails such as Palos, not the freeway speeds associated with the Vasa Trail in Northern Michigan. So I gladly took them up on their offers. Wow, what a pay off, that bike felt like it had a motor on it. And the mtb geometry was much better than the cross bike on the twisty stuff and the descents.

I finally got a good warm up for a race this fall. Our hotel was only about a mile away from the start so I opted to just ride there. But that didn’t get me any closer to the front line at the start. So starting from the back (which seems to be an Iceman tradition for me) the gun went off and immediately I was just standing there waiting for others to begin to move while others were already riding at +20mph. Over the next ten minutes I moved up almost non-stop, grabbing spots here and there wherever I could.

As the race wore on, and the crowd thinned out, the riders began to work together. This played out very similar to that of the last 10k of a Tour stage, when nobody wants to work to help each other out, but lasted for over half of the race… Because let’s be honest here, the dirtbikers don’t really know how to work together. We don’t play well with others…At least on the trail. With no one helping me work, I started kickin’ in the Chicago flatland speed gear and leaving some of the others behind. Those efforts caught up with me at times and even had me walking up a hill, but not to worry, legend has it Ned Overend walked that very same hill last year. The last couple of miles of the course have been really tough on me these last two years, containing a nonstop assault of short grinding climbs, and some mildly technical singletrack. Previously I had actually had to get off the bike and stop for cramps, this year I took a new strategy and held off just a little bit here and there in the race to conserve for the finish. This paid off huge as I finished strong and with no cramps. I rolled into the finish line in 11th place, ten places better than last year. My time was almost 10 minutes faster than last years, in almost the same exact conditions. I can’t wait until next year.