Chequamegon 40 recap and more

A few weeks ago was the Chequamegon 40.  Point to Point "MTB" race.  But mostly ski trail, gravel road stuff.  No single track.  Lots of hills.  Nothing that would be considered technical besides bombing rocky descents at 35 mph and avoiding huge mud puddles.
It's a total power course - basically TT'ing the whole way at aerobic threshold.  I replaced my front S Works Fast Trak to one of the S Works Renegades for less rolling resistance.  The morning of the race the tire lost 15 pounds of air from the night before.  I decided to air it up and just stick with it and hope it didn't go flat.  Damn thing didn't lose a pound of air during the race and I would have liked 5lbs less air in it - that is a lot of air.

Last year was my first year.  I did it with 1.7 legs instead of 2 and got a flat, but managed to finish at 2:36.  Respectable first time but still slow.

This year they introduced starting gates based on how you finished the last 2 years.  So I was in gate 3 probably 400 people back - that was a huge improvement over fighting 2000 other dudes for a spot.

The week leading up to this race was poor.  didn't have any good rides, legs were flat, worked a full day on friday and then drove the 3.5 hours up that night.  When we started I just had no pop in the legs.  The first 10 miles I suffered pretty good.  It was a long ways from where I can be when I'm running good.  I started to feel a bit better as the race went on but I still couldn't hold my own in the quicker groups that were up the road.  I'd occasionally take a flyer from the group I was in on a downhill and bridge up to the next bunch but never did anything great.

Lea Davison blew by me at the halfway point after she flatted early in the race.  I kept her in my sight for 15-20 minutes and didn't let her get much further away but I eventually faded.  She was the 2nd place woman overall and just a week off the World Champs in Austria.

Eventually a teammate came up to me and helped me pick up my pace.  We rode together going back and forth for 10-15 miles.  Eventually after the firetower climb we hit a really tough section of Birkie trail.  Constant rollers with big climbs and a gradual uphill pitch overall.  He was riding SS and basically dropped me.  He finished a minute 30 up on me and I came in at 2:24:30.  The time was pretty good though - I'm happy.  It was good for 129th place overall of 2000 or 1850 - something like that.  That time last year would have been good for top 100 and gate 1

Next year I'll be starting from gate 2 though and with better legs should crack top 100.

Otherwise I've been feeling really strong lately.  had some good rides recently and maybe am the strongest I've been all season, it's tough to say.  Got another WORS race this weekend on a course that should suit me well and then the following weekend is the WEMS Championship race at Levis/Trow Mound.

WORS Treadfest - a cat 1 butt whoopin'

Lake Geneva hosted the 10th race in the WORS series.  It's a good little course.  I was pleasantly surprised at how much singletrack there was.  At first it looks like another ski hill race but it was much better.  The opening section sends you straight up the hill and then straight down.  Repeat that 2 more times and you are redlined 4 minutes into the race.

Previously I was riding in the cat 2 comp category and doing well.  I knew I would be forced up for next season so I beat them to it.  Lining up with 54 other fast dudes is a little intimidating.  Especially when 10 or so of them are "pro."  Brian Matter, Cole House, Matt Shriver to name a few.  When I had exceptional races in the comp category my lap times were good enough for mid pack in the 1 field, although I would have had to knock out an extra lap.  So I was aiming for a mid pack finish.

We started out up the three climbs and I actually had good position going into the woods.  I was suffering though - every time it opened into a passing section I was getting swarmed by 1 or 2 riders.  Eventually I settled in.  I took off my sunglasses and stuffed them into my open jersey.  A minute later they flew out, if they were cheap glasses I would have left them but they weren't.  I got off my bike and ran the 25 feet back to get them.  A small group of 3 or so passed me including 2 that I fought to pass.  Back on the bike and going again. Beginning of lap 2 I blew up going up the climbs.  It was here that I worked my way to the last of the riders.  It sucked pretty good.  If I did a better job of pacing myself my overall would have been much better - it forced me to wait behind the stragglers in the single track.  Halfway through that second lap and I was going good again with 2 more to go.  I was coming up on riders at a steady rate and dispatching of them.  Last lap I managed to pass a few more and got into a good battle with another dude.  He was riding behind another guy when I came on them both in the woods.  I let them know I was going to pass and he jumps the guy in front and pretty much attacks.  I'm stuck behind for 30 seconds or so and quickly close the gap when it opens.  I attack up a climb into the remaining singletrack.  When we enter the final open section he starts sprinting and I had to put a dig in to keep in front but managed to finish ahead of him.

All the other races I was much more aggressive b/c I knew I was fast for my category.  I was too reserved this time not knowing who these dudes were or how fast they were and that slowed me down.  I finished 35th out of 49 finishers. 12 were "pro"  10 of 15 in my cat 1 age group.  I was almost exactly 20 minutes behind Brian Matter who won.  Thats a lot.  He was knocking out 27 minute laps and I was doing 32 minute laps.  Holy shit.

On the positive, my laps at the end of the race were my fastest.  Best case scenario I could have saved maybe 4 minutes total.  If I happened to do that I could have finished in 30th instead of 35th.  MF'ers are fast.

Airing it out on a fast downhill