Well, I was slow as I predicted I would be. My endurance isn’t where I’d like it to be, and I would have preferred to race in the Sport class and only do two laps instead of three, but in order to cook the food, I needed to ride Expert for the earlier start time.
After racing three laps on the trail, I ran the grill - cooking up burgers and dogs for the hungry racers. What a great day!
Anyway, the start at Custer is always very fast. This year, I told myself not to push it and relax for the first mile or so, which I did. While on the first lap, I saw a couple guys up ahead of me getting back on their bikes and figured there was a crash. A little bit latter, I saw one of the same guys getting back on his bike, and figured he crashed again. Well, now he was right in front of me, which was making me nervous. The guy was fast on the straight parts, but when he got into curvy sections or technical sections, he was right on the edge. I couldn’t get around him, but figured sooner or later he would screw up. Well, he did….coming down that hill and across the bridge…once he cleared the bridge, he just dumped it. Luckily, I was able to dart around him and keep going.
As I completed lap 1, I came up on Eric Wallace on his single speed. He was spinning away on the flat start section and I went on bye. At the top of those rocky/rooty hills before grannies garden, my right calf cramped up like a rock. I had to get off my bike and stretch, and Eric and a few others rode past. This wasn’t good…leg cramps 1/2 way into the race? I just had to take it easy the rest of the time and not try and push hard up the hills. I finished with a pretty slow time, but I was done and it was time to cook!
100 hot dogs and 160 burgers in 2 hours!!! (All on a charcoal grill) Thanks to Chuck Brenner and Jim Gallagher for being the ‘bun’ guys. Like years past, this event is a total blast. The people love the free beer and food, and this year’s ‘Beer Garden’ made our team set-up that much cooler.
Congrats to the ladies that placed, as well as the young pup, Caleb. I think us older guys like the beer too much to make a podium!
Thanks to the entire team yesterday for an AWESOME showing, all of the help, camaraderie, racing and results, set-up, clean-up, and just having a great time and looking awesome in team kits and team shirts. It was a wonderful day!! We looked so professional.
2nd place in my first expert race!
Kathi said the Team Active beer garden was a huge success. Congratulations to all who raced, the course was firm and fast and the weather was just perfect. I couldn’t find posted results yet, and can’t remember everyone’s results, but we had at least 3 podium places.
Caleb, 2nd place Sport (Age 15-19?).
Me, 2nd place Expert Women
Kathy, 3rd place Expert Women (rocking it on a SINGLE SPEED!!!)
This was the first time (after much good hearted teasing from Kathy in the past year) I decided to woman up and race Expert class, figuring if nothing else, I could use the miles (and secretly thinking that I would finally get out from under the shadow of Summer the super freak cyclist from Custer only to find out she moved up this year as well – dang). Knowing that I don’t have the best endurance (and I struggle to drink enough while mtn biking), I figured to try and take it easy – riiight. Was 4th back of 7 or 8 women, with Summer in the lead. It was interesting how mellow the first few miles were compared to a Sport race then I remembered oh, we have THREE laps, pace yourself.
A few hang-ups in Granny’s and the new green section by two of the riders in front enabled me to pass to sit behind Summer in the first lap (some advantages to riding those trails all the time). Into the second lap (and still forgetting to drink), I actually dropped back a little and just got into a groove, then caught Summer again. On the back side, I took the lead for a bit, and she was being chatty (this is about the time she’ll take off, if nothing else, she’s predictable), and I was hurting a bit (and still not drinking enough – stupid of me). She passed and I lost a bit in the blue climbs and started the 3rd lap further back, in a lot of pain, and no energy and had to slow down and start sucking fluids. As my body found the joy of hydration, I was able to very slowly increase my pace although the climbs were laughably slow.
Could still see Summer up ahead now and again, but still not enough energy to catch her. Kept glancing back for riders behind me. Caught up to a couple of guys and realized that I could actually maneuver the technical stuff better and passed them. Then came upon a beautiful sight – Eric Cook!! A WSI jersey! I followed him for a while, and then passed and bless his sweet, wonderful soul, he rode right behind me in silent encouragement. We spoke a few times (at this point on the green section and I was struggling to focus and could feel the beginnings of cramps in my legs) and he asked how I liked the Scalpel and all that came out was a gasped, “I can’t talk right now” – sorry Capt Crunch, love ya.
An elite woman (Founders) was in front of me in the red and kept slowing down in the corners (twice in the race, I found it ironic that I was getting mad at slow people in front of me in the technical sections – normally that slow person would be me), but took she off like a rocket up the blue hill, see ya. I hit the last big hill after the bridge and cramps hit in about 3-4 places in my legs, but if I slowed down, they got worse – and if I sped up too much, they got worse. LOL! My arms and shoulders were killing me, cramps were twitching all over my legs and at one point my hamstring started to lock up but I couldn’t stop pedaling. Breathe deep, relax, pedal, ouch, pedal – almost there. What a race.
Summer got me again, but only by 30 seconds or so – yeah, I am (mostly) ok with that.
So my decision to race Cone-Azalia had me in Milan, MI on a sunny but windy Sunday morning. For the uninitiated Cone-Azalia is a part rough pavement, part dirt road, all wind exposed box of madness. The weather was overcast as I left Battle Creek, but as I passed Jackson a dark curtain pulled back to reveal a beautiful spring day. On arrival I found out Google’s GPS was not having a good day. Ironically there were four bike laden cars that all arrived at the same old industrial building. I led the convoy into a gas station to get directions and we were soon at registration.
A shorter than I would have liked warm up followed. The wind was high and the course exposed. All my pre-race intel told me the first of the three ten mile laps were typically frantic. There were over three hundred participants this year, a record for the race. We would be starting at two minute intervals by category. The start was fast, I found my place riding fourth or fifth wheel and was able to hold station for the first two laps. The race is known for is flats and true to form, a couple of riders flatted in the group not long after we hit the dirt for the first time.
The first lap was unrelentingly fast with no opportunity whatsoever to recuperate. Thankfully we had a couple of minutes to relax a little before turning back onto the dirt and crosswinds at the beginning of the second lap. As soon as we crossed the railway tracks and hit the dirt the first real attacks came. They were chased down quickly and status quo resumed. More attacks followed, most coming in the corners as we switched from pavement to dirt and back. No one could get away though, and approximately one third of the field took the bell together.
As we made the first turn onto the gravel on the third lap I made a mistake and lost my place at the front of the group, unfortunately this was right as a flurry of hard attacks came. I dug deep and held on. I was afraid the group would split so had to take some wind to get back near the front. I knew that I had to recover as much as possible but at this point it wasn’t going to happen. The attacks kept coming and after another turn I found myself 25 yards off the back of the group. Now it was a pure TT. I got stuck in no man’s land just off the back of the group for the next couple of miles. The two guys on my wheel were unwilling (although I’d like to think they were unable) to come around and help. Eventually we rounded to last corner to the finish stretch. It was mile and a half run directly into a headwind. I never let up but the lead group finally slipped away. My consolation prize was winning a token sprint against those finishing with me.
I was tired but happy with my performance as I always am when I give everything I have in a race. It was great experience for me. There was talk of a big crash somewhere on the course but thankfully I didn’t see it. The racing was pretty hair-raising in places so I wasn’t surprised. When I left the provisional results weren’t posted and are still not up online. I’m hoping I was in the 10-15th place range but it was all about experience and effort for me today.
Neil Jenney
Nowhere to hide
There were a lot of people that looked like this
There was no lack of enthusiam or energy even after the race
Ok, so suffice to say that I didn’t necessarily “set the trail on fire today at For Custer’s Stampede. I opted for the Expert race, which ended up being close to 30 miles on the mountain bike today. The weather was perfect, the trail was in great condition but it was evident to me that my past several years of dedicating my training to the road bike and triathlons had not done much for my mountain biking. Considering I spent quite a bit more time on the trail that most racers, the way I look at it I was just getting as much visibility for our sponsors than other teams!
That being said, I finished the race with only a couple of “dabs” (that’s having to get out of my pedals and touch to recover for those non-bikers reading this) and ended up putting in a good strong finish on the straightaway to the line. Despite some leg cramps on the third and final lap, I managed to get through the race without much pain (and avoided a couple of close calls when the trees seemed to “reach out” and try to grab my handlebars and jerk me to the ground.
While my performance today isn’t anything to “write home” about, I’m very proud of my teammates and the fact that several of our racers made it on the podium. It was good to see the WSI-Team Active name on more than one occasion during the day. I’m sure there will be more updates shared very soon, so stay tuned.
I’m also proud of the great showing “after the race” and how team members all pitched in and helped with the “beer garden” and hospitality tent. A special thanks and shout-out to Mike Groat for not only giving me a spanking on the trail (nice ride, Mike), but for being grillmaster for the day. The spectators and racers all enjoyed grilled burgers and dogs thanks to Mike’s grilling skills and cold beer (for those that were of age, of course). Funny thing, we set up the grill right next to the section on the course the racers had to pass on each list, so by the time the burgers and dogs were going, racers got to ride through some pretty-good smells. Let’s just say it’s good that Mike was racing in my group, because smelling that food may have been enough to get me to “pit” early.
In closing I want to also forewarn you that the “kilt” made another appearance today and I’m sure that you’ll be seeing some pictures very soon. I can tell you it was much more comfortable wearing it today than back when I did the Lowell 50. Danny (and several other shutterbugs) were out and suffice to say I was the only one at the race sportin’ classic Scottish apres-cycling attire.
