Shenandoah 100

Where to start, where to start?

Things were dialed in and ready to go this past Friday evening. Fellow local enduro rider Pete showed up and slapped the bike on the rear rack of the car while I tried to convince Lizzy girl that she wasn’t going with me on another bike ride (it’s really hard, I mean she does have a sad puppy face!). With the bikes loaded up, we were on our way Virginia.

Some 6-7 hours later or whatever, we rolled into the Stokesville campground. Unloaded the bikes, kitted up and headed out for a pre-ride. Followed a few riders and took the road over near aid station #2, then rolled back and climbed most of the way up the first climb. On the way up, got something stuck in my front tire and decided to swap out my XR1 for an ACX, and boy did having the bigger volume help on the downhills the next day. After the pre-ride wolfed down the usual pasta and salad supper and had a nice chat with Todd. Rolled back to the hotel, popped some sleeping pills and crashed hard till I awoke at 5ish am.

Early morning came fast, and the 550 strong racers rolled out of the campground. It should be mandatory for mountain bikers to race on the road sometimes, as it seems nobody knows how to ride in a big pack. Thankfully it was short lived and after we got across the bridge, I was able to move forward and get in a good spot heading onto the dirt road climb. On the opening climb last year, I had blown my load and put myself in the top 10 across the top but it cost me waaay too much later. This year, I rolled it easy and eased into it. Made my way up and worked through the groups and used the outside line on all the corners to carry speed and rip up the climb. I was feeling great and comfortable, and made it into the 1st section of singletrack and just shredded the descent (as usual).

Formed up in a small group on the road and made my way over to climb #2. Last year I came unraveled a bit here, but was ready this year and climbed the majority of it and only had to walk a small section. Raged the ensuing descent like a man on a mission and hit the road with a small group heading towards aid #2. When we hit aid #2, I took some time to recollect and lost my group. As a result I was on my own and heading toward the 3rd climb. On the 3rd climb, I came a little bit undone mentally, suffered a bit on the climb and just took it easy trying to wolf down some food and just get over the top. I ripped up the descent and hit the next aid station and stuffed my face with some fig newtons and jumped on the road. I managed to slip into a pretty elite group, taking pulls with Sue Haywood (the women’s race leader) and towing ol man Gunn4r Shogren on the Singlespeed around. Swapped pulls with Sue, and almost got dropped till Gunn4r literally pushed me right back onto her wheel when she hit a rise in the road a little harder than I could hang onto.

The next climb though didn’t go to well. My stomach was churning from the figs and I had to pull things waay back. About halfway up the long singletrack climb, I pulled off the trail and pulled the trigger. Emptied the stomach and got myself going forward again. Felt good to have the blood leave the stomach and go back to the legs. Tore up the descent and linked up on the road with Ryan Heerschap. Chatted and hung with Ryan for a bit, but just faded some more on the “soul crusher”. It took me a long ass time to get to the base of that fire road climb, including pulling the trigger one more time.

Thankfully, once I hit the fire-road turn I could get into a nice solid rhythm and turn the gears over and floor it. I skipped grabbing my bag and just topped off my bottles at the aid station. Rolled it up right to the top of the climb. Ready to rage the final descent. The dude who had just passed me, pulled off to the side at the start. After asking him if everything was ok, he said “Yeah, I rode behind you on this descent last year and you were ripping it, I don’t want to hold you up!”. Well I raged that descent, for a whole 5 meters and crashed right away. Way to live up to expectations I guess. To top it off, my left leg cramped and the dude had to help lift my bike off me. Though after I let him pass, I pulled him back in shortly thereafter (only to have him pass me on a few of the steep climbs cause I walked so I wouldn’t cramp).

At the very very very end of the descent, I flatted when I hit the creek crossing at 45 kph. Somewhere in my mind, something was buzzing about taking it easy on a light tire in the rear, but I forgot at that moment and paid for it. I threw a tube in and rolled it towards the last climb. At this point, I had suffered enough and was just praying to come in under 9 hours. Well, as soon as I hit the final climb, knew that wasn’t going to happen. Off the bike and walking the steeper parts. The left leg couldn’t push because of cramps and the right knee was literally going to explode. Finally at the top I was happy to start the descent and rip to the line, only to flat 10 friggin feet later. A shitload more of walking and someone finally tossed me a tube and a co2. Changed it out and lurched it down the final descent. Shit, that rear tire was so friggin rock solid on the final descent, I thought I broke a few ribs from the vibration heading down. I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy to finish a race. I’m still not sure if I want to ride it again… 9:16 something, 30 minutes faster than last year and 45 minutes slower than my goal (with a large chunk of it coming in the final 6 miles)

That’s racing though. Nothing to do, but get ready and prep and dial it all in for next season go around… Time to chill, hit some cross and up and do a little night mountain biking an cap the season off down in Guatemala!