Dirty Bird Productions hosted this 4/8 hour race at Panther Creek State Park near Morristown, Tennessee. Not having ridden single track in what felt like forever, I could not resist to race on this course which is mostly fast and flowy, with a few sections of rocks and roots, but nothing too technical.
Each lap was 8 miles with 900 feet of gain. My goal was to ride smooth and steady for 3 laps and then drop the hammer on the 4th and final lap. I don't know where spring went, but race morning it was bone-chilling cold ... 36 degrees! My warm up consisted of riding up the grassy hill to use the state park restroom (which was heated), and then coast back down to the truck riding the brakes to minimize the wind chill.
I started out with all the warmers (leg, arm, head, and chemical). I was nicely surprised by how calm the mass start was. No elbow rubbing or handlebar swapping, my kind of start. I knew this first lap was going to hurt due to lack of warm up. So I started slow-ish and as the legs warmed up, I slowly accelerated.
The one and only bottleneck was at the rock drop. Meh! I lost some time as several ahead of me opted to walk it. Seriously, I thought it was more dangerous to try to walk down it then just send it. Nothing like slick metal cleats on a flat rock at a 45 degree angle.
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| The aforementioned rock is in the background. |
Upper Trout Lily Trail had a nice rooty climb, but then you were rewarded with a couple of tight but flowy descents. Pioneer had some slightly rocky grunty climbs and loose over hardpack curvy descents. The Outer Farm Loop was wide open, smooth and fasssst. I could really fly through this section and carry my momentum. Then onto the Piney Cove Trail for a few more roots and then finally I hit the punchy final climb up to the crest of the grassy field and finished the lap off with a screaming 1/2 mile descent. I knocked out the first lap in 48:01.
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| Final descent |
I stopped at my pit to take off all my winter gear, as the sun was shining and the temps rising. Lap 2 was pretty uneventful, I got to hit the rock slab at full gas, and the field had spread out so that I felt like I was just doing a hard training ride.
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| Upper Trout Lily |
I finished the second lap in 47:56. I stopped briefly to swap bottles and take a gel.
The third lap was the hardest as the climbs seemed to grow a little. The one memorable moment was when I was passed by a gentleman racer. I call him a gentleman and not a dude or fellow because he was very polite and paid me a compliment. He was wearing a black kit with horizontal red and yellow stripes across the jersey. If just half the men would say something positive to the women they pass, it would be so empowering to these ladies. It would make them feel like they belong and I believe would get more women racing.
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| Pioneer Trail |
I finished the third lap in 48:16. Once again, I stopped at my pit to take a gel. I had enough fluid to get me through the final lap. Now it was time to turn it up to 11 and see what I had left in the tank. I treated this lap like it was my one and only. The legs felt way better than the previous lap. I stood and hammered where I could and focused on conserving on the descents and just killing it on the climbs. Tongue lolling, eyes bulging, I pushed through the lactic, and finished that lap in 46:26. Hell yeah!
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| Outer Farm Trail Loop |
I still had plenty of time to do a 5th. But I knew better. I had already secured 1st, accomplished my goals, another lap could only do me harm. I have been nursing a hamstring pull and it was beginning to get tight on that fourth lap. So I finished with plenty of time to recover, refuel, clean up, enjoy lying in the grass soaking up the sun's rays, and cheering on the 8 hour racers.
This was a cool low key grassroots event. Thank you, Ryan, for giving us the opportunity to play bikes. I know how much time you sacrificed in order to give us frenzied bike crack heads our fix.
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| Congrats Wes on your 4 hour win: 6 laps in 4 hours = flying! |
It was good to see Mitch DeYoung in the flesh. He took the 8 hour win, with Mr. War Daddy himself, John Maggard, a close second. If I hadn't held him up for a few minutes talking about his gravel race, after his 5th lap, who knows what might have happened?
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