Sometimes it who you know....and not what you know. I happen to know people that live in the Fife Lake area. So instead of getting up a 4am on Saturday, I was able to get up at 6:30am. They own a small cabin on a pond. I headed up after work on Friday to cut my drive from 2:45 down to 30 minutes.
With views like this....the accommodations were excellent.
I made the drive up and stopped for Dinner at Fife Lake inn. I had some Shrimp Primavera. It was really good, what I was able to eat of it. After dinner I headed to the Pond House. After getting my stuff inside I camped out in one of these chairs and read some. No electricity. No plumbing. Nothing but nature.
Here is a peek at the inside.
Hard to see but there is a bed up there in the loft. Very cool little place that my friends graciously let me stay in for free. Saves me time and money. Very very much appreciated my friends!
In the morning I was up, had some cereal, and headed the last jaunt to Timber Ridge. I wanted to get there early and scope out the finish of the course. I rolled in around 7:30. I found a place to park and tracked down the Start/finish area. Here is where the chaos started. The email said the plate pickup would be by the main lodge. Wrong. And there were zero signs showing the Start area. Just kind of stumbled across it. No big deal, just a sign of things to come.
I got my plate and headed back to gear up for a warm up. I rolled out the start and found where the route rejoins on the way back in. This wasn't terrible....and I won't spoil the fun with any description here. lol. I was warmed up and just rolling around waiting for the start. When it got to be 9am I headed up to watch the Full Pint waves go. My start was wave 4 at 9:19 (remember this) so I had plenty of time.
The first wave headed out, and wave 2 was right behind them. A minute later, wave 3. Then I hear the announcer call Wave 4. I looked at my number plate again to make sure I wasn't delusional. I wasn't. Wave 4 was in the chute and ready to go. I saw a fellow Clyde names Chris and swung up to chat with him when the announcer says "3, 2, 1, GO"....and my response was "he is kidding right?". He wasn't....wave 4 started 15 minutes early. I wasn't really ready.....
I dropped my gel. Chris handed it back to me and we were off. If I had to guess I would say anywhere between 75-100 people shot off the line. The first part of the course is 2-track so there is plenty of room. But the sand was making people slow and weave and it was very chaotic. Making it thru unscathed, I spied Chris and took off after him. He had passed me a little bit before, but there were so many people it was hard to find speed. Eventually the traffic started to spread out, but it was far from gone.
The two tracks ended. As the bodies piled up in the singletrack I settled in behind a few guys. The line of people in the woods was long. I would guess I was probably 40-50 people deep in the line on this section. As you can imagine....it was slow...fast...slow...fast...slow....fast....as people were trying to find their rhythms. It was difficult....
After the first section of singletrack the roads opened again. I jumped on with another guy and we picked off 3 people before the next section of singletrack. Small gaps were forming now as we got a bit further into the race. I was locked in with a super awesome dude. We snuck past another ride and closed to the next group. At one point he got past a rider and it took me a bit longer. But I closed him down again after I got past.
I stuck with the Blue Jersey guy for this section as we finally had space to ride. After a few minutes we bridged back to another big group. There was a lot of SLOWING.....and SLOWING...as the trail closed down. Someone crashed and you can hear a guy yelling for people to calm down. This rubber banding in tight quarters lasted for quite a while. We are pushing 6 miles into the race at this point.
Not wanting to be part of the problem, we settled in with this group. It was smooth at points, but very chaotic most of the time. Tight races like this on narrow trails can be frustrating. When the people slowing you down are not part of your class....its more frustrating. I just settled in and did my best to stick to Blue's wheel. Eventually the trail opened up again to two track. I thanked Blue for letting me chase and took off.....but our day was far from over.
This is where the hills started. I was able to gain some ground on a few people and made some passes. We dropped down a hill before the climbing started. A mix of singletrack and fire roads followed. I actually hit a steep hill I had to walk. I was going pretty hard up to this point and just couldn't settle in. So I walked up a climb and got back on. At this point, Blue Jersey passed me again. We joined up with a woman and attacked the hills that followed. Eventually on a long climb she peeled off and I joined back with Blue.
I found out he is 69 years young. He knew the course so well that I felt like I knew what was coming at all times. The Trail split (half pint, my race and full pint...the long race) and we made the left back into the singletrack. This is where we really started talking. Great guy and fun to hang out with for almost this entire race.
This section of trail was amazing. Felt like we were flying. Even with the climbing starting to add up. We reeled in a few more people and a few passed us from time to time. Our group grew to about 10 and we hit some open section by the power lines. The miles were ticking by now. The VASA didn't disappoint. Awesome trails.
We were rapidly approaching the finish section. Blue Jersey and I reeled in another ride on the two tracks leading into the final climb. There is a preview climb and then a nice down hill before the Wood Chip climb. Yes....that nasty climb at the end of Iceman. Finally the last climb was in sight. I passed my blue jersey friend and reeled in 2 more riders before reaching the top. Well, almost the top. It keeps going for a minute. Then you hang a right and are almost to the finish. One final little push to the line and I was done.
I felt like I did pretty solid overall. The traffic was rough in the first part and then again towards the end we had some that could have slowed us down. I did have to walk a hill, but that was the only thing that went wrong. I feel like if they had started each group in their own wave that it would have been better....but....it is what it is.
I cross the line is 1:20 which was a full 9 minutes behind Chris. He is a beast, but he crushed me in the last 8 miles. With a chaotic start....I will take my results. I ended up in a solid 7th place. However, I do have one major fucking gripe. Had I started at 9:19.....with only 30 people.....the traffic would have been much much different. Instead, I was in a conga line for the first 5 miles. And then again the last 3 or so. I talked to another guy that started at 9:19 and he never said a word about traffic. So it does piss me off that the races were not considered equal. I will share my thoughts with the promoter and hope they make improvements. They did see entries double from last year....and they clearly were NOT ready for that. Unfortunately, I believe it did have an affect on my outcome.
Anyway, I will say that this was a fun event. The VASA is such a great trail system, and the trails were in amazing shape. So kudos to the NMMBA for their work up there! I didn't do as good as I had hoped, but hey.....I will take my finish and move onto the next. I am planted firmly in 3rd for the series. I can possibly move into 2nd place....with one race to go....but we will let that play out the way it does.
Speaking of the next......its coming in 2 weeks at Fort Custer. You better bet your ass that I will turn myself inside out to take another podium on my home course. I will have some videos posted soon.
Until then.....keep moving forward.
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