Mud anyone? Land Run 100 report

Mark McCullough's tale from an epic Land Run 100 on Saturday, March 14. 

Land Run 100 in Stillwater, Oklahoma was flipping miserable. I am calling it the Sooner Sufferfest. It begin to rain at 3:00 pm Friday and continued for five hours. The end result was mud pies the next morning. It was on par with a top notch CX event. The hike a bike was off and on for four miles (mostly on).

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The headwinds were close to 25 to 30 mph. My front hub was crying out in complaint (and getting stares in return), and I cracked hard at mile 40 from all of the mud and ran out of food. I somehow made it to the halfway point to get food out of my drop bag.

The second half was not as bad. I found my mojo, and my hub decided to be quiet. My original goal was to finish in 6:30, but 10 miles into the race I changed the goal to just finish. I met my goal to finish in the top 50. I was 45th. Jesse Ramsey from Tree Fort was 35th place. My friend Gus finish 10th. After some quick math, only 23% of the field finished Land Run 100. All three of us were a part of that 23%. It was not a fun day. But I liked it if that makes any sense. 

Mark

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Mark, Gus, and Jesse

Pittsburgh's Dirty Dozen

Mark McCulloch reports from the Pittsburgh Dirty [Baker's] Dozen - a KOM race to the top of 13 of Pittsburgh's steepest climbs. 

Yesterday me, Chris Wiekler, Colin Hebert and Jesse Ramsey from Tree Fort Bikes climbed 13 of the most brutal hills in and around the Pittsburgh area on our bikes. The event is the called the ‘Dirty Dozen’. The event promoter (Danny Chew) is a two time winner of the Race Across America.  His goal is to bike 1 million miles before he croaks. I have no idea where he stands in his mission. Because he is sick in the head, he created this event 31 years ago. It started off with 5 riders and recently has blown up to 300+ riders. 

The AAVC crew + Jesse.  [We still love you Jesse!] 

For about 20 riders, this KOM (King of the Mountain) challenge is a race. We all start from a park at 10a doing warm-ups on a paved  velodrome track and ride together as a group to the first hill. The bottom of the first hill is about two miles from the park. At the base, Danny blows his whistle and it is ‘game on’. At that point it is every man and women for themselves. The top five finishers from each gender at the top of the hill gets points (5 through 1). At the end of the 13 hills, the man and women with the most points is the overall winner. For guys like me this is nothing more than a challenge to see if I can survive the day without walking my bike up the hill or stroking out. For every hill my heart beat was 180 beats per minute. It is amazing in the 31 years this has been going on nobody has dropped dead on one of these hills.  Once we all reach the top of the hill, we roll together as a group to the next hill base and Danny blows the whistle for round two. Wash, rinse and repeat 11 more times. There are two food/water fill up rest stops along the route.

Some off the hills are more brutal than others. The steepest hill in the world is Canton Avenue with a 37% profile. This is hill number 9 and the highlight of the route. And to add insult to injury, it is mostly cobblestone. I made it up the hill on my first attemp, as did Chris, Jesse and Colin. It was a total rush. Having hundreds of spectators encouraging you up the hill with cow bells was a big boost. But believe it or not, this was not the hardest hill of the day because it was over before I knew it. 

Of the 13 hills, only twice did I have to unclip my shoes from the pedals. But neither stop was my fault :). On hill #4 (Hill Street) there was an unexpected garbage truck blocking 2/3 of the narrow road on the incline. It was a major bottle neck and caused some carnage as people fell off their bikes. The guy ahead of me turtled over causing me to stop. I called this the ‘pick and roll’ hill. The driver was yelling obscenities at us for being in his way. Most of us told him to go pound sand using four letter words. I just clipped back in and continued up the hill without walking. Most of the riders had to walk from this point.

What made some of these hills more difficult than Canton Avenue was the grade was 30% and they were REALLY long. Probably three to four times longer than Canton Avenue. Hill #8 (Suffolk) was HORRIBLE and by far the toughest hill. It is steep at the beginning, steeper in the middle after a 90° turn, and then steeper still after another 90° turn on cobble stones. It was the longest hill by far and took me about 5 minutes to climb, but I made it!  Hill #10 was just as horrible (Boustead). You are still on an emotional high from conquering Canton Avenue, but this hill is about 30-33% in grade and two-three times longer than Canton. By this time your legs are darn near dead and you have to mentally dig deep to get up to the top without stopping.

Colin at the start.

Mark ascending Canton Avenue

An element of the event I was not expecting was it snowed the day before. It was 48° and mostly sunny on Saturday so the roads were dry and clear, but there were pockets of salt on these inclines of 30% from the day before which gave you almost no traction. All you could do was place your rear end on your seat and hope for the best. Fortunately for me, this did not stop me. 

What makes this event so hard is you are at the complete mercy of the rider (riders) ahead of you. There is zero cadence up these hills. Everyone is going at a different speed due to their skill sets and fitness. Many times people fell. I heard about five spokes break under tension over the course of the day. Sometimes rear derailleurs and chains blow up due to the tension placed on the links. On Hill #12 the rider ahead of me was going too slow and I rubbed his rear tire, causing me to stop. I was really po’ed. But I was so determined to not walk my bike I clipped back in and started back up the hill from zero and made it. That was an accomplishment in itself.

Pittsburgh has some amazing hills. It is amazing how people inhabited this city over 100 years ago. When I look at video footage of the racers at the front, it blows my mind how fast they go. Many of the hills with sidewalk adjacent to the road were steps because it is so steep. What this event taught me is Ann Arbor hills are really nothing more than bumps. We are flat landers compared to Pennsylvania.

I highly encourage others from the Velo Club to make this annual pilgrimage to Pittsburgh and experience this event. As great as DICX is, this is even better. The YouTube link below document the course from 3 years ago. It is 27 minutes in length and does and nice job of highlighting the route. Thanks for reading.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cK8MhLihFlg

DICX '14

Five years... That's how long Jeff Wood has been putting on DICX.  Five years... Five years of tequila shot shortcuts.  Five years of kids chucking marshmallows.  Five years of CX in Detroit.  The DICX - on par with SSCXWC - in the D - and not just for hipsters...  Race Reports for the DICX '14 are below.

Patrick McEnaney-

I'll get the race report ball rolling following today's fifth edition of Detroit Invitational Cyclocross going into the books. The Racing Greyhounds, Velvet Elvisesesesss (Thanks Terry!), Liberty Brewing, Tailwind Racing (Thanks Rebecca!), Motorless City Bicycles, et al., did a mighty fine job once again. No amount of boost taken by opting for the tequila shot shortcut helped me go fast, as the legs and body were just tired from the gun today. Congrats go to Brian Kearns for keeping the pressure on to take third in the "Overly Competitive Pricks" field (aka Cat123). The course was wicked challenging once again with a well-laid combination of flats, jogs up and down the Dorais Park rise, and of course, the vintage Dorais velodrome. With temps in the high 30F range at race time, everyone was treated to a heaping portion of mud on a off-camber downhill turn, this was followed shortly by a greazy and wicked steep run-up. The 5-pack of barriers followed by a snow mound put the hurt on everyone's quads after scrambling the run-up. As an added bonus, outside the shelter of the trees, the hillside and velodrome segments were wind-whipped enough to allow minimal recovery time. And if the spirals of death, mud pit, run-up, stairs, or barriers weren't enough, a chicane filled with barrels and exit chutes that were moved every-other lap put a severe challenge to my brain, which was substantially twisted after n - tequila shots.

It was an appropriately painful sunset to my 2014 cx season. Good luck to all headed to regionals in GR!

Even Patrick gets a shot "toward the win."

Terry Carpenter-

Good turn out, very muddy, fun, and painful. My derailleur is messed up so I had to do the whole thing in big front ring and/or run a lot. I think I was hallucinating by the end.  

Jeff Wood puts on a great race!  Michael Belanger designs a sick funny painful course. Madman CX design team Jeff, Bellringer and company! Had fun chasing Patrick around heckling him.   Brian the Turkey Kearns and Ellie also kicked ass (as is expected). PS thanks to Ducky Detroit Natalie Jameson Kiesling and Motorless City Craig Koengsley for the gear to keep me warm (since I wore "normal" clothes to race, I forgot to pack dry normal clothes).

And Brian Kearns gobbled up third.

The Iceman Cometh

Below you will find a compilation of race reports and stories from Iceman 2014. From what I have heard, this epic race from Kalkaska to Traverse City was one of the most challenging to date. After being inundated with rain for a week prior, the trail was then worked into a mash reminiscent of peanut butter and marshmellow fluff by more than 3,500 mountain bikers. Much of single track was unrideable and the race took a great toll on many men, women, and machines.... 

Patrick McEnaney-

That was punishment for me and the bike. 

I felt good once I got into a rhythm, but spent a lot of time trying to get around huge 

bottle-necks of riders that had no skillz for the admittedly difficult conditions. Lots of people dropped out from what I heard. I rode back 

up with a buddy from Houghton to chase the pros and get action shots as they crossed every road, that was wicked cool. The lead group of 6 sides formed very early and stayed together past the half-way point. The podium was very familiar If you follow the Iceman, Brian Matter notched his fourth win. For the ladies, it was a race for second from very early as Georgia Gould soloed well off the front. Even Emily Batty couldn't hang with her and Emily has world cup podiums. My take -away: if I get stuck back in wave 16 again next year after being in wave 4 in 2012, I'll just transfer my entry. I ended up finishing in 2:56.

My post-race activities included laying on a couch at my buddy's house, drinking beerz and watching "The Dirty Dozen". Also, sand-extraction from my eyeballs.

My assessment is Lee Marvin could have kicked some serious arse in the Iceman.

I'm still extracting sand from my eyeballs.

Patrick enjoying some 51k IPA. Photo credit: Chris Schmidt

John Krauss-

I uploaded my 3000 Strava miles to get in my best wave ever, Wave 3, in my 6th Iceman. In the last 2 weeks I had broken my derailleur hanger on the Poto, and got a new SRAM derailleur and chain, and shredded my front derailleur cable,and had that fixed the Thursday before heading up, so mechanicals were going to be much less likely. There was a light rain at the start, but I could still feel my toes when I hit the single track. My goal was to treat it like a Nachos ride, taking it easy until kilometer 35 and then giving everything. However, about 10k into the ride my bike started making a lot of noise from all of the debris on the drive chain and brakes. I was able to shift with some hesitation, and didn't stop to check things out,figuring it would only be another 100 yards before it would be all fouled up again. At kilometer 22 I was passed by Dave Furey, who start in wave 4, and by that time I was feeling the work of pedaling in peanut butter. Shortly after that Greg Neagos came by, and then Huy's metromint kit come by as well, and I didn't recognize Mick in his mud camouflage as he came by. At kilometer 40 my rear brake completely stopped working, and I was thinking this race was not as much fun as I remembered. I finished with a 2:45, my worst time, but stayed upright and out of the trees.

I can't wait until Feb to sign up for next year

Matt Johnson-

My race was similar to most. Wave 10 was not the highest start I have had  (need to get on Strava for next year) but where I probabaly belong fitness wise. A few bottle necks and a lot of Fat bikes to get around, but not many muppets riding the the group I formed up with.Kept it upright and pedaled everything but Anita's Hill. No mechanicals and other than dirt covered brakes adding unwanted resistance, it was a clean race - 2:46 for me. Not as fast as I wanted, but I was higher up in my age group placing wise than last year. I saw Geary walking again and think I saw Jay on the side of the trail working on his bike, but not sure. To bad for those guys who had mechanicals. Another one in the books and a proper Iceman at that. Need more of these in my opinion...

Matt working the Lefty. Photo Credit: Chris Schmid

Sean Geary-

I was better trained this year for Iceman than I have been since I worked with Lucas in 2012. A summer of Nachos and gravel roads gave me the confidence to make a run at a 2:10-20 time. I got some new shoes (Fasterkaat from 45North, fantastic stuff), a kick a$$ bike, and one of the top support crews on race day. Plus, I could TASTE the Bell's Oracle at the end when I rolled up to the start. However, like the old Yiddish saying goes (that one is for Ray and David), When Man Plans, God Laughs. 

I was in Wave 5 (an Iceman Gift from my 2:06 in 2011) with Mick and Huy. I saw them in the corral up at the front and waved. I was staying in the middle. Newbies! They could sprint at 25MPH all the way to the single track (about 1.5 miles) and burn their matches early. I was going to chill in the middle, keep my HR in Zone 3 (for you, Lucas) and save my matches for the final 6K (which Jay and I pre-rode Friday afternoon) when the climbing starts. I looked forward to laughing at their broken, skinny carcasses as I hurried past them and drank all their beer. 

Like I said, when man plans, God laughs. As soon as we hit the Kaliseum (this is a real thing) the sand started gumming up my brakes. When we hit the trail it was like riding through a Peanut Butter Cup, only you couldn't eat it. Still, I rode for the Oracle. I got muddy. I got sandy. I saw way more broken bikes in the first few miles than I had ever seen. 

I freaking crushed the new logging road section, rolling by single speeders and fat bikes like I was 36 again. I drank water and congratulated myself on the brilliant decision to take all 5 Sport Legs pills, I was feeling no pain. God began giggling at Mile 10.

It was a light chuckle at first, the guy in front of me grabbed a handful of front brake on the single track right after the log road on a downhill when the mud got slick. Rookie move (must have been a Strava call up). He went head first over the bike and busted up his arm. I stopped (like a gentleman). Pulled his bike off the trail, assessed the damage to his arm (busted elbow, probably) calmed him down and whipped out my phone to call the new Injury Number. I was already picturing my Humanitarian Medal Ceremony in my head. No Cell Service. What did I expect, I WAS IN THE FREAKING WOODS. The guy got up and started walking out, left his bike right there and started walking like Forrest Gump. I wished him well and kept on down the trail. 7 minutes added to my time, no biggie.

About 5 minutes later I went to shift gears before a climb. I went all the way up because I could see a line of people walking the hill. Then, God really started laughing. My chain got sucked behind the cassette and between the chain stay and the crank. the back wheel stopped turning and went down in a heap. 

The EXACT SAME THING happened to me last year right before Williamsburg Road. I ran a mile, found a mechanic and he took the crank out of the BB and got it right again, but the chain would slip and stick again anytime I tried to shift. So I ran the last 9 miles with my bike on my shoulder (LIKE A BOSS). This year I had 22 more to go. And no mechanic in sight. So I cried a little bit (not out loud, I too much of a man, I have a beard) and started jogging. I saw Jay and he said "Massive Chain Suck!" I thought he was talking about my predicament, but really he was talking about his bike (that's his story to tell). I saw his brother Dan, I saw Matt and a few others I knew. I ran on for another mile and a half until I got to Steve's Secret and saw some other bikers hanging around some army guys. I found a guy with a walkie-talkie and said the words that cut me to my core: "I'm number 956 and I need a ride back to Timber Ridge."

2 hours, three pick up trucks and a recruiting pitch from the Michigan Volunteer Defense Force (its a real thing) later I got back to timber ridge, found my support crew and finally changed into warm, dry clothes. I went through the 7 Stages of Bike Grief along the way so I was happy when I got there. $40 in Bell's Beer with no lunch meant that Jay, Huy and I could the hell out of the later Wave finishers. I went hoarse, did $1 bill hand ups to the Pros (Georgia Gould can ride a bike, but can't take a $1 hand up) and then made it home in time for dinner. I don't remember a lot of what happened after that, but only because my Spartans pooped themselves and I had to drown my sorrows with MORE BEER.

Anyone want to buy my Niner?

Matt Ronan-

It was absolutely incredible!! Terrible conditions but I had a blast. My freshly upgraded 26er with 1x10 and new wheels and tires handled great. Lots of slop left me stopping to put dropped chains back on.

I started in wave 30, so I had to deal with 3000+ riders in front of me. Traction was non existent on the climbs and very difficult in the single track sections. I'm not a mountain biker at all and found it to be a bit ridiculous. Several times had to unclip and walk due to traffic jams. The logging roads were some of the worst sections. I struggled all day and was fatigued in my upper body half way through.

Finished in around 4 hours... Not my finest but my goal was to cross the start and finish and drink hella amounts of bells beer. It rained most of the day, which had me soaked. 

Mick Jones-

Unlike Matt Ronan I didn’t have any fun all day. I was excited to be in Wave 5 and I think the excitement lead to little sleep the prior two nights so I was a little tired this morning and since it was cold and raining I over dressed for the second year in a row (I’m learning). The start was fast and I felt decent for the first 8-10 miles but the course conditions took its toll (constant Mud) and soon I was overheated and fatigued (unusually so) but I kept trudging on even though it seriously crossed my mind several times to drop out. After 10 miles or so I lost contact with Huy and settled into a pace I could keep without getting sick (too hot). I thought about calling it a day at the Williamsburg Road crossing but decided to keep riding at a pace I could sustain so I could at least finish this epic event. Somewhere right after Anita’s Hill I caught Huy and we rode together until about 2k to go and I pulled ahead a little bit and finished in 2:33 which was somewhat disappointing for me even for the conditions which from what I heard the veterans say it was by far the worst course conditions for Iceman in the 25 years of the event.

I’m now home trying to figure out what part of my bike I won’t have to totally dissemble to clean the sand and mud out of it.

Lessons Learned:

1. If conditions are less than ideal use a hydration pack (I only drank a couple ounces today from my water bottle which lead to leg cramps)

2.Don’t use a dry condition rear tire (Thunder Burt) in heavy mud conditions (I didn’t think it was even possible to have so much mud given theirs so much sand)

I look forward to better conditions for next year’s Iceman and a great 2015 racing season.

Bradley Field-

Lesson learned, don't ride a CX bike in those conditions! It was awful.

Chris Winkler-

THAT was a mountain bike race! I couldn't believe the race conditions and that was just for wave #2..... it could have only gotten worse with each passing wave. Much worse from what I've heard and read.

This is my first race report so I'll try and just hit the high points (or low points, as the case may be):

Arrived at the start 20 minutes before my wave was scheduled to roll and there were already 100's of people lined-up in waves 1, 2, &3 -- that's not how I remembered waves 6 & 9 starting the past 2 years. So I slotted in towards the back of wave 2. Got REALLY cold waiting so early for the release ... 

The guys in the pack were fast through the roads and single track, which was nice, so I settled in about mid-pack until we hit about the second section of slower singletrack. As we slowed down my lenses started to fog and combined with the dirt and mud on the lenses started to lose clear view of the singletrack. I missed a tricky combination of left turn and sharp bumps and went over the handlebars for the first time.... had to let what seemed like 30 people pass on the singletrack before jumping back in line. It took two acrobatic incidents over the bars before I got smart and took off the glasses.

The mud and rain caused some chain suck, and the chain "seized" a couple times, but never actually came off the rings. The dirt and stones in the calipers were a different story, though -- the loud grinding between the disc and pads (or stones, or whatever) was constant after the first section of singletrack and throughout the rest of the race. I even stopped to re-set the rear wheel in the dropouts mid-race (thinking the wheel had loosened and mis-aligned during the race) but there was so much dirt and tiny rocks packed in the rear caliper the rear re-alignment didn't help at all. On inspection after the race one of the rear pads had been completely wiped-out and the disc was seriously dragging against all the crud packed into the caliper. It wasn't until after I water-jetted all the rocks out of the caliper that the wheel finally spun freely.

The race was tough enough that I ended up walking a couple long hills towards the end of the race. There were a surprisingly large number of other people walking the hills this race, too. In the previous 3 races I'd never walked a single hill -- I had RUN one short hill two years ago cyclocross-style, but this race was something else, entirely......

I hung around the finish for a little while and I think every racer that finished looked a bit shell-shocked. Thankfully this was not a typical Iceman Race.

Lessons Learned:

1. Racing Ralph front/ThunderBurt rear was definitely under-tired. Not sure anything would have been enough for the amazingly bad conditions, but the next tire step more aggressive like Rocket Ron front/Racing Ralph rear may have been more appropriate for the conditions. Previous Iceman races w/rain before the race drained really well in the famously sandy soil of Kalkaska/Traverse City but not this time. The constant rain the night before and during the race must have made a significant difference.

2. Anti-fog the inside of the lenses instead of just Rain-x.

3. What does anyone do about sand & gravel in brake calipers?

Iceman is really a pretty well-run race and a lot of fun. The "celebration zone" at the finish is great place to hang out for racers and wives/friends helping out. I think this year was one of the few times the weather truly worked against the event.

Mad Anthony CX

Compiled by Tyler Trask and Harvey Elliott

MACX started off with a BANG this year – thanks in part to a Civil War era cannon provided by the Historic Fort Wayne Coalition. For those of you who don’t know, Mad Anthony is the BIGGEST cyclocross race in Michigan and the venue is pretty unique among races as the course takes you up, down, over, and through (read tunnel) a star-fort built in the 1840’s.

AAVC'er Mark McCulloch in the barriers.

The fort is located on the south side of Detroit and also provides some great vistas of the downtown skyline. Combine this with a beautifully sunny fall day in mid-late October and you couldn’t hope for a better race. Cyclocross in Michigan is often cold, wet, and bleak. This particular race drew a stark contrast to the norm with high temp of 69F and a full pallet of fall colors. In fact, it almost seemed wrong. Were we really in Detroit, or had we all died and gone to Louisville? 

Cyclocross is growing, you hear about it on the national stage and you can see it here in southeast Michigan. Mad Anthony set a new record for attendance - with nearly 320 participants and their families arriving from all across southern Michigan and Ohio for the race. You also see it in sponsorship with major financial backing from Trinity Transportation – a provider of motor coaches, sedans, shuttles, and buses in southeast Michigan and Toledo Ohio – and a huge pile of swag from Trails Edge Cyclery, Alchemist, Velocio, Beat the Train, Detroit Endurance Lab, alloneword, The Sufferfest, and North Peak Brewing Company. Mad Anthony started in 2009 as the only sanctioned race in Detroit and five years later the event seems downright dignified.

The race has already grown 4x and there’s clearly room for more as the field blows apart in the first 500m... This race is tough and the up-and-down of the trenches make this one a personal battle for all racers.

This year’s course took the best elements from last year and added some new twists. They maintained the two “run-ups” inside the fort with two off-camber descents.They also saved that big drop off the gun emplacements on the 5th point of the star and thankfully extended the landing zone straight out to the inner wall.

THE DROP

This made the drop faster, but also safer by eliminating that 90-deg turn onto the service road below. Another addition/modification was the barrier on the North side of the fort. Previously you’d come off the service road in the trench and make a 135-deg turn onto a sidewalk followed by a sketchy off-center ramp leading to the outer wall. This was removed so you made the turn, gassed the climb, and raced to dismount/remount over a knee-high wall. This actually helped the flow through this area as the riders were able to remount on a slight downhill before snaking around the exterior embankments. It also provided a great spectacle for the hecklers and seemed to be a crowd favorite. In all, this year’s course traced out 1.8 miles of the fort yet managed to keep the action close for the spectators.

Ok, ok, on to the race report...

We had a great turnout from the AAVC and UM teams including a number of first time racers. In the Men’s Elite Race, Danny Soltan and Tyler Trask lined up front row for the hole shot.Tyler got off clean in the sprint, but Danny got caught up in traffic and was forced into the tape on the first power-climb. Things looked abysmal with Danny in the tape, but he quickly recovered and commenced kicking ass for the subsequent hour. Again, proving you can’t hold a good racer back, Danny worked his way through the ENTIRE field and ended up on the podium with a 4th place finish. Tyler also had a strong showing in his first Elite race and even though he looked pitiful for laps 5-9, he still managed to round out the top 10.

For the Masters, Tom Barrett had one of his best races of the year and took 5th in the highly competitive 35+ field. You can see him over there on the left smiling for Hans at Ten Mile Media.

Other notable team finishes are Harvey Elliott and Brian Kearns in the Men’s Cat 3 race. These two guys have been trading podium spots all season and this race was no different. Brian ripped off the line with as much voracity as the cannon and took the hole-shot.

Dalton Guggemos and Harvey were in pursuit, but even though Harvey set the course he never actually RODE IT before the race. It seems wearing two hats as racer and race director can have some downsides... Harvey got caught up with Ellie Sterne on the second “run-up” and fell behind.

A little frazzled after the mix-up and trying to make up time, he slid out on loose grass near the in-field barriers and backed off. Brian and Dalton were gone and Harvey was now working for 3rd.With a third slip-up coming into the tunnel, Harvey was done and backed off to finish 4th. Meanwhile, Brian was channeling his inner beast and simply rode away from Dalton on the short, punchy climbs. Brian took 1st with the rest of the field blown far and wide.

I’d also like to call out converted roadie and dirt-phobie Stephen Doll who raced a borrowed bike and finished a respectable 6th place in the Men’s Cat 4. It seems Mad Anthony really does have some appeal beyond the traditional CX guy… 

Among the women, we saw an influx of talent from south of the border. You might have thought WAS Labs brought a tour bus or something… Still, our own Andrea Merlotti continued to shine and finished 2nd in the Women’s Cat 3/4 race. That’s right, 2nd, even after she bobbled the same climb that got Danny – ON THE LAST LAP – and spent the next minute wallowing on the hillside. She recovered just in time to dash the hopes of Emily Kleinglass and secure her podium spot. Alright Andrea, if you can take a minute to sit and catch your breath during the race – AND STILL PODIUM – that means it’s time to upgrade!

The race was a great success in every way. Superb weather, spectacular turnout, and serious results for our team!! Thanks again to Harvey, Rebecca, and the entire Tailwinds crew for pulling this all together. Thanks to the Historic Fort Wayne Coalition and Beat the Train in Detroit.

And thanks to our sponsors who make it all possible.

Waterford Hills Double Cross

Harvey Elliott's Race Report from the Waterford Hills Double Cross:

Waterford Hills is one of my very favorite CX courses and takes place on the same track as the Wednesday Night Worlds road race series.  The course strategically uses sections of the track and in-field to give you some technical sections and climbs while maintaining a seriously fast average speed.  

Harvey Elliott battling with Dalton Guggemos on the track.  

I know Danny also likes this course because he won both days last year and seriously kicked my ass.  Thankfully, he’s now one cat up.  This race is also a double header with the course on Saturday being reversed for Sunday.  All these factors seemed to spell good news for Ann Arbor riders who took 29 spots on the podium over the course of the weekend.  

On Saturday the sun was out and temperatures maxed out in the high-70’s.  It was a gorgeous race in the morning, but winds grew gradually throughout the day and peaked at about 25 mph from the West during the Cat 1/2/3 race.  This meant that the main straightaway on the track left you charging straight into a headwind and drafting was going to matter.  In the Cat 3 race it was me and Tyler Trask (aka Junior) and looking at the standings I knew it was up to one of us to win it.  Tyler just upgraded from Cat 4 after singlehandedly decimating the field at Alma.  He was also “feeling good” which was making me a little nervous.  The wild card was Dalton Guggemos who won Alma on a mountain bike and made the rest of us look like fools.  On the whistle, I pinged the start and got the hole shot with Dalton and Tyler filing in behind.  I felt better being in front, but the two of them were chomping at the bit back there.  I was going hard hoping to get a break and in the second lap it happened when Junior washed in the hairpin and dropped his chain.  With Tyler back it was me and Dalton and I pulled hard to get away.  I had a few glimpses of daylight, but boggled a u-turn at the back of the course and ripped through the tape.  Dalton was there and once he was there, he was content to sit behind me.  I took an easy spin up the straightaway in the headwind and then hit the hairpin again and this time, Dalton dropped.  When I saw him lose it, it was go time! I pulled as hard as I could for the lap and put 30 seconds on Marc Walters from Main Street Bicycles.  Then I settled in and rode “safe” while continuing to put 15 seconds on him every lap.  I got a clean separation from the group and rolled in un-opposed for 1st.  Junior had a harder race, but recovered to take 4th.  Dalton pulled out with a DNF.  Ryan Mckinnie from TWT also had a good race and finished 10th.  Matt Johnson and Sean Geary raced in the Cat 3 Masters 35+ and took 13th/14th respectively.  Ken O’Day took 3rd in the Cat 3 Masters 45+. In the Cat 1/2/3 it was clear Danny Soltan wasn’t feeling well and he fell back to 7th by the end.  For the Cat 1/2/3 Masters 35+ we had Simon Bailey take 2nd, followed by Alex Monte-Sano 3rd, and Tom Barrett in 5th.  In the Cat 1/2/3 Masters 45+ Rich Stark took 2nd and Chris Winkler 8th.  Rich Stark rolled even faster in the single speed race and took a second podium spot with the win.  In the Cat 4 race, Tyler Carlton red-lined it and held 1st for some time, but was eventually caught and took 3rd.  Jon Vibbart, a club member from Dearborn Heights, took 13th and in the Cat 4 Masters 45+ John Krauss took 4th, Craig North 6th, and Dan Hoffman 10th.  For the Cat 5 race, we had Mick Jones 1st and Matt Raezler 6th.  The women’s Cat 3/4 team did equally as well with Lesley Anne Newsted and Andrea Merlotti racing.  Andrea took 1st again and seems well positioned to win the series.  And last but not least, Jack Bailey won the Juniors 14 and under.

Sunday the course was reversed and that tricky hairpin that gave Tyler and Dalton trouble became a nasty little off-camber downhill.   Add to that 1.5” of rain overnight and we had a slippery sloppy race following the best of CX traditions.  Danny and Junior called in sick - cough - cough.  Thankfully Brian Kearns and Ellie Sterne (our favorite Greyhound) showed up in their absence!   Brian and I showed the value of team tactics in a CX race.  Brian was quick on the whistle and took the lead with Dalton right on his heels.  I fumbled off the line and was over geared settling in to 5th through the first turn.  I knew from Alma that this was a death sentence and I tried to work through the pack quickly.  Still, by the time I made it to 3rd, Brian and Dalton had a break and I was stuck 20-30 seconds back.  By the end of the first lap I closed the gap to 10 seconds.  I was close to making contact in the second lap, but a slip up in that off-camber turn took even more precious time.  Thankfully in the third lap, Brian slowed the pace and I was able to catch Dalton's wheel.  I took a few minutes at the back to recover and when Brian started to let up again, I attacked.  I gapped Brian and Dalton on the straightaway and subsequent power sections, but Dalton closed it up in the technical stuff.  Not wanting to drop Brain, I slowed the pace and we gained about 30 seconds on the 5th lap.  With the three of us together and one lap to go I let Dalton take the lead and then attacked again.  I was hoping that if Brian and I could both get in front of him we could force a break, but Dalton was fighting to keep us separated.  I was able to get a jump on him in the central climb, and put 10 seconds between us but he closed it up on that off-camber once more.  We were coming into the pavement on the final stretch it was clear the three of us were in for a sprint.  I was in front, Dalton was on my wheel, and Brian on his.  Knowing I had the power play I tried to dump Dalton in the wet grass and went big from the last corner.  Dalton stuck and we had an all out sprint from the pavement.  He finally got me at the line and took the win.  I took 2nd and Brian 3rd with barely half-a-second between the three of us. Also in the 3’s, Ken O’Day finished 6th among the Masters 45+.  After that race, Dalton and I went on to do the Cat 1/2/3 and I was ready for vengeance.  While slow off the start again, I was able to get ahead of Dalton and Landall Proctor for third.  We dropped Dalton, and I was holding Landall back when we were overtaken by the 1/2/3 Masters field.  Unfortunately this is also when I flatted.  I'm not sure what I hit, but I almost endo'ed as my front tire collapsed in a chicane.  Craig North came to my aide in the pits, but I lost minutes to the leaders and finished 6th.  Speaking of the Cat 1/2/3 Masters 35+, the finish order was about the same but with John Osgood moving up to 2nd.  This pushed Simon Bailey back to 3rd, Alex Monte-Sano to 4th, and Tom Barrett to 6th.  For the Cat 1/2/3 Masters 45+, we had Rich Stark showing off is handling skills in 1st.  With him was Todd Frerichs in 5th and James Perren in 9th.  Brian Kearns decided to forgo the Cat 1/2/3 in favor of the single speed and had better luck there.  He quickly got out front again and took 1st with Rich Stark in hot pursuit for 2nd.  Dan Hoffman also raced the sscx and took a respectable 10th.  Those weren’t the only spectacular races of the day as Tyler Carlton finally got out front and held it - taking 1st in the Cat 4 race.  He looked strong and had a couple seconds on the next guy by the finish.  Jon Vibbart also raced and took another 10th place finish.  In the Cat 4 Masters 45+, John Krauss and Craig North moved up to 3rd and 5th respectively.  In the Cat 5, Mick Jones took 2nd and Matt Raezler 10th.  For the women’s 3/4 Andrea Merlotti got knocked to 2nd.  In the 1/2/3 Ellie also took 2nd, Rebecca Wissman 4th, and Adrienne O’Day 6th.  Representing the Jr’s 14+ we had Greg Dearing in 2nd and in the 14- Jack Bailey finished 3rd.  Talk about a weekend of racing!  

Pikes Peak Hill Climb

From Harvey:

 ...here we found the snow middle deep; no sign of beast or bird inhabiting this region. The thermometer which stood at 9° C above 0 at the foot of the mountain, here fell to 4° C below 0. The summit of the Grand Peak, which was entirely bare of vegetation and covered with snow, now appeared at the distance of 15 or 16 miles (24 or 26 km) from us, and as high again as what we had ascended, and would have taken a whole day's march to have arrived at its base, when I believed no human being could have ascended to its pinical. This with the condition of my soldiers who had only light overalls on, and no stockings, and every way ill provided to endure the inclemency of the region; the bad prospect of killing any thing to subsist on, with the further detention of two or three days, which it must occasion, determined us to return."

– Excerpt from the Zebulon Pike Expedition, 1806, after a failed attempt to summit the mountain.

Today, Pike’s Peak is a lot tamer than it was in 1806. There’s a paved road and cog railway leading to a restaurant/souvenir shop at the summit. However, it is still a proper mountain with an elevation of 14,115 feet (4,302 m) and prominence of roughly 8,000 ft (2,400 m) above downtown Colorado Springs.

The USAC Hill Climb route would take us up the same route that the International Auto Hill Climb has been using for 85 years. This covers of the last 12.1 miles of this paved road from Crystal Creek to the summit with 4,688 feet of elevation gain, 154 switchbacks, and an average grade of 7.3%. 

Now, that doesn’t sound too bad considering the fact that they can fit 10,000 feet of climbing in the Michigan Mountain Mayhem, but we are starting from an elevation over 9,000 feet! The air gets pretty thin up there and just warming up I noticed a pretty significant shortness of breath. The other thing I noticed was how under-dressed we were to be climbing a mountain. I just had my M-Cycling skinsuit and jacket and my teeth were chattering! The temperature was hovering ~45°F and I could see that the summit was already obscured by a lenticular cloud. I knew I would be “climbing a lot” and so I convinced myself this was fine, besides plenty of other people didn’t even have jackets! This may have contributed to the fact that of 349 starters, there were only 243 finishers….

The race started in waves offset by 3 minutes. Me, Ky Kieffer, and Jeremy Ziegler were all together on the line in the second wave for the Cat4/Masters race. From the start, I planned to go pretty easy, but surprisingly the road was rolling and the pack stuck together for the first half-mile or so. I ventured to put in a little more effect to stick on the back and enjoy some protection from the wind. Jeremy and Ky stayed back and we split at this point. 

After that half-mile, the road turned up and the switchbacks started. From this point on, we were climbing. I shifted down to my lowest gear and spun for a good bit. I was generally passing people, but then I was also breathing pretty heavily for my measly 4mph. When the grade finally dropped back to 4 or 5% I’d shift up just to give me the perception of control and pedal on to the next switchback. I’d hop from one guy’s rear wheel to another’s on and on and on until I saw the 8 mile sign.

Now, I’m not exactly sure what mile marker we started at, but I remember the start being about 6 miles up the road. This is where I freaked out a bit. I was already hyperventilating and my hands were completely numb with needles. My core was warm, but it was clear I might not finish if I kept pushing. I settled in and dropped the cadence from 85 to something more like 70 and struck up a conversation with some guy from Colorado. I stayed here until we reached Glen Cove (~12.5 mi) and the Colorado guy pulled off.

I lost the tree line and my mind at about the 13 mile mark. Above the tree line we had 30-50 mph wind gusts from the South (pretty much 12 o’clock high). This is also where the pitch and switchbacks became extreme.

There was a steady stream of deserters heading back down the mountain. While the wind seemed to be generally against us, it was more unnerving that you’d never know what way it was going to hit you. This was nice in that sometimes you could stop pedaling and coast up the mountain, but terrifying in that death by cliff face became a very real possibility. Thankfully, miraculously, this is where Ky caught me. Ky didn’t have a compact front chainring and so he had to work a bit harder, but hey he was making killer time. I’d like to think we were helping each other, taking pulls, but Ky definitely maintained the pace through here. 

We started passing people like crazy and it just proved how critical it is to have a friendly face in the race. At about 14 miles, the road leveled out and we had a quick traverse from a false summit to the central peak. I took the lead here and with some help from the slope/winds we were cruising fine at about 45 mph. We finished the traverse and started the final climb just as we passed the 5k to go sign. 

We were still moving pretty good, but at the 4k to go sign we were completely immersed in the clouds. The winds were still brutal and now we were riding in/on an icy rind. The mountain took on an otherworldly feel. Visibility was about 20 feet and everything had icicles jabbing the direction of the prevailing wind. There were a few times where Ky almost dropped me here, but somehow I stuck with him.

I kept running the conversions in my head, 4k, that’s like less than 3 miles!

3k, that’s like less than 2 miles!

2k, yeah, that’s like barely over a mile.

1k, I should be able to see the finish!

It has to be right there!

I must be like 400m out, maybe even 200m!

And then another switchback and pavement turned to dirt and there it was. Ky and I crossed simultaneously taking 3rd and 4th at 1 hour, 46 minutes, and 43 seconds. We pitched our bikes against an icy guardrail and jogged inside. Ky’s hands had swollen like balloons. Mine looked pretty normal, but I couldn’t really feel them or my toes. 

We took refuge in the restaurant, but other than the blow drier in the bathroom there wasn’t much warmth to find. The food wasn’t ready and the donut fryer broken. CURSES!

I ate a Nature Valley bar, found some hot chocolate and we waited for Jeremy to catch up. He finished at 2:18:41 and took 5th in the Masters 35+ race. After warming up a bit, we started the summit picture bonanza and then bundled up for the descent just as the first train arrived from Manitou Springs. 

The descent was far more terrifying than the ascent! Between the shivers and the wind our bikes were shimmying all over the road. Ky gave up and hitched a ride. I took my sweet time and rode the brakes down. Once we reached the trees, the wind died down and I finally started warming up. By the time we reached the parking area the temperature had reached the mid-70’s and the frigid summit was a distant memory.  Jeremy has GoPro footage of the descent which you can watch here. Checking Strava the descent took about 40 minutes and my new max speed by bicycle registers at 53 mph!