UWF Fat Tire Challenge- Race Report

The first race of the season took what seemed like a long time to arrive. April 9th was finally here, and it was time to see if my training was taking me in the right direction. I labeled this as a C priority race, as I intended to maintain my training volume/intensity and I'd use the race as a measure of my race fitness.


The day started early...too early. I had to be up at 5am, on the road by 6, to be at the venue and ready to race by 8am. It's something to be able to see the sunrise in your mirror. I'm of the opinion that if God had wanted man to see the sunrise he would've made it later in the day.


Upon my arrival at the University campus I got registered, suited up, and got some warm-up time in. The call-up for the beginner class was announced and a total of 60 people lined up for the 10 mile race. The race organizers chose to have a mass start instead of sending the racers out by age group, which I thought was a mistake, but they didn't ask my opinion.


The horn sounded and...mass chaos ensued, or at least that's what it felt like. In the above picture I'm the second one on the left(next to the guy in the yellow jersey) and the kid (whom I'm going to refer to as "beanpole" from here on out) who was my nemesis is on the far right.

I got an assy start. There was a quarter mile or so run to the singletrack, and because of my lousy start I got into the singletrack in 7th position overall. That was NOT what I had in mind. My pre-race plan was to be in the top 3 going into the singletrack, so I could get ahead of any impending crashes due to an early bottleneck at a bridge. So, I don't get a good position and the crash that I knew would occur happens. Upon entering the singletrack, the trail descends down to a creek. About halfway down to the creek there is a nice size log pile. It's not a huge obstacle, but trying to navigate it at speed is a recipe for disaster. There are detours on both sides of the pile, but yet one guy decides to go over it. As he goes over it, another rider is going around it and gets funneled right into Mr Log Crossing. Log Crossing guy ends up on the losing end. Fortunately for me I watch as it happens, and am not involved in the wreck. All I see is legs and assholes as log crossing guy goes over his handlebars.

That wreck puts me in 6th position. We pass over the bridge without incident. About 75ft past the bridge the course makes a hard right up a steep, sandy rise. On my pre-ride it was almost too sandy to ride and so I was prepared to run up it, but as I clear the bridge and make my turn towards that section of trail I see people riding up it. The fella in front of me stalls out on the climb and because I'm able to ride up it I'm now in 5th position. Over the next few hundred yards I pass 3rd and 4th. "Beanpole" has been leading from the start. I've not yet seen Beanpole, but I'm on the wheel of 2nd place. Like Beanpole, the 2nd place rider is a kid (16-18yrs old). He's a fairly strong rider, but shifting problems give me the opportunity to scoot around him. So, after a couple miles I'm in 2nd place overall. It'd be a bit longer before I'd discover that Beanpole was a teen, but I knew for sure that I was leading my age class, so I felt pretty good.

I finally catch up to Bean and except for getting stalled in some sand, I stick on his wheel. On the flats he was damn fast, but I was stronger on the climbs. When he could get some speed up, he'd get 4 or 5 bike lengths ahead of me, and when the trail started climbing I'd reel him in, almost to the point of clipping his back tire. Due to his speed on the flats I was hesitant to try a pass as I wasn't sure I could make it stick. That line of thinking would lead to my one big mistake in the race.

I played this cat-n-mouse game with beanpole for quite a while. We enter Greenbriar and it is all climbing. Bean is suffering on this section of trail and I'm practically recovering on it. Several times I have to ease off to keep from rubbing his tire. At the top of Greenbriar I decide to make my move. As we exit the trail the course crosses a powerline break which gives me plenty of room for a pass. The next section of singletrack is appropriately labeled "The Chute". It's all downhill and fast. Throughout all of this I've felt really good, legs have been strong. At the end of the Chute there is another short section of a powerline break to navigate before crossing the creek and making the end run.



This is where things took a turn from my plan. I overcooked the turn onto the bridge and missed the line onto the bridge. As a result I had to actually stop and get my bike on the bridge. Beanpole was right there to get ahead of me. I'm back on my bike in seconds, but it felt like I had stopped for a picnic lunch. In a cruel twist, the steepest, nastiest climb of the entire race is heading back up the trail after exiting the bridge. Being the better climber, I am back on Bean's wheel. Because he's so fast on the flat stuff I realize that this climb is my only shot to get out front. We're coming up on that same logpile that caused so much grief earlier, and I am going to take him as soon as I get past that obstacle. What I didn't notice was that I was already overtaking him and when I went to move to his left, my front tire clipped his back wheel and..can you guess the punchline? Over I went. Not hard mind you, but the damage was done.
Before I could get up and get some momentum Bean was on his terrain and kicking it into overdrive for the finish.
I gave it all I had left, and in the end I finished a mere 6 seconds behind Bean. That is something I'm quite proud of, considering that I have about 20yrs, 6 or so inches of height, and 45 or 50lbs on Bean.

Now, back to the mistake I alluded to. As the race went on it became clear that I was the stronger rider. My mistake was in not passing Bean earlier in the race. If I would've passed him before we got to Greenbriar, I have no doubt I could've gapped him on that climbing section. He more than likely would've caught up on the fast stuff, but I would've been in a better position to stick with him on the final run to the finish line. That's race strategy, and it's a mistake I won't make again.

That said, I'm extremely happy with my performance. My battle with Bean for that fastest overall spot was just for bragging rights. No prizes were awarded for it, and no mention was made of it during the award ceremony. I saw I had an opportunity to have the fastest time of all the racers in my wave, and by God I was gonna shoot for it even if it was just for bragging rights.

At this stage I don't know how far off my closest class competitor was to me, but I hope to find that out in another day or so.

As far as a fitness test, that was a success too. I look to be on track with my training, as is. I will make one adjustment, and that is to work more on my top end power (sprinting, etc). I'll never be able to match someone like Bean in a flat out sprint, but if I can minimize the damage and keep the gap in check then I'll be pleased with my sprinting ability.

Course distance: 9.95 miles
Race time: 51:18

I'm hoping someone got a picture or two of me out on the trail. If and when I find out I'll add the pic.