I would so love to join, but caught the flu over last week, and while I am recovering nicely, I probably should take it super mellow/inside this weekend. Maybe I can make a last minute choice to join, but don't count on me.PatrickGrehan said:The temperatures will warm up on Sunday the 27th making it a perfect day for heading to Stewart forest on mtn or cx bikes. Ideally it would be good to have someone with us who has been there before (Eloy?). Jim and I are driving. Who is in?
Sunday I traded in my skinny tires for a set of knobby and competed in my first short track mountain bike race in Stanhope, NJ. I had been fighting a sore throat all week, had been at a party the night before and it was raining all morning, so I wasn’t sure that trekking out to NJ was such a good idea. I had a hell of a good time, so I am glad I did.
While I was the only Kissena at the race, I ran into a number of NJ guys that I knew from the cyclocross scene. In fact, the race was pretty low key and pretty similar to some of the NJ cross races. It had a friendly atmosphere, and the 1.3 mile short track meant that it was worth spending time picking out the fastest lines. The biggest difference from cross was all the rocks. Boy was I thankful for the fat tires and suspension.
I got there early to recon the course as it was drizzling and then watched Roger Aspholm crush the expert men’s field. We had struck up a conversation before his race where I asked him about his experience at cyclocross nationals where he had placed 2nd to a guy who had raced mountain bikes at the olympics. As we were talking he got called up and removed his rain jacket to reveal the Stars and Stripes. I had no idea that he was a national champ in mountain bikes.
Our conversation had an unexpected benefit when after coaching is 13-year-old daughter Finley, who would go on to podium in the women’s open race, he stopped to tell me that the course conditions had changed with the rain. The mud had become slick and slippery but the rocks weren’t. He recommended riding the mud like a cross race. This put a smile on my face.
Unlike most cross races, there was a mad disorganized rush to staging and I found myself about third row back (if you could call it a row) at the start. When the air horn blew I sprinted to pick off riders and managed to get what ended up being 7th for the hole shot. A guy slipped in the mud right in front of me on the first turn and I quickly learned what Roger was talking about. While my tires were sliding all over the place I managed to stay upright.
For the first few laps I focused on trying to pick off the guys ahead of me and find spots on the single track to pass them. First the Waffles and Dinges guy, then the MTBNJ guy, followed by the guy in the tuxedo jersey. I ended up battling for third with Steve the tuxedo guy for the remainder of the race. At that point in the race I wasn’t sure how many guys were up ahead as I never saw them.
The race was a 40 minute effort and I was starting to making mistakes. It didn’t help that my rear tire had tight knobs for dry conditions and was become caked with mud. Steve and I had been attacking each other and at one point he took the lead but I stayed with him until my front wheel slipped out on an uphill switchback. This killed my momentum as I tried to get going on the uphill. Steve go a few bike lengths on me. Then I hit a wet root with my front wheel as I went around a tree and my front wheel slipped out... again on an uphill. I tried to pedal uphill but couldn’t get any traction. After several seconds of trying in vain to get going I just ran up the hill and did a cyclocross remount and finally got going again. Steve was long gone. Dammit.
I chased hard and came across him a few minutes later stopped on the course. At first I assumed that he too had slipped out and our luck had somehow evened out. However, as I passed him I saw he had dropped his chain. That seemed like lousy luck and I felt a bad for him. This was the last lap so I pressed on and I could feel him chasing behind me. I figured that either one of us would make a mistake or it would come down to a sprint to the finish line which ended on a gravel road right after a tight turn. My goal was to get to the turn first.
I attacked as soon as we got out of the single track but as I was getting close to finish noticed that he was no longer behind me. I later learned that his chain dropped again just as we got off the single track. While I never saw the guys ahead of me, I was on the podium and earned a box of gluten free cookies for my efforts.
This was a fun race and I hope to do some more men bike races, hopefully with some teammates (hint hint). Definitely need to work on some skills for dealing with rocks and other obstacles that one doesn’t usually encounter in cross races. Probably doing the H2H race in two weeks. Who is with me?
Got my serious face on
All smiles
Did I mention it was muddy?
There are no routes. The park is small enough that you should be able to ride all the trails in 90 ish minutes. Start on the easy trails to warm up, and then up to intermediate or black. Arguably, the east side is less technical than the west, altho both sides have newish trails, that still lack some flow. If you'll be on a MTB, none of it will be technical. Stay safe, have fun.Nathaniel Picard Busky said:I'm going to check out Cunningham on Wednesday, never been there before so I'm looking for recommendations for routes, if there are any must-ride trails, or things to potentially avoid. Also looking to rip some dirt this coming weekend while my road bike is in the shop if anyone would like to join.
