Sid Taberlay, Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski, and Colin Cares riding up the main climb
Sunday, May 16, I took a trip to the bustling metropolis of Nathrop, CO (don't blink, you'll miss it) for the second stop on the Mountain States Cup circuit - the Chalk Creek Stampede.
This race also served as the second stop on the US Cup Triple Crown series, a three-venue challenge to the elite professional endurance mountain bike racers in the country. Big payouts mean big names.
With all that hoopla, the Pro men and women started off at 11:30am, meaning we caught the beginning of their race as spectators before we had to start warming up for our 1:45pm start. Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski (Subaru/Gary Fisher), the reigning National XC and Marathon Champion, took the win over our local (and former National Marathon Champion) Jay Henry (Tokyo Joe's) and Sid Taberlay (ShoAir/Specialized) in the men's race; Georgia Gould (Luna) put a huge gap into Kelli Emmett (Giant) and Katie Compton (Planet Bike/Stevens Bikes) in the women's race.
Backdrop of the Cat 2 19-29 race
Course was relatively the same as last year, with exception of the main climb. Last year, the climb turned more directly up the hill, and even the best pros had to hike their bikes up the hill. This year, the meandered the singletrack a little more cross-hill, so it was all ridable. Awesome. Anyways, the layout consists of a mile and a half of sandy doubletrack out of the start gate, which is slightly downhill. Turning off of the doubletrack, we hopped on a pretty flat singletrack that was a straight-shot across a cow pasture. After a little punchy knoll, the singletrack gave way to more sandy doubletrack as we started ascending the hill. The doubletrack turns back to singletrack after about 60 yards, and the ascent finally begins. It's not a lot, but it's pretty steep - 200 feet in less than half a mile.
Once up on the upper plateau, the trail is a long, twisty, sandy-over-hardpack singletrack with tons of little "baby head" rocks. The upper plateau trail has a couple of quick technical drops into a sand pit, then right back up a punchy rise on the other side...but usually, momentum could be used to clear most of the climb up the other side. In general, though, the trail continues to climb gradually. Finally, the trail pops out onto the "Fenceline" - a long, straight stretch of doubletrack that is usually directly into the wind. With the lack of sage or bushes, and the fact you can see miles ahead of you, the racer's mind is tricked into thinking it's flat...but it's not. Rather, it's a mile long stretch that climbs about 150 feet - that's a 3 percent grade.
Get to the end of the Fenceline, an a hard 180-degree left hand corner leads into a long, flowy sandy singletrack roughly paralleling back, but meandering closer to the edge of the plateau. Along this section, there's a tree that the singletrack goes under. Well, the tree is only trimmed to about four feet off the trail. So, you're hauling ass at more than 25mph down this singletrack, and all of a sudden, someone like me has to get into this Pilates pose, literally kissing the handlebar, to get under it. Soon after, the course descends off the ridge. Downhill, relatively technical simply from how loose it is. Lots of people take diggers through this section. Hard right at the bottom, and hop onto a section I'll describe as "power technical" - lots of off-camber sandy whoopty-doos and sweeping corners. Eventually the singletrack straightens out and heads into the trees along Chalk Creek, where the trail turns back left and starts heading toward the Start/Finish. Lots of roots through this section, with a couple of tricky little moves. A punch up a sharp hill (with lots of crowds gathering) gets you back to the original sandy doubletrack and the Start/Finish line. Laps are about 7+ miles.
My goal for this race was just to get a good race under my belt. With nutrition and mechanical mishaps at both Sea Otter and the MSC #1 race, I needed to see how well I would do just finishing without problems. About 20 of us lined up at the start for four laps of racing fun.
Come on, man...really?
Off the starting line, a pileup occurred right behind me. Awesome. I mean, really. Category 1 in USA Cycling terms is a combination of Semi-Pro and Expert category riders. And someone couldn't make it more than 20 feet before hitting the deck. Everyone recovered, and caught back up with our front group. Then, just after we hit the first section of singletrack, the guy in 5th or so hit a basketball-sized rock...the ONLY rock there...and augered in HARD. Ass-over-tea kettle, bike went flying up in the air. Everyone went scrambling off to the sides to avoid the collision. So we're less than 10 minutes into the race, and we've had two wrecks.
It became obvious to me that there are two different groups in our race - there are an elite group of five or six, then the rest of us that definitely belong, but can't stay at the front. I hung with that front group until just shy of the Fenceline...and had to let go. Just couldn't keep that pace anymore. After that point, I would find myself riding relatively alone for the remainder of the race...the rest of us were relatively splintered up. I felt great most of the day...
On lap 3, a guy in my group caught up to me from behind, and we rode together, trading pulls, for the rest of the race. By the time we were almost to the Fenceline on lap 4, my back was shot from pushing such a big gear along the Fenceline. The other racer went around me and I tried to hold his wheel, but the pain in my lower back was excruciating. I ended up losing sight of him through the trees at the bottom of the course, so once again, all alone.
Crossed the line in officially 2:03:36, which was good enough for 9th. All in all, I was very pleased with my effort, and learned a lot. The only thing I was honestly disappointed with was the fact that I was that close to going under two hours, but I wasn't too worried about it. Probably wasn't any higher than 6th in the race the entire day, which tells me I rode a really consistent race.
The mind trip with racing this year is how good everyone has become. I beat last years' WINNING time by a minute, and finished mid-pack.
Anyway, that's the story.
K's on the way home for burgers, fries and a Coke. Yum. Any time you may be in the vicinity of Buena Vista, CO - do yourself a favor...stop at K's. Grab a burger, grab a shake. You won't be disappointed.
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