Thursday, April 24, 2008

Cohutta 100 - The Good, The Bad & The Muddy

IF was well represented with 5 riders at the Cohutta 100 and featuring in the class results -  Men's Overall (6th - Harlan Price), Women's (4th - Trish Stevenson) and Master's (3rd - Chris Wurster).

The Friday preride proved to be mostly for naught as Friday night brought showers and the Saturday morning start still had a cold mist in the air, changing the conditions from fast dry hard pack to slippery Tennessee mud. (there was no embellishing in My Cousin Vinny and the mud after a thundershower). With a lot of insight from Harlan I was anticipating a fast course with good hard packed conditions and the opportunity to post a fast time.

After the opening climb up Route 64 we turned onto the fast flowing single track section that would last for the next 15+ miles, only it was no longer a fast flowing pump track, now it was a survival course that felt like one was riding on ice. It didn't help that I had opted for Killer Bee 2.4s, which when new have little tread, and this was a worn set so it was as close to riding slicks as you can get. The result was that by the time we got out onto the fireroads I had ridden too hard, sliding everywhere, spinning the rear on every small climb and had failed to keep properly hydrated - this was going to be a long painful day if things didn't get better and fast!

Early into the fireroad riding I learned that most of my competition in Master's were behind me which provided a bit of an uplift and let me focus on settling into good pace for the duration of the road section. Shortly after 40 miles I came on fellow IF team rider, Patrick Jones, who was suffering from stomach issues and not having a good day. We decided that working together as teammates was going to be the most beneficial to both, keeping Pat going until his stomach settled and me focused on maintaining a good pace position. We worked together over the next 40+ miles, taking turns pulling and were able to put solid distances over the riders around us. At the last aide station, in a selfless act, Patrick urged me to go off on my own, as the stomach issues were upon him again, to secure my position in class.

The final pair of climbs took everything I had left. After 80+ miles on muddy, soft, freshly graded roads and being slightly dehydrated I began suffering from cramps and tightening hamstrings which slowed my pace and allowed a couple of riders to get by. The final insult came in the final mile when I lost all focus and caught the guardrail and went down hard on the only paved section of the course! Managed to get is all back together, get on the bike and bring it home in 3rd place in the Masters with a personal best of 9:20, shaving 1:17:35 off of my previous best 100 time and making the podium for IF - there wasn't a better feeling then climbing onto the box flying the colors of Team Green!

# posted by New East Coast Syndicate : 8:12 AM

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