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THE King of Burlingame |
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Team Bikeman -
Race Reports
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Written by Steve Morse
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Thursday, 05 April 2007 |
King of Burlingame - Mountain Bike Time Trial
Charlestown, RI
4/1/07
 | | THE King of Burlingame |
My 2007 racing season began in earnest on Sunday, with a sweet Mountain Bike Time Trial down in southern RI. This was an EFTA sanctioned event, with a pretty decent turnout, around 30 riders registered for my Sport category. There was only a slightly lesser turnout for the Expert and Beginner categories, so not too bad for such an early spring race.
Having preridden the course the day before, I was able to ascertain that it was basically a 7-mile partial loop around a good sized pond, in a coastal state forest. I would describe the terrain as being mostly flat, with fairly wide paths, and a good amount of single track. There were a few really trecherous rock and root gardens in the first mile of the course that could easily buck a rider off their bike. The rest of it was likely going to be a big-ring TT mash.
On the drive down to the venue in my car, I came to the conclusion that I was either going to win my category, or get carried out of the woods on a stretcher. Not going to settle for 2nd or 3rd anymore. I figured a win would be a great way to start the season off for me, so I was pretty fired up. After I reg'd and got kitted up, I took my road bike for a spin to the nearby crit course at Ninegret and did a few laps to get the sticks all hot.
After a lengthy and nervous search for the starting area, I got into the queue with my Salsa Dos Niner and watched the other Sport guys take off in 30 seconds increments. I pulled up to the line and even got my bike held up by the starter so I could clip in. They don't even do that in the road TT's around here, so I thought that was pretty cool. When the minute hand on the starting clock hit the 12 I was off.
I immediately got up to speed on some twisty singletrack, and starting pushing that monster gear as hard as I could. I felt pretty good technically on the sandy turns and knew a good time would be on the way if I could keep it up. A few minutes in, I hit the serious technical sections. Besides a frew muddy stream crossings, there was a really jagged rock garden that was rideable (I had ridden the day before) but in my moment of haste and blurry vision, I picked a pretty awful line. I felt myself going down, when I bounced off a rock incorrectly. I tried to unclip to catch myself, but a stupid mistake would come back to haunt me (using new pedals and shoes for the first time on the day of a race- doh!). I just managed to stop from body slamming a peculiar looking rock, but my poor bike smashed and grinded down the backside of it. I didn't stop long enough to notice the nice dent and scratch I had given my down tube. Unfazed, I picked up and ran the rest of the obstacle without losing too much time.
Proceeding on, I set back to business, put it in the big gear, locked out the forks and rode a proper TT. I swear I was riding so hard that I had tears streaming down my face. The lactic acid and oxygen debt felt GOOD!
So after a while, I started passing a bunch of guys who started in front of me, so I knew I must be hauling. Some parts of the course turned into paved road, and you had to dis/re-mount before you went on the road, or get DQ'd by the checker that was stationed there. You never know where those cyclocross skills are going to come in handy, and this was one! I could tell some guys were using the road stretches as recovery areas, but as a roadie, that's where I really could lay down some power.
The last few sections were pretty cool, they had these long wooden swamp bridges that you had to ride or else endo into a nice bog. I can't imagine they would be very fun in the wet!
The finish came up on me pretty fast and really took me by surprise. I was informed that I had the fastest provisional time (32:46) when I crossed, and indeed, in the end I did win the Sport 19-39 class, so my efforts were not in vain. One guy in Sport 40-49 beat me by 20 seconds, so I can't say I was the fastest overall Sport guy, but a win is still a win.
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I compared my time to the other classes and it turns out I would have come in 5th in the Expert class, so I'm feeling pretty good about that - the hard training feels like it is finally paying off, especially after such an awful finish to my latest Cyclocross season.
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At the awards ceremony, I got some pretty good shwag too! A nice messenger bag and some moderately-priced-looking sunglasses...neither of which I really had a use for, but my wife seems to like having them! Also got a sweet handmade trophy beverage mug that has "1st place" and my finish time written on it, and has the KOB crown. Good stuff!
All in all, a good 1st race of the year for me. I'm looking forward to starting the regular MTB races next weekend and then it's time for some road racing.
Steve |
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; "THE King of Burlingame")
; "click to enlarge")
; "click to enlarge")
