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Generally Speaking |
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Team Bikeman -
Race Reports
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Written by C. McDowell
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Tuesday, 19 June 2007 |
Generally Speaking: Hanson Hills Challenge and Bloomer Park
I’m starting to view my inexperience with cross-country mountain biking as something of an advantage, if only psychological. On the weekend of June 2, I packed the silver Subie with my bike gear, a tent and my goofy little camp chair and drove ‘up north,’ as we say here in Michigan, to the town of Grayling and it’s little gem of an outdoor center, Hanson Hills.
During the winter, the downhill ski area looked to be serviced by only one surface lift, but I noted freshly painted wood plaques inside the cozy lodge pronouncing that this past season’s female regional slalom champ had trained her way to victory on this humble hill. After a quick look around and staking down my tent, I pedaled into the woods for a pre-ride with Erin Vicary, the current undefeated Michigan point series leader. She and I chit chatted all through the course that offered no respite for the weary— only a half mile of the overall 8.5mi loop was perfectly flat. Everything else wound up or down, with two mildly technical chicanes through tight trees. I kept quiet as Erin and her boyfriend exclaimed in excitement how ‘perfect’ they thought the route to be and how it was ‘just their kind of course.’
I’ve been riding mountain bikes for five years, just not training with the religious fervor that some people possess for the sport. Of all the two-wheeled disciplines, I enjoy the off-road varieties best for the scenic factor, but I’ve never gone so far in my analysis of a ride to determine what kind of course elements suite me best. Having to simply tackle each course and its conditions the best I can makes me something of a generalist by default as I currently have no specialty in mountain biking. I think this played to my advantage Sunday morning as Erin and I joined by about 7 other Expert women and hit the trail.
Erin took the lead early in the first lap, taking turns pulling through the winding woods with one of the male masters we had shared the start with. Bonnie, another woman I recognized from an earlier race, also put some distance on me in the first 45 minutes until near the end of lap one when I caught her, just spinning in a low gear. “I don’t know what’s up with me!? I went to this wedding last night and I’m spent already!” she was exclaiming. I had just finished reading an article in ROAD magazine about how cyclists are truly poor sportsmen as our means to victory is to leave our suffering opponents in the dust, thrashing them by the largest time margin possible. True, and so to make amends for what was to come, I tried to encourage her to hydrate, take it easy, and then pedaled away fiendishly hoping she wasn’t bluffing as I pulled into 2nd. Suffice it to say that the last lap wasn’t pretty— and nearly never is— as I attempted to beg a Gu off every group of spectators I passed throughout the course, to no avail. The humidity was mounting as time wore on, my skinsuit drenched, my mouth cottony, but as soon as I heard the announcer in the distance heralding Erin’s victory, I tore into the final descent with an abandon possessed only by the severely dehydrated, and finished with my best result yet in 2nd place. Bonnie fished only a minute after, having cultivated composure and strength throughout her ride to finish more strongly than she started. We all chatted on the line, continuing to watch the stream of Elite/Expert men and Expert women roll into the finish chute. Thunder and a deep Michigan summer shower cut loose within 10 minutes of my finish and all too soon, the fun was over, until next weekend….
Bloomer Park of Rochester Hills, Michigan is technically my ‘home trail.’ In high school when I first discovered how well I loved to ride, my first boyfriend lived only a half a mile from the trailhead and he and I would horse around there all the time in unpadded, loose nylon shorts and cotton tees from forays to Salvation Army— my goodness, we were so cool! But who knew I was on to such a good thing!? Did I also mention how fantastic it was to sleep in my own bed the night before the race, to partake of a hot balanced breakfast culminating in a savory cup of Cyrious Java? It was seventh heaven before I arrived at the venue.
Sunday the 10th’s XC race at Bloomer presented a delightful compilation of all my favorite sections of this park; the race course incorporated both of Bloomer’s geographic tiers, connected on the most treacherous banks by death drops favored by the local DH kids, and one particular yow-zah! set of switchbacks feeding into a mini contour-hugging ridge ride, the route elected by the race director. From there, we delved quickly into smooth singletrack that flirts with the riverbank of the Paint Creek that flows through town. It was delicious good fun I remembered fondly, and I was looking forward to competing and testing myself after 5 years away from where the magic all started. At the start I noted Erin’s familiar face, along with a few other women I had not yet met, one of whom I later learned was a Canadian recently gone pro. The course was a far cry from Hanson Hills with both technically demanding climbs and descents, tight off-camber through the trees, a quick but killer climb up the park’s winter toboggan chute (ouch!), and a few flats where I could set my muscles singing with a speed I could never safely carry though the park during recreational hours. It was such a joy to experience the trails in the race context. I was pleased to finish 5th, having rode more than three quarters of the race solo, with hardly any deviation in my lap time. The best part though was after the race, standing around mingling with what I realized was a group of people all my age, all Expert or Elite racers, all of us proud owners of only a mountain bike, all of us with nowhere else we would rather be. The satisfaction of finding such a group of folks and the weariness of a race well finished was a high that carried me well through the next week.
Until next time, ride on!
Cal
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