Home  Team BIKEMAN Following Freye Maine Sport Mayhem
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Maine Sport Mayhem |
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Written by Andrew Freye
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Sunday, 21 May 2006 |
 The Maine Series kicked off with a brand new race to the Maine point’s series. Despite this being the first year the race has been held in the series and the major flooding Southern Maine encountered the week leading up to the race, turn out was pretty high. The Maine Series is not part of NORBA (good or bad I don’t know) instead the series belongs to EFTA (Eastern Fat Tire Association). Because of the different organizations there is no pro category in EFTA. The highest level a racer can race at is the expert level. So I got to race with all the experts and two other pros who grew up in the Camden woods.
This was my first time racing in Maine this year and I really enjoy the short drives to the races. It took me less then an hour to get to Camden and of course there wasn’t any traffic! After getting geared up and saying hi to everyone that I haven’t seen since last year I went out and did a quick pre ride on the 2-2.5mile course. The course was probably 90-95% tight twisty, root covered single track! Even with all the rain the mid coast had the week leading up to the race the trails were in fairly decent conditions with only a couple “hike-a-bike” sections. The weather was great, partly sunny and temps in the mid 60’s. This was the first time I was able to race in a short sleeve jersey in New England this year.
I managed to get to the start line a little late and started 3 to 4 rows back. I guess everyone was paranoid about getting a good start position for the race. The start went like this: Sprint through grassy field for less then 40 yards while dodging random oak trees, cross a parking lot/hockey rink, then into the woods and through one of the few “hike-a-bike” sections, then off to the tight twisty single track. My days of running track in middle school still seem to benefit me because once we hit the “hike-a-bike” section I trotted by a lot of people then it was back on the bike for some good racing.
After the 1st of 5 laps I was in 3rd place and not far behind the leader. Soon the leader started to fade and it was just Skip Brown and I left to battle things out. I let Skip lead for a little while during the 2nd and 3rd lap while I sat on his wheel. Skip was not having a good day at all. The guy slipped on a root and landed head first on a log, was sliding out all over the place, and not doing to well in the muddy sections. After seeing Skip struggle with the course I decided to pick things up in the 4th lap and put on a comfortable lead. During the 5th lap I started to get a little bit of chain suck, but only when going up a short steep climb. It was enough to stop my momentum and force me to get off and run some sections. This only happened a couple times, but every time it cost me 5 to 10 seconds, enough that Skip actually passed me! I stayed calm and waited for an off cambered section that I knew Skip would slip out on (well I was crossing my fingers and hoping he would slip out on). When Skip’s bike came out from under him I had already dismounted and ran past him. From there it was a short dash to the finish line to pick up another win for the season.
Again everything worked great on the bike. I am really impressed with the SRAM drivetrain and the TruVativ cranks. After the race I talked with some folks running Shimano drivetrains and they were having a lot of problems with chain suck early on in the race. The Lake shoes are holding up great with all the running that I have had to do lately in the New England mud. The Oakley Racing Jackets did a great job keeping the mud out of my eyes along with giving me clear vision in the woods.
A
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Jason Mahokey,
White Oak, PA
Solo Endurance - Expert MTB
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