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Team Bikeman Sections: Race Report Archives | Team Rider Profiles |
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Hodges Village Dam Sport |
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Team Bikeman -
Race Reports
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Written by Steve Morse
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Saturday, 12 August 2006 |
Annual Hodges Village Dam
Root 66 Race Series
Oxford, MA
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This past Sunday was the super-fast and super-bumpy Hodges Dam XC mountain bike race. Chuck and I were both entered in the 3-lap Sport 30-39 race. We had a grand plan to kill the start and get me off the front: Chuck would lead me out into the singletrack first, and let me go while he blocked traffic.
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After a brief warmup on the dam access roads, Chuck and I bullied our way on to the front row of the 25 or so starters in our group (a pretty good turnout for our category). After the whistle blew, I found myself in the rare position of a holeshot. As I crossed the brige a few hundred feet down the very long starting raod, Chuck came screwing past me and opened a small gap. He was going so fast that I was worried that I wasn't able to hold his wheel. In a cloud of dust, I saw him disappear into the first singletrack, where I was able to catch up after about 30 seconds. I looked back and our field was already blown apart - we had a pretty good gap after only a few minutes. After the first few technical sections, Chuck motioned for me to go by...I clicked into a harder gear and took off as hard as I could.
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I could hear some people yelling in the woods behind me, I started laughing to myself imaging that people were mad that Chuck was blocking them and he must be hitting the brakes to slow the race down. I'm not sure if that's what was happeneing, but it was an entertaining thought to think of what Chuck's response might have been.
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I spent most of the first lap riding by myself in 1st place, mashing the bigring, and trying to ride as cleanly as possible. At the end of the first lap, an ECV rider caught up to me on an open section of firetrail as we blew past riders from the group in front of us. The ECV guy went by me, and I could tell he was a better technical rider than me, but I managed to hold his wheel and trade spots with him. I think we slowed each other down a little, because another guy caught up to us. We also caught up to the leader of the singlespeed class, and he jumped on our train.
End of lap 2, I started feeling like I probably had gone out a little too hot at the start. I suddenly didn't feel like I could push this pace anymore. I started getting some heat cramps and mild symptoms of dehydration. We were going was so fast that I just didn't think to drink enough. I was in the dust storm on the Single Speed guy's wheel as we entered the first single track at the beginning of lap #3. I guess the dust confused me for a second, and I hit a rock wrong, and went over the handlebars. I smashed my elbow on a nice sharp rock outcropping (the same elbow with the roadrash from the Monson road race which was 95% healed). I put a huge gash right through the nice new, pink skin I had grown over the past 2 weeks. I took a brief second to look at it, and it didn't look very good: a nice big flap of skin hanging off, and bleeding pretty badly, and covered in dirt to boot. Regardless, I was so jacked about still being in the top three, so I didn't care. Immediatley, I jumped back on the singlespeeder's wheel and attempted to finish the last lap strong, despite my misfortune.
I guess my arm took a bigger whack than I thought, and it started going into shock or something. I didn't have 100% use of my right hand and it felt a little numb. Therefore I wasn't able to ride as fast as I wanted to and control the bike properly. I had to let the SS guy go (The top 2 had since disappeared, along with my resolve). It was in pure survival mode at this point. I watched helplessly as third place rode by me, only a few sections before the finish line.
So, I still managed 4th place. Anyway, not a bad day for me. Off the box, but I'll take it. Chuck wrapped up his first race since moving up to Sport in a respectible 9th place. Thanks to him for the sweet lead-out at the start. Also thanks to my wife Amy for the critical bottle feeds.
Anyhow, that's a wrap on my summer racing season, as Tour of the Hilltowns has been cancelled next week. Time for a few weeks of rest, then its time for cross!
Steve
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