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Team Bikeman -
Race Reports
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Written by Anders Larson
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Saturday, 04 November 2006 |
Porky Gulch Classic On & Off Road Stage Race
Great Glen Trails Outdoor Center
Gorham, NH
Well, this was the first time I've ever done a stage race, and the description of it qualified it as a solid "pretty fun time". While I've only raced 3 road races and a couple of crits over the last 13 years, the nature of this beast of a weekend warranted a closer look. With kids covered and the wife off doing her thing, I headed up Saturday morning for the first of 3 stages: the 2 mile Mt. Washington road climb. I decided to register as an "intermediate" instead of "elite" as there were cat 3 roadies in the intermediates and I don't even have a road license.
Mother nature let her fury loose a little earlier than expected with ice and snow, so they cut the race down to a mile and a quarter, which was fine for me. The first part of the road is pretty steep, and it wasn't going to be more fun with more distance. By the way, this stage really took the most preparation. Even with the ridiculous stable of bikes I own, none were up to this task. I wound up using my cross bike (Redline Conquest, the big green machine). I put on my Bontrager race light wheels off my Trek 5200. As I have an LX rear derailleur on the bike I could put a mountain bike cog set on, so on went my SRAM 12-32. Up front I run a 38 tooth on a 1998 XTR crank (yeah, the good one). Well, the green machine was pretty money (though it'd never know it) and I felt I had a fine bike for the occasion. Once we started lining up, it was clear that my bike was the ugliest, cheapest, and downright Frankensteinish of the bunch. Looks and budget aren't everything, and when the dust cleared I managed to pull of a first place with a time of 9 minutes and 25 seconds. I pushed so hard that the acids/funk/exertion byproduct under my tongue at the end nearly killed me. As the first place was best of everyone there (10 elites and 17 intermediates), I talked to the organizers and was put into the elite group for the next 2 stages.
That afternoon it was off to Story Land. It was more like Anders in Wonderland. What a bizarre, surrealistic place for a criterion, twisting through oversized, out of proportion plastic buildings, creatures, and assorted Saturday morning television inspired craziness. Well, I think that the whole thing was a great idea regardless of the suffering that would take place. I think I knew what a poor sprinter I was heading into this thing, and my predictions came true and I had my backside handed to me. The entire race seemed to be one sprint after another, and it hurt constantly. While riding through the tight corners and around the attention seeking displays had a novel feel to it, it was a race and people came to kick it. In the words of Norm from Cheers, it was "dog eat dog and I was wearing Milk Bone underpants". I did not fair so well, and place 7th out of the 10 elites. Mr. mountain biker wasn't as tough as he thought, though he finished in tow with places 5 and 6. I road my Trek 5200 and it did not give me an excuse for not doing better than I did.
After a decent nights rest and lots of good food, it was back to Great Glenn for the last stage, the cyclocross race. They set up a really cool course that used both sides of the road with the tunnel that crosses under route 16. We took off at 11:00 with Independent Fab pro Tom Gosselin tearing out of the gate (he won the crit and was 4th in the hill climb). He quickly left us all in the dust and the rest of us splintered into groups of 3 to 5. I was moving well with the 2nd through 5th place riders when I dropped a chain and had to get off and muscle it back on. I lost about 15 seconds and for the second half of the race I could only watch their lead stay about the same. I managed to get passed by 2 other people, and in the end wound up the 4th elite rider. By the way, the intermediates raced along with us in the crit and cross race, placing ahead of many of the elites in some cases.
The final results came in and I managed a respectable 4th in the elite category. Congrats go out to Tom Gosselin for his overall victory and to my friend and neighbor Erik Weisenburger for pulling off 6th place in the intermediates despite having a never-ending supply of excuses. This was a really good time, and I give it a big 2-thumbs up for anyone looking for a little diversity in their racing schedule/scene. If my fitness is anywhere near decent next November, I'm in.
Anders
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