Weeping Willow MTB Race Report

God, mountain bike racing is hard. On Sunday Cory and I headed up to Ipswich for the Weeping Willow race. The race was part of the Eastern Fat Tire Association (EFTA) race series. There was a competing race in the Root 66 series taking place down in CT on this same day but they still managed to turn out nearly 400 racers at the Weeping Willow. MTB racing is alive and kickin’ in New England.

We are both racing in the sport category but in different age groups. The EFTA races are not part of USAC so they have their own categories. On Sunday Cory was racing in Sport Senior and I was in Sport Veteran II (or as Cory would have called it, “old balls”). Either way it saved me from getting pasted directly by him, except when you look at the finishing times on the results sheet. Our race was 2 laps of a 10 mile course, predominantly twisty, turny singletrack with a few short climbs and brief fire road sections thrown in. Not enough wide, power sections for my less than adequate MTB skills. We had pre-ridden the course two weeks ago so we knew what we were in for — roughly 2 hours of pain.

With so many racers towing the line things were a bit confusing at the start. They were sending off groups in 1 minute intervals and I feared this wouldn’t be enough time to prevent traffic jams in the narrow sections in the woods but in the end it was not a problem. However, with the sheer number of fields and racers it was hard to hear who was being called to the line. This was my first stumble as I ended up in the back of my group at the start. Not an ideal place to be when you know there aren’t many places to pass on the course. The whistle blew and we headed down some double track — I tried to move up before we hit the hole shot but only picked up a few spots. We made a right turn up the first hill and I realized I was already pretty far back in the group. Rode for a bit and eventually ended up leading a group of five or six riders as things shook out. But I was already feeling sketchy through the narrow sections (kind of like skiing in the trees) and when we reached a rocky section I foolishly took the opportunity to dismount and move to the back of the group. I was immediately gapped as riders with better technical skills rode away from me. I reconnected with this group and made up a little ground on the next fire road section, but eventually my use of the brakes doomed me to riding alone. And this was still on lap one — maybe 7 or 8 miles into a 20 mile race. Not good.

I dialed it back a bit and tried to ride smoothly through the woods, succeeding only occasionally and sliding out a bit on some of the slippery off-camber turns. As I came through the finish line at the end of the first lap, I actually thought I was feeling okay and that I would have a chance to pull back some riders on lap two. But I was totally wrong. Lap two was a world of hurt — every time I shifted to the big ring on the fire road I felt it (unlike lap 1) and as I navigated my way through the woods I felt like I was coming apart at the seams. It became a simple race of survival, and I made it to the finish line, spent and broken. It was a fun and challenging course but I can’t say it was a fun race. I need to work on my tech skills and stay off the damn brakes. I ended up 24th/34 in my category – though eight of those thirty-four riders did not finish. Cory was a terrific 7th/18 in his group.

On my list of excuses: I wish I had a better start, I wish I had stuck to the group I was in, I wish I had run lower tire pressure, I wish I was riding a dual suspension. Positives: finished my first 2 hour(+) MTB race, wasn’t DFL, didn’t get brained by a tree (though I do have some sweet forearm abrasions), didn’t crash, didn’t endo. On second thought, maybe I did have fun.

When we met up in the parking lot, Cory said “that was the hardest race I have ever done.” I reminded him that he had said the same thing after the Massasoit Lung Opener a few weeks ago. I’m kind of hoping I don’t hear that again this season.