Center TT and Branched Oak

One of the aspects of mountain bike racing that I still need to get used to is the factor that weather plays. In seven years of triathlon racing, I’ve only had one race cancelled or delayed due to weather. And, in that one race (2008 Copper Creek Triathlon) it was pouring rain with bolts of lightning flashing across the sky almost constantly the whole morning. That was a no-brainer. This season, I think we’ve had four or five mountain bike races postponed for weather. And it wasn’t the weather on the morning of the race that forced the delays, it was rain a few days before the event. While I do understand that riding on rain-soaked trails can damage not only the trails, but also the bikes we are riding, it is still frustrating to wake up to blue skies and sunshine and not be able to go out and race. It was doubly frustrating with Chequamegon coming up the following week. We had a weekend planned with some good intensity, but nothing that would kill us for the main event seven days away.

The plan was to do the Branched Oak race north of Lincoln on Saturday, then stay in Des Moines on Sunday and do the Sycamore Time Trial and the Center Time Trial. It was not meant to be, and we got our first indication of that on Friday evening’s recon of Sycamore. I’d never ridden Sycamore, and I wanted to take a look at it before the TT on Sunday. About a quarter mile into it, I flatted. That wouldn’t be a problem except the spare had a hole, too! I started walking while Cam high-tailed it back home to grab the truck and pick me up.

While this was going on in Des Moines, it was raining in Nebraska. By the time we were back home from the non-ride at Sycamore, the race directors had already postponed Saturday’s race to Sunday. Now we had a problem: three races in two states, all on the same day. We both needed points for both series, though it was a little more important for both of us for the Nebraska standings. The big kicker was that the two TTs in DM counted as two different races for the Iowa Series, so points were up for grabs in each event. Eventually we figured out that we might be able to make an interesting compromise. We could do the Center TT on Sunday morning, then jump in the Jeep and roll into Branched Oak with just enough time to get a little warm-up and race there. With a quick call to the RD for the TTs to ask if we could be number one and two off the line and we were back in business!

The weather in DM was great on Saturday, so we rode to the Center trails to get things dialed in. We did a couple laps, and I was feeling really good. I am amazed at what a difference a year makes. I vividly remember chasing Cam around and being totally gassed from the effort, while he was barely breaking a sweat. This year, I am still chasing him around, he still barely breaks a sweat, but I feel great instead of ready to lay down and die! Anyway, I felt good about everything on Rollercoaster and Hillside; I was amped to go racing!

We got to the race with plenty of time to do another lap for a warm-up. Talking with some other racers before we warmed-up, we learned of two new developments: not only was the TT going to be two laps instead of one, but we were to do it backwards of the usual route! After a quick mental adjustment and a lap going the other way, it was soon go-time. I got going pretty well and knew that I had a long string of guys coming after me in one minute intervals. I think I got passed by three guys on the first lap and two on the second. I took the hike-a-bike option up the steep incline out of rollercoaster, but everything else went very well. I ended up with the fastest female time of the morning (and Cam was the fastest man), but we couldn’t stick around long. We did a quick cool-down and loaded up the car for a two and half hour drive.

We did our best to hydrate and refuel during the drive, so we’d have something to burn during round two. Branched Oak is kind of out in the middle of Nowhere, Nebraska. The trail is fairly new and/or doesn’t get a lot of riding. This became very apparent to me on my warm-up lap. I thought I was going to have my teeth knocked out of my mouth by the rough terrain. At one point I even stopped to make sure that nothing was so wrong with my bike (flat tire, tire rubbing somewhere, etc) because it felt so bad. Nope, that’s just the course. I felt pretty battered after just warming up, so I was pretty disappointed to hear that we were doing four laps of that crap.

It was time to just suck it up, though my body was not pleased about the whole idea. Again, there were three women at the start line; Donna (Cat 1), Barbara from the Czech Republic (Cat 2), and me. This was Barbara’s first race in the US, but it was very apparent she was fairly accomplished back home. The gun went off, and Donna and I never saw anything of Barbara again – she was riding with the guys and blowing us away! I followed Donna until she hit the deck right in front of me, then we only saw each other on the open grassy section at the end of each lap.

I grew more and more grumpy each lap. I could tell I was just out of juice and that the TT of the morning had taken more out of me than I thought. The worst possible finish for me was going to be second, which was where I was sitting at the time, so I basically went into survival mode and tried to minimize the damage to myself as I ground my way through the remaining laps. I was glad that Cam wasn’t around when I finished – I wouldn’t have been very fun to be around. My back was as sore as it has ever been following a race, and I just needed to get some food back in me. I got off the bike ASAP, grabbed my smoothie and laid down in the grass to make my back stop screaming. When Cam rolled through the finishline (in first place by a pretty decent margin!), I was a little more like myself.

I didn’t like the course and I didn’t feel good most of the race. My only fear was that I’d done way too much six days before the biggest race of my young mountain bike career. I guess I’ll just wait and see!