Maplelag - Labor Day Weekend

We had three choices for racing this weekend:

1. Stay close to home and do the 24-hour race at Boone. I even had a couple girls willing to take me on as a teammate.

2. Dakota 5-0. That would mean a super long drive (9-10 hours) for a challenging 50 mile race. With Chequamegon in two short weeks, that would have been a little much for me. However, the race sounds awesome, and something I’d like to do eventually.

3. MNSCS #9: Laddie’s Loppet at Maplelag Resort in northwestern Minnesota. We knew Jay Richards and family would put on a great event, and a little time at a resort in the great white north sounded pretty good. Jay had even taken it upon himself to reserve a room for us, so the decision was pretty much made for us!

Although the eight-hour drive from Ames was brutal, Cam had planned ahead and loaded up his iPod with some Harry Potter (neither of us had read any of the books nor seen the movies). That helped pass the time, but we had both pretty much had enough of the Jeep by the time we pulled into Maplelag, about 25 miles north of Detroit Lakes. The traffic heading north out of the Twin Cities about put Cam in a mental institute, but as we turned off the paved roads and drove into the resort, we both knew all suffering of the drive was so worth it.

With trees all around and cabins set by the lake, it looked like the summer camp of my younger days. There were even some old railroad cabooses turned into private camping rooms. The main lodge was by far the most impressive, though. Beautiful woodwork, amazing stained glass windows, and a very inviting atmosphere were just some of the great first impressions. We sat down to a homemade meal with fresh bread and tasty dessert, and all of the travel issues melted away. Before checking in, we stopped by the bottomless cookie jars to sample more of the goods!

Jay’s wife, Jonell, checked us in and told us we were staying in the building called the Candy Shop, and our room named Double Fudge Brownie! We totally knew we made the right choice on where to race this weekend.

I was very pleasantly surprised to walk into the Candy Shop and find our big room. It could sleep seven, but we had it all to ourselves and our own bathroom and shower. The other rooms were taken by the Hinkens family, TJ Woodruff and his dad, and Doug Swanson. We spent the rest of the evening hanging out in the main room of the Candy Shop shooting the breeze with all these folks.

Saturday morning was a crisp, sunny start to the beautiful weekend. The racing was more than just the traditional single day cross country event; there were three events over two days to add to the fun. First up was the Time Trial. As a newbie to all of this cycling stuff, all I knew was that I needed to go as hard as I could for 3-ish miles, but not totally kill myself in the process. After all, there was still another race later in the day! Cam’s race was first, so we warmed up, and then I looked for some good places to snap a few photos.

Cam flew across the finish line in 10 minutes and 1 second, good enough for fourth place. The Sport race was next, and although I still took a while for my legs to get under me, I eventually got up to speed, and finished in the mid-13 minute range, giving me 2nd place for Sport Women. As soon I could breathe again, Cam and I headed out to recon the cross country course for Sunday’s main event.

While the time trial course was not very technical, I was surprised to find out just how tough the cross country course was going to be. I generally walk anything that looks really gnarly on my pre-ride, giving it a once over and deciding whether I will try it during the actual race. While many (Cam included) may not see this as the best way to prepare (he’d rather I went back and physically tried it again before attempting it (or not) in a race), it has worked for me so far! I did make on exception to my rule on this course. There is a series of infamous “lakeside drops” on this course that really didn’t look like anything I wanted to ride my bike down. They are so gnarly that one of the pros was offering a clinic on how to ride them that day. I took my own “pro” with me and we worked on them together. I walked most of the drops and the subsequent ups during the recon, but finally near the end of that section, I turned around and rode one of them, just to see if I could do it without taking a swim in the lake with the ‘Goose. There was probably some rough language going on in my head at the time, but I did clean the section without crashing in a heap at the bottom. The rest of the courses reminded me of Boone: pretty technical with some short, punchy climbs. Ouch, this is gonna hurt.

After another wonderful lunch in the main lodge (and another cookie), we headed back to the room for a little R&R (a great nap for me!!) before the afternoon’s main event: the Short Track race – basically an off-road crit-style race. Again, the only exposure to this kind of racing was earlier this year at Snake Alley. The only thing I remember about that was just how painful it was.

The Sport race was to be eleven minutes plus one lap. I rode the beginner course a few times in my warm-up and thought I would be okay in the race. After the beginner race, however, they re-routed the course to include a much steeper climb that required a lot more momentum to crest. Much to my surprise, I could clear it in my big ring: game on! We lined up with the guys, and I had a better than usual start, which for me means that I wasn’t dead-last. I steadily picked off women, one-at-a-time. Soon I was sitting in second place with only one lap to go. I think there may have been blood shooting out of my eyeballs (at least that‘s what I felt like…), but I managed to get around the first place woman right at the start of our last lap, and somehow held her off for the win! I caught up with Cam between my race and his. He had a pretty big smile on his face!Cam’s race was to be eighteen minutes plus two laps. That gave me plenty of time to take some photos and cheer him on. The Short Track course is great for spectators because each lap only takes about 80-90 seconds, and I could see the leaders about 3-4 times each lap by just moving a few yards in various directions. Cam started out in the top 10 and steadily moved his way through the field up to fourth place, where he stayed for the conclusion. At the end of day one, Cam was sitting in fourth place and I was in second place in the GC.

I figured that with a solid top 3 finish on Sunday, I could hold on to a top 3 overall for the weekend. That was gonna be tough, as my best finish in a MNSCS race was fourth. After yet another great meal and some more time hanging with some good peeps, it was soon time to hit the hay with another big day ahead of us.

During my warm-up on Sunday, my legs didn’t feel as cranky as I thought they might, considering the effort I required of them on Saturday, but I knew it would be later in the race that really demonstrated what the abuse of Saturday did to me. Though Saturday’s events had 6-7 women in each race, about three times that many showed up on Sunday. We thought that we had heard they were going to do call-ups for both the MNSCS series points leaders as well as the stage race leaders, so I was hanging out close to the front as we lined up. The call-ups never happened, but regardless I started closer to the front than I usually do. I was gonna have to haul butt off the line to keep from getting run over by the fast guys behind me. Thankfully, I had one of the best starts I’ve ever had, and hit the first bit of singletrack as about the sixth female. The usual traffic jam ensued as the accordion of riders worked through a very short, but still a little tricky section of trail.

Things spread out a bit by the time we hit the lakeside drops on lap one. As if riding this section wasn’t hard enough on its own, it becomes quite a bit more intimidating with a huge audience, and this is where most of the fans were gathered! Having everyone there does, however, make you step up your game a little – I did not want to take a header into the lake in front of everyone! Cam was at the top of one of the rises and gave me some encouragement. It wasn’t pretty and I didn’t clear everything, but I didn’t go swimming either. Sometime soon after I left the lakeside, I noticed a bad, but now familiar feeling in my right foot. My shoe had a lot of lateral play, and that could only mean one thing: another loose cleat. I was unclipping a lot on this course – not for a bunch of hike-a-bikes but just for little tricky rock gardens or rooty, uphill corners. I knew that every time I unclipped, I was loosening the cleat just a little more. It would be a major disaster to lose the cleat entirely. I couldn’t imagine having to ride there without being clipped to my pedal!

On the ski trail sections, I was able to make up some good ground and worked my way up to third place by the start of the second lap. However, by the time I reached the lakeside again, the fatigue of Saturday’s efforts was starting to set in. Cam was at the bottom of one of the drops this time and gave me another boost, but before I was away from the lake, I’d been passed by fourth place. I kept her in my sights and managed to get by her, only to be passed by another female on the one hike-a-bike climb. This girl took off and I never saw her or any other female the rest of the race. Between having to stop a few times to attempt to tighten the cleat with my fingers and just being generally gassed, I did what I needed to survive the rest of the race and not lose any more places. I though, too, that I was too far back time-wise to finish on the podium of the stage race. But as I cruised across the finish line, I was still pleasantly pleased that I finished as high as I did.

Perhaps the best part of this race was getting to know some of the racers and enjoying the camaraderie of the event, rather than just enjoying the racing itself. I took a quick shower following my race then hung out with some of the women during Cam’s race. He had yet another great race. Just when you might think that all his racing and training, and even his age, is going to catch up with him, he turns out another stellar performance against guys half his age. He picked his way slowly but deliberately through the field, sitting as high as fourth at one point, to finish fifth – an awesome accomplishment against this very talented field.

We stuck around for the awards ceremony. Jay and Jonell did it right. It took a while to get through all the awards, but the family-like atmosphere they nurtured all weekend was easy to see as every racer who was called to the front got more than just a polite round of applause. It was more like a cheer from a bunch of new fans. Although we wanted to get on the road as soon as possible, we did stick around long enough for the door prize drawings. I think Cam won the boobie prize: a book titled “Instinctive Parenting.”