Midwest MTB Racing Recap
We left around 5:30am Saturday morning. As we headed straight east for the 3 or so hour trip, the skies started to darken and a old black rain cloud appeared that I started to pay attention to. Right before Hill City, we drove through a downpour but drove out of it within 15 minutes. Having raced at Spirit Mountain many times, I knew if it was rainy or wet there, the course would be especially challenging. Light showers were off and on has we pulled into Spirit, and at the registration table, race director Rod Raymond said the radar indicated that it would be brushing off to the side. We were to enjoy the Duluth climate once again as the temps hovered in the 70's with cloudy skies making for great racing conditions even with the high humidity (as almost the rest of the state baked in 90s).
Once I got registered, I had about 40 minutes until race time. I bumped into local racers Ross Fraboni and Mike Bushey and somewhat got the rundown on the course but still wasn't certain how it was going to be playing out. Many folks are responsible for establishing the mountain bike trails at Spirit Mountain including the folks at COGGS and nearby residents Scott and Sara Kylander-Johnson who have cut a lot of the singletrack. Personally, I feel the course is one of the tops in the Midwest and definitely believe they could hold a National event quite nicely. Plenty of vertical for the gravity events and a cross country course that would leave a Euro pro whining. The race was advertised as 12 and 24 miles and I was thinking we would do four, 6 mile laps.
After I got dressed I only had 10-15 minutes for a warm up which definitely wasn't enough but I thought I would just take it a bit easier on the first lap and warm into the race. I missed the pre-race announcements so I was not aware of the race being only two laps until I asked Jesse Rients. The original plan was to have a 12 mile loop but they ended up with a 8+ mile loop. With a shorter race on tap, I figured the pace would be a bit faster. At the start of the race, this assessment didn't take long to go into fruition as Ross hammered off the start to put a 10-15 second gap by the top of the climb.
At the top of the climb/ski hill before going into the singletrack, I was sitting in the fifth spot behind Ross, Jesse, Bushey and Duluth resident Grady Larimer. The first section of singletrack included technical sections that had multiple bridge crossings. With the humidity near 100% and a light mist before the race the rocks and roots were definitely greasy making it challenging to keep clean lines and I could definitely feel the lack of a proper warm up burning in my legs. Shortly after entering the singletrack, I attempted to pass Grady. He kindly moved to the side but I tried to pass on a log pile rise and ended up doing a nose wheelie and crashing. I got back on the bike with my body still in working order and caught my breath before passing Grady moments later and went on the chase to try and bridge up to Bushey and Jesse.
As I started to make my way down the "mountain", I heard this crashing through the woods and thought it was Ross taking some local knowledge short cut but instead spotted a little fawn running through the woods. I was slowly gaining on Jesse and finally caught up to him near the bottom of the downhill. The downhill to the base of the ski area is almost all singletrack and is by far, in my opinion, the sweetest decent in the Midwest. At the bottom of the ski hill we weren't finished descending as we dropped down even a bit farther out onto a parking lot which I think was near the road that heads out to Mon du Lac. Anyways, we looped out of the parking lot to make the long climb back up to the top. At this point, Jesse was on my wheel and soon we had Ross in our sights who said before the start, "you guys are going to take it easy today, right?" I reminded him of that comment as Jesse and I passed him on the gravel road. As we made a turn at approximately at the halfway point to finish out the climb Jesse pulled away and went on the attack to try and catch Bushey.
By the time we reached the start/finish area, Jesse had put about 25 seconds on me. As I made my way to the top, after getting a bottle from Marco, I thought I would risk it a bit on the singletrack to try and catch back up to Jesse for the second and final lap. Thinking the bridges would be the same as the first time down, I was quickly mistaken as I took too much speed onto a bridge and slid quickly off going down on my side. Everything was okay so I saddled back up and rode with a bit more caution as it seemed the course was even more slick after the first lap riders had gone through.
As I throughly enjoyed myself going on the decent, I was not able to bridge up to Jesse and could not see Bushey at all, as well. At that point I thought I would ease back a little and try to recover a bit more and then go as hard as I could on the climb and see what happened. Ross was starting to make his way back up so I had to keep my eye on him as well. I finished out the lap weaving through the tents situated along the singletrack near the end of the lap and ended up in the third spot on the day. After I finished there appeared to be some confusion and would find out that Bushey was mis-directed at the bottom and accidentally cut part of the course. In the parking lot I asked the two what had been resolved and they did not know at that point. However, when the results were posted, Jesse was awarded first place as it was determined Jesse would of made the time to first. It all seemed a bit confusing but I guess Jesse and Bushey were okay with and life went on. (Photoset below.)
As we waited for the awards ceremony, the boys and I checked out the Green Man scene. There were various "green" booths, a tent stage for music and then a main stage for the featured acts that had a nice view over the big lake. After the awards, we loaded up and made our way home and were back before supper time, which was nice for a change. With the hot temps, it was great to take a dip in the lake to refresh. Jonell gave me the report of happenings at the home front which was highlighted by Jens helping out Jonell with the watering of the flowers. He thought the flowers inside should get some water as well so he took the hose inside the basement as Jonell was outside on the other side of the house and had about 2" of water on the floor before she came in and could stop him!!
Race notes:
- Age class winners were awarded "Green Man" flower pots. Jonell thought they were pretty cool and even bought a plant for mine and as of Monday night, it was already being put to use.
- Team Ski Hut member, Harry Anderson gave me the run down on the Powder Monkey and reported that new singletrack has been cut this summer by Scott and Sara and will be used at the Powder Monkey. They are toying with the idea of a two lap race for Experts on a 12 mile lap. COGGS will be hosting the event.
- Friday's short track was canceled with only seven registrants. A downhill event was held Saturday afternoon with some jumps, triples and what not worked into the course. The lifts were running for practice runs and the finals.
Other Racing News
Sandpoint was the site of the last weekends NORBA National. Paul Hanson reports on his blog:
"The ProXC was on Saturday! Men went off at 3 and women 15 min later. Earlier in the day clouds rolled in and dumped a ton of rain and hail on the course. The sun had poked out a little and it looked to be ok. Jenna (Zander) had a good start and we were waiting for her in the feedzone when it let loose again. The rain came down hard and it was COLD! She came by in 15th and survived the crazy conditions and sprinted past one girl to claim 14th on the day. Her best finish yet! Megan Monroe was there also and finished 23rd in the downpour Kyia was right around there also, and Tristian did his 3 laps in the rain and finished 29th in the pro field."
Schweitzer Norba Nationals Results
Steve Wenzel was at Aberdeen this past weekend and checked in with this report:
"Aberdeen was fun but HOT. John Morgan from Bismarck was first. The next three guys were locals, I was 5th. All fields were short of people. 11 in Expert, 10 in Sport."
Clicking on the results from the WORS cup this past weekend, it looked like it was a good battle between Natl' team member John Devine and Jeff Hall with John taking the win in the XC, TT and Overall by just a minute. Kim Eppen continues her very fine season with the win. For the first time this year, licensed Pro/Semi-Pro riders were split with the Experts.
WORS Cup Results
WORS Cup Results
Upcoming Events
Looking ahead to this weekend, the WORS and MNSCS go head to head the only time this year with race #7 for WORS, the Dirt Fighter Classic at Phillips and race #6 for the MNSCS, Muddy River Rock n Roll in Red Wing at Memorial park.
Keep the wheels moving!!!
 | About the author... Jay Richards maintains a very active lifestyle. He somehow finds time between managing a full-time resort (Maplelag) and bringing up a family of four boys with his wife Jonell, to compete in both mountain bike and cross-country ski races. Jay rides for Outdoor Motion, located in Hutchinson, MN |