The journey from Wausau, WI to Traverse City is an ordeal in and of itself. With roughly 9 hours of windshield time it was nice to meet up with a large group of Title Town Flyers to pass the time. A big thank you goes out to Shawn Hauser for coordinating the trip and facilitating lodging arrangements!

The morning of race-day saw temperatures hovering in the mid-30′s and beautiful blue skies. My warm-up was a bit brisk but overall my dress fit the occasion quite nicely. Since I was able to get a halfway decent finish time the previous year I was seeded in wave 4 – a much more appropriate starting position than my first year. Overall the course conditions were excellent with no snow or ice to speak of. For the start of my wave there was a helicopter that hovered above – way cool! Once our wave started the pace was as I expected. I slowly made my way toward the front 5-10 riders and was able to maintain this position for quite at least the first 15 miles.

Once we hit about mile 20 I could tell that my lack of riding (which has given way to marathon training, Disney 2012) started to set in. The hill climbs seemed to be more of a struggle than normal and I felt my pace and power slip away. As the race continued past Anita’s Hill I knew my form was not optimal for a top-5 age group placing. I would estimate that I lost approximately 30-40 places over the remainder of the 10 miles of the race. Furthermore, I ended up having to hike-a-bike for two hills.

My overall placing was roughly 250th (and 10th in age), well off a quality placing I would expect had I continued to train after Chequamegon. Here the full [results] and the [detail] from my Garmin.

The start of the race is a mass-start where 1850 riders (up from 1700 the year before) are paced out about a mile with four wheelers and when they pull off, its hammer time. I started out about three rows back from the preferred starters. The beginning of the lead out I made every effort to maintain close proximity to the lead groups and by Rosie’s Field (the first non-asphalt section) I had maintained a decent position, running in roughly 60th place.

As the race approached Hwy OO I was maintaining a fast pace that I wasn’t sure I could maintain. A few miles beyond OO I fell of that pace, sat up, eased the pace slightly, and waited roughly two minutes for the next group to come up from behind. By the time this group caught me I was able to recover and rode strong leading up Seely Fire Tower Rd. If someone from the group tried to jump I would reel them back in. With less than ten miles remaining I felt strong and could tell the pace we were maintaining caused the group to shrink from eight to three. Though, with about two miles left I started cramping in my thighs and ended up loosing roughly two minutes as I attempted to spin, shake them out, and do anything I could to get get rid of them. Since the cramps came late in the race I was still able to sustain a good finish and not drop more than 10 places.

I finished the race in 2:21 for a 71st overall finish, thus meeting my goal that included: rubber side down, no mechanicals, top 75. With a successful finish I should be able to come back next year with a preferred start!

The group I stayed with are listed here:
Nathan Guerra: 17th overall – Wheel & Sprocket
Dallas Fowler(#33): 24th overall – Kuhl
Joel Hynes(#942): 71st overall  -Bikeman.com
Kevin Pomasl(#1460): 84th overall – KS Energy
Marcus Steele(#1736): 502nd overall – Titletown Flyers
Warren Fowler(#706):668th overall – Titletown Flyers
Jeff Gantz(#736): 900th overall – Titletown Flyers

Shawn Hauser(#2770): 104th overall (Short&Fat [18 mile race]) – Titletown Flyers

Here are my [ Itiming results ].

This is a post race picture taken at the cabin of all the bikes.

Arriving the morning-of I didn’t get the option to pre-ride and it showed within the first two miles. There was a large boulder with about a four foot drop onto a flat surface. Sufficed to say, I pulled up short, stopped and thought to myself – “rigid fork, flat landing, four foot drop… No Thanks!” I ended up dismounting and running the drop. Early on there were roughly 10-12 riders that came by me. As the laps progressed though, I was able to pull a few of them back. With roughly a half lap to go I endo’d into a tree which took some of the momentum out of my race but was able to hold my position.

As for results I finished Cat I’s in 35th (of 80) overall and 9th (of 29) in age.

Garmin Detail:

Sunday, I arrived at 11:00am to 75 and sunny – perfect weather! I found John and gave him the water bottles, checked my tire pressure (22 front, 24 rear), changed, and finally went to warm-up.

After the race started and everyone settled into to their order I was able to move up a few spots and maintain a top 30 spot. With about one lap remaining I continued to move up to about 25th position. Though, on the final lap I was picked off by about three riders, one of which was in my age class and finished about three seconds ahead of me. Overall, the day went quite well and my effort afforded me a 27th (of 84) overall position and 7th (of 21) in age!

The local shop we frequented for our needs is called Acme Bicycles [ http://www.acmebicycles.com/ ] owned and operated by Tim Rangitsch. He and his staff did a great job providing us with great products and support.

The last day we were in Rapid City was the start of the Black Hills Fat Tire Festival [ http://www.bhfattirefestival.com/ ] which consists of downhill, XC race, and Cowboy Hill Sprint Climb to name a few.

Photo Day 4 – taken by Pete K. – we call it the rock-star pose.

Day 3 – Pactola Lake Trailhead.

The trip over to Traverse City encompassed driving from Wausau to Green Bay to meet up with a number of TitleTown Flyers, then proceeding north to the Upper Peninsula, then east across the UP, and finally south to Traverse City, whew! The entire windshield time, one way, was roughly seven hours. Our fearless TitleTown Flyer leader, Shawn, coordinated the lodging and as usual worked out great.

The morning of race-day saw the temperatures hovering around the upper 30′s. Add to that a small amount of snow the day before made for a slick course. My start time saw a slight improvement in conditions but the west facing hills were still pretty slick. I was part of wave 29 which went off at 10:30am. At gun time, the race started off pretty tame, with about three guys in my wave maintaining the front. I noticed the pace was too tame for my taste, so shortly into the race I pulled off the front and was able to maintain that for most of the race. Since the organizers changed the format to wave format for un-ranked riders, I was at the mercy of 28 previous waves, this made for a lot of congestion in the single track.

After the first 20ish miles I was feeling really strong and continued to keep the pace up. I came into a downhill and hadn’t experienced much ice so I didn’t see much need to be cautious. As the saying goes, hind sight is always 20-20. I should have backed off a touch and been more cautious because I went down at about 30mph on an aggressive downhill that was covered in ice. After the bail, I did a quick inventory, straightened the bar, and got back up to start pedaling. I finished the remainder of the race and still have a swollen and sore knee. My finishing time ended up being 2 hours and 5 minutes. Not bad considering the crash and congestion!

Photos taken: