Mr Big Ring Rants: June 2015

On Saturday May 30th I lined up for my fourth Mohican 100 Mountain Bike Race. The weather forecast for the week leading up to the race called for rain everyday including race day. Luckily the only day there was rain was on Wednesday. On Saturday there were strong storms in the forecast for the afternoon. During the pre-race announcements Ryan O'Dell advice for avoiding the rain in the afternoon was to finish early. I knew that was not going to happen with me.

Friday afternoon after I went for a short ride and ate diner I was going to get my bike ready and get my drop bags ready. I looked at my front tire and saw one of the knobs had shredded from the tire down to the casing and a few other knobs didn't look good either. Several 765 Racing teammates were planning to come down on Saturday and do Bourbon hand-ups and watch the race. I made a quick call to see if one of them could bring me an extra tire in the morning, unfortunately they all decided to stay home. Potenza meet me at the Uncle Pilot in Lodi with a selection of tires.

I didn't think this tire would have another 100 miles in it.

Saturday morning I left my campsite and rode the 2 miles to the start as my warm up. I arrived about 15 minutes before the start and just relaxed before what I knew would be a long day on the bike.

Photo: Kevin Pietrzyk

The race starts in downtown Loudonville and heads up the Tanney Hill, and the first person to the top get $200.

Photo: Tim Christy

Cresting the Tanny Hill with the mighty KP right behind

Photo: Tim Christy

One of my goals was to get through the race without crashing. I still had some bad bruises on my right arm and leg from a crash the weekend before when I rode two laps of the Mohican trail. Due to weather and other time constraints I was only able to make two trips down to ride the trail before the race. I knew that as long as I continue to fuel properly I would get through the race even though my technical skills were lacking this year. Luckily for me I am fueled by Hammer Nutrition and use the same mixture for training and racing. I use a mixture of Hammer Nutrition Perpetuem Heed. Since the race was going to be hot and humid in the morning I used Enduroltes Extreme. Since they pack 3x the sodium and potassium of the original formula I needed to take one an hour and carry only one tube for the day. Since Hammer Nutrition was a sponsor of the race know Hammer Gels and Heed would be at the aid stations was a relief.

I made it through the first few miles without any problems but was getting some odd ghost shifting in a few gears on the rocks and the roots. It was odd since the bike would not change gears on smoother sections of trail. My chain and cassette were only a month only with less than 200 miles on them. When I got to aid station #1 I lubed my chain and it helped for a little bit. When I arrived at aid station #2 the mechanic asked if I needed anything and he grabbed my bike while I refilled my camelback with my favorite mixture of Perpetuem and Heed. When I got back to my bike the mechanic determined that the rear cable was not moving smooth and was hanging up in the housing. I added a bunch of lube on the cable and it seemed to help for the rest of the ride.

I left aid station #3 15 minutes ahead of last year and was feeling good. After aid station 3.5 there was several miles of new single track that was fairly muddy when I got to it. That section turned into a hike a bike for a little bit and my legs were dead after that. Right after I left aid Station #4 in Glenmont I had heavy rains for an hour. I had a difficult time seeing due to the heavy rain. I continued on with my slow pace for the rest of the day and it stayed dry until the very end. I was past the last aid station with about 2 miles left and I could hear the thunder and it was getting dark. When I exited the trail of the state park with a mile to go the heavy rains came back again. I finished in 12:05. Not my fastest time for a 100 mile race but I survived without any major problems.