After my problems at Nesamniny a few weeks ago, I was not sure I even wanted to attempt this race, plus last Sundays pre-ride really put a hurting on my legs. The course is also one long lap so it was not really worth my time (an entire day) to photograph this race due to the layout. I had a million and one reasons or excuses not to race....but in the end I knew this would be my last (and first) chance to race on a mountain bike this year and would probably regret it if I missed it.I have been racing the Fair Hill Classic since 1995, back when it was the C&D Canal Classic and moved to Fair Hill in 1996 (dates are from what I recall). I have raced every year except one (last year). Fair Hill is a race that I always see to do fairly well at - my best race was 2 years ago where I came in 3rd (Expert Vet I), 20 seconds behind Rick Mihills (Super Fast Cross racer - 2006 MAC Masters Champion) and 6 minutes behind Blair Saunders (Ex Canadian Olympian) who won our class.
This year I have not done any racing due to an ongoing back problem that locks up when racing making it impossible to breath and I loose all the strength in my legs putting my riding to a slow crawl. Recently my wife has been encouraging me to try some Yoga so 2 weeks ago I started doing Yoga twice a week hoping the excessive stretching and strengthening posses would help with my back. I seriously thing it has been helping - I still have some ongoing soreness, but I really think I am making some progress in reducing the severity of the pain. Hopefully with time Yoga will progressively help my back and be ready for cross season.
Fair Hill this year, learning from my mistake at Neshaminy, I decided to make sure I had a plan since the course was a 29 mile single loop with a lot of climbing...as well as there were no really good areas to drop out if necessary. My main goal was just to make sure I finished the race with a secondary goal of being in the top 10 even though in all reality this was my 1st mountain bike race of the year (2nd if counting my 1.5 laps at Nesamniny). Looking at the previous MASS race results I notice Robert Dudas (Wild Blues) was racing well this year and had a similar racing style as myself - starting off reasonable, pacing and keeping consistent lap times and finishing strong - I decided I would ride Rob's wheel at Fairhill to make sure I did not head out too fast and blow up my legs - kind of keeping me in check.Expert Vet II's race starts and I found myself at the front 4th position. around the soft corner safely and up a short climb......THERE! right in front of me was Rob.....now normally I would have pass right by him as I was going faster, but I really thought the best thing was for me to stick with my plan - so I dropped right behind Rob and set out to race. Rob kept a nice pace, we got passed by a few riders at the very beginning once we entered the woods....but it was going to be a LONG and hard race so I just sat in and did not chase anyone.
Problems set in descending down the first rocky downhill....water bottle fell out of it's cage - no biggie as I had an extra on me and prior to the race I dropped 2 bottles off at the 273 bridge crossing :). Drop my 2nd bottle in the cage and notice my bottle cage was broken - now that's a problem. I now was going to have to drink the entire race from a bottle in my jersey pocket - ouch! Nothing I could do so just had to make due. Once everyone settled in, Rob and I started to slowly pass a lot of riders. Felling bad about being a wheel sucker I needed to help out Rob as much as I could and fed him all the course info, when we would be climbing, how long the climbs were, when we needed to pass, when not to pass, ect. Knowing the race course as much as I did, it was often tough to sit on his wheel as I know I could flow through many of the section a lot faster and smoother, but I kept telling myself to sit back for a while...it still a long way to go and I wanted to make sure I finished.
Crossing under the 273 bridge I went to grab my 2 extra bottles....Damn, missed the 1st one but was able to grab the 2nd. Now I had one full and one almost empty bottle with still 2/3rds of the race to go and having to drink from my jersey. Gonna be some trouble.After crossing under the 273 bridge, sharp left and up the 1st major climb - The Punctured Lung, here I was felling pretty good and actually wanted to pass more than we did...getting a bit antsy siting back - to the top, downhill to the next climb. Once we started this 2nd climb I told Rob that some technical sections were coming up and I would take the lead since I know the trails (Drunken Sailor and then over to South Park). Rob said go and I moved around but he did not grab my wheel...I pass one other rider just as we were moving into Drunken Sailor and never saw Rob again. Feeling pretty good I rolled thru the Rollercoaster and Upper Ridge Trail heading into South Park.
Now about 1/2 way thru South Park (I swear it was almost the EXACT same spot at my last race here in 2005) my legs started to cramp - looked down at my computer to see 22 miles - DAMN! 7 mile to go. Time to sit back and spin a bit as it was still a long way to go with legs starting to cramp. Here I was passed for the first time by a guys rider. Water Stop #2 I grabbed a full, ice cold water bottle (Great Job to the Trail Spinners to offer full water bottles) drank as much as I could, put in in my jersey and started up the 5 bridges climb. I was able to contain my cramps by spinning up - thru Crack Head Bob I still had to spin a lot but was able to maintain a decent pace - not getting passed yet and gaining ground on a few racers in front. This is the way I road pretty much to the end of the race. Crossed over the Humpback bridge with a few riders directly in front...able to maintain without loosing much ground, but unable to gain. Now my legs were getting real bad and seriously though I was done - not going to make it to the finish. Every once in a while while pedaling one of my legs would straighten out and completely lock up and almost not be able to bend....sit and spin, sit and spin - Yoga was coming to mind - breath oxygen into the legs, breath to the legs.
Final few roller climbs to the finish some one was riding my wheel.....every rider I came up on I was still able to pass just trying to maintain a steady spinning pace. I knew this rider was just going to spring me at the final 100 yards and there was no way I could possibly sprint. Up the last climb passed another rider and another right after the climb (I was actually really surprised that I was still able to pass so may riders during the last mile to the finish being that my legs were almost completely locking up) - last 50 single track yards to the road up to the finish I just told the rider that was behind me for the last 1/4 mile to go around as I was not going to sprint them to the line.....and around comes......................Greg Ferguson - DAMN! What are the odds it was someone from my class. Fergie comes around and I just roll in the finish right behind him. In the end Fergie takes 5th bumping me to 6th. Kind of suck losing 5th in the last 30 yards of a race. Hind site I should of just kept my mouth shut and let the cards drop where they do instead of just giving my place away...not that it would have changed anything.
In the end 6th place was respectable especially since a lot of the big guns come out to race Fair Hill. Talked to Rob after the race to apologise for being a wheel sucker, but he was cool with it - actually said he liked it?Last night I did all the post race thinking about what I could have done differently - could I have placed higher if I did not hold back so much at the first 1/3 of the race, what if I was able to drink more instead of having to drink from bottles in my jersey pocket, what if, what it....
Iron Hill is the next race which is local as well. Said immediately after FairHill I was not racing Iron Hill as I hate short lap races that do lots of laps, but I think I'll wait to see the course layout to determine if I'll race or not. Probably not as Iron Hill is a great course to photograph since there are so many access points and Iron Hill could be my last mountain bike to photographs this year.Photos are from a few different races this year.
Later
MLK
