MNSCS #2 Rochester Cycling Steeple Chase

Matts Race

Let's just say not what I had hoped for. I had a poor start as usual and there were only a couple of expert riders behind me as we headed through the start/finish line after the prologue.

I was just behind Kyia and contemplated making a move past her just before taking the hard right into the single track but opted not to. Shortly into the first section I "burped" my front tire over a log and lost most of the air. I knew that I was in trouble, but I was hoping to get back to the finish to put some more air in. That would never happen, as I lost the entire bead on the next log section. As I walked backwards through the woods, I had to stop each time a group of comp riders passed. After the entire comp class had passed I walked to a clearing on the south side of the course and found my way back to the start/finish line. As I walked back I was trying to decide if I would quit or try to get the tire inflated and resume the race. I knew there would be no chance at finishing anywhere but last place, but I needed the race time to progress in my training. As I arrived back at the start I asked a couple of people if they had a CO2 (I run STANS), but no one had one to use. On an act of desperation, I hooked up my hand pump and pumped like crazy. With two sets of helping hands (holding the bead) I was able to get the bead to seal (Thanks Kurt and Jordan). I quickly pumped the tire to 40 psi hoping not to loose too much air before the Stans completely sealed. I jumped on the bike and headed back to the start/finish line to start my first lap (again). I had lost 20-25 minutes in the process, thankfully I was still on the lead lap.

Thanks for taking the awesome pictures Dana, and great race to you.

The goal now was to find a way to push myself with no riders around. I knew that the lead expert riders would be coming by at some point, so I used that as motivation to ride clean and fast and stay in front of them as long as possible. Sam O. was the first to catch me near the flats on my second lap (his third) and he informed my that there were two more behind him. I tried to hold his wheel for a little while, and use this situation as motivation, but Sam was just flying and he quickly disappeared. A couple of minutes later Ben and Brendan Moore passed and I was able to hang with them for a while on the flats before they to vanished and again I was riding alone. Overall I felt good, I was climbing well and riding fairly smooth on the single track, but the flats were tacky and slow and I could feel it zap the power from my legs. On the first three laps I was able to make all the climbs in my middle ring and 32t cog in the rear, but by the fourth lap I had to drop to the small ring on the climb after the zipper. Part way into my second I caught a few of the trailing comp riders and I again had some motivation to ride a little hard, but it is just not the same. I also passed a few of the expert women as they pushed hard on their third and final lap. The fourth lap was a surreal experience. The last time I had this feeling is when our 24 Hours of Afton team barely beat the 5:00 PM deadline and I went out for our last lap. It is strange knowing that you are the last person on the course and there is no one behind you. I tried to keep a respectable pace, but my last lap was nearly 4 minutes slower than the previous lap.

I finished in 2:38:28 almost 45 minutes behind the leader. If I factor out the 20 minutes to fix the tire it would have put me at around 2:18:00 good enough for 17/22. I am still learning, but I still need to find the speed on the starts so I can compete with the faster group. I am open to any suggestions.

Race Results

Andrea's Race:

My race went much smoother than Matt's. Although, I was quite worried after my preride. I really count on preriding the race courses on Saturday's to get a feel for the course and the conditions and to know what to expect. So when Steeple-Chase was closed for preriding on Saturday I was bummed. We arrived at the course a little after 8am and it took us a little while to get unpacked and set-up for the day, then I decided without waivering that it was extremely important for my confidence to go and pre-ride the course. Not only did I know the course was going to be slippery but this was the course that interupted my season last year with a broken collar bone, so to say the least I was a little pysced out. I started with the prolouge lap and then headed down the grassy downhill, that led to my demise last year, which went fine, and then into the singletrack. The first section of single track went fine and so did the Zumbrota zipper, then the 2nd set of singletrack was horrible I walked often and slid around a lot, then shortly after emerging from this section I saw the first glance os the citizen riders coming. So I stopped riding, waited for Jordan to go down the Zumbrota Zipper, I cheered her on and then I walked out to the start finish line. So my pre-ride did not go as well as I would have liked, but at least I knew the course.

I had about an hour until my race so I had a powerbar and some gaterade and tried to relax. A few minutes before the race I tooled around a bit and then headed to the start finish line. I had some friendly chit-chat with the ladies at the line and then after waiting for an ambulance to arrive we were off. I did not get a great start (I need to work on my starts), before I knew it I was in 2nd to last place.

But I know how to climb, so by the end of the prolouge I was able to get into a great position and there I stayed until the end of the race. Heading into the singletrack I was the 5th woman, although I thought I was the 4th. I worked hard and rode steady to stay as close as I could to the lady in front of me, Kris Brazil. Through the second set of singletrack, although I was riding it well, I gradually lost sight of Kris. Towards the end of the first lap Matt was out taking pictures and let me know that Kris was about 45 seconds ahead of me. So I tried to speed up a bit and see if I could close the gap. I continued to push hard through the entire second lap periodically passing a few male riders. Then towards the end of the 2nd lap, in a place where the trail turns back on itself, I noticed one female rider that I had not realized was in front of me. Kris had already passed her, so I kicked into high gear and worked as hard as I could to catch her, but I did not have enough distance.



I finished 17 seconds behind her and 4th out of 6 in my age bracket and 5th out of 11 for the female riders and 66th out of 90 overall. I was extremely happy with how my race went and excited that I conquered this course after last years trama.

Jordan's Race: