Fat Tire Fun
This was my 13th time at the Chequamegon Fat Tire Festival. I started by doing nine of the Fat Tire 40s before switching to the Short and Fat for the last few years. I went into this race will low expectations because I've never really done that well at Chequamegon in either the 40 or the 16 mile race. I'm not sure I ever cracked the top 75 women in the 40 mile race and my best finish in the Short was in 2004 when I did finish a fabulous 22nd.
My first worry about the race was that I get a flat almost every time I ride as there is something wrong with my wheel. I had hoped I had gotten it fixed but on the Friday fun ride I flatted so I was forced to do the event running about 60psi in my rear tire as that is the only way to ensure I don't flat. I wasn't too excited about that as it makes the downhills a little sketchy. However, I reminded myself that in the mid-1990s I regularly ran that much air pressure and undoubtedly did at least one or two of the 40 mile races that way.
In addition, this year's event got off to a bit of a rocky start when I picked up my race number on Friday night and realized that I didn't get a preferred start (later I realized that I never told Dave to check the box requesting a preferred start so it was my own fault). At first that threw off my race plan as having a prefered start means sleeping in later and getting to do at least some type of warm up. However, I told myself that it didn't matter and I hadn't done all that great last year so I wasn't all that deserving and it would be fun to try and catch some of the women who get preferred starts, etc., etc.
Race morning I ride the couple of miles into Cable from where we're staying, put my bike down in the starting chute and decide that I still got there in plenty of time to get an adequate start position not that far behind the preferred start area. Unfortunately, 10 minutes before the race starts they remove the area between the preferred start and regular start and everyone gets to move up closer -- except the people surrounding me didn't want to be any closer so they barely moved and suddenly I was really far back.
At this point though I was feeling all zen about the situation and wasn't stressing as I had really low expectations anyway. Finally the start gun is fired . . . and nothing happens. It seems that a few years of preferred start made me forget what it's like back with the "regular racers." I actually thought that the front hadn't started (although it had) and it took well over a minute before the back of the pack got going at all. Although "going" wasn't what we were doing as we were riding so slowly. Back where I was you didn't have to worry about your heartrate getting up too high in the first mile or two as we weren't rocketing out at high speed.
Not to be mean but I've never started a race as slow as I did on Saturday (and I used to be a back, back, back of the pack kind of gal). I never had a preferred start in the 40 mile race but I still felt like I was racing full on from the moment we moved. In the Short and Fat I was searching for any way to move up at all but it was very congested and to me it felt like we were going pretty slow (however, on the plus side there weren't bad crashes right next to me like in last year's start which was quite scary). I jumped on the wheel of anyone that was snaking through the slower riders but a lot of times it was just me looking for gaps that I could safely move through. Not an easy thing since I saw things like this kid who had taken his helmet off to ride up the small climb and was swerving all over the road as he attempted to put his helmet back on for the downhill. YIKES!
That's really the story of my race . . . constantly passing people which is kind of crazy since I'm notorious for not passing people and even on the bike path drive Dave insane by sitting behind people for no reason. It felt pretty good to catch people with preferred start numbers. It felt great to hit one of the long sections of gravel fire road, see a woman, catch her and then accelerate away from her in a way that I never have been able to do on the road sections before. It was amazing to keep wondering when the "horrible" climbs would come and realize that they never did as they didn't feel as horrible this year. It was astounding to catch a woman on the final climb before dropping down into the finishing bowl and realize that I got a good gap immediately and that she wouldn't be close enough at the finishing climb that I'd need to sprint.
And the thing that was the most amazing of all was that I finished 16th overall out of 229 women and 168th out of 845 finishers total. I was totally shocked when my teammate Sam told me I had done really well and was only a little behind her. I couldn't believe it until they posted the official results and saw for myself that I was in the top 20. I was also 2nd in my age group so I got to go to the awards ceremony and get the much coveted Fat Tire pottery. I'm still in shock as I got my good result on the year when I had totally written it off. During the whole race I never thought I was doing that well. I actually thought I was going to have a bad race (and bad cx season) as I didn't think I was suffering enough to really be racing well. I really had no idea that I had passed so many women that I was suddenly in the top 20. It was nice to finally have a good result at Chequamegon and to have everything just go so well during the race. Maybe when I return to doing the Chequamegon 40 I will have a great race there one day and crack the top 75 women.
My first worry about the race was that I get a flat almost every time I ride as there is something wrong with my wheel. I had hoped I had gotten it fixed but on the Friday fun ride I flatted so I was forced to do the event running about 60psi in my rear tire as that is the only way to ensure I don't flat. I wasn't too excited about that as it makes the downhills a little sketchy. However, I reminded myself that in the mid-1990s I regularly ran that much air pressure and undoubtedly did at least one or two of the 40 mile races that way.
In addition, this year's event got off to a bit of a rocky start when I picked up my race number on Friday night and realized that I didn't get a preferred start (later I realized that I never told Dave to check the box requesting a preferred start so it was my own fault). At first that threw off my race plan as having a prefered start means sleeping in later and getting to do at least some type of warm up. However, I told myself that it didn't matter and I hadn't done all that great last year so I wasn't all that deserving and it would be fun to try and catch some of the women who get preferred starts, etc., etc.
Race morning I ride the couple of miles into Cable from where we're staying, put my bike down in the starting chute and decide that I still got there in plenty of time to get an adequate start position not that far behind the preferred start area. Unfortunately, 10 minutes before the race starts they remove the area between the preferred start and regular start and everyone gets to move up closer -- except the people surrounding me didn't want to be any closer so they barely moved and suddenly I was really far back.
At this point though I was feeling all zen about the situation and wasn't stressing as I had really low expectations anyway. Finally the start gun is fired . . . and nothing happens. It seems that a few years of preferred start made me forget what it's like back with the "regular racers." I actually thought that the front hadn't started (although it had) and it took well over a minute before the back of the pack got going at all. Although "going" wasn't what we were doing as we were riding so slowly. Back where I was you didn't have to worry about your heartrate getting up too high in the first mile or two as we weren't rocketing out at high speed.
Not to be mean but I've never started a race as slow as I did on Saturday (and I used to be a back, back, back of the pack kind of gal). I never had a preferred start in the 40 mile race but I still felt like I was racing full on from the moment we moved. In the Short and Fat I was searching for any way to move up at all but it was very congested and to me it felt like we were going pretty slow (however, on the plus side there weren't bad crashes right next to me like in last year's start which was quite scary). I jumped on the wheel of anyone that was snaking through the slower riders but a lot of times it was just me looking for gaps that I could safely move through. Not an easy thing since I saw things like this kid who had taken his helmet off to ride up the small climb and was swerving all over the road as he attempted to put his helmet back on for the downhill. YIKES!
That's really the story of my race . . . constantly passing people which is kind of crazy since I'm notorious for not passing people and even on the bike path drive Dave insane by sitting behind people for no reason. It felt pretty good to catch people with preferred start numbers. It felt great to hit one of the long sections of gravel fire road, see a woman, catch her and then accelerate away from her in a way that I never have been able to do on the road sections before. It was amazing to keep wondering when the "horrible" climbs would come and realize that they never did as they didn't feel as horrible this year. It was astounding to catch a woman on the final climb before dropping down into the finishing bowl and realize that I got a good gap immediately and that she wouldn't be close enough at the finishing climb that I'd need to sprint.
And the thing that was the most amazing of all was that I finished 16th overall out of 229 women and 168th out of 845 finishers total. I was totally shocked when my teammate Sam told me I had done really well and was only a little behind her. I couldn't believe it until they posted the official results and saw for myself that I was in the top 20. I was also 2nd in my age group so I got to go to the awards ceremony and get the much coveted Fat Tire pottery. I'm still in shock as I got my good result on the year when I had totally written it off. During the whole race I never thought I was doing that well. I actually thought I was going to have a bad race (and bad cx season) as I didn't think I was suffering enough to really be racing well. I really had no idea that I had passed so many women that I was suddenly in the top 20. It was nice to finally have a good result at Chequamegon and to have everything just go so well during the race. Maybe when I return to doing the Chequamegon 40 I will have a great race there one day and crack the top 75 women.
. . . and if Saturday's race wasn't good enough I did the Sunday Rough Stuff Rendezvous orienteering race on Sunday and got 2nd in my age group even though Dave and I did have trouble with the first checkpoint and lost a ton of time at the start. We actually did good after that luckily and weren't lost forever in the woods (thanks more to Dave's skills reading a topo map then mine though).
What a weekend! We rode the fabulous singletrack in the area on Friday, hung out with friends and ate pasta, raced on Saturday, drank beer and ate a lot on Saturday night, got great awards (SRAM cassette and pottery plaque), did some Sunday orienteering, drank more beer, saw lots of friends, and finally came home. Can't beat that for a weekend!
Oh yeah, and when I got home I found out I was famous in Wales !
Here' s photos of Dave from the Chequamegon Fat Tire 40 . . . he finished 205th. It wasn't his best result ever but very, very respectable (out of 1469 male finishers). He said he was riding great until 12 miles to go at which point he said he "was riding backwards." He recovered well though as he was riding the hills fast enough on Sunday to make my legs hurt as I chased after him.
You can see Dave he's about half way up this pohto with the purple and yellow kit with the camelback sliding off to the right of his back. This is the infamous Fire Tower hill climb which has many, many pitches that have to be climbed and it is rocky and loose.
Photos from skinnyski.com
posted by MadCross at 1:37 PM
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