WSI Knobby Tread aficionados Dan Frayer and Jeff Cachero took a road trip this weekend to throw down at Endoman Promotion’s Founders Peak 2 Peak Mountain Bike race. Looped up, down and around Thomsonville’s Crystal Mountain Ski Resort, the 12 mile loop provides everything a dirt bag mountain biker loves.
Flat trails, quick turns, teeth rattling slick roots and one ball buster of a climb. We are talking bleeding out your eyes, ears popping from pressure switch back climb.
While standing in line with 30+ fat bikers I watched Jeff’s group be counted down from ten seconds, and like being shot out of a cannon I watched his WSI jersey disappear into the woods. The start looked painfully fast so I made sure I scooted up real close to the timing mat before gunning it for the hole shot.
The announcer (Grand Rapids Single Speed Legend Jeff Jacobi) called “ten seconds to start” and the next thing I know I was raging third wheel into a tight sandy turn hearing only the deafening sound of 4 inch knobby tires around me and the sound of my own near death asthma attack wheezing.
Two laps at 12 miles each was on the menu for today’s pay to play excursion. My neighbor and training partner Nick and I worked together for the first lap sitting third and fourth keeping the top guys in site. My plan was to deliver him to the base of the big climb and I would hang on if I could.
Lap 2 was faster without all the traffic. I lost Nick up the big hill but he was still in the crosshairs as I was now sitting fourth, with the third place guy picking all the good lines for me. He had a beard so I trusted his judgement.
I held the wheel to the base of the hill with Nick long gone battling for the top spot. The 5th place fat biker came from out of nowhere making a move up the hill and the guy in front of me giving chase. My gas tank was empty and I could not match it. Now sitting 5th, I was alone to work my way up the kill hill. When I came around a blind corner I heard the announcer say “We have a fat tire race on our hands” and I saw the 3rd and 4th place riders cresting the hill and dropping into the single track descent to the finish. I dropped two gears and stood up giving it what I had left which wasn’t much.
“Focus, No mistakes, focus, no mistakes, focus” was what I said to myself as I decided to take some risks on the decent hoping to pull the two riders back. As I railed around a sweeping turn I came up on the 4th place rider wrapped up in some trees on the side of the trail. I made my way around his wreckage and didn’t touch the brakes again until the finish line. 4th place finish, with my neighbor on the podium in 2nd and Jeff finishing 10th in the Sport category.
A Founders Dirty Bastard Scotch Ale never tasted so Good.
Saturday, July 16th was the annual 8-hours of Ithaca endurance mountain bike race and one of our “northern” riders, Jeff Glynn, represented the team very well. With the course right in his back yard (almost literally), you could say he’s got the home-trail advantage living right there in Ithaca.
Leading up to the race, Jeff was able to put in several hours of pre-race trail time with several of the other local riders to get the trail in top shape. On Saturday, he raced in the two-person Expert division with a friend and managed to get in 22 laps, totaling 110 miles for the race. That was enough to take first place for the day, and while it was a long day on the trail, we’re excited to have Jeff represent WSI with top podium finish. Way to go Jeff!
This was my third attempt at the Race Across America, the longest bike race in the United States (and some say the toughest sporting event on the planet). My first crossing of the U.S. was in 2011 and I was fortunate to have crossed the finish line in the time allotment. By doing so, I set the record for the women’s solo 50+ category, being the first woman in the history of the event to complete the race in this category. The second time I attempted the crossing was in 2013. Unfortunately, I was forced to stop the race due to a combination of upper respiratory issues, caused by forest fires in Colorado, compounded by a demoralizing headwind in Kansas. Yeah, riding into a 20 mph wind when you can’t breathe is no fun.
This year I got further than 2013 and made it just before West Virginia. But with roughly 400 miles to go, I made the decision not to continue for the safety of one of my crew members. Being so close yet having to drop out of the race was not an easy decision, but safety is not something to compromise on, especially with a race like this. While I was not able to cross the finish line this year, it was an honor to again defend my title and retaining the record for yet one more year.
My sincere gratitude to all, since just to be able to stand on the start line is a feeling of accomplishment and not something that can be done without the support of many key people. I would not be able to experience this if it was not for the help of family, friends and a couple of specific people like Eric Cook with WSI, Chip Murdoch of College Chevrolet, James and the crew at Niterider and Alan and Mike from Team Active.
My crew holds a special place in my heart – You are all amazing!
2011-Eric (Wallace), Charles, Mark, Amy, Kelvin, Mara
2013-Eric, Mark, Chuck, Zandra, Mike
2015-Eric, Charles, Deb, Liz, Barb
To check out some photos of the race and updates on RAAM, be sure to visit (and Like!) my GoKathyGo Facebook page. You can also check out my website at www.GoKathyGo.com for even more information about what I’ve got planned form my next “big adventure.”
Stay on Top of Your Pedals,
Kathy Roche-Wallace- #415
I signed up for the 24 Hours of Sebring as a personal test and training for my upcoming RAAM event in June… and I’m glad I did. At the end of the 24 hours, I logged 338.9 miles, enough to take 2nd in my age group. Not too bad of a result, considering most of my training this year has been indoors riding on rollers!
What a unique venue, the last 12hrs we were riding on the actual 3.14 mile race track. The only part of the track that was lit was the pit stop. The marking of the race track was back rear bike lights that they laid on the track like run way lights for airplanes. My crew is amazing and did an excellent job keeping me on my bike. It was a challenge, I kept wanting to stop after every lap, and those stops were adding up to laps lost. I raced with the mindset that I was on my 6th day of RAAM and the main goal was to stay within myself and be able to ride for another 6 days and this pace. Training continues on rollers for now with the next big training, heading to State College Pa. to visit my daughter and grand kids and do some long rides in the mountains.
Kathy
P.S. If you’ve not heard yet, we’ve also set up an Indiegogo Life page for Kathy to help collect donations in support of her RAAM event this year. As you can suspect, undertaking something like RAAM obviously takes physical and mental commitment – but the financial commitment is one that cannot be forgotten. If you’d like to support Kathy with a contribution of any amount, feel free to donate online!
Team Active represents all that is good in cycling. First time cyclists arrive with their old bikes at the Team Active store for a Monday night ride wearing running shorts and tennis shoes and are welcomed to a group ride by friendly cycling enthusiasts. Everyone wearing a WSI/Team Active jersey shares tips for keeping up, staying warm, and improving performance. These are things that I rarely see shared with strangers on other rides (and I have ridden with several groups nationwide.) I was one of those first time cyclists in 2007 and Team Active made me feel at home and showed me that, with proper training, anyone can safely race!
I am 52 years old and as the years go by, it is more and more important that I spend time doing things that represent my personal values. It is not that I am worried about what kind of legacy I would leave (I suspect those thoughts will start to enter my mind when I consider retirement—which I do not expect to do until I am 90!), rather, it is looking at what I value and wanting to do those things better and better. To me, this means trying to find time to carve out of the week for family, spending a little more time at the office to prep for the next day’s meetings, giving back, and doing things that I know my WSI/Team Active teammates do every day. I know my they do these things everyday, because that is what drew me to Team Active and WSI/Team Active Racing nearly 9 years ago. In the last 5 years of racing, I have finished 8th in the Iceman, 3rd in my age group 3 times in the Tailwind MTB Race Series and have ‘flown the Team Active Flag’ several times from the podium. I did countless CX, MTB, Road and Criterium races but over the last 2 years, those trips to the podium have become less and less frequent…and this bothers me.
As you all know, the race does not show people how good you are, the race is a demonstration of the training and discipline you were able to adhere to during the time between races. Looking at my performances, it is clear that I need to change something, because I value the lifestyle and healthy living that bike racing represents. Eating a bag of chips and sitting on the couch 5 days a week does not represent lifestyles of the majority of high performing cyclists. (Those of you who can eat whatever you want, train on the ‘nice days’ and show up to finish in the top 10 make me jealous….you know who you are!) I also need training buddies who expect to meet me at a certain time and a certain place to ride, because I will show up to ride if you expect to see me. That is was Team Active provided for me for many years.
The word training has, no doubt, been a theme in this final WSI/Team Active race report. It has indeed been the thing on my mind nearly all season. It Is not that I have not had time to train, it is that I did not take the time to find people to ride with between races, and as such, I did not train nearly as much as I know was necessary this race season. Training was certainly on my mind prior to the start of that icy rainy November day. I went into the 2014 Iceman MTB Race knowing that I would suffer on the hills and feel that the finish line would never come—and would hope to hang on in the snow and rain for less than 3 hours to get the final race off the books AND raise $3,000 for the Michigan Alzheimer’s Disease Center. Prophetically, I put my chain brush in my jersey and cast aside my glasses, knowing that mud and sand was my enemy—I lined up for my wave, clipped in and started to spin.
Worst. Race. Ever.
That is what a friend and fellow racer texted me after the race. Miserable, was what I said to my dad at least 10 times while I was shivering into dry clothes from the tent. I had actually expected that the muddy conditions might have been an equalizer for my lack of training. What I had not counted on was the fact that I had exactly the wrong tires on my bike. The Kenda’s that I have been training on with my full suspension bike would have been perfect, but I had not even though about changing tires on my Super Fly that I was using during the race…big mistake. Our wave ‘13’ departed in the rain at 9:36 am and entered the course without incident. The sand was a bit loose, but typical for being that far back in the Iceman (over 1,000 participants were already on course by the time I hit the woods.) But as soon as we hit the single track, the sand changed to mud and I immediately realized that the tires I had might just as well have been racing slicks.
First tight turn and I went straight into a tree. I had no control of my bike. So I slowed down, but I would start to speed up again or drop down a hill and again go straight into the woods. I fell a half dozen times, wrapped a sapling in my cassette which caused some significant drive train issues for the last half of the race. I hit a tree so hard that I bruised the heel of my left hand as I tried to fend off the tree. I figured I was done when I could not keep my chain on my the drive train, but I stopped twice and spent several minutes brushing the sand out of my chain, finessed the cassette to a bigger gear and was able to muscle up the shorter hills. The sand finally cleared and I was able to spin up the more notorious hills like Anita’s Hill.
Presenting the $4,000 in donations raised this year to the Michigan Alzheimer’s Disease Center.
Miserable. I watched the timer on my Garmin go past 2 hours and was still a long way from the finish, I knew this would be one of the slowest Iceman finishes I would ever post. In the back of my mind were two things; I was raising money for the Michigan Alzheimer’s Disease Center and I was not going to DNF. I hate the feeling of DNFs and to DNF in my last race wearing the WSI jersey would be the worst! So I pressed on. My finishing time was 3:32! Horribly slow. I cannot blame it all on the equipment, clearly my training was not up to par, but I am a pretty cautious rider and going into the woods several times would have slowed me down even if I was at the peak of my fitness. Regardless, the race was over. The season was over. I retired my WSI/Team Active jersey after raising $4,000 for the Michigan Alzheimer’s Disease Center knowing that I gave everything I had on that miserable day.
And now, I am sad to say that it is time for me to find a local team of people to train with here in Ann Arbor area so I can leave work and be on the trail within a half hour or so…peer pressure is the key for my training. Team Active’s awesome sponsorship through Mike Wood and the team coaches (former coach) Angela, Danny, and our huge sponsor/coach Eric and WSI have meant a lot to me and I know I will see you all at the races next season—hopefully I will be fitter and faster. Go WSI/Team Active Forever!
WSI Knobby Tread aficionados Dan Frayer and Jeff Cachero took a road trip this weekend to throw down at Endoman Promotion’s Founders Peak 2 Peak Mountain Bike race. Looped up, down and around Thomsonville’s Crystal Mountain Ski Resort, the 12 mile loop provides everything a dirt bag mountain biker loves.
While standing in line with 30+ fat bikers I watched Jeff’s group be counted down from ten seconds, and like being shot out of a cannon I watched his WSI jersey disappear into the woods. The start looked painfully fast so I made sure I scooted up real close to the timing mat before gunning it for the hole shot.
I held the wheel to the base of the hill with Nick long gone battling for the top spot. The 5th place fat biker came from out of nowhere making a move up the hill and the guy in front of me giving chase. My gas tank was empty and I could not match it. Now sitting 5th, I was alone to work my way up the kill hill. When I came around a blind corner I heard the announcer say “We have a fat tire race on our hands” and I saw the 3rd and 4th place riders cresting the hill and dropping into the single track descent to the finish. I dropped two gears and stood up giving it what I had left which wasn’t much.
