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Tailwind MTB Series Race #1 Pontiac Lake

the morning of the first of a series of rides by a group called Tail-Wind Racing and we have 8 races during the summer on all sorts of different mountain bike courses through the state of Michigan.  This will be the 5th year of my doing this series and I made some great friends over the years in this series.

In the last 5 years of racing, I have tried many disciplines; Mountain Bike, Road, Criteriums, CycloCross, Time Trial, I was even put on the track on a ‘fixie’ here in eastern Michigan once….all disciplines are a lot of fun in different ways, but I have concluded that the one I like the best is MTB.  So I have committed to this MTB racing series and it is off to the trail head at Pontiac Lake for the first MTB race of the season.  Temperature is low 40s and the sun is trying hard to take a stand (no rain—thank you!).

Showed up at the state park and ran into Gary S. (an independent rider) and Edwin H. (rides with  Wolverine) both of whom are solid riders and consistently kick my butt on any given day.  The legendary (70 plus year old) Neil Sharphorne rides by, stops to say hi and tell us about his trip to California and doing the SeaOtter (sounds like a blast).  I walk to the race organizers’ bus to pay for the season and get my number for my bike.  Great to see everyone has wintered well.

The group lines up for the 2 lap 18 mile race , happy to get the ride underway since it is so cold and there is a brisk wind in the open field-encouraging us to get into the woods where we belong.  It is 1pm, we launch.  Criteriums teach you a lot about being in a group of type-A’s and keeping your cool, jostling for position and a couple riders cutting in front of my front wheel are all part of the race.  There were a group of 5 of us who worked at a good pace up the first few hills, toward the back of the course, where it gets more wide open and more downhill, I was getting gapped.  At about mile 7 of the first lap, Gary went by me-always the gentleman with his British accent.  “Keep it up” he says.

I finished the first lap in just under 55 minutes and alone.  On the second lap, I started to work the front third of the course knowing that it would be easy to blow up on the first few hills.  On the back half of the course, I knew that if I wanted to podium at all this year, I needed to get used to- and get good at- the downhill flow of these courses…so I opened it up as much as I dare.  I was pushing it hard, not 100 percent on the edge (but then I am getting older) and with about 4 miles left in our last lap, I had reeled in Gary.  (Admittedly, he had done the rust shaker the day before, or I would never have caught him.)  I was happy to see that my second efforts paid a small dividend before the race was over.

My second and final lap was 57 minutes and I finished 10th out of 12, so not a great top ten finish.  But this series is an interesting format in that it is all about accumulating points. Racers will come and go, we will have ‘cycling snipers’ parachute in and walk away with all top three finishes on their home track, and then never see them again, so it is good to race the whole series.  I raced today on my ‘old’ full suspension FuelEX even though my Superfly is ‘tied up in the barn’ just waiting to go get some!  I am looking forward to being confident enough to let the hard tail do its work….soon.  Trek is a great bike, the engine is the operator’s role.  Go WSI Team Active!

Jack Miner

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And they’re off…..

Last Night WSI Team Active Racing got together to kick off  planning for the 2014 Season.  Eric Cook was nice enough to host at his house and, since I was driving from out of town, I convincedWSI Team Active 2014 Kick Off him to go for a ride in advance of the team meeting.

That may not have been the best idea.  Dwight  joined us and is (for some reason) at mid season form and Eric is, well what Eric always is…a machine.  I was a bit late for our departure time after making some much needed purchases at Team Active, although I was dressed and ready to go, my bike still needed to get prepped and I wanted to put toe warmers in my boots and hand warmers in my gloves.  Not sure what the temperature was, I remember seeing about 20 degrees.  While I was prepping my gear, I told Eric and Dwight that I needed about 5 minutes.  Dwight said “Okay, you get all ready, then we will start spinning and warm up on our way to the ‘Dump’.”  I thought he meant, we would have time to warm up, not that we would get on the bike and proceed to ride at 22 mph right out of the driveway!  I got warm, but not much of a warm up.

We met Kathy at an intersection about a mile from the entrance to the Dump.  It was too cold to socialize too much, but very good to see her.  I had not seen her since she returned from RAAM.  The Dump is a great technical morass of cement, tar and tile and, if you go down, something gets scratched or broken.

Last time I rode the Dump was 3 years ago, that was in the middle of the summer and I was much more comfortable handling my bike than this ride when the ground was frozen and I was cold.  Nobody fell, though I did do some sight seeing a couple times, but all in all a great ride through the woods.  On the way home, Dwight pulled and I locked on to his wheel as if my life depended on it.

My feet were so frozen, that they were numb, and (you know the feeling) I wanted to cry they hurt so bad when they started to thaw out.  But then we went to Crazy Horse for some pizza and a beer…then all was good.

All got much better when I saw the team that I started riding with 5 years ago.  Mike, Eric, Kathy, Dan, Danny, Hannah, Devin, Chuck, Charles, Dave, Dave Sr., Eric, Cameron, Dwight, April, Keith, JJ, Groat, Josh, (and I probably forgot a couple guys), have all been around since I started riding.  (JJ brought his daughter with him, it was great to meet her too.)

There is something about the internal fight you have with yourself while you are putting out a big effort (or fighting the elements) and then get together with friends who do the same thing.  It is a fraternity and sorority and a family.  It was great to see everyone, go for a ride and talk about all of the great things coming for 2014.  I value our friendship and look forward to an awesome 2014.  For those who could not make it, we missed you.

Go WSI/Team Active Racing.  Jack.

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Wrapping up the Tailwind & MMBA Series – Big M Resurrection & Addison Oaks Fall Classic

Big M Resurrection – August 4th, 2013 – Wellston, MI – Big M Ski Area

I didn’t exactly forget to write about my second race at Big M this year; what happened was that the Big M Challenge and the Big M Resurrection were on consecutive weekends, and I didn’t feel like turning this into a dedicated “mountain bike racing at Big M” blog.  Anyway, since I’ve previously detailed what riding at Big M is like, I’ll just discuss the race.

In order to win the Tailwind series, I needed to place high at the Big M Resurrection so that my result from Pontiac wouldn’t be taken into account.  I had placed 7th at Pontiac, and my next 4 races in the Tailwind series were all podium finishes; since the final standings are determined by your top 5 races, Big M would displace Pontiac if I finished higher than 7th.  So there’s that.

Apparently not many people wanted to make the drive up to Manistee for the race, and we only had 6 people in the sport SS class, including Brandon Karbum, Colin Holsinger, and Pam Bufe. Jeff Gilbert was also racing sport SS, although he usually races elite/expert in the MMBA series – USAC requires a license to race elite/expert in the Tailwind series, and Jeff justifiably did not want to pay for a license to race for one day.  I had raced against Jeff a few times before, and was anxious to see how I’d do against him with a bit more experience.

Soon after we hit the trail, it became clear to me that this race was going to be won by either myself or Jeff.  We decided to work together early on in the race, and had outpaced the rest of the field by about mile 3.  About a half-mile from the end of the course, there was a huge sketchy downhill with lots of sand – during the first lap, I (being my usual, tentative self)

Big M Resurrection Sport SS Podiumcarefully descended this section at a snail’s pace, burning up my brakes the entire time.  Jeff led during the second lap, and bombed the descent with maniacal (although oddly controlled) abandon, gaining about 20 seconds on me on that section alone.  I caught up with him about a mile into our third lap, and he was fading a bit during the climbs.  Knowing that my only chance to beat him would be to put some distance between us before that final downhill, I passed him with about 4 miles to go and increased my tempo.  I thought I had him about two miles before the finish as I couldn’t see/hear him behind me, but apparently I didn’t go hard enough, as he caught up to me as the intensity of the climbs faded right before the final descent.  Since I didn’t really need the win to clinch the series, and also because I wanted to respect the fact that he was clearly faster on that section, I let him by.  We finished about 18 seconds apart for first and second.

Although there was one race left in the Tailwind series at this point, I had locked down the series win by placing 2nd at Big M.  And since the Tailwind series also counts as the USAC state championship series, I received a state champion medal for the sport/beginner SS category.  I had no expectations about this series at the beginning of the season (since I didn’t really plan on competing in it), and I’m extremely happy with the result.

2013-08-31 13.23.06

Addison Oaks Fall Classic – September 8th, 2013 – Leonard, MI – Addison Oaks County Park

The 2012 Addison Oaks Fall Classic was my first mountain bike race ever, so I was looking forward to competing there again with a full season of racing under my belt.  On top of that, the points competition in the MMBA series was tight, and I needed to beat Talon Tramper and Byrne Johnson here in order to secure 2nd place in the series.  Furthermore, Addison Oaks is a very fast, hardpacked course, with lots of passing opportunities.  There were numerous factors making this race an exciting one.

I rode the course the night before, relatively close to dark and just after it had rained.  I was running my standard Fort Custer gearing of 38 x 18, which felt good, but I decided to make my gear a bit heavier for race day based on the amount of two-track on the course.  This ended up not being the greatest choice, because I believe I over-estimated the two-track; also, there isn’t a ton of climbing on the course, but you do spend the majority of the race on pitchy singletrack, where my larger gear wouldn’t help me much.  Anyhow.

Aside from Byrne and Talon, a number of Tailwind series racers showed up including Tim Fargo and Brandon Karbum.  Also present was my friend Mike Tuomi, who had been racing geared this year but set up his SS for this race.  The 2012 Addison race had also been his first race, and he and I had placed 7th and 8th last year, respectively.  His results in geared had been very good this year, so it was great to be racing against him again.

I took the holeshot from the start and led a 6-person paceline of Mike, Tim, Brandon, Talon, and Byrne for about 2 miles.  Now, I’m not sure exactly when this happened, but Byrne crashed during the first lap by hitting a rock on a quick uphill turn that taco’d his front rim, bent both his top and bottom tubes, and tore up his forearms.  Fortunately he was alright aside from some trail rash, but his poor bike… I feel for you, Byrne.  (aside: this would be the first of many crashes on the day)  About 3 or 4 miles into the trail, right after some not particularly technical rock gardens, I went over the bars after hitting who-knows-what with my front wheel.  Honestly, I may not have hit anything.  Ghost rocks, maybe.  Tim and Mike went by me.  I got up and tore after them, burning up quite a bit of energy.  I was bleeding a bit from my knee as well, but it didn’t seem too bad.  And my bike was ok, which is the most important thing, right?  I caught and passed them again on the longest section of two-track, and we rode together for most of the first lap.  At one point Tim washed out and fell behind, so Mike and I finished the lap together.  Now, I’m not sure where Talon came from, but he and Mike led the second lap.  My knee was starting to stiffen up from the fall, and I was having a bit of trouble pushing my gear to keep up with them.  About a mile from the end of the second lap, Talon went over a little rock/log feature and completely blew out his front tire.  He went over the bars in front of me and into a small group of trees.  It was a dangerous-looking fall, but fortunately he was ok.  But, like Byrne, his bike was not ok, and he could not finish.  He had been riding really strong too, and it would have been a great battle on the 3rd lap.  As it was, Mike and I finished the second lap, and he put the hammer down hard.  I don’t know whether it was my gearing or the fall that had sapped my energy (probably a combination), but I had nothing to keep pace with him.  It ended up being his fastest lap of the day and my slowest, so we finished for first and second; Tim Fargo ended up with 3rd.  Aside from the carnage, it was a great race.  The folks who organize Addison do a great job, and there’s free food and beer for the racers afterwards.  And Addison is a beautiful park.

2013 Addison Oaks Fall Classic Sport SS Podium

By placing 2nd at Addison, I secured 2nd place in the MMBA CPS, which I’m very happy with.  There’s one more race in the series at Pando in a few weeks, and I’ll be moving up to expert/elite SS.  6 laps of hill repeats against some of the fastest dudes in the state.  Should be a blast!

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Maybury, or rather, yrubyaM

Maybury Time Trial – August 17th, 2013 – Northville, MI – Maybury State Park

The 2013 Maybury Time Trial was the 8th race in the MMBA Championship Points Series, and a race that I had been looking forward to quite a bit.  I had finished 3rd at Yankee and 2nd at State Games, and since only 2 out of 3 of the CPS time trial races count towards your points total, the only way Maybury was going to matter to the standings for me was if I placed higher than 3rd.  There’s also the time trial “series within a series” for the CPS (to encourage racers to do all 3), but I wasn’t particularly concerned with that.  In short, I wasn’t feeling much pressure for this race, and really just wanted to go out hard and have a good time on the trail.  Livening things up a bit was the fact that there were quite a few sport SS riders competing – Eric Wolting wanted to lock down the time trial series in his last race in the sport category (he’d won at both Yankee and State Games); Tony Cressey (who beat me by a lot at Pontiac) was back racing following a broken scapula suffered at Mud, Sweat, & Beers; my Wolverine Sports Club foes Tim Fargo & Fabrice Portes were in attendance; and Talon Tramper had made the trip with his Village Bike crew from GR.  Oh, I should also mention that they had reversed the course, which eliminated any benefit the local riders may have had.

A little about the course – Maybury is 75% tight, technical singletrack with lots of rocks & roots.  Reversed, there’s basically no intuitive way to carry momentum, so it required a really active riding style (read: a LOT of work).  For the race, it was roughly a 10-mile loop, with 1.5 miles of grass/gravel/2-track at the start, 6.5 miles of singletrack, and then another mile or so of pavement/2-track/grass at the end.  The race organizers gave everyone a chance to pre-ride the course on the Friday night preceding the race, which I took advantage of.  I’m not sure it really helped me, because there’s so much technical stuff that your brain just goes “Roots, roots, roots, rocks, roots, horrible switchback, surprisingly terrible climb (featuring: roots!), roots… bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…” Nothing really sticks.  But it was good to get a decent spin in my legs the night before the race, and it did give me a general idea of what to expect.

The morning of the race I was feeling pretty great.  For the past two weeks, work had been rough with long hours and high stress, and for the first time in a while, I was feeling scrappy.  Unfortunately, this didn’t exactly translate to how I felt during the race, but it was a good way to start the day nonetheless.  My beautiful bride Jessica and my brother-in-law Eric were kind enough to accompany me, and we arrived at the park around noon.  I had a 1 p.m. start time, so I got my business together, chatted with Mr. Wolting, and cruised around for a warm-up that was probably too brief.  It was relatively hot out (high 70’s), for what’s been a very cool August, but otherwise the weather was perfect.  So, on to the race.

I was 5th off the line behind 3 Expert/Elite SS riders and one sport rider (Jonathan Bolenbaugh, I believe?).  I had a clumsy start, missing my pedal and jamming the nose of the saddle into my lower back/upper butt.  Ugh.  On the initial out-and-back grass/2-track, I could tell I wasn’t going to feel great during the race – heavy legs, rough breathing, etc., likely due to the heat.  But cycling is suffering, right?  Push through it.  I caught the sport SS rider after about 2 miles in the single track, and he kindly let me pass.  After that, I was basically alone all race.  The expert/elite guys in front of me were clearly extremely quick, and I never saw them.  I did see some of my sport SS competitors on the trail where it doubles back on itself, and towards the end I could tell that Eric was making up distance on me, but I was never passed during the race (which, during a time trial, means you’re cooked).  I kept my head about me, made sure I stayed upright on my bike, and tried to find the best lines through the root maze.  There was a climb at the end of the course that everyone had been griping about, as it really catches you off-guard, and I did have to do a bit of a run-up for that.  Otherwise, I felt like I was riding competently, but I didn’t feel fast.  Eric caught up to me right at the end of the course, and he crossed the line right behind me.  That meant I definitely did not win, as he had started over a minute behind me, but other than that I had no clue how things were shaking out.  When everything was sorted, it turns out my time of 41:27 was good for second place.  Eric had tied with a geared sport rider for the fastest sport time of the day at 39:59, and Tony Cressey had finished for 3rd at 42:25.  Given how I felt during the race, I was very happy with this result.

You can do whatever you want with your arms when there's no photographer yelling "ARMS UP GENTLEMEN" at you.
You can do whatever you want with your arms when there’s no photographer yelling “ARMS UP GENTLEMEN” at you.

I’m likely going to be skipping the last Tailwind race at Stony Creek on Aug. 24th, so that leaves just two more MMBA series races at Addison and Pando.  Time to finish this thing strong. – Adam Cefai

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Summer Races – LJ 100, Big M and Ore2Shore

UPAs any of us have experienced; work trumps life, in fact, I try to operate in the exact opposite hierarchy- but it happens.  So far this year, training has taken a big hit and it shows up on the weekend races.  My goal this year was to try to crack the top 3 in the Sport Tailwind series (last year I finished 3rd, but this year, the race organizers pulled out my strongest race-the stage race) and I now currently sit in 6th after finishing the last race that I can make for the series.

 

Race season is far from over, but I want to catch up with a few notable races.  In mid June, I competed in the Lumber Jack 100.  Or rather, I showed up hoping that I could mentally overcome a huge lack of training (the volume in anticipation for the LJ100 is huge—at least it should have been for me).  Eric Cook and Charles Elder joined me and a buddy of mine (Kayo R.) at my dad’s cabin to prepare for the 100 mile race.  Without belaboring the details, my legs cramped so badly that after 50 miles, I knew my day was over.  I stopped at the remote aid station, hoping to find a short cut back to the start, and they told me that the fastest route was to follow the course.  I completed about 60 miles of the LJ100 and felt that I wasted my entry fee.

 

Early August, I returned to the Big-M to exercise some demons only to find that the demons were laughing at me all three laps of the Tailwind 18 mile race.  I finished DFL in 7th place for my category.  (Prior to this I finished 3 races in a row one out of the medals-a completely discouraging reality check.)  I had signed up for the Ore2Shore the following weekend, so I stayed in the cabin to work out, stretch, eat well and focus on Life and cycling (I had recently been honored with a promotion to Director at the U in our Tech Transfer office).

 

The next weekend, August 10, was the Ore to Shore Mountain Bike race.  The Ore2Shore was in the beautiful back drop of the Upper Peninsula’s Marquette with a  crystal blue sky and crisp morning.  I love being in the UP and the 9:45 start helped keep it from being too miserable of a morning start.  The start was a bit of a wonky roll-out on pavement with a lot of eager riders trying to get to the front of the race.  I did not witness any crashes, but I saw some really stupid moves.  Some challenging short hills at the beginning of the race helped line us up into 2 threads of bikes and riders heading up the Negaunee country side.  I was feeling okay, but felt like I was losing places even though it was still early.  We then came to a train (yes a train) that was across the race course.  The race piled up as if we were salmon at a dam until the leaders saw that we were only yards away from the front of the train, so we rode quickly to get in front of the train before it started to move again (which it did right after we crossed).  We were bunched up and walking for quite a while until we got into the really steep climbs (one hill called misery hill) which was impossible to ride up due to everyone walking their bikes in the middle of the hill.  In these hills (about 10 miles into the race) there were some short steep down hills with some huge rock outcroppings.  My font wheel found a crevasse in one of these down hill rocks and I end-o’d and hit harder than I have ever hit before—so hard that my vision began to narrow because of the pain on my left side.  (I knew that the best thing for me to do was to just ride and hope that the adrenaline would mask the pain until we were done.)  This worked until a guy stopped in front of me in a huge sand pit 5 miles from the end, I slowly fell to my left side in the soft sand but the pain all returned as a reminder of my age and lack of training.  With a few miles to go, the effervescent Angela Bowers came flying by and made me forget about the pain and think about how lucky I was to be doing this.  I pushed this race as much as I could possibly push, hammering all the way through the last 2 miles of winding pavement to the finish line.  I finished in 3:30, which was 36th of 63 Men age 50 to 54…not bad,  but then the season has been a series of races against myself anyway.

Jack Miner, WSI Team Active Fan and part time racer!