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Tail Wind Series-Island Lake 2013

Temperature was mid 50s.  Adam Cefai was in the house and it was great to see him and warm up with him prior to the race.  Experts returned and gave reports that the track was running fast.  We lined up a little before 1pm and chatted with all of the ‘usual suspects’.  I said good bye to Adam as he was going to start behind the sport class.  My good friend Gary was there, realized that I did not have my transponder on.  Starter said, no problems…they would track me based on my number.

We rolled.  Gary took a wide sprint to the right to get into a cleaner line.  Gary and I have been racing each other for years, I figured that was the last I would see him.  Nice little pitch up to start the race kept us well bunched together and I could see the front  guy run away, but the rest of us were pretty close to each other.

The new course has us going through the woods on a lopping carving path that is not hard, but is difficult to keep speed.  I stayed with the top 5 riders and pushed from the back until we had a chance to pass.  Gary was in 3rd wheel when we go to some nice straight lines.  I recovered on his wheel and chatted with him about how some fat tire guy flew through the curves like he was on skis.

We got to the first road crossing and I passed Gary and told him to take my wheel and I would pull for a while.  As we came up to a choke point in the turn, one guy squeezed by me, but I figured Gary was still on my 6.  He was actually rubbed off at the choke point and so I drove up to be next to the guy who slid past me as we hit the wash outs on the west side of the course.

No real action, one or two single speeds came by, then I heard Adam call me.  I slid over and let him pass, he was about 20 seconds behind the two guys in front of him.

I rode the wheel of a couple guys who were keeping a good pace in some tight single track and the guy behind me was calling out turns and obstacles like a rally driver’s co pilot.  We made the hard left onto the yellow course.

We looped through the Blue Lot start and were in the final stretch.  I was passed by Mr. Sharphorne.  I respect the crap out of this guy.  I pushed hard to stay with the 72 year old legend and as we came up to the finishing loop.  I hung on his wheel, could have passed, but felt it was heresy to do so.  I pulled along next to him in the last 100 yards and he saw me out of the corner of his eye.  He picked up the tempo a bit and I said I was not going to challenge him for the line and let him get in front of me.  Sometimes you don’t need a yellow jersey to get a great deal of respect.

I finished somewhere in the top 10, but had a great ride with some great people.

Jack Miner.

 

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ICEMAN 2012

the ICEMAN is as much an event as it is a race.  Preparing for it is like the excitement of a year-end race party while being anxious about more than 4, price 000 cyclists in a race.  For me, it was hard not to complain in October about being sick and not being able to train the way I knew I should, but there are so many guys who are fighting so much tougher illnesses and broken bones, I opted to just keep it to myself (and my loving wife who tolerates me).

Pre-riding the last third of the race has become a key part of this race preparation.  The race organizers seem to find pleasure in having a “pseudo” finish with a mile or two left or crazy choke points in the chute that make things interesting after having turned yourself inside out for a couple hours.  On Friday, I rode from Williamsburg road to the finish and found each of Anita’s Hill and Cassies Cliff to be manageable if I stayed off the oak leaves.  There was no traction in the oak leaves in the middle of the 20 percent grade at the top of Anita’s Hill (good lesson for Saturday).  My dad was helping me by dragging me around the county as I did the obligatory package pick up, pre-race prep and other things that make me hard to be around.  But all was good, an easy Friday Prep, the Fuel EX was running great, full suspension (which is not necessary for this race) was topped off and ocked out…I was ready for a fitful night’s sleep.

Listening to the radio on Saturday on the way to Kalkaska, the radio guy said there was 1 ½”  of snow on the ground in Acme, right in the 30 mile path of our ride between Kalkaska and Traverse City.  I recalled a previous ICEMAN where the trail conditions transitioned from an ice rink in Kalkaska to wheel grabbing mud in Timber Ridge, turned out that the finishing conditions were going to be replicated this year.

The race started well, I moved up from mid-front to front 10 after the first hard left turn which guides us out to the trail between the middle school and the Hockey Arena.  Wanting to keep my heart rate well below threshold for the first half of the race (with training well below what it should have been, I wanted to pace myself for the last half of the race) but still wanting to be in position to stay away from the guys who cannot handle the sand well in the first couple of hills, I stayed toward the front.

Guys who clearly were over-confident or under-experienced, went into the oak leaves to pass and were falling down regularly.  In the first 10 miles, I heard more than a half dozen guys go down behind me and maybe the same number fell in front of me.  I actually rode over the back tire of a guy who fell in front of me on some single track.  I was feeling good going into Williamsburg road hill, my dad with his customary goose call rooting me on and good friend Patrick and Cristen yelling at me to get my “fat ass up the hill”.  It made me laugh, and I felt good with about 17 k to go.

My goal was to average 20 minute 5 mile ‘sections’, the first was 18, the second well over 20 and the third was also over 20 minutes.  I was starting to feel the affects of not having put in big efforts in October.  After passing Williamsburg road, it was a different race.  Tactically, I had handled the race exactly how I wanted, and was taking advantage of the big descents that accompany the climbs.  I am not sure what happened during one of the descents, I suspect that I just kicked up a lot of mud into my drive train and I ended up losing access to my small ring and half of my middle ring, climbing became an impossible task.

Anyone who has ridden these hills knows that it is much easier on your legs to spin up in your granny gear than to run up off of your bike…your quads, calves and ham strings just scream when you are off the bike.  Spinning up was no longer an option for me, the chain just wrapped around the middle ring every time I tried to call for the small ring…SUCKED!

I was much more upset about the training that lead up to the race than the race itself, I feel like I handled the course well and, except for being at a full stop between 24 and 26 k (off the bike stopped!  Though I had heard of this, it had never happened to me before…miserable).  After the race, I found that my rear derailleur was bent, I have no idea how it happened, but it compounded the gritty drive train issues, for sure.  At the finish, there was nothing left of me—at all.  By the time I found my dad and my change of clothes, I was feeling sick to my stomach, something that took 45 minutes to go away.

The race was a very hard effort for me and I was very disappointed in my results, it turns out, however, that my results were on par with what they were last year.  I finished 30 out of 92 with a time just over 2:30 (10 minutes slower than last year.)

It is a great sport, I finish this ‘last race’ every year and by the time the beer is gone, I am looking forward to next year’s races and training over the winter.  Thanks as always to Team Active and WSI for sponsoring the team—it was great to see a bunch of TAR Teamies at the finish.  Have a good winter…see you at the end of winter party.

Jack Miner

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Chuck’s Iceman Race Report

I was seeded in the 7th wave going off at 9:18. With the combined early start time, seeded wave, and weather forecast I was confident for a 2hr or under finish. Watching racers arrive at the start area with snow on their vehicles started to deflate my hopes, the weather man got this one wrong. I second guessed my tire set up and pressure hearing of mushy muddy conditions in the last half of the course.

Well no changing anything now I’ll just make the best of what I had set up. I got a good start, pace lining with the top ten in my wave through the first 4-5 miles I then settled into my pace. I had caught a group of 20-30 riders bunched up on the new single track section even coming to a complete stop which was probably the worst hold up of the whole race. In all I think this was one of my funniest.

The trail conditions on the single track really brought out the skill in racers, with the leaves being dry and slick in Kalkaska, to picking the fast line in the sand during the middle half, to using the leaves for traction in the muddy sections at the end.

I finished 17th out of 99 with a time of 2:10:30. A little slower than I was hoping for.

~Chuck Brenner

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Bloomer Park Cycling Heaven 7.22,12

Not only was there an awesome Mountain Bike race going on at Bloomer today, there was a full-on demonstration of races in the Velodrome.  I need to spend some time in the Velodrome and tell you more about it.

This race report is going to be  kind of ‘run of the mill’ because that was what my performance was.  I went out (my new Fuel EX frame was freaky fast) I rode the switch backs as well as I could , I rode the straight parts as fast as I could and I finished 3rd.

It was hot and dusty, no disasters, just kinda did was I was supposed to do.  I did ride behind Neil Sharphorn for a lap.  He is a legend.  70 plus years old, Nationally recognized MTB racer.  He was awesome to follow.  Awesome motor up-hills, was smooth as silk in the turns…I kept telling him how awesome he was, he was having trouble hearing me though so every time I talked to him, he slowed down so he could hear me….figured I would quit slowing him down.  And yes, he beat me by a couple minutes—most happy I will ever be to have been beat by a 70 year old stroke surviver….I can only hope to be that fast and fit when I am 70.

Thanks to WSI-Team Active for letting me live a dream.

Jack Miner.

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Dr. TK Lawless TT

Several Teammates and I competed in the Dr. TK Lawless TT on Sunday. The weather and trail conditions could not have been better for us. Around 65° mostly Sunny and dry, very different than what the road team encounter on Saturday. I entered the sport class 30 – 39, which was one 10 mile loop around the park. For the first time in my racing career I beat 5 other guys and took the podium with a first place finish with a time of 48 minutes. Unfortunately I was out on the course with my son during the award ceremony, but climbed the podium a little later to take fame. I have only rode ½ of this course one time last year and have not been back since. So I was in total shock when they told me that I had won. It’s a fun tight and twisty course with just a few short straightaways. I can wait to come back next year and do it again.

My son Dilan also competed in the race. He has never ever been there and he still opted out of the 10 – 12 year old short 1 mile race and competed in Beginner 19 and under class, where he was by far the youngest. As you can imagine he finished last but still had a very impressive time of 71 minutes.

David Goff