Gavin, the Great and Powerful

3rd place finish at Conquer the Village

Gavin has been going non-stop this year with participating on the Breakers Swim Team, earning a part in the Three Musketeers with the Old Town Playhouse, and on top of it all he figured he would do a mountain bike race. I missed it, as I was downstate doing a road race, but word on the street is that he did awesome. Conquer the Village was a race in Traverse City to benefit Hickory Hills. Gavin is only 12, and didn't want to do the kids loop that was less than a mile, so he signed up for beginner men ages 15-19. He got third place! When I got home he was full of stories about his race, which included falling on every lap of the three laps he did of the race. I am so proud of his determination!  Here is a clip of his finish that you need to see, because, as Gavin says..."THIS is how you finish a race!"
 

Thanks to Grandma Nancy for taking the video and pictures!

Arcadia Grit and Gravel 2013

I was originally scheduled for the West Michigan Stage Race the weekend of Arcadia Grit and Gravel, but WMSR was cancelled. That was a really fun race last year, and I was looking forward to the time trial, so I was disappointed. I decided to do a local mountain bike race instead. Arcadia has a beautiful, fast, flowy trail that I have ridden a few times and love. I registered for Elite women, and despite knowing I am not great at single track...there were some miles of gravel road that I thought might be my saving grace, so I thought I would give it a try.

The weather was great the morning of, and there were some great ladies there racing. Sue Stephens and Erin Vicary were there from team GRIT, Lauri Brockmiller my teammate from Hagerty, Chelsea Strate from Einstein, and Kati Krikke from Freewheelers.  All great racers!

We started along with the Elite Men and in the first mile or so we had paved road and the pace was easy. We turned onto the first gravel road that had a few hills off the bat and the race was on. Lauri took off and I saw Sue go as well. I slowly made some progress on the hill and came out on the top behind Lauri, Sue, and Kati. I could see Sue up the road and asked Kati if she wanted to work together to try to catch her. We took turns pulling and I wondered how we could get by her without her catching on. I didn't time it very well, and when we caught her there was a turn with a descent and I thought that it was now or never. I thought since I am bigger I might be able to drop her here but she just tucked in behind me and took the ride down the hill. I think I topped out at 38 mph down that hill. :)

I let Sue work and we eventually caught up to Lauri and rode together for awhile. We had another long, gradual climb on the gravel road and stayed together. We took a left on the flats again and were cruising down the gravel roads pretty fast, with Sue out front. I was third in line when it seemed to me that Sue slammed on her brakes and then Lauri reacted, and then I had less time to react. I didn't realize there was a turn coming up, I didn't hear any call out for it, and from where I was couldn't see any signage. I thought someone's tire may have even blown. Needless to say it was pretty sketchy with an almost crash along with some words. Sue took off on her bike with Lauri following hot on her tail. I entered the single track determined to hang on as long as I could. 

Lauri had a great race and came in second for Hagerty.
Sue and Erin came in 1st and 3rd.

It wasn't long before they were out of sight and I was riding alone. Some expert men started coming through, then Kati Krikke, and my timing was off again and I wasn't riding smooth. I started pulling over to let others go by- pretty much the entire race. The woods were beautiful with Trillium in bloom, but all I felt was irritation and frustration. One by one all of the women passed me. After the 10 miles of single track I finally emptied out into the gravel roads again and took off. I was able to take back one position before the finish. 

What I did like about this race was that it was smaller and more intimate than a lot of races I have done. Sitting and enjoying a beer after with lots of friends from Traverse City was great. You can't get a much more beautiful venue than Arcadia either. 

It has been said Nora is better at
 singletrack than me. Could be true!

I decided I need to get a lot better riding single track before I race it again. We went back to Arcadia today to ride as a family, and to enjoy the trillium at a slower pace. Gavin and Russ went off on their own, and I rode with Nora on the short Chestnut Loop. Nora is a force, and I am sure she is going to be a great rider someday!

Thanks to Endoman Productions for a great race!

Mud, Sweat, and Beers 2013

This race report is a bit late due to life just being crazy lately. I started a new job and both of the kids are busy with their spring activities so there hasn't been a lot of down time. Leave it to the weather to turn back to winter like conditions this weekend to give us some though! Last Tuesday was my first Tuesday Night Ride and I remember joking about how the good weather was just too good to be true. Well, it was apparently as we saw snow here on May 11 and May 12. Sometimes I really hate living in Michigan. But anyway...

Heading up to the first climb

The weather was perfect for MSB 2013 and while we had some strong women sitting out the race this year, there was still plenty of good competition left. This was the first year they split the elite/pro and expert class and I decided to give the elite/pro class a try. What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger, right?  This race starts off hard with a big hill right off the bat. Out the gate I did ok, and didn't get left in the dust of all the women heading out. I have had some pretty bad starts so I was pleased so far. Winding through the trail heading into Willpower Hill I started dropping back further and at the top of the hill I was the last woman up. The hill spits out onto a flat subdivision for two miles before hitting the trails again, so here I hit it as hard as I could. By the time I hit the woods I was back into third position. Lauri Brockmiller and Bridget Widrig were out of sight by this time and I never saw them again.

Into the woods Kati Krikke and Erin Disterheft were close behind me and eventually Kati and Erin passed me heading into the single track by the Headwaters trail. I knew I would be in trouble here,

Chelsea chasing me down

since single track is not a strength of mine. Hanging on by a thread, I rode it worse than normal and lost them. I kept plugging along hard, never letting up and never having much of a recovery. I remember looking at my Garmin and I was only halfway done- on mile 10 of 20. I was really struggling and felt like giving up! Some of the route was very new, rugged, bumpy track that I just crawled over.   A lot of the area was recently logged and it looked like a bomb went off into the woods. It is so sad to see a previously beautiful area of the woods decimated like that.

Chelsea Strate passed me during the gnarly stuff. I fell once and just started doing worse and worse. Thinking I was not doing so hot in this race I stopped to give a racer some cartridges to air up his flat tire. I was fifth or sixth by this point. I hit the open VASA trail again and put on the gas. It felt great to be out of the slow crap (can you tell I didn't like that section?) and I caught on a few groups of guys riding and made up some good time. Ahhh, nice open fast trail! I passed Chelsea again and had a good draft for awhile before I lost the guys on the next section of single track.

Finish! Thanks to Jody Hofstra for the pictures!

Finally heading into the end of the race, I came down the hill relieved to be done. Going down the hill sideways through a sand pit landed me not so gracefully over my handlebars. I got back up and finished up the race through the big mud puddle. After chatting with Lauri and Bridget I saw Kati and went to congratulate her. She informed me that they had taken a wrong turn in the course and just finished, which put me in third. A major bummer for them, as they had raced a good race. I got lost at least two times myself last year in this race so I know how it feels! Bridget had also taken a wrong turn and that put her in second, when she had been in the lead as well.

Luck is a big factor in bike racing, that is for sure. And although I had a decent outcome in this race, I don't feel that it was a great race for me overall. But, It was nice to have a sweep of Hagerty colors on the podium. Good job to everyone! It was a tough race for sure. Thanks to Mt. Holiday and the volunteers that run MSB. The race was a blast and the after party is always a good time!  I know a ton of hard work goes into these events and it doesn't go unnoticed! Thanks for bringing such a good race to Northern Michigan.

And that's a wrap....Season 2012

Iceman is over, marking the end of another cycling season for me.  Yes, there was snow this year, making it a true Iceman. I get more nervous for this race more than any other. Not sure why, is it the thousands of people? Is it that it's right out our back door? Not sure, but I think all week prior to the race I had the jitters, was on edge, and probably just unbearable to be around.

The kids and I with Georgia Gould

The Iceman Expo is always fun. I went to pick up my packet with the kids and was excited to meet a couple of the pro's- Georgia Gould (Olympic Bronze 2012) and Emily Batty. I spoke with Georgia for awhile (yeah, we're on a first name basis) and thought that she was down to earth, funny, and just awesome. It really made my day. I spent the rest of the day delivering the kids to friends' houses for the night (thanks Kati and Maria!), cleaning my bike, and packing for race day. All night I dreamed about racing. Didn't make for a very restful night

 of sleep.

Emily signing a poster for Nora

At about 7:15 a.m. Russ and I headed to Kalkaska and it was snowing heavily in TC. At this point I was freaking out as I became even more anxious about the race. "Why do I do this??? Why are we racing in the snow??? This is stupid!! It is freezing out! I just want to go home and go back to bed!" Russ is so used to this by now he doesn't even listen. Once we got to Kalkaska and started preparing, it gave me something to do and less time to think about being nervous. Once I got on my bike and started warming up it helped even more. 

Time went by quickly and it was time to line up. I was with Bridgett Widrig from Hagerty and Julie Whalen was also in our wave. We went off hard, but I lost some position due to some hesitancy on my part and lost some spots going into the trail. On our first hill, my shoe came unclipped and I lost more positions. Julie and Bridgett were then ahead of me. I then passed Bridgett on the side of the trail and asked if she was ok-she said she was and she caught back up to me pretty quickly. Bridget then started picking people off pretty aggressively. She really helped me out here, because I tend to just stay on the wheel ahead of me instead of moving on once I realize they aren't going the speed I need to be going. I started lagging a little, but I always had Bridgett in my sight until we entered the new single track. I had heard post race that there were some major back ups through this, but although it was very slow, we were still moving through it. I saw Julie about 30 seconds to a minute ahead of me when we came out, and tried to catch her. She is just as strong as I am on the flats though (if not stronger, go Julie!), so there was no catching her. I didn't see Bridgett anywhere. 

Coming into the finish

When I came onto the VASA, I was tired, but knew this is my best section yet. I went flying down the first gravel road, making good time and looking forward to getting this over with and going down some of my favorite hills. My chain started acting up about now, getting stuck at random times when I was usually in my lower chain ring. In the hardwood section of the trail, one of my favorites, I was able to look up and around to notice the scenery. The snow was sticking to all of the trees, and everything was white except for the dark ribbon of trail. I thought, very pretty...too bad I really can't care less about it right now. Going up a long, gradual hill my chain came to a halt again and I had to get off and run up the rest of the way. It kept happening over and over again and it was very frustrating. I knew I didn't have any time to lose and here it was gettin' lost. Conditions due to the snow were wet and mud was sticking to my drive train. There were a few riders that I kept passing to only have my chain lock up when I was climbing a hill in front of them. They were very nice and understanding and didn't give me any grief about it thankfully. 

When it was 4K to go I realized I had some juice left so I went as full out as I could go, but there were a lot more riders on the trail.  I was hesitant to start passing aggressively, mainly because this was about where I crashed last year. That was definitely on my mind as I loudly proclaimed that I was "passing on your left!" to all riders this year. Maybe a bit too loudly, but hey, rather be safe than sorry, right? Coming into the finishing chute, there were quite a few guys chugging along when I needed to be ripping it up. I got held up by one man for a few seconds as he navigated a small down hill. It was impossible to be patient at this point. I went through the finish knowing I had a time of about 2:16 on my Garmin. A little disappointing, I had hoped to do a bit better but the glitch with the drivetrain put a kink in things. 

Kathy Everts (5th), Melissa Ryba (3rd),
and Jan Van Hof (2nd)

After changing, eating some delicious white chicken chili, and chatting with some other racing friends, I went to check out the results. Bridgett had nailed our age group with a time of 2:10, and I saw that I had missed 2nd place by 6 seconds to Jane Van Hof. Man, that hurt! 6 seconds. I could think of 100 different ways I could have made that time up over the past two hours. That is the hard thing about Iceman though, it is a time trial, and unless you are racing pro-you don't know how you are doing against your competition until the end. But, still a podium! I'll take it!

I spent the afternoon hanging out, waiting for Russ to come in and looking forward to the pro race.  Russ had a tough race as he started in wave 43 and was in the back-logged trails. He went renegade and tried to cut through the woods to go around and had people screaming at him that there was a line he was supposed to be in and he should wait like everyone else. Doesn't sound much like a race at that point to me, and I am happy I wasn't in that mess. 

Now, watching the pro's come in was the most exciting thing that I did all day. It was awesome to be a part of the energy of the crowd and cheer them on. The men came in first, and Jordan Wakely was right up there with them, coming in a close 7th place with men who just competed in the Olympics. Just awesome! Nothing against the guys, but I was really looking forward to the women's race and Georgia (my new BFF) came cruising in ahead of them all, with a 1-2 minute lead. Next came Heather Irmiger, Emily Batty, and Mackenzie Woodring battling out the next 3 spots. I went crazy when I saw Mackenzie up there with them! She came in 4th, missing 3rd by half a wheel. Such an incredible race! I am so proud of all our local women who raced, they definitely held their own. 

Me, Georgia, and Rich (arch nemesis/riding partner)

Despite being pretty tired, that night we went out to the Bell's after party at the State Street Grill and Georgia (mi amiga) was there. I stalked her We all hung out, I heard her recap her race, and was just absolutely geeked. Talking bikes and racing, drinking beer, and knowing I had a good season made for a very nice night. The next day, I realized that, yes, indeed I did give that race about all I had because I could hardly move. Literally. 

Can't wait til next year! (Georgia did say she would be back!)