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.