I rolled off to Durango on Memorial Day weekend, in the fine company of John Guerin, to participate in the Iron Horse Mountain Bike Cross-Country Race. Having left my road racing days far behind me, and not wanting to risk one of those late May blizzards the San Juans are so famous for, I confined myself to one day of racing in the Veteran Sports category (35-44). So on Friday evening and Saturday afternoon, John and I sped about the Iron Horse course, generally enjoying the singletrack and somewhat technical nature of the 15.5-mile course. Now, I know that no course is as technical as the trails you ride -- nothing could be that gnarly -- but I've raced at more than a few locales and this was the most singletrack (85%?) I've encountered and the least "point-and-shoot" riding of any course. You really had to pay attention, just not put your head down and go. Before whining about how technically easy a race course is, try riding it at race speed a few inches off the wheel of someone who is a few inches off the wheel of someone else with the dust of several hundred other riders in the air. If a course is too "easy", then you're not riding fast enough. I typically do better at the "put-your-head-down-and-go" type of effort, so I was a bit concerned about this course. John did his best to help me with the downhill portions of the course, giving me pointers and such about cornering and positioning on the bike. I've been riding mountain bikes longer than most, but you wouldn't know it from my poor technical abilities. It's just that I have a lousy sense of balance and very little courage. But John did give me some good pointers, all of which evaporated during the stress of the race.

We spent Friday and Saturday gassing up at my sister's bakery, The Old Town Bake Shop. She and her husband have only had it open for about 8 months, but they've seen a 20% jump in business each month they've been open. It's a seriously good bakery -- from bread to pastries. However, I don't know that living on cinnamon rolls for two days prior to a race was the wisest choice... I did stick with bread and honey on the morning of the race and felt pretty good, although nervous, on the line. I wasn't as nervous as I might have been, because I flatted on the way to the race and the hilarity of the moment calmed my nerves somewhat. A woman even interviewed me with a video camera just before the start. She wanted to know about the condition of the course ("Hard, both in terms of the surface and the layout") and she wanted one word to describe what it took to do the race ("Stupidity"). None of my relatives have informed me if it made it on the airwaves in the area. There must have been about 60 in my group on the line and I made the mistake of lining up towards the back -- if I do the race again on this course I'll get there 60 minutes prior to the start if I have to -- damn the warm-up. If you weren't in the top 10 after the 100-yard dash to the uphill singletrack you had no chance to be competitive. Well, I hit the singletrack in about 40th and did my best to pass going up the hill. I picked off maybe a dozen and got to the top with only 4 people in front of me. Despite being able to see about 2 minutes up the trail, I really couldn't see much of anyone. I figured to just turn it into a race with those that I could see.

We wound around in a field near Fort Lewis College -- it was really obnoxiously bumpy -- before dropping down to a fast 1/2 mile of pavement. I shot by about 5 people on this stretch, the only downhill on the course I rode faster than those around me did. We quickly hit the dirt and climbed up over into Horse Gulch and the wonderful singletrack trails of the Telegraph Hill area. Serious fun! This whole stretch of the course is best described as "frenetic" -- up for a few minutes, then loop back down for a few minutes, then back uphill, then down.... It was great fun on the up part. I'd reel in a couple of riders on every uphill, then they'd pass me on the downhill stretch. I crashed once and got tangled in the scrub oak on several occasions. There was enough up minutes that I managed to catch and pass about a half-dozen riders, but another half-dozen or so would have been caught and dropped as well if I were even an average descender. The climb up Raider Ridge was a good opportunity for me to make some time on those in my vicinity, and I did, but it was not enough as half of those I passed thundered by me on the downhill. One guy in particular hurtled past on a section that I thought I had the only rideable line occupied - not! Well, after being humiliated on that downhill, I proceeded to take it out on the next uphill and caught yet more riders. Mind you, not all of these folks I was catching and passing were in my group -- if they had been I'd of won! Rather, most of them were off the back of earlier (and younger) sport categories. We dropped down one more singletrack that would take us back towards Fort Lewis. I was at the back of the group with no one behind me. I don't imagine it took me more than 3 minutes to get to the bottom of this stretch, but when I popped out on the road for the 1/2 mile trek to the next singletrack, that group of riders was 30 seconds in front! This is the first race I felt that I lost a significant number of positions due to my poor descending skills. Usually, I end up where I am based on fitness and hill climbing ability -- this course certainly magnified my deficiencies as a bike handler/descender. If someone was in front of me entering a downhill they just disappeared instantly. If they were not too far behind entering the downhill, they were instantly riding up my backside.

Once again I grunted my way back up to the group and picked them off one by one on the flat singletrack skirting the edge of the college. Then one more short descent, during which I managed to hold off those I had just passed, and one more uphill grunt. I caught two guys on that hill and at least one I recognized as being from my category -- I'd slowly catch him on the uphills and he'd then come thundering by on the downhills. I thought that I might be able to drop him on the 1/2 mile of pavement before the last steep, bumpy downhill, but he was wise to my plan and locked on to my wheel. However, the other rider blasted away after it was clear I wasn't going to do it. I caught his wheel and we managed to drop the guy I was racing against. Entering the last singletrack I thought I might have enough time on him to hold him off, but I immediately ran up the tail end of the one person on the course who was slower downhill than I was! I was itching to get past but just didn't have the skills/courage to pull it off. Finally, right before the finish on the last corner of the downhill I got around the guy in front of me and simultaneously felt the fast downhill maniac trying to make a move on me. I'm usually very polite and give others every opportunity to pass on the downhills but this time I kept the best line -- alas, to no avail. He still put it to me on the last corner. I sprinted the last 30 yards to the line and at least made it close -- they put him across the line at 0.2 seconds in front of me. We both agreed that last bit of the race, going against each other, was a lot of fun. When you're consistently as far from the front as I am in these races, you develop a knack for racing with those around you. Watching others finish, it's clear that I'm not the only one who uses that tactic for motivation -- almost everyone who was finishing in a group was sprinting for the line, regardless of how far back they were.

I finished 22nd out of 52 finishers -- I really did pass a lot of folks, but many of them were those off the back of groups that started before ours. My time was 1:35:18, the winner was in at 1:24:29, Alison Dunlap won the pro women's race on the same course at 1:21:09, and the Expert Vet Men's winner was in at 1:17:08 (my time would have put me in 35th out of 42 in this category). I really wish I had an opportunity to hit the singletrack climb at the start near the front. The pile up at the start and getting caught behind slower riders cost me some serious time. But, I would not have been able to climb with the leaders for the whole race, and heaven knows that I would have been dropped as soon as the downhill sections started. And I'm sure there were other's like me that were trapped at the back of the field during that first climb that could have gone faster. I was satisfied with my effort, but I've got to do something about my wimpy descending...

John raced with the Experts, ages 28-34 -- the very last group to go on the day. He had a huge field to contend with and held up admirably. It was a mighty long way -- 27 miles -- and a tough course to boot. There were an ungodly number of DNFs from that group. I don't know what it is about the Experts/Semi-Pros, but I bet there's a lot more DNFing going on than in the Sport or Beginner classes.

In the expert race categories I noticed at least 3 racers mounted on single speeds. At least two of them really motored. I've been contemplating adapting my old bike to a single speed, but I don't think this aging body could ever race on the Ironhorse X-C course in the gearing these guys used. I talked with the strongest looking of the single speeders and he said in a concession to some of the steep climbs on the course he used a 36-tooth chainring coupled with a 19-tooth rear cog. Yikes! That would have had me walking a fair share of the uphills.

For the Iron Horse results page, go here...

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