Willowdale is close to Boston and full of fun trails, so like last year the place was PACKED. Luckily we got there early enough that parking wasn't an issue - muddy fields meant that latecomers were directed to a parking lot a mile up the road. We had pre-reg'd so we didn't have to worry about not making it in because the field limit for the first race had been set to 400 participants, which was reached pretty quickly as day-of riders came in. The later race also had around 150 participants from what I had heard - pretty awesome to see that mass of people milling around at a mtb race!
Sweeney at the front during staging. Photo credit: Jorge @ Toro LocoThe race was 2 laps, 17 miles total and started with some double track before hitting the twisty, turny rooty singletrack that is bike kryptonite for me. I knew the course didn't play to my strengths but I was looking forward to a fun day of playing in the woods with, uh...400 other people. I chatted with some nice ladies in staging while waiting for other categories to roll off. We observed many guys running off into the (poison ivy filled) woods for a last minute pee break. We concluded that they would be sad after. Finally, the women's Elite/Expert field made it to the front and rolled off. I hadn't placed myself terribly well in staging but was able to put down some #SIKWATTS and get around a lot of people on the doubletrack. Seeing as how I knew I wouldn't be passing people on the singletrack, it was important to me to be as near the front and ahead of as many people as I could be. We made a right onto the first trail and as soon as it narrowed to singletrack the woman behind me immediately yells, "On your left!" with no room to pass. Uhhh. I was about to respond that I couldn't move right when I felt my bars getting yanked out from under me as she took out underbrush and me in her attempt to get by. I got thrown off of my bike and a face full of dirt while she, to her credit, stopped to apologize and make sure I was okay. Let this be a lesson, kids. Passing like a jerk helps NO ONE. Now she was still behind me but we had let two women by. A Seaside Cycles girl was keeping Michelle Packer from getting too far away from me, who I knew would be tough to beat. As I worked back up to them, Michelle got around Seaside Cycles and started to open a gap. I caught and passed Seaside Cycles and was trying really hard to get back to Michelle, but wasn't having a ton of luck closing it down. A few minutes later I felt things go very wrong during a slippery, rooty turn. Yep. This is what all that foreshadowing in the first paragraph was about - my rear tire had just burped it's ever-loving guts out and was flat.
I pulled off the trail and watched my whole field ride past while I dumped CO2 into the tricksy tire. It kept hissing out and I was concerned that I had no pump, almost no CO2 left, and would likely need to put a tube that I had no means of inflating in if I wanted to keep riding. The next field, Mens Sport, began to pass me. I found where the tire was not on the rim just as it popped back on. Victory! I emptied the last of the CO2 into the tire (thank you, Big Air canisters) and got back on the course as Stephen Pierce of Embrocation was coming up at the back of his field. He had experienced some tire sadness as well and did a great job of working back up to 6th place finish after fixing his flat. For my part, I concluded that given how many people were behind me and how often I was moving aside for traffic it would be nearly impossible to work up to my field again. I was happy that the tire was holding enough for me to finish, so I was just going to ride and have an awesome time and not worry about racing.
I thought it would be fun to take the opportunity to launch myself off of whatever fun stuff I could find and work on my bunnyhopping. After trying to get some air off of a rock I heard a "YEAHHHH LAUREN!" from behind me. Yay, friends on the trail! A Threshold guy had come up behind me, and we hung out briefly. He passed me, I heckled him for running a big log* that was rideable, and then a few minutes later I tried to launch myself over a little tree trunk. It was wet, and I nearly launched myself into a tree instead. Okay, big air time over! I worked on turning not-poorly in the singletrack, and on the long open fire road sections I worked on catching the people who had passed me in the woods. Somewhere near the end of the first lap I reached for my electrolytes bottle, only to find that it was not there. Sadness. I looked for it during the second lap and did not find it. I picked much better lines the second time around, splashed around in some big puddles, got muddy (yay!), and chatted with a few guys that were hanging out on my wheel. While I had fun, I really was very sad about my missing waterbottle and was happy when the race ended just as I was trying to stave off a serious bonk. Exciting race report over!
I ended up in 3rd due to a pretty shallow Expert Senior field. Michelle rode really well and had gone on for the win, congrats to her! Sweeney was the top-placed B2C2 Elite rider with 4th place while Colin and Mike battled it for 8th and 9th, respectively. Nick did the Novice Veteran race and got a very respectable top 10 finish in what I believe was his first mtb race ever. And then there was a raffle after the race where I WON A SWEET MAVIC CROSSTRAIL WHEELSET!!! Yeah, that was awesome. Take that, tubeless rear wheel that needs a tube, I don't need you any more! Thanks to Weeping Willow race promoters for a fun, challenging course and the great raffle afterwards!
*Post-race he informed me that my heckling encouraged him to ride over it the next lap. Nice!
I pulled off the trail and watched my whole field ride past while I dumped CO2 into the tricksy tire. It kept hissing out and I was concerned that I had no pump, almost no CO2 left, and would likely need to put a tube that I had no means of inflating in if I wanted to keep riding. The next field, Mens Sport, began to pass me. I found where the tire was not on the rim just as it popped back on. Victory! I emptied the last of the CO2 into the tire (thank you, Big Air canisters) and got back on the course as Stephen Pierce of Embrocation was coming up at the back of his field. He had experienced some tire sadness as well and did a great job of working back up to 6th place finish after fixing his flat. For my part, I concluded that given how many people were behind me and how often I was moving aside for traffic it would be nearly impossible to work up to my field again. I was happy that the tire was holding enough for me to finish, so I was just going to ride and have an awesome time and not worry about racing.
I thought it would be fun to take the opportunity to launch myself off of whatever fun stuff I could find and work on my bunnyhopping. After trying to get some air off of a rock I heard a "YEAHHHH LAUREN!" from behind me. Yay, friends on the trail! A Threshold guy had come up behind me, and we hung out briefly. He passed me, I heckled him for running a big log* that was rideable, and then a few minutes later I tried to launch myself over a little tree trunk. It was wet, and I nearly launched myself into a tree instead. Okay, big air time over! I worked on turning not-poorly in the singletrack, and on the long open fire road sections I worked on catching the people who had passed me in the woods. Somewhere near the end of the first lap I reached for my electrolytes bottle, only to find that it was not there. Sadness. I looked for it during the second lap and did not find it. I picked much better lines the second time around, splashed around in some big puddles, got muddy (yay!), and chatted with a few guys that were hanging out on my wheel. While I had fun, I really was very sad about my missing waterbottle and was happy when the race ended just as I was trying to stave off a serious bonk. Exciting race report over!
I ended up in 3rd due to a pretty shallow Expert Senior field. Michelle rode really well and had gone on for the win, congrats to her! Sweeney was the top-placed B2C2 Elite rider with 4th place while Colin and Mike battled it for 8th and 9th, respectively. Nick did the Novice Veteran race and got a very respectable top 10 finish in what I believe was his first mtb race ever. And then there was a raffle after the race where I WON A SWEET MAVIC CROSSTRAIL WHEELSET!!! Yeah, that was awesome. Take that, tubeless rear wheel that needs a tube, I don't need you any more! Thanks to Weeping Willow race promoters for a fun, challenging course and the great raffle afterwards!
*Post-race he informed me that my heckling encouraged him to ride over it the next lap. Nice!
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