2009 would be my 10th year in a row racing the Fat Tire Classic. I’ve raced here in every type of weather imaginable in New England, rain, snow, sunny and 65, and sunny and 90. This year’s weather would be less than desirable, sunny, hot, and about 90 degrees.
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I did everything I could to prepare for this race, kind of. The Superfly was cleaned and working flawlessly. I even took a lot of time to get the Bontrager XR1 set up tubeless just for this race. These tires would be the perfect tire if the conditions were dry and thankfully they were. The new cool thing is to use road handlebar tape for grips on the mountain bike. This trick saves a few grams over lock on grips which apparently makes it the new cool thing. I didn’t want to miss out on not having a cool bike, so I too now use handlebar tape for my grips on the Superfly.
I was well hydrated and fueled with lots of carbs and protein etc.. I don’t think the nutrition could have been much better leading into the race. I even stopped and put on sunscreen during the drive down to the race as I was getting a lot of sun in the driver’s seat. A second coat of sun screen was needed as I geared up for the race. I had plenty of time for a warm up which didn’t go so well. I even went out onto the course for part of my warm up. About five minutes into the warm up I managed to snap my chain. I figured at this point I had two options, either try and fix it with my mini tool that doesn’t work so great or run back to the car where I had a new chain sitting in my tool box. I chose option B.
Ok so onto the start of the race and the race itself. It was HOT!! The pro mens field was again a very large and respectable field, 20+ pros, maybe 30? Unlike the last race where I started in the 3rd row I made sure to get onto the front line this time. Despite it being wicked hot there were still a few guys who wanted to go balls to the wall off the start line. One guy on a rigid single speed took off like a bullet. I tried staying on Matt O’Keef’s wheel as I had marked him as the guy to beat at this race. For the first lap I was feeling pretty good and stayed in contact with O’Keef. The legs were strong and my body was doing alright. Towards the end of the lap my body started to shut down. I knew I had no other options but to ease up the pace and go into damage control. When I made this decision I was racing with my roommate John Burns. I wanted to try and ride with Burns as long as possible since the two of us are heading off to the BC Race later in the summer, but I just didn’t have the strength to ride with Burns today.
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Laps 2 and 3 were horrible. I went from being in the top 5 to maybe 15th? I really don’t know. It was so hard to focus during the race. I was going through a complete bottle within the first half of every lap. I wish I had planned ahead and brought two bottles for every lap. I tried taking gels during the race knowing that they would help with the sodium my body was losing from the sweat. I think the gels and trying to stay as hydrated as possible helped out towards the end of the race. During laps 4 and 5 I was able to catch up to a lot of riders who blew by me earlier in the race. Before I knew it I was back on Burn’s wheel. Burns and I took turns leading and following for the last lap. We even caught up to the young and super fast Seamus Powell who was also riding very strong. I was right on Seamus’s wheel in the last section of single track and really wanted to make a pass but didn’t have room. As soon as the trail opened I made my move and took the sandy corner tight. Of course I ate it and Seamus got away. It was too late in the race to close the 5-10 second gap that formed. Seamus stayed ahead of Burns and me. However Burns and I did have a rad sprint finish for 7th and 8th place respectively. I took the sprint only a wheel length ahead of Burnsy.
After the race I cleaned up in the nearby lake. It felt really good to cool off in the 50degree water! Burns, Joos, Hattie and I hit up a local pizza shop in Farmington. The pizza was awesome. The slices were huge and reasonably priced. The drive home to Maine was pretty tough. I was completely beat and had a hard time staying awake. Thankfully I was in good company for the car ride home and we all made it back safely. I am looking forward to next year’s race, I wonder what the weather will bring for the Fat Tire Classic in o’10?
{mosimage} This is how the fill up in CT,
{mosimage} Post race fuel,
Check out the photo category for more photos, Thanks to Hattie for taking some great photos!!
