Laddie's Loppet
I arrived Saturday and quickly set up my tent before the rain resumed. It had poured all day Friday and everything was a big sloppy mess. I prerode the course and it was greasy and largely unridable. I had to stop a couple of times to clear the mud off the sidewalls of my tires, as it was so thick the rear wheel would no longer spin. Braking was useless, as the mud was so thick the tires had nothing to grip. This course is mainly tight singletrack full of roots and rocks – difficult in good conditions – nasty when soaked. I came across a wooden bridge with a super muddy uphill at the end of it. I knew I wouldn't have the traction to ride up that section, so I jumped off and ran across the bridge. The wood was so wet my foot went right though it. Nice. I realized right then that this would be a tough race, basically a super-long cyclocross race on mountain bikes.

It eventually stopped raining Saturday night, and by Sunday the sun was trying to come out. The course was still quite sloppy for the Sport start. I got a decent start, staying towards the back of the lead group. Predictably, once we hit the singletrack it was tough going. Even with a tire change I didn't have enough traction for the quick climbs or twisting decents. After spinning out or sliding downhill (into trees like a pinball) with little control I decided to give up and run these sections. I had already planned on running the log bridges and downhill rock gardens, and the notorious Lakeside Drops would be ridden if they were dry enough. I rode them on Saturday: the uphills were to muddy to ride up, I was able to ride the drops, but it was super sketchy with all that mud. When I got there the spectators were out in full force, waiting to see someone take the drop to0 hot and fly off into the lake. (The trail snakes along the bank, culminating in a 12 foot drop which takes a 90 degree left literally at the water's edge. Misjudge it and you hit some rocks before launching into the lake). There were 3-4 riders ahead of me all struggling through this section, so I decided to shoulder the bike and run the entire thing. No style points, but I got ahead of them.

The rest of the singletrack was brutal, and I struggled to get any kind of rhythym going. Even walking the bike down some of the sections was difficult. It was like wearing bowling shoes on a slip-and-slide. About halfway through I slid out on a downhill section and somehow cracked the rail on my saddle. So now half the saddle was sticking up making riding seated difficult at best. Finally on the back section of singletrack I was able to stay on the bike long enough to make some progress. With the glasses fogged and in my jersey pocket, I got a nice chunk of mud in the right eye, making vision and depth-perception difficult. Especially ironic when you look at my race number. (I finally got the mud out of my eye about halfway through my drive home.) Pretty much if it could go wrong it did. Not one of my better rides to say the least. But, despite some scraped and bruised legs and a sore ass from the broken saddle, no real harm done. I finished 7th, killing any chance at top 3 and pretty much resigning me to 5th place barring a miracle scenario at the last race, where 4th is the absolute best I can hope for.

As usual, photos by Skinnyski.com