Maplelag

I knew it was going to be a long day when I woke up to, shall we say, "an armed rebellion south of the border". First time my pre-race routine involved Immodium instead of PowerGel. Warmed up a bit and headed to the start line not sure if I was going to make it. It seemed like the entire field got a call up, so I ended up 3 rows back and we headed out.

The usual logjam at the singletrack backed everything up and there were plenty of sketchy riders making it slow going. Managed to pass a few on the xc-trail sections, but starting the first lap after the prologue there was a collegiate racer from a certain corn belt state who could not ride the singletrack to save his life. To make matters worse he wouldn't get out of the way. Before long he had a train of about 10 guys behind him, with minutes ticking away. A few of us finally got past him on the climb up Suicide Hill and could actually start racing.

Last lap I was suffering but had worked my way up into top 5. Then it was: chainsuck, stop to fix, get back on, hammer to pass 5 guys again. This happened a total of 3 times. Then I managed to clip my bars on a tree twice, hitting the deck hard both times. So, again, it was get back up and hammer to pass the same guys I was ahead of. All of these extra efforts were killing me, and the only thing keeping me going was the 1km to go sign. I put it in the big ring, put my head down and prayed for the finish line.

Somehow ended up in third, about 25 seconds out of second place. That was a hard-fought podium spot. I damn near passed out in the dining hall during the awards ceremony. Nice to have two Peace Coffee guys on the podium (nice job on first Clayton!). Hoping Duluth goes much smoother next Sunday.

Photos by Skinnyski.com