The Throwdown was the last race in the Appalachian Bicycle Racing Association's 3-race mountain bike series. I won the first race, got whipped in the second, but was in the points lead for the series and unless I didn't enter or didn't finish the third race, I had the series championship locked in.
The Tuesday before the race, I joined a pre-ride get-together to learn the course, but while riding, my frame cracked rendering my trusty Warhorse lame and unrideable. I was a little disappointed, but it really didn't cause the alarm that I thought it would. I'm a big guy, and race my bike hard, so I wasn't really surprised by the crack. Upon seeing the frame, the race promotor, JR Petsko, offered up his bike if I couldn't get mine repaired or find another replacement. His bike is a very high-end carbon fiber rocket, so I was incredibly grateful for his generosity.
I sent a quick text to Jason at Pike Street Bikes and he got to work immediately getting my part replacement in the mail and knowing that it probably wouldn't be ready by raceday, gave me one of his shop bikes to race. I had other offers from friends to let me race on their personal bikes and I'm truly fortunate to have friends willing to let me abuse their bikes during a race.
Fast forward to the morning of the race...gloomy clouds hung low threatening to unleash their fury at any moment, I was riding a borrowed bike, and I knew of at least three other guys in by category that would surely give me a run for my money. My category wasn't scheduled to start until 1:30 giving me plenty of time to get ready, but I chose to get to the race early, find a good spot to park and set up my canopy tent for when the rain started.
Since the course was set in a city park in Morgantown, the trails were narrow and winding and were not condusive to a lot of racers being on them at one time, so the promoter opted to send out the Beginners at 10am, the Experts at 11:30am and the Sports (me) at 1:30pm to help limit the number of riders on the course at any one time.
As 1:30 drew closer I pulled out my secret weapon...no, not what you're thinking, I'm talking about my PB&J sandwich and devoured it around noon so I would have time to start digesting it before race time. As I ate my sandwich, the skies opened up and started raining on the Experts out on the course. It didn't seem to slow them down...at first. The Experts slowed down a little on the remaining laps. The trails must have gotten bad. As the Expert race finished up, the rain finally stopped and soon it would go-time.
After watching the Experts pile up going into the singletrack after the start, I knew I'd better get a good start and try to beat the crowd into the woods. At White Park, the trails are narrow with little room to pass, so the position you enter the woods, is where you were going to be for a while on the first lap. The whistle blew and we all cranked it up the paved road. As we hammered, we all jockeyed for position and tried to get up onto the sidewalk on the left side of the road as soon as we could to have an easier line into the woods. I got hung up with some other riders as we piled on each other getting onto the narrow trail into the woods, but I think I was top 10 or 15, and I was quite certain I was the 1st Clydesdale. One thing was immediately evident, the clay soil turned to grease and the abundance of roots running across the trails turned to icy tentacles waiting to pull you down to their level.
The first lap really went quickly and it wasn't long before I was cranking up toward the timing table to start the second lap. I had moved up several places and put a significant gap on the rest of the field. The wet conditions took their toll however, and mixed with a good case of adrenaline jitters, I layed the bike down numerous times, mostly just from being sloppy and careless with my riding. I caught up to a guy I knew and we traded turns leading each other through the woods and it would stay that way for the remaining laps. On a relatively easy part of the course, I crossed a stream...well almost. I lined up to cross the stream, which was about a foot wide and 3 inches deep, when my front wheel decided it wanted to try riding horizontally. It happened really quickly, I mean nano-seconds, but before I could even take a hand off the handelbar, I was in the stream...soaking wet...in 3 inches of water...WTF..."How am I soaking wet in 3 inches of water" was honestly the first thing I thought, then I could hear the guy behind me ask if I was OK, then start laughing until he too went for a little swim, in that stupid little stream. Ha...ha...ha!
Back on the bike and on to business, I passed a few more racers, then as I approached the last 1/2 mile, there were tons of folks out on the trail cheering (and heckling) as I rode by. Cheering is awesome, hell, heckling is even awesome! I ended up sprinting two other racers up the last hill to the finish even though they were not in my class which is always a good way to end a race.
I finished 1st Clydesdale out of 8 that started the race and finished pretty strong overall. Best of all, I finished the series strong and secured the series championship. Not a bad day of racing...even with a borrowed bike, all the crashes and a swim in the stream.
Big thanks to all who cheered me on, to JR Petsko for working so hard to put these races on, Pike Street Bikes and to Honey Stinger for fueling me through the race.
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