What Happened?!?! - Prelude to a Showdown

CER's resident Clydesdale, Travis Olson, shares one of the final chapters in his saga to claim the title of WVMBA Series Champ:

“What happened?”, a good friend asked after seeing the results of the Valley Falls Challenge mountain bike race.  It was at least the 5th time in less than 24 hours I’d been asked that simple two-word question since I had crossed the finish line.  I was starting to become irritated by those two little words.

The Valley Falls Challenge takes place at Valley Falls State Park near Fairmont, WV, and is put on my local shop owner Jason Martin of Pike Street Bikes in Shinnston, WV.  Valley Falls State Park is a beautiful venue, with two levels of river-wide waterfalls as the backdrop to the race staging area.  This race was the 3^rd to last race in the WVMBA race series and I was a point behind my main rival Scott (remember…Blackwater Bikes Guy or BBG from a previous post), from Blackwater Bikes.  He had won the last two races…races that I had skipped since they were in the southern part of the state and too far away for me to worry about.  I guess I should have worried about them because BBG was now the series leader by 1 point making the next three races all the more important for me to win.

Me and BBG (Scott Y.) chatting before the race.

Valley Falls is a special place for me, it’s where I learned to mountain bike, it’s where I learned to whitewater kayak, and it’s where I used to take my first dog, Mukluk, on hikes to hidden waterfalls in a far corner of the park.  I used to LOVE to ride my bike there, at least until I learned of other places to ride.  Places like Cooper’s Rock, Big Bear Lake, and Watters Smith State Park.  All of these other places were more fun for me to ride, mainly because the trails were better maintained and seemed to be less torturous than the steep, rocky trails of Valley Falls.

I can’t really call Valley Falls my home course, but it’s the closest to me by mileage.  I do my best to avoid the place actually.  I guess because it’s a hard place for me to ride.  Many of the climbs are VERY steep, and I have trouble riding them smoothly.  Over the summer, I made it a point to get out there a few times to ride the course…still didn’t like the place…nope…not one bit!  But I figured if I was having trouble, so would the other guys in my category, so I wasn’t too worried about being left in the dust.

As race day approached, I was a little more concerned since I had spent an entire week in Atlanta, Georgia, on business, and only made it to the gym once to spin on the stationary trainer.  I also was enjoying the great food and drinks and the local restaurants a little (way) too much.  What did this mean…it meant I was going into a very important race without having ridden a real bike in over 10 days.  This was good for the legs…lots of time to rest and recover from a busy summer of racing, but it also meant my cardio was going to suffer.

Race day came, the sun was out and it was supposed to be in the high 70s.  Perfect!  I rolled into the race early so I could get registered, mingle a little, and take a few practice laps on the last part of the course that I wasn’t too familiar with.  As I was getting my stuff together, a masters category rider, Pete from Blackwater Bikes, came over to say hi.  Pete rides with my series rival BBG and they are both very capable racers.  I have a lot of fun, and competition, when these two guys show up.  Today would be no different.

After my warmup and usual PB&J sandwich, I grabbed some last minute things - multi-tool, pump, Honey Stinger waffles, water bottle, and lined up for the start.  We watched the Experts take off and we moved up to the start line and waited for our turn to start hammering.  Before I knew it, the whistle blew and the horde of sport-class riders blitzed across the gravel parking lot through the gate and onto the old dirt road.  I was in the second line at the start, and it didn’t take long for me to find myself up near the front of the pack heading up the dirt road that leads to Rhododendron Trail and on to the top of the mountain.  I attached myself to the back wheel of my rival, trying to keep my power output at a level that wouldn’t torch my legs, but still stay close enough to not let him get away.

From the start, it was uphill, without much reprieve for a couple miles, easy at first, then a little steeper and rockier, then really steep before the trails turns to true singletrack.  As the trail got really steep, I launched a little attack and powered up the steep section and down onto the flowing singletrack, where I hoped to put some time between me and BBG.  It worked for a while, but the attack on the steep section was probably ill-timed at that early stage in the race.  BBG was still in sight behind me and in fact was gaining some ground as my legs started getting heavy.  As we neared the Ranger Station, I grabbed a cup of water from a volunteer and tried to drink it, but it wasn’t cold and I lost a few precious seconds worrying about the water.  After the water station, the trail turned upward again, in a relentless series of climbs that would prove too steep for me to pedal up with my legs feeling the way they did.  I hopped off the bike and started walking up the last half of the climb, and as I walked, BBG passed me while still riding.  He didn’t make it too far though and started walking too, giving me a glimmer of hope.  We crested the top of the hill and I watched BBG take off down the long downhill section.  I was about 10 seconds behind him at this point, but I figured I knew the downhill and could make up some time.

I caught sight of BBG again after the steep rocky downhill section as the trail again pitched skyward and bucked riders off their bikes to trudge up the wall of dirt, roots, and rocks on foot.  After this steep section, the trail mellowed out to relatively flat and I was able to attach myself to BBG’s back wheel once again.  This trail spit us out onto the paved road that led out of the park to the main gate.  BBG and I rode side-by-side up the steep pavement toward Red Fox Trail (steep, downhill).  As we switched from pavement to dirt again, BBG tried to nudge past me, but he backed off and I tried my best to lose him on the steep rocky downhill.  It was working, just a little, but I had a few seconds gap on him until we made a tight left hand turn and I was stopped dead in my tracks because a tree had fallen across the trail the night before the race and no one knew about it at start time.  I hit the brakes as hard as I could to get slowed in time so I wouldn’t plow over my buddy John, who was racing Expert.  Well, BBG saw this all unfold and was able to hop off his bike, hurdle the tree like a pro, and blast away while John and I struggled to get unclipped from our pedals and get over the tree.

That tree couldn’t have been in a worse spot, for the trail’s sake, and for my race.  After fumbling across the tree, John let me get in front of him to chase down BBG.  I caught sight of him before we finished the steep descent to the doubletrack road back toward the finish.  BBG kept the hammer down the entire way out the doubletrack and I was having trouble staying on his back wheel.  I kept waiting for him to crack, but it didn’t happen.  After the doubletrack crosses the road, there is a steep pitch up to the most technical part of the course.  While not too steep, the trail is really rocky, so I wanted to be in front of BBG to keep his speed in check since he’s a better technical rider than I am.  About 200 feet from the end of the doubletrack, I launched another attack and passed BBG and another rider in front of him and hit the singletrack with some speed.  Unfortunately, BBG wasn’t too far behind and he was on my wheel toward the finish line and as I swapped water bottles for the second lap he surged ahead.



Greg leading through the rough stuff!



The second lap was going to be the true challenge for me as I knew my legs were not firing at full power as I had hoped.  BBG was only a bike length in front of me for the dirt road up to Rhododendron trail.  Once we hit Rhododendron Trail, it got steeper and the gap between me and BBG slowly grew.  This was agonizing, not only the pain in my legs and lungs, but watching your competitor slowly ride away up the hill knowing there was nothing I could do to ride faster.  Every time I would stand out of the saddle to power up closer to BBG, my legs would start to cramp and I would have to sit back down, get into an easier gear and spin my legs…so frustrating.  As I crested the hill and got onto the twisty, turny singletrack section that divided the climbing, I spotted BBG on a section that came back toward me.  He was at least a minute ahead at this point.  I kept what power I could to the pedals, but it was hurting.



Wanting to get the pain over!



Back on the doubletrack climb to the ranger station, my buddy Dave B. rode up behind me and gave me some encouragement to ride faster.  We reached the ranger station together and rode past the volunteers handing out water until the last, demoralizing climb spit me off my bike and into a slow walk.  I was gasping for air and my legs were pounding with every step.  I was no longer in race mode, but rather struggling to survive this last hill.  After pushing my bike to the top of the climb, it was all relatively downhill to the finish.  I knew I had second place secured, but hammered anyway just in case BBG had a mechanical of some sort and was pushing his bike.  Well, that definitely wasn’t the case, I crossed the finish and there he was, sitting, watching, smiling, as I rode toward him.  I too smiled, glad the race was over, but also glad for the closest race I had ever competed.  BBG beat me fair and square like he did at the Race to Lil’ Moe’s Place and he deserved the win, he raced hard and he raced smart, and he pulled one more point ahead of me as a result.   This win put BBG two points ahead of me in the series, with only two races to go.  This means both races are must-wins for me.  No second place, no mechanicals, no flat tires, no being a crybaby…just stay upright, race smart, and be in the lead at the finish line…that doesn’t sound too hard now does it?

But back to that simple two-word question that I’ve been repeatedly asked since I finished:

 “What happened?”

Well, I’ll tell you what happened… I raced my legs off on one of the toughest courses I know and came in 2^nd in my category and 15^th overall in my class and went home proud of that…that’s what happened!

Results can be found here.

Big “Thank You!” to Jason and Tammy Martin of Pike Street Bikes and their staff who put this race on, all the volunteers, especially Jason, Mikey, and Jonathan for the hard work during the race and the cheers and photos, and to GU and Honey Stinger for keeping me hydrated and fueled through another tough race.  We'll get 'em next time.