Next month two of my Roanoke friends, Stephanie and Daniel, are getting hitched and this past weekend was Steph's bachelorette party. Anyone who knows Steph knows that her idea of a great weekend is sure to include two things: mountains and mountain bikes. The initial plan was to head to Brevard, but we ended up opting for a closer location and switched to West Jefferson, NC.This weekend was completely off my radar for racing for obvious reasons until Steph and I were overlapping on an ED shift a week or so before and she pointed out that 6 Hours of Warrior Creek was right where we were going to be and encouraged me to sign up. I mean when the bachelorette tells you to go race you can't say no, right? The race was full, so I put my name on the waitlist not thinking I'd actually get in. Then Wednesday before the race I got the email that I was in. One little problem-- the weather forecast was looking mighty suspect...as in 90% chance of rain vs snow.
Friday morning the Roanoke ladies loaded the and caravanned south to Warrior Creek. Pretty perfect because I got to pre-ride the course and hang out with a bunch of rad ladies! Warrior Creek was definitely very different than my usual trails around Roanoke-- fast berms, few technical areas. You could really rail on the corners, at least while it was dry...
Post-ride I ran by a local bike shop to grab new brake pads. With the weather forecast I had realized that morning that my pads could take a beating and given they were now a few months old with quite a few miles and long races behind them I should probably take a quick look at them. (Cue Jeff Cheng being proud of me...) Glad I did because that rear one was on its last legs and the front pretty beat as well. Once at the bachelorette pad I quickly switched them out before the rain rolled in. After that it was bachelorette festivities with group taco dinner and a night full of lots of laughs and of course plenty of requisite phallic decorations. The race had been pushed back to 11a so I wasn't facing a super early wake up and didn't have to rush off to bed. The forecast was looking grim for the next day though with a long swath of rain headed right for the region.
I woke up to cloudy skies and cold drizzle. Fortunately, Warrior Creek was supposed to stay just clear of the band of rain at least until mid afternoon. Fingers crossed. I arrived to cloudy skies and no precipitation. After check in I set up my drop area and managed to find Roanoke friends Jeff and Carla who were also racing. Jeff was doing solo SS and Carla was racing mixed duos. At the start line we were cautioned about the slickness of the course and especially some corners in the first bit of pavement the first lap including that riders had gone down during warmup. Next, a cash award was then offered for the person who finished some section of pavement first. Wait a second...
Lap 1-- 1:24:11.0:
Sure enough it was slick. In the first corner a rider just in front of me slid out and went down. In minutes we were moving into the first singletrack and back through the start zone. I had a good start and although the trail was busy I didn't feel stuck and was moving at a good speed. Although roots were slick, I was pleasantly surprised with how good of shape the trail was in considering the rain the night before. Just before the field I caught a stick in my derailleur but got it out before it caused an issue. Although I was expecting congested trail until at least into the second lap, by the time I got to the last 1/3rd of the lap riders were spacing out and I had plenty of room to ride.
Lap 2-- 1:14:18.2:
No stop for me as I rolled back through the start for lap 2. I felt great and there was no more trail congestion. About 1/4 of the way around I came into a rooty down a bit fast, hit a bad line and slid out on the wet roots. Whoops. Fortunately no injuries, just some nice mud smears. I should probably ride a touch more cautiously... Otherwise the rest of the lap was pretty uneventful, the trail stayed in good shape and still no precipitation! Towards the end though I could suddenly feel the temperature was starting to drop as forecasted. I had started the race a little warm but suddenly I was very happy with my layering choices.
Lap 3-- 1:16:31.3:
By this point I had pulled my long sleeves back down as it continued to cool off. Passing by the lake the wind had picked up and the ceiling had dropped. You could feel the moisture coming. The trail was still in decent shape though, a couple berms had softened where a few people had clearly slipped but not bad. I was starting to get a little hungry and knew I'd need to make a quick pit stop after this lap for some food.
Right about the time I hit the field again a light drizzle started. Not enough to soak me or really add much of a chill, just enough to know it was there. As I neared the end of the lap and checked my time/pace I was pretty stoked. It seemed like I miiiight be able to make 5 laps before the 4:15p time cut off. Approaching the end of the loop, the last 1/4 mile or so of trail suddenly changed to significantly softer, slippery mud leading to a rather squirrelly last descent before the campground. I just figured this was the section that had had more traffic by that point, but I was about to be proved wrong. Riding through transition I gave Jeff Brown some good-natured grief when I spotted him sitting under their tent bundled in a puffy jacket rather than riding his bike, took a quick stop to shovel down some Honey Stinger gels, and headed back out for lap 4.
Lap 4-- 1:34:46.3:
At this point I was prepared for another lap after this one, but was definitely hoping the drizzle didn't get any harder. The trails had not been that muddy for the most part and my glasses were getting covered with rain drops making it tough to see, so I left them at my drop area. Bad idea. Within minutes of reentering the singletrack it became apparent that everything had changed. Many spots on the formerly slightly slippery but solid trails had turned into a peanut-butter mud mush that bike nightmares are made of. The kind that coats your bike and drivetrain in thick, gloppy awfulness and makes you cringe for your components' suffering. My pace and everyone else's plummeted. A couple of the steeper climbs that were no problem earlier in the day resulted in tires just spinning out forcing many of us to walk and try not to fall on our faces. (Cleats don't do well in mud.) Suddenly the prospect of a 5th lap seemed extremely unlikely. Even more so, riding became significantly less fun and a not small part of me was thinking "Please let me be slow enough to be after 4:15p..."
By halfway through my bike and I were both covered in mud and the trails were only getting worse and the mud thicker as the precipitation came down. After one steep pitch that everyone I saw was walking (I had to side step and dig my shoe buckles in just to get traction) my chain popped off as I started to ride. I stopped, put it back on and within a few pedal strokes it was off again. I tried scraping some mud off with my hands and got it back on again....and then once again it was off. I spotted a tree that was sideways and hung my bike on it by the seat and went to work scraping handfuls of mud away from my drivetrain. I got the chain back on and went through checking shifting...it seemed to be holding. I hopped back on and it stayed put. Phew.
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| So happy to be done. |
had no clue by how much if I was. I shifted from trying to hammer to just trying to go steady and avoid any extra strain on my bike hoping I had enough of a gap. Also those glasses I had left...yeah that was a mistake...definitely took a couple big glops to both eyes which was not fun. 3/4 of the way around I spotted my watch reading 4:18pm and have never been so relieved to miss a time cut off. Just a few more miles and I get to stop!
As I started the final climb I heard noise above me....the sound of very loud cyclocross quality heckling...right at the top of that last downhill that was squirrelly the last lap. Oh boy, that thing's gonna be fun now! A general bike race rule: The better the heckling the more carnage you should expect. Pretty sure the rear of my bike went sideways on that descent but I managed to stay upright. Around the corner and finally I was back on pavement. Final time: 5:29:46.9. I rode over to Jeff and Dunlap who I'd spotted on the way to the line and was more than a little jealous of their warm, dry, non-mud covered clothes.
After a quick chat and part of Jeff's beer I headed to my car for my own warm, dry clothes. My legs were so muddy I had to rinse them off at a pump before I could change. Fortunately there were a few hoses around as well and I got as much of the slime off the bike as I could. Then we hung out and waited for Carla to get in from her lap then headed out to the after party/awards venue once we were all clean-ish (I still had mud all over my neck and upper chest).
Food was eaten, beer was drunk, and we all recounted our various sufferings and hellish mud experiences. Pisgah Productions got some pretty awesome prizes donated for the raffle and Jeff came away with a new dropper post! Then awards time. I won Women's Open, Carla and her partner Chris won Mixed Duo, and Dunlap and Laura got 2nd! We all headed out as soon as awards were finished, everyone else back to Roanoke and I went back to West Jefferson to rejoin the bachlorette festivities. And keeping in tune with this crazy wintery spring we've had, it was snowing by the time I reached the house. |
| Women's Solo Podium |
The next morning we headed back North towards Roanoke and stopped near Wytheville for a short, snowy ride at Round Mountain. One day spring will actually get here, but regardless of the weather it was such a great weekend riding bikes and getting to hang out with a bunch of awesome ladies!!
And now, back to the ED (yay!) and a couple weeks of recovery while I work a bunch paying it forward for a couple weekends off for more races at the end of the month. Next up: Bootlegger. I just have to decide between the 60 and 100 mile option since I have Cohutta 100 the following weekend....
And finally... Congrats Steph and Daniel!!! 💜💜💜
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