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| Morning love from Charlie |
Chris Blankenship and Jeff Brown also did the race, so the three of us carpooled up from Roanoke the morning of the race. After rendezvousing at Jeff and Carla's (she sadly had to work) where I got lots of morning dog cuddles, we hit the road. It's only about 1:45 from Roanoke to Stokesville which is awesome because it makes an easy day trip!
As we drove in we were all looking at the car thermometer like, "36 degrees?! uh oh..." Fortunately once we were standing in the sun it didn't seem too bad, although I'm not going to lie I was pretty excited I was going to have to start off climbing and would warm up quickly! We got checked in and I was surprised to see that the numbering started with the women and that I pulled #1....pressure was on! However, Chris ended up ultimately winning the best number pull. 😉
The race started with a neutral roll-out...neutral for about 200 yards at which point we were out the back of the campground and literally straight up the mountain towards Hankey. I've come down this section a couple times now during SM100, but this was my first time climbing it. It's a long climb with faster and flatter 2-track/fireroad segments interspersed with steep, punchy pitches. Very quickly, though I was past the Hankey Road intersection and heading towards Dowell's. That section can feel like a slog, but I kept reminding myself that it's at least faster on the return trip!
Then I was topped out and descending Dowell's which is just such a fun and flowy downhill it puts a smile on my face every single time. In too short a time it was over and I was rolling through Aid 1. We lucked out with cool temps in the upper 50s/low 60s so I was set nutrition-wise since I had brought my full Camelbak with some Infinit mix and my HoneyStinger gels, so no aid stop for me. Heading past Braley's Pond was a pretty mellow climb with a couple of fireroad rollers, then it was a right onto 460 for a short pavement stretch before Georgia Camp.
I've only ridden Georgia Camp one other time and that was during Tour de Burg last year. March vs. July was night and day difference in one major way. NO NETTLES!!! I definitely had several flashbacks/hallucinations during that climb of my last time on it with wall to wall stinging nettles. Even though the climb was tough it was soooo much better without constantly burning arms/legs. The top even held a little bit of a surprise with a few residual snow patches holding on. Pretty crazy and awesome for Virginia in late March!
Then it was across 460 through Confederate Breastworks and down Road Hollow. At the bottom of Road Hollow there is a creek. Last year at SM100 it was completely dry. Not today. It was more like a small river. Riding it was not an option so wet feet were mandatory. Even walking was interesting with a stout current and slippery rocks in cleats. Fortunately I made it across without a dunking, up the Bridge Hollow hike-a-bike and back to pedaling. I always forget how long the Bridge Hollow climb is, but finally there it was around the corner and down back towards Braley's Pond we went.
By Aid 2 I needed a quick break for nutrition/refill. After a quick PB&J and chugging an extra bottle of water I headed back up Dowell's in reverse. Coming down earlier in the day I had definitely been thinking 'Aw gee this is fun but man, I'm going to have to come right back up it later!' Fortunately it was a more pleasant climb than I expected. It was a mellower grade than the last 2 climbs which my legs certainly welcomed. Soon enough, the top had arrived and the next few miles of gradual downhill fireroad flew by before a short climb to the top of the Lookout descent.
Wow. Finishing a race down Lookout is rad. This downhill is absolutely amazing. Technical rock gardens scatter the whole way down and although it's all rideable you've got to be comfortable in rocks and stay sharp mentally (on that note, I can't imagine if SM100 finished on Lookout down...). I admit, I've never fully cleaned Lookout down, but today was my closest which pretty much made my day. I screwed up one move right at the very bottom and had to put a foot down. Damn. Gotta keep working! From the bottom of Lookout it was back to the quick pavement roll down the road to Stokesville Campground, up the quick singletrack to the finish line. Final time 5:27:57, good enough for 1st place for the women's 50 mile, 14th overall.
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| Bikes, sunshine, mountains...a few of my favorite things |
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| A little blood and mud...my mtb legs are back! |
Chris rolled in just a few minutes behind me and Jeff not far behind him. Then it was finish line hang out time with friends, food, and beer (local Roanoke Parkway Brewing Majestic Mullet on tap!) The only sad thing was it was too cold for the swimming hole! A bunch of Joe's Bike Shop folks came down for the race, and it was great to see True Grit-ers Jen Tillman (crushed it and came in 2nd!) and Jim Miller (whose wrong turn led to an extra 10 miles and earned him an illustrious 1st place finish in the 'Bonehead 60' 😉). I was super impressed with JBSRT member Nick Paul who might have won the Suffer Award and decided to do this as his first ever MTB race and on singlespeed. Damn. Someone summed it up well at the finish line..."I think I was either going up or down at all times."...Chris B. "Yeah, that's why it's Stoopid."
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| Women's 50 mile podium |
Take aways: If you want an epic early season race to push yourself or check your fitness in preparation for longer races later in the season this is an awesome one. It will hurt. A lot. But the course brings the stoke. There are only a few miles of pavement, the rest is dirt and a huge majority of that is singletrack. Not only that but awesome Blue Ridge backcountry singletrack that will keep you engaged and entertained both up and down.
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| Roanoke Party Crew |
A final shout out to Chris Scott for putting on a great race as well as Chris Merriam who helped in clearing a TON of debris for the race and anyone else who worked on the course prior. We've had quite the winter-in-spring around here (remember that snow on Georgia Camp?) taking down a lot of trees and other debris which is very apparent on the trails right now. It was impressive riding seeing all the fresh cuts and seeing how much work had clearly gone into getting the course ready for Stoopid-ness. Thank you trail crews! Already can't wait to get back up to Stokesville!
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