Prior to hitting the road for Wisconsin, our first stop was at the Park Ave. Bike mid-week mountain bike training series in Rochester. We are at the point of the season where we are building in more speed work and these races provide an excellent venue for just that. I realize that most of our readers are well into (or maybe even past) this portion of their season, but like I said in one of our earlier postings, we have purposely 'slowed down' our season with hopes that this will sustain us for later in the year. The training race proved to be fast, tight, and slightly elongated from previous years. The men had a good turnout in all categories and three expert ladies showed up (including myself). Jeff 'burped' his tire on the 4th of 7 laps and was forced to retire from the race early.
For me, the previous week's female winner went out hard and I stayed on her wheel. Towards the beginning of the 2nd lap, there was a mandatory dismount and remount and I got the edge on her and kept the pace high. I would go on to win the training race.
Afterwards, we stayed the night at EJ's. We love EJ's family and especially enjoyed our short visit with his wife and daughter. We awoke at 4:30 a.m. the next morning. EJ made us a quick cup of coffee and we hit the road. We traveled through New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and into Wisconsin. By the time we made our way into Chicago-land, it was about 2 pm (CST) and we took the long beltway around the city. Traffic was heavy, tolls were high, and Jeff's patience was wearing thin. Jeff lovingly calls me "The Map Lady" as I love maps and navigation. I love to 'read' maps and memorize road patterns. Sounds a bit dorky, but Jeff can attest that there have been few times in our travels where "The Map Lady" has made mistakes.
The Wisconsin welcome center was a sight for sore eyes. It had been a long day at this point and we still had another 2 1/2-3 hours remaining. As we traveled north to wards Milwaukee, it was a relief to see rolling hills and some open space. Chicago is a cement jungle, so the open farmland in Wisconsin eases the system after a tense drive. We pulled into our hotel in small town, Wautoma, located about 30 miles west of Oshkosh, at 7:30 pm and immediately headed in town for dinner. You may wonder, "Well, gee, how did they know where to go?" The Map Lady had read and studied the AAA Guidebook and was prepared to make these types of executive decisions, especially since it was at the time of day where both of us were tired and Jeff needs to eat and get a drink in him. I am prepared for these types of situations and understand the necessity to get food into him as soon as possible to prevent any type of mental breakdown.
After a great dinner and a good night's sleep, we headed out to the race venue, Nordic Mountain, situated in Mt. Morris, about 7 miles from our hotel. We wondered as we were driving to the race site, could Wisconsin have a ski area? This area reminded us of the Lake Ontario shoreline, so what could we expect? The Nordic Mountain Ski Area was perhaps the only elevated piece of land in the area. While I do not have exact numbers to share, I can say with certainty that it was the highest point in the area, but no where near the types of ski areas here in the northeast. The race volunteers were setting up the course and we ended up walking a portion of course. Amateurs were not allowed on the course until Friday, so we spent the rest of the day sight seeing and got out for a short spin on our bikes.
On Friday, we headed back out to Nordic Mountain for a pre-ride. The course was approximately 4 miles in length, no extended climbs, not highly technical, but had quite a few tricky areas. We did 2 laps of the course and then retired for the rest of the evening. Saturday morning came and we were both nervous. Jeff was nervous about his tire holding and as for me, coming into an unknown area with unknown riders causes a lot of uncertainty, but I just went with our normal routine. The cat. 1 men were scheduled for 4 laps and the women, 3. I will be completely honest in saying that the start of the men's category 1 race was unfair. All the racers -- regardless of age -- were started together. In total, this meant that 100 riders took off at the same time. In retrospect, this seemed odd since the cat. 2 men were started by age groups and given time gaps, but this did not hold true for the cat. 1 men. Jeff started about 3/4 of the way back in the field and as the men entered the single track, it bottle necked, so much so that when the women made it to this spot, the men were still filing in. Everyone was off their bikes until the trail opened up. All cat. 1 racers had a 12:15 time cut-off to begin their last lap. Jeff estimates that he lost a good bit of time with the bottle necking and because of this, came across the line to start his final lap at 12:16. He was unable to officially finish the race and given a prorated time and place.
For myself, I had a good start. I lined up with 22 women and was sitting about half way in the pack when my front tire started to go soft within the first mile. In total disbelief (or maybe more disappointment), I stopped to fix the flat. I had no choice. I had traveled this far and wanted to finish. Anyone who knows me well, knows that it takes me a LONG time to fix a flat. I was out of contention for a top 10 finish. As I was pulling off the front wheel, another rider was coming down the course and offered to help. He pulled out a canister of some type of "fix a flat fast." He shot the stuff into my valve stem and had to shake it out until he found the hole and then shot another spray and told me to start riding. All told, I probably lost about 4 minutes. I was extremely grateful to the efforts of this man and glad to be on my way. I had open trail at this point as no one was in front of me. Being in this sport for as long as I have, I kept my cool and just continued to ride steady. I eventually started picking up people at the beginning of my 3rd (and final lap) and would end up 18th and 2nd in my age group, a dismal placing. In racing, there are many things which we cannot control for and flats are one of them.
Sunday's short track race would be time for redemption. Jeff chose not to compete in this event since he was so disgusted with the start line procedures and just enjoyed walking around the race venue and helping me get ready. Jeff gave me some advice for my warm up and I was ready when the gun went off.
Having done my last short track race about 3 years ago, the speed and intensity was a rude awakening. I stood up coming out of corners, I navigated gravely corners, and pedaled as hard as I could into between for a total of 20 minutes. I am reminded of my early days as a crit rider when I talk about the short track and in some odd way, found this intense event to be especially fun. I came off the main pack but continued to work hard. At times, the main pack was within reach but I couldn't carry their speed nor bridge the gap. I would finish in 9th place overall and 1st in my age group. I was very pleased.
As we loaded up the car after the race for our trip home, we reminisced about our trip. We enjoyed meeting the Mexican national team staying at our hotel, we spoke with Georgia Gould over breakfast, we were amazed by the speed of the Pro men, we found the locals to be especially nice and pleasant, and loved the food at Christianos.
We will not return to El Popo's nor will we drive straight through the city of Chicago, but we will return to this event. The WORS series is the longest running series in the nation and one of the largest. The organization and volunteers make this a spectacular event. It does not hold the star power presence of a Mt. Snow or Windham event, but if you're looking for some fast racing with quality riders, this is the place to go. We found out that Wisconsin is whey more than dairy. It is a lovely state that in some ways holds similar qualities to West Virginia and even Lake Ontario lake shore. We traveled through the day and night and pulled into our driveway at 5:45 the following morning. After sleeping for a few hours, we unpacked and slowly made our way into the normal routine of home life again. We are looking forward to Windham.
Together, we are Jeffina. Crankin' out the miles, crankin' out the love for Crankskins.com.
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