8-29-10 Sugar Bottom Scramble

Been a while but finally have some down time to write this up, hopefully I can remember most of the details. Sugarbottom is the longest lap of any of the IMBCS Series races, at just over 10.5 miles of almost all singe track goodness with rocks, roots, and a fair amount of climbing it is a true test of skill and stamina. Also helps that it is a local race for us and have the ability to ride there often, and although I didn't take advantage of that as much as I should have this year, the trails mostly stayed the same from last year with the exception of a few needed reroutes. Showed up early so the kids could race in the morning, with both of them doing the youth race and placing 1st and 3rd, Salem decided he would attempt the Junior Race which was a full lap of the course, would prove to be a challenge for him thats for sure. He did great and ended up in 5th overall and 1st in his age group, awesome result for him, and got a State Championship medal.

On to my race now, knowing this start sucks I positioned myself on the front line in the center of the gravel road, looking around there was probably 30 or so of us and knew it would be a fast start. Off we go heading towards the gravel climb that is probably 1/2 mile up the road, I was clipped in and just picking up gears as quick as I could, look back and I had a 20-30 foot gap going into the climb, knowing I would fade slightly and there were some faster local guys that ride there alot I was in to just try and hit the woods in the top 10. I started counting as guys went by and entered the woods close to 8th or 9th, right where I wanted to be, and the big reward for making it into the woods up front is you now descend with some switchbacks and can for the most part recover. I sat in right on Ryan VH's wheel, right where I was hoping to be as me and him are close for the top spot in the overall, and since I knew the course pretty well I was able to give him little heads up here and there on sections coming up so we didn't lose the lead group. All is going well till we hit the one section where you drop down do a 180 turn right up a little hill, then turn 180 to the left and right back down, at this point Ryan goes down and I do my best to avoid hitting him and his bike and end up hitting a tree myself going down and losing my water bottle on the ground, so I make sure to pick that up as it was 90 degrees and knew I needed that. I do a quick run up the hill and do my best cyclocross remount and only lost 2 spots and was now riding behind Kyle Williams. Another 3/4 of a mile and we would exit out onto the gravel road, made a risky pass to get by Kyle and started to reel Ryan back in, at this point I had ran out of gears, was doing upwards of 33 mph and went by Ryan on the right, taking a couple other guys with me. We get into the next section which is a flat flowy trail that I was using to recover before starting the North side with all of it's climbing. Got onto the Northside single track and just plugged away at the ups and downs. This has the only Black Diamond trail as well as the Double Black known as "Cyclocross Hill" You could hear all the spectators on cyclocross hill as they go looking for carnage, this year though it was the most rideable as it has ever been, so was able to fly into it carry that speed most of the way up the other side and come out with a decent amount of speed still, in previous years it wasn't as fast and most would walk/shift under load and break chains. Another flat flowy section and we would be heading into lap 2.

Start of lap 2 found me getting caught by the 2 guys behind me but I had gapped Ryan by now and wasn't sure how far back he was, then it happened. I missed my feed zone and was heading out with less then a full water bottle, not good. At this point I decided I wouldn't chase the 2 guys of front of me and just sit in at a pace I could hold for the next hour. First section went pretty well for me, was able to keep the guys in front of me in sight and wasn't losing any time, still didn't know where Ryan was behind me and knew I had to keep going the best I could to stay up. I was passing water bottles on the ground and thought I would stop and grab one to drink so I had something, but not knowing what people have in their bottles I didn't want to risk it, so I continued on. This time I was able to ride the Southside cleanly and had no mishaps heading into the gravel road again, hoping my feed zone might be there, nope :( Oh well only have about 4 miles or so to make it through, and almost out of water, it would be crucial to just sit and spin up the climbs and not go all out. I made it to the top of the climb and noone else was in sight either in front of me or behind me at this point. Took a few chances on the downhills to keep my speed up and try and make up any time I lost on climbing. Got to cyclocross hill and could hear cheering before I got there so knew someone wasn't to far ahead, but not sure if I could go any harder, then it happened, climbing up the other side I started to cramp my left calf, so knew I was done with any hard riding. Thankfully it was basically flat the next mile or so to the finish, I would be able to cruise it home and retain my position. Out into the field, put it in the big ring and just went for all I had left, finished.

Sat down and drank some water, some Coke at a sandwich and just watched everyone else finish. Waited around for results and once they were posted I wondered over to find out I was 7th overall for the Cat 2 Open, good result for me and I was pleased, my second lap time suffered due to the conservative riding I had to do, but was able to retain a good finish. Waited around as they were paying 8 deep, found out it was just a table full of schwag and was a pick your prize deal, so I ended up grabbing a tubeless conversion kit of my 29er, so will get around to doing that for next year. Also they had a raffle drawing and we ended up winning a sweet New Belgium Brewing pitcher, shirt and a couple other things. Overall I was pleased with the result and kept me in contention for a top spot in the overall in the IMBCS Series.

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