Coyote Ugly

I should have taken James Harmon's words to heart when I asked about Coyote Hill's mtb course: BRUTAL.

Headed up early with (40-49) Root 66 series leader Brian Cantele and his wife Andi for what would be a 3+ hour drive. We dropped off Andi and her trusted Giant in the neighborhood of Walpole, VT for her (what would be) 5 hour slog to the race in 20+mph headwinds. She gets the tough (wo)man award for the day.

Arriving at the race venue, I soon realized what Brian meant by terrible accommodations. It's bascially a narrow pitched dirt road that you just park on the side of. Warming up, my legs felt like cement pistons and I was thinking that this was going to be a sufferfest. At the start, I saw some familiar faces from the previous 2 races I've done.

I'm still getting the hang of this whole mtb race thing. It seems I can't get my effort dialed in just right. My miles being primarily aerobic on the road, I suppose going anaerobic repeatedly over a nearly 2 hour period is going to take some getting used to. In essence it's a glorified cross race. Being a notoriously slow starter, the first mile or so was tailored more to my strengths. The deal was they sent you through a field that kicked up and out onto a dirt road. The dirt road nagged on for another kilometer or so at a solid 15% grade. Near the top, it shot you into some fast swoopy singletrack which provided for ample recovery. They had started us 30's with the singlespeeders and I was wishing CB2 was there for "carrotting". I got into the woods about mid-pack which is significantly better than my previous starts. I seem to get this anxiety thing through the techy stuff when someone who is better than me starts breathing down my neck. So being the (too) nice of a guy I am, I usually let them pass when it opens up. I know, I know...

After the swoopy descent, we were back to a climbin' in the form of a techy, rocky kicker that was pushing 20+% gradient. I was thinking that this was going to be a whole lot of "fun" on the ensuing laps. The singletrack after this point just got progressively more technical. I kept the usual suspects in my sights with Robbie Carmen and Kerry Robair just ahead and Craig Kennedy a few seconds further up. Kerry ended up flatting or something on a rock garden in the first lap and I had to dismount and run by him. There were several small brook crossings and myriad roots to traverse. My feelings about roots became eerily reminiscent of my feelings about rocks toward the end of hiking Mt. Washington. This course was far and away the most technical to date. I would give this course a solid 8.5/10 whereas Winsted is maybe a 6.

I picked off Robbie in the feedzone after semi-attacking in the field. (Sorry if that was against mtb etiquette, Rob.) I began to find my legs on the beginning of the 2nd lap and absolutely cooked the dirt road climb before the singletrack. I think I picked off 3-4 riders here including Craig. I hit the singletrack descent as fast as I could in order to "disappear" but keeping in mind that "I still have to go to work on Monday". It's interesting to note here how much slower the better technical riders get when they're tired. Rode the 2nd lap primarily by myself until someone was coming up hard. I didn't look back but I was thinking that it had to be a junior as the way he was railing the rocky root descents, he wasn't thinking about tomorrow. I let him pass and paced off him for another 10 minutes or so until he disappeared.

The deep mud sections were getting worse and I dismounted and ran for probably 2 minutes each of the last two laps. I started to think that a little running maybe a couple times a week would be beneficial for times like these, especially when my calves felt they were being blowtorched. My 2nd and 3rd laps were faster than my first which again is indicative of my pathetically slow starts. I felt like I was maintaining speed much better "over the roots and through the woods" and braking much less. I ended up in 6th about 7 minutes down to the winner after being (again) misinformed that I was 4th. Oh well, the elusive podium will have to wait. If only three guys ahead of me had untimely mechanicals...

All in all, it was another positive mtb race experience. I feel like my tech skills are coming along nicely particularly on a course as tough as Coyote Hill. Brian won again despite being (finally) pushed a little on the final lap. James represented well in the Pros finishing 4th. After feeling like I fought an hour and 45 min. MMA match, I sit here with battered body wondering how James did 4 laps of that course on a single speed with zero suspension. Crazy.