What does an email and a quarter get ya? In Des Moines it gets you a ton of fun and an entry fee to one of the most fun mtb time trials around. Heck, I didn't even have to drive to this race, I rode my bike! (What a novel concept).
Donny Quixote of Quixote Coaching and Rasmussen Bikes threw together a time trial event at Denman Woods last night. Donny has a very unique ability to promote, manage and score races. The $0.25 entry fee made it possible for everyone to participate that wanted to and allowed those of us who took loans out to race Sugarbottom this weekend not to have to dig any further into debt.
The course contains a lot of technical single track with tight turns and log jumps. It plays to the rider who has solid technical skills and no fear of big log jumps. In the past, time trials have mostly favored a course with open trails and climbing allowing for the faster roadie types to dominate. Riding this course you have to be on the brakes and explode through the turns otherwise riding it at 100% will roll you through a corner and off the trail.
Twenty seven riders, of all levels, showed up on an overcast Wednesday night. Some guys rode with a Hawaiian shirt, others with a cut offs and flanel shirts, while most of us went the convention route and stuck to the regular bike fashioned garb.
The race started at 6:30pm on the dot with Troy Tellinghusen starting us off followed by Chad Vandelune and Chris Maharry. Sterling was in the front mix as well followed by Brian Pottorff and myself. As Brian took off down the 1/4 mile bike path it took him a full minute to drop into the single track. As soon as he went over the first log jump, Donny sent me off. Brian was riding a single speed and had some adult beverages prior to the TT, but if you know Brian like I do, that only fuels his fire more. I certainly had no expectations of catching him...even on the single speed. I've ridden with Brian for years and understand that he could be on a uni-cycle and still beat almost everyone. The way I describe Brian is this, "He never surprises me, but always amazes me".
As I slammed over the first log jump I was on the gas as hard as I could go. The night before, we had run 2.5 hours of gravel hill climbs in Booneville, so I knew the pain would set in momentarily. Denman's is kind of split into two sections, the first and second section are seperated by a 40 yard stretch of field before diving back into the woods again. Through the first section I was maintaining a strong pace with a heart rate close to 180, (much higher than the average mtb race). Coming into the section two I began to get a little sloppy and knew I had better slow it down a little bit, but I was reluctant to slow the pace. I still couldn't see Brian anywhere. I kept thinking to myself, "am I riding this slow or what?" Where is everyone? In a time trial effort a good strategy is to try to catch the guy in front of you, it provides momentum to ride faster and harder than normal. Anyway, as I pushed through the lactic acid burn from Tuesday nights ride I slid right through one turn and then got washed out on another. Crap! I'm losing time, now I've got to push it even harder!!
Finally, there's light at the end of the tunnel, but still no Brian in sight. Man that dude is fast, where the heck is he? As I rounded the exit of Denman's and headed down the "connector trail" I figured it was time to pour it on to make up lost time for washing out in the turns. A last right turn and there is the finish line with Donny and the clip board...."start rolling harder, don't be so soft", I kept telling myself. Finally I hit the end of the TT with my heart rate jumping out out of my jersey. I looked to see where Brian was on his warm down, and he was at the end of the bike path. Oh well, guess I sucked on that ride.
Many more racers had shown up after my start, so I was amazed to see a lot more people at the start/finish line when I came across. There's John Conlan, Bill Fanter, Terri Pottorff and Bianchi, even Craig Decker showed up on his commuter bike. All the racers slowly began to cross the line before it got too dark. A couple of riders had technicals and had to DNF.
Overall, this race was a total success for Donny and everyone who took part. What a great way to train mid-week. I want to thank Donny for taking the time to get this event together and putting others ahead of himself. Donny didn't even get a chance to race because of his responsibilities to score the times. Hopefully this event will spawn Chris Maharry to relocate his highly successful TT event to Wes Des Moines from the rutted out pits of hell at Targhetto.
Congrats to Brian Pottorff for laying it down last night, brother you are one fast stud. Great job to Chad Vandelune who just got back from Puerto Rico on a three day stage race with some seriously tough competition. Chad didn't even get a chance to rest his legs before competing last night and still threw down a third place finish. And lastly, thanks again to Donny for putting this "ride" on. We are all looking forward to the next one on Sept 7th. See you there!
Results from the Event:
Brian Pottorff: 18:22
Pete Basso: 18:26
Chad Vandelune: 19:22
Lee Johnson: 19:26
Bill Fanter: 19:32
Kyle Sedore: 19:33
Chris Maharry: 19:44
Jeff Anker: 19:58
Jason Alread: 20:11
Sean Noonan: 20:15
Jason Plunkett: 20:48
Jacob Nauman: 21:25
Craig Decker: 21:37
Taylor Webb: 21:38
Sterling Heise: 21:40
Chuck Hilsenbeck: 21:42
Troy Tellinghuisen: 22:22
Mike Lebeda: 22:46
Rick Cheevers: 22:46
John Pugh: 23:47
Mike Baker: 24:22
Jim Thomann: 25:29
Andrew Pospisaz: 25:30
Kobi Voshill: 25:57
Lance Chase: 26:20
Kyle Robinson: DNF
Mark West: DNF
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