This Betty's beat! (The FatTire Ride Report)
Well, FatTire has changed since I last rode it back in the late 90’s. This was only my second FatTire, and as Sue said … “you seem to block the tough parts out of your memory” … yes, exactly. Although I had some confirmation that this course was harder than the one I remember…a little bit of solace ;-)
We pre-rode on Thursday – and I thought the early hills would plane out to some nice mellow riding but it was a hilly course throughout. After we ride it I thought maybe I would rather be surprised on race day.
Luckily there were a few fire roads and downhills that helped ease the ride at least for a few moments here and there. Miles 1-3 were tough because I am not a good starter to begin with, let alone all uphill. So you start going up for a while, mainly to thin out the herd of riders that all start at the same time. It’s a mass start for the Short and Fat (16 miler I did) and the 40 miler. So it’s best to either shoot out or to lay a little low and allow bike courtesy to kick in and let some riders pass. It’s such a great group of riders though, as long as you respect the riders, they respect you. The group I was riding with (you start to separate into your speed groups) formed some good camaraderie. Quite a few of the uphills at the beginning were rocky so as someone hopped off their bike to walk, you got cheered on as you tried to grind up it. Next time we said we’ll bring a ghost bike to put in line to keep a spot, and then ride our bikes around for a few miles to warm-up first!
Race time was 10:00am but we got there at 8:00am to get a good spot, which we did. Forecast was for storms all morning but the race gods were smiling upon us, the rain held off – lots of gray skies and lots of wind but no real rain (yeah!, not sure I would get up some hills with pouring rain to top it off).
So the guns go off and we’re off (some of us a little slower than others….teeeheeee). First 3 miles, a tough start for me, lots of gravel and gravel/rocky uphills, then there was some reprieve in mile 4. Quite a bit of sand early in the course (for those of you who don’t mountain bike, sand to a mountain biker is like pouring honey on the road in front of a road biker)! It can just kind of slow you to a crawl. All you can do is try and ride through in a low gear, go around it, whatever works. Almost lost it on a couple sand spots I zipped through. But some uphills were a sandy beach all the way up so you look for some side grass to traverse. Or walk. Which I did! Some of the night’s drizzles dampened it down from Thursday which was a good thing. Then la-dee-da, riding’s tough but not alarming ‘til mile 7 and 8!! Up and down and snarly, no stopping. After that, you hit the fire roads for about a mile (gravely and mostly downhill) so you need to watch your line in the gravel but you get a little rest time. And then the next 4 miles or so are all on the Birkebeiner ski hills – all grass hills and it was a wild roller coaster ride. Time to take my second GU gel on that one! It was up and down all the way and with some really screaming downhills … woohoo what a rush! Whenever you see the “caution” sign you know a good one’s coming! Many of those hills, if you tucked and let her rip sans brakes, allowed you to avoid pedaling up the next hill. For this hill slug, it’s ALL about efficiency!! The hills are kind of famous in this stretch, one is actually named – it’s called “Big Bertha”!
Then, the last few miles. You’d think, oh, this will be smooth sailing. Some of the worst miles of the course! It starts with some double track, a little single track that’s a little rocky and rooty. And then you start hitting elevation as you realize you are climbing up one side of the ski hill. So it gets progressively tougher, eases up a bit then tough again. At this point, your body is full of GU gels and it won’t help anymore cuz your muscles say “that’s it, I’m out of here”. Once you finally come out of the woods, you do some climbing on gravel roads and once again think “this is it, I’m home”…and BAM! There is the final climb of the ski hill. This is where 90% jump off and walk and 10% are able to grind up it (well at least this far back in the ranks). Well, I tried, but had to do the old “hike and bike” again. I was beat and just wanted to finish. Everyone is still cheering you on. I had David’s voice in one ear and Roshelle’s in the other getting me up that hill. And I appreciated every minute of it. Thanks to all the Betties for pushing me up those hills!
Last 1.5 miles, up a ski hill….those FatTire trail makers are masochists!
Then you swing around to a massive downhill curve (down the ski hill), which I forgot was on such a steep decline and I almost lost it at flying speed! Rubber side down…rubber side down…rubber side down…! I hit some rocks and bumps and my right pedal unclipped and was able to save me and the bike, caught a bar in the gate, re-grouped myself, re-clipped and kept on. But no fall. Then, the very last .2 mile to the finish line gate is uphill! Cruel world! And for god’s sake, it’s a race, you can’t get off and walk!! You have to grind it up. Exactly what I did. To the finish, finally. My time was about 30 minutes better than the first time I raced Fat Tire, so that’s a good start, but I have much room to improve relative to the other racers! But I finished, I was freaked out at the beginning as usual, but at that point of crossing the finish, I forgot all about it and just smiled to have put 1 more Fat Tire under my belt! Second time for me, first time for Lily Blue (my bike).
Did I mention I was looking forward to some off-season ???
We pre-rode on Thursday – and I thought the early hills would plane out to some nice mellow riding but it was a hilly course throughout. After we ride it I thought maybe I would rather be surprised on race day.
Luckily there were a few fire roads and downhills that helped ease the ride at least for a few moments here and there. Miles 1-3 were tough because I am not a good starter to begin with, let alone all uphill. So you start going up for a while, mainly to thin out the herd of riders that all start at the same time. It’s a mass start for the Short and Fat (16 miler I did) and the 40 miler. So it’s best to either shoot out or to lay a little low and allow bike courtesy to kick in and let some riders pass. It’s such a great group of riders though, as long as you respect the riders, they respect you. The group I was riding with (you start to separate into your speed groups) formed some good camaraderie. Quite a few of the uphills at the beginning were rocky so as someone hopped off their bike to walk, you got cheered on as you tried to grind up it. Next time we said we’ll bring a ghost bike to put in line to keep a spot, and then ride our bikes around for a few miles to warm-up first!
Race time was 10:00am but we got there at 8:00am to get a good spot, which we did. Forecast was for storms all morning but the race gods were smiling upon us, the rain held off – lots of gray skies and lots of wind but no real rain (yeah!, not sure I would get up some hills with pouring rain to top it off).
So the guns go off and we’re off (some of us a little slower than others….teeeheeee). First 3 miles, a tough start for me, lots of gravel and gravel/rocky uphills, then there was some reprieve in mile 4. Quite a bit of sand early in the course (for those of you who don’t mountain bike, sand to a mountain biker is like pouring honey on the road in front of a road biker)! It can just kind of slow you to a crawl. All you can do is try and ride through in a low gear, go around it, whatever works. Almost lost it on a couple sand spots I zipped through. But some uphills were a sandy beach all the way up so you look for some side grass to traverse. Or walk. Which I did! Some of the night’s drizzles dampened it down from Thursday which was a good thing. Then la-dee-da, riding’s tough but not alarming ‘til mile 7 and 8!! Up and down and snarly, no stopping. After that, you hit the fire roads for about a mile (gravely and mostly downhill) so you need to watch your line in the gravel but you get a little rest time. And then the next 4 miles or so are all on the Birkebeiner ski hills – all grass hills and it was a wild roller coaster ride. Time to take my second GU gel on that one! It was up and down all the way and with some really screaming downhills … woohoo what a rush! Whenever you see the “caution” sign you know a good one’s coming! Many of those hills, if you tucked and let her rip sans brakes, allowed you to avoid pedaling up the next hill. For this hill slug, it’s ALL about efficiency!! The hills are kind of famous in this stretch, one is actually named – it’s called “Big Bertha”!
Then, the last few miles. You’d think, oh, this will be smooth sailing. Some of the worst miles of the course! It starts with some double track, a little single track that’s a little rocky and rooty. And then you start hitting elevation as you realize you are climbing up one side of the ski hill. So it gets progressively tougher, eases up a bit then tough again. At this point, your body is full of GU gels and it won’t help anymore cuz your muscles say “that’s it, I’m out of here”. Once you finally come out of the woods, you do some climbing on gravel roads and once again think “this is it, I’m home”…and BAM! There is the final climb of the ski hill. This is where 90% jump off and walk and 10% are able to grind up it (well at least this far back in the ranks). Well, I tried, but had to do the old “hike and bike” again. I was beat and just wanted to finish. Everyone is still cheering you on. I had David’s voice in one ear and Roshelle’s in the other getting me up that hill. And I appreciated every minute of it. Thanks to all the Betties for pushing me up those hills!
Last 1.5 miles, up a ski hill….those FatTire trail makers are masochists!
Then you swing around to a massive downhill curve (down the ski hill), which I forgot was on such a steep decline and I almost lost it at flying speed! Rubber side down…rubber side down…rubber side down…! I hit some rocks and bumps and my right pedal unclipped and was able to save me and the bike, caught a bar in the gate, re-grouped myself, re-clipped and kept on. But no fall. Then, the very last .2 mile to the finish line gate is uphill! Cruel world! And for god’s sake, it’s a race, you can’t get off and walk!! You have to grind it up. Exactly what I did. To the finish, finally. My time was about 30 minutes better than the first time I raced Fat Tire, so that’s a good start, but I have much room to improve relative to the other racers! But I finished, I was freaked out at the beginning as usual, but at that point of crossing the finish, I forgot all about it and just smiled to have put 1 more Fat Tire under my belt! Second time for me, first time for Lily Blue (my bike).
Did I mention I was looking forward to some off-season ???
posted by VenusdeVelo @ 11:29 PM
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