Brighton Stage Race – May 15th – 16th 2010 : Christian

The Brighton Stage Race runs for 2 days: a time trial and a short track on Saturday; cross country race on Sunday. The winner is the racer with shortest cumulative time on all 3 events.

Time trial:
The time trial is held on the "Torn Shirt" trail in the Brighton State Park, Michigan. Obviously, the trail got its name from the tight turns but not only:
1.Most of the curves of the 100% single track trail have limited to no visibility.
2.There are sections where the riders can get into a nice rhythm as 4 to 5 curves will allow to carry the speed but the following curve is much tighter although it looked just the same as you entered it. Depending how quickly you can react, two things can happen: either you fly off the trail and hope to avoid the trees near by, or you manage to slow down but you are now in way too big gear to quickly regain speed.

The trail was in great shape although there were few corners and steep climbs with some loose sand. It has been 2 years since I raced there.  I remember enough about the trail to keep my fingers on the brake levers the entire time. But I still found myself carrying too much speed in some corners, but fortunately I kept the bike on its tires.

After I crossed the finish line, I was satisfied with my effort, until Steve Dempsey posted a nearly 50 seconds faster time...

Short track:
The short track was held 3 hours after the time trial on a grassy field. 7 laps total. The 10 feet wide trail was quite bumpy and there was a wide range of bikes lined up at the start line: cyclocross bikes, 29er hard tail, 29er rigid, 26er full suspension, etc. The funny part was that each racer was convinced that they had the right bike for the event. I admit I was one of them. I thought my Trek Top Fuel handled the small bumps supremely such that I could pedal non-stop and be in full control in the corners.

I had a good start and was second wheel from the whistle before I quickly went to the lead. Despite my best efforts for 4 laps, there were still 6 of us in the lead group. When I looked back, everybody seemed somewhat fresh and relaxed while I was cooking...I sat up and instantly my heart rate dropped off the near red zone to a much more comfortable level. No wonder, I could not get any gap; drafting was too much of an advantage. Consequently, the group stayed together.

Nothing happened until the last lap. Steve made a good acceleration to stay in the front. Although the other competitors could have been more aggressive and try to make a move in one of the turns, everybody kept their line. At the end the group stayed together, I finished in second place; 3 seconds behind Steve.

Cross Country:
Obviously, the cross country is the event where most of the time canbe made or lost. We needed to complete 5 laps of the Murray's Lake trail which is not as traitorous as the "Torn Shirt loop". It takes just above 30 minutes to complete a lap so with 2h30 this race is oneof the longer one.

I started the race with a deficit of 50 seconds to Steve so I needed to attack. Like the day before I had a good start and was in third position. The leader was riding at good speed and there were not too many spots to pass, so we followed him for an entire lap.

At the start finish area, I upped the pace and dropped everybody but Steve. Steve looked comfortable behind me and rightfully so since he was ahead of me for the overall title.

I kept the speed up and tried to be patient. The Murray Lake trail does not have any significant climbs making it even harder to make any kind of difference. The 2nd and 3rd lap were uneventful but I started to be seriously tired and Steve was still glued to my wheel...

Finally on lap 4, I started to notice that in some areas requiring more power he would drop by 10 yards before rejoining immediately on the smooth trail.  I was playing with fire and I was very tired myself. At each "power zone" I hoped to drop Steve for good but he put up a great effort and we crossed the start finish line together for
our last lap.

At that point it looked unlikely that I could make up the 50 seconds I needed to win the overall but at least I was going to fight for the cross country victory. Steve started yo-yoing behind me just like he did on the 4th lap but also like the previous lap he latched back on to my wheel quickly after each hard zone.

Suddenly, there was no more noise behind me! Steve dropped and I was about 10-12 minutes from the finish. I could have ease up the pace a bit but the large "Team CF" logo printed on my jersey re-enforced my desire to fight to the end. That is the only way not to feel any remorse regardless of the outcome.

My legs were two blocks of lead and making them spin required as much will power as physical energy. Finally I crossed the finish line, completely out of breath. I was catching back my breath before I glanced at the clock and started to count the seconds.

Steve was sprinting to the finish line and crossed the line about 50 seconds behind. Why does it have to be that close? Steve finished the XC race in second pace, 1min15s behind.

In the last third of the last lap I made up enough time to win the overall title. Racing against a strong competitor like Steve made the race super tough, which made victory even more gratifying.