Trans Sylvania Epic, Open Men 5th place overall (Christian)

 
What a week!

Stage 1 – Time trial – 3rd place
The first stage was a time trial that lasted about 45 minutes. I started one minute behind Alex Grant from the Cannondale Factory Team and one minute ahead of Jeremiah Bishop from the same team. I thought that if I could reach back to Alex, I would post a great time. I was also wondering if I could hold off Jeremiah up to the
line. I am not a time trial specialist and it will be definitely difficult to limit the time difference between Jeremiah and me to less than a minute.

The trail led us thru the campground on a single track with some sharp turns before we reached a 1.5 mile dirt road climb. It is always difficult to set-up the proper pace and although I pre-rode the course the day earlier, the trail still had some surprises for me.

At the top of the climb, we turned left into a piece of downhill single track. The trail has some rocks and the fatigue from the climb made the navigation thru the rocks a little harder. Not time to rest, as the trail makes a 180° turn back up the hill by a slightly less rough trail. Closer to the top, the trail smooth out before reaching
back to the dirt road.

Although I was really riding at my best, I was not feeling really fast but the good sign was that I could not see anybody behind. The course made a turn to a single track that went up and down before we reached some rough dirt roads. This is when Jeremiah passed me. I wish I could have held him off a little longer but he was too strong. The best thing I could do was to follow him as close as possible. Strange how despite being tired, having a rabbit in front of you makes you ride faster. I was not right on Jeremiah's wheel but I was maintaining a 5
second gap.

Sooner than expected, we reached the last quarter mile of the stage. The trail is following a small creek and has some wet roots and rocks.  On my pre-ride the day before, I could not ride it... neither could I
ride it the day of the race.

For a second I saw Alex Grant being passed by Jeremiah, this is where I started to lose a lot of time. As I tried to ride over a rock, I lost my balance I felt. After I ran to a suitable spot to re-mount the bike, I realized that during the fall, the chain dropped off the small chain ring. I had to get off the bike and put the chain on the ring by
hand....

At the finish line, I was irritated by my poor performance on the last quarter mile. I should have been able to limit the time lost to Jeremiah to one minute and few seconds; instead it was over two minutes....Anyway, my performance was sufficient for 3rd place – quite a surprise not being a time trial expert.


Stage 2 – cross country – 3rd place
This stage started fast and furious; at least from my perspective. I got jammed behind a bunch of riders who where leaving some gaps to the leaders. After I redlined my heart beat and passed most of them I followed some other wheels just to notice that I was still not in the front group.

Then, we reached a long and quite steep uphill dirt road where I could see Jeremiah and Drew Edsall (Team Yeti) in the lead. After several minutes of hard effort, I reached back to them. This is where Evan Plews also reached back but instead of sitting back and take a breather, he continued at a steady pace and soon after he was ahead of Drew, Jeremiah and myself by 50 meters.

Knowing that Jeremiah is faster in the downhill than me, I let him in front of me. I was surprised that he started to leave a gap between him and Drew and although I could have rode faster downhill I did not want to risk everything to pass him.

Once the trail got flatter and wider, Jeremiah started to ride much faster. My legs were feeling the hard push as we were chasing Drew. I was getting tired really quickly and would have rather rode a steadier faster pace than this medium and then really fast ride.

Eventually Jeremiah pulled on the side with some brake problems on his Scalpel, leaving me alone to chase Drew. After I reached to the aid station, in the rough(er) single track I reached back to Drew.

I know my bike skills are not the best but somehow I felt I could ride a little faster in that terrain. I hesitated a long time before passing Drew. Indeed since the beginning of the stage, all I did was closing gaps and my legs were really hurting. But too much is too much, after a long time, I decided to pass.

Evan was still ways ahead and I was wondering if I would see him before the finish line. I was riding at my fastest pace when I heard some bike noises. Unfortunately it was not a bike in front of me but behind me. Jeremiah switched bike at the aid station and encouraged me to follow him on our pursuit of Evan.

Jeremiah's pace was out of my comfort zone and I was riding again faster than would like. Meanwhile Jeremiah was telling me that we would chase Evan once we exited the rocky single track. I answered that I was really tired.

Out of a corner, Evan was getting back on his bike after fixing a flat. The chase was over and I wished that the pace will ease up a little. It did not. I was only few seconds in the lead just to witness Evan and Jeremiah riding away as my legs were quitting on me.

I probably did not eat or drink enough and realized that I was loosing time quickly. My computer was broken from my fall the day earlier and I did not know how far I was from the finish. I barely made up the last climb to the campground but still reached the finish line in third place.

Stage 3 – cross country – 4th place
This stage was mostly dirt roads with only one major technical trail: the fisherman trail. Due to the nature of the terrain, nothing happen until the Fisherman trail by mile 18.

This is where I lost 2 minutes to the lead. I buried myself on the following climb to get back before the top just to realize that I could have go much easier in the climb and reach back on the following downhill and flat dirt roads. The problem is that you never know when an attack is going to happen.

At the base of the last major ascent, Brandon Draugelis set up a steady pace. It was not too impressive at the bottom of the climb, by the half way point, I was barely holding and by the top I was cooked and riding on fumes.

Brandon however was riding strong would place several attacks on Jeremiah, Alex and me. I had the most interest to chase Brandon due to the general classification. Great! I worked extra hard and the 4 of us reached the last single track climb of the day together. It was not long before I dropped back and let those 3 racers fight for the stage win.

It was a good day for me as I moved closer to Evan on the general classification.

Stage 4 – cross country – 2nd place
The stage took place at Raystown Lake park. The trail was super smooth and on the 38 miles of trails there was only one tiny tree trunk we had to jump over.

The race started by a pavement climb; it was quite steep. We then entered the rollercoaster trail for a great day on the bike. I entered in 5th wheel, behind Evan Plews. This was not the best position as Brandon Draugelis, Jeremiah Bishop and Drew Edsall started to pull away.

On some uphill section, Alex Grant and I passed Evan and joined back to the leading group where Brandon was navigating us thru the fun trail. We were now in a steady climb. Until now, Evan was lingering 30 meters behind us but he disappeared somewhere half way up the climb. However, he was able to bridge back after any sustained   downhill or flat section.

It was a lot of fun to roll on the water bars that looked at times just like a bmx track. It was tricky for the legs to produce important efforts followed by periods of rest as we went over those camel back like trails.

I was carrying more water than anybody in the lead group and by the time we reached the aid station for the second time, I did not have to refuel. I re-entered the single track trail in the lead. Apparently, I
rode somewhat faster than the previous pace set-up by Brandon as we drop Evan for good.

At some point, I reached a succession of large bumps at speed. I tried to avoid getting airborne but on the largest one, I could not avoid getting some air and I landed on my front wheel. I wheeled on the front wheel for what it seemed an eternity. Wow, it was a scary moment!

I was getting tired and drafting was quite an advantage. I did not know how long it will be to the finish and when Alex was getting very close to my rear wheel I decided to let him pass before he made me fall.

He accelerated but being in the draft, I followed him with no difficulties. Finally, we reached the same paved road that we rode at the start; however this time was downhill. It was too dangerous to make any attempt to pass. We all arrived one second behind each other:  Alex, me, Brandon, Drew and Jeremiah.

Evan lost some more time and I gained 2nd place overall.

Stage 5 – mini cross country format – 8th place
This was something new to me and it just killed my legs for the reminder of the stage race.

Basically, there are 4 time segments which start with a climb or some false flat. Then the course gets somewhat downhill but pedaling is still required.

The first segment started on wider trail and I did not quite made it to the front. I was maybe in 7th or 8th position and the leaders were pulling away. I was pedaling at my maximum speed and my heart was going to explode. Mid way thru the timed sector, my legs started to turn around. At some point, I passed Brandon just before we reached an open grass field on some two tracks. I went to the right and I found myself in a deep rut. My front wheel started to catch on the one foot tall wall. I felt on the grass and lost significant time while everybody was passing me on the left. It took me even more time to put back my dropped chain. I arrived about 1 minute behind first place.

The second segment had significant more stones and roots. The legs were empty from the previous mini XC; I was pleased when I reached the finish line with Evan about 20 seconds behind first place.

The third segment started on a fairly steep and long double track road. Immediately everybody redlined their heart beat. We finally went down a small grass field before we funneled down on the rockiest trail for the day along side a creek. I probably had my best ride so far but the leaders were much faster. I gained some time on Evan which was critical after my poor performance on the first leg. Again, I finish 20 seconds behind the winner.

By the start of the fourth and last timed segments I could not get the legs to spin smoothly. The prior 10 minutes max speed mini cross country races really drained my energy. Anyway, we were on a dirt road and I made it reasonably close to the lead before we turned left into a rocky single track. I thought we will be going downhill from there but instead we climbed back up a bit underneath some power lines. Then it was only downhill and once more I cross the line about 20 seconds behind the leaders. Like on the third segment, I put more time on Evan
and end up the day increasing my lead on him. Unfortunately, I lost time to my remaining close competition.

Stage 6 – cross country – 6th place
For once we did not started like rockets but instead rode at a casual pace on the flat dirt road. However as soon as we reached the base of the first major climb, the speed went crazy. Alex Grant was making a very high pace and it was only Jeremiah, Drew, Brandon and I. We started the downhill on the rough trail and for once I was following the group without letting any gaps being created. This lasted as long as the trail was steep enough that pedaling was not necessary. Once I started to pedal, I noticed that the chain dropped. Of course, I tried to shift my front derailleur in an attempt to put the chain back on the chain rings. It did not happen; I had to stop and use my hands. Pointless to say I was a little disappointed to have worked so hard in the uphill and then holding to lead pace downhill to finally be by myself because of a dropped chain.

Few minutes later, I got a glimpse at the leaders; they finished a very rough section as I just entered it. I though that I would be able to latch back on but after an hour of racing, my legs were drained and my heart would not rev-up. It became worse when I lost my balance and felt in a rock garden. During the week, it must have happen to me like 10 times, but this time my right thigh landed exactly on top of a pointy rock. I felt a deep pain and my leg seized up immediately. It took at least ten minutes for the leg to spin a little bit smoother.

I tried to my best to keep a decent pace but I knew I was slower than the lead group. After a long while, I saw Jeremiah on the side of the trail fixing his bike. We were then on a very nice ridge trail punctuated with some rough sections. Anytime I could spare a second to look to my right or to my left, you could see for miles. The views were breathtaking. I guess that it per definition a ridge line.

At some point, Blake Harlan (Team Jamis) passed me; I took his wheel and it was fun to have a "rabbit" and no longer be on my own. Once the ridge line finished, I went to the front and created a 30 seconds gap on the climb.

The single track trail ended with a downhill and we were riding dirt and paved roads. On the roads, Blake redlined himself to get back to me bringing back Jeremiah with him. Blake was too far back in the general classification to agree to set up the pace and Jeremiah was too far ahead to ride faster and help me reduce the time on his
teammate. So I end-up leading our group of three for quite a while.

On the last ascent, Jeremiah placed an attack; Blake could take his wheel but it was too much for me. In no time they had a 20 to 30 seconds gap. As the climb continued, I was reeling them in slowly. By the time I crossed the finish line, I was 4 seconds behind.

The race for second place for the general classification was on. Alex, Brandon and I were only separated by 7 seconds. However, all I could think was about my bruised right leg...

Stage 7 – cross country – 9th place
As I woke up, I could not bend my right leg. It took me one minute to put on my socks. A long and low intensity warm up was necessary to reach a somewhat smooth pedal stroke. This stage was going to last around 2 hours and the intensity was going to be high. Right from the gun, Jeremiah, Alex, Brandon and Drew took off. I was left behind struggling silently in pain.

The rain during the night left quite a bit of puddles. 15 minutes into the race, as I rode thru one of them, the muddy water just sprayed up from the front wheel and got just between my glasses and my face. For 20 seconds I could not discern what was around me. Anyway, I was feeling miserable but kept pushing since anything can  happen.

At some time Evan Plews and Mike Yozell joined me. I was riding in third position just hanging on. At an intersection, Mike asked if we were still on the correct path. I must say that all my attention at the time was focused on not behind dropped. After we rode a bit longer, we found another arrow and we were still riding hard pursuing the leaders.

Half way up the course, there is a long climb. The three of us were struggling and at the top Jeremiah, Alex and Drew passed us. Alex asked me: "Did you get lost?" I replied: No and you? No. Strange???

Anyway, Alex was wasting no time, he joined back to Jeremiah and Drew. Evan made a very nice effort and latched back to the train. I was lingering 30 meters behind while Mike Yozell lost contact.

For several miles I was 10 seconds behind the lead group however without being able to bridge back. I was pushing really hard as I was trying to save 3rd place overall; I needed to come ahead of Brandon by 7 seconds and although I could not see him behind me, I knew he could be in my wheel before I know it.

I finished about 30 seconds behind the winner completely exhausted. I looked back to the finish line, Brandon was still not there. He came about 3 minutes behind me but meanwhile we learned that we did indeed take a wrong turn when Mike, Evan and I were chasing the leaders. We did not ride a single track trail and rode a dirt road instead. It was a little confusing and others almost made the same mistake. Nevertheless, we should have been more careful. The race organizers decided to give us a time penalty instead of disqualify us.

Finally, I end-up in 5th place overall. For sure, my 2nd place overall for a couple of days got me dreaming of a top three but the top 5 was what I knew my target should be and I am glad I could achieve it.

The race organization was fantastic and I hope that next year I will be able to take the whole week off work and ride those butt kicking trails once more.