As I was waiting for the field to come around so I could rejoin, I could see it was busting up. The group was strung out with gaps everywhere. At that point, all you can do is hope the official knows you were up front and lets you go back in at the front. It didn’t happen and I found myself last man on the line as I rejoined the race. I closed the first gap easily, then had another one open up almost immediately. We were on the hairpin course tonight with the two 180-degree turns. The tight turns make for hard accelerations all the time, and they’re even harder at the back when the field is exploding.
I chased across gaps out of the second 180 for three straight laps, then there was a crash that busted us up again for a fourth time. I almost made it across that gap before my legs started to fade. They usually die in this situation, but tonight I was able to stay steady and keep chasing by myself, although at 1-2 mph slower than the field. They slowly pulled away over the next three or four laps. Then Justin Lowe caught me and we began to work together, eventually joining a few other riders that popped off the lead group.
Our little chase group kept getting faster and faster. What was left of the lead group was about 15 seconds behind us for about 20 minutes and nobody wanted to get lapped. We pushed more like we off the front rather than off the back. Some of the spectators even thought we were the lead break with the way we were holding off the pack. I think some of the guys in that front group were even unsure if our group was being lapped or not because we held them off for so long. The pace ended up whittling our group down to three and the pack finally did catch us in the last two laps. I had good legs tonight and it was such a waste to have been off the back. That’s the most sustained power I have had in a long time. I finally feel like I am starting to have good days consistently. I finished 17th tonight. Nobody came to the race with me this week, so no pictures or video to go with this one.
The following weekend brought a new race venue for us as the Georgia State Championship Series headed to Allatoona Creek Park in Acworth, GA. We would have a short track on Saturday for GSC points, then an XC on Sunday, which would also double as a make-up race for the SERC Series. It was a good opportunity to get some SERC points and really my last chance to get back into the GSC Series. I needed two wins to really be back in the game.
It should have been our easiest drive of the season with Acworth being north of Atlanta, but we have seen this year that the driving has often been more difficult than the racing. It was Bonnaroo weekend, which means steer clear of I-24 near Manchester, TN, which is the direct route for us to Acworth. We ended up having to detour north along the Cumberland Plateau which added a lot of drive time, but also brought on some scenery we don't get to see very often. It has been several years since I have been though areas like Sparta and Dunlap.
View from a rest stop near Dunlap, TN off Hwy 111
I liked the XC course at Allatoona when I took a lap on it before the short track. It was twisty, rough in places and tight overall. The short track course was a big 1.2-mile loop with half of the loop being open and half singletrack. We started out with a grass start stretch, then transitioned to gravel for a long straightaway. We then turned right into the grass which quickly became a dirt road with several twists and even a little sand. The singletrack followed by going through a forest of pines. The trail was tight and fast with plenty of corners. The pines needles covering the ground keep undergrowth to a minimum, so there were all kinds of places where lines could be changed off the side of the main trail. We exited the woods on another dirt road that went around the edge of a field and took us back to the gravel road for a fast finish down to the Gone Riding trailer. A hairpin right turn in the grass and a short climb brought us back by the start line and onto another lap.
The short track was a 15 minute +1 lap race. The length of the loop made for just four laps of racing. I had a good start and moved into second entering the woods on lap 1. The first time through the trail was chaos as people were seeing all kinds of alternate lines through the pine needles. Positions were changing in every turn as guys found ways to cut corners. The pace wasn’t very fast the first lap and I felt good, so I laid down an attack on lap 2. I led the group into the singletrack. I rode hard, but couldn’t get a gap so I backed off once we hit the dirt road coming out of the woods. Nobody would come by me so I was forced to stay on the front around the gravel road to end the lap.
Yellow Wave Short Track ready to roll
photo by GoneRiding.com
End of lap 2 with me on the front
photo by GoneRiding.com
Starting lap 3 on the front
photo by GoneRiding.com
Dustin White attacked starting lap 3 and I went with him. I still felt great even though I had just held 185 bpm for most of lap 2. The group was still mostly together entering the woods, but Dustin’s pace started to split things up as guys started to feel the effort and make mistakes on the twisty trails. He even started to gap me. I wasn’t worried about it at first and let him get a bit too far ahead. Suddenly, I couldn’t seem to bring him back and we exited the woods 7-8 seconds behind him. There were five riders in our chase group as we hit the gravel road again coming to the bell. Dustin had his head down hammering while nobody wanted to work in our group. They all looked at me to bring him back, but I knew if I did the work I would pay at the finish.
Starting the final lap Dustin was over 20 seconds ahead and it was clear we were racing for second place now. There were some big attacks out of our group on the final lap as everyone wanted to hit the singletrack first. Two riders hooked bars and went down, one of those being Justin McMurrer who is battling Dustin White and Harrison Klapheke for the GSC Series title. With Harrison not racing today and Justin on the ground it was looking like a big points day for Dustin.
Shawn Smith made it to the woods in front of the others in our group. I was fourth of the group to enter the woods, but did make one pass while we were in there. Dustin cruised home to a big win with Shawn hanging on for second. I then sprinted with Alex Mitz for third. I had to take the outside through the final gravel turn and neither of us could hold our line well and drifted wide. There was a huge stump just off the side of the road on the exit of the turn that forced me to have to brake first and that gave Alex the edge to get the spot by a bike length. It was a dangerous sprint at that speed and one I’m glad we got through without incident. So, I ended up fourth overall and second in the Pro/Cat. 1 19-39 class, giving up another point to the GSC Series leader Dustin. I feel like I failed in this race. I was super strong today and I got caught sleeping in the singletrack and then tactically played it all wrong. It was a day to learn from for sure. No time for losing concentration in a race that is less than 20 minutes long. Congrats to Dustin White on the win. He rode well, attacked at the right time and had some killer power on the open sections.
Dina also raced the short track. She ended up second out of three women and was the only Cat. 2 so she took maximum bonus points for the series. Shannon filmed a lot of the Yellow Wave race from in the woods so you can see a bit of how the race developed. Watch the video below.
Video: Acworth Yellow Wave Short Track action
We had a nice little Air BNB basement apartment nearby for the night so we slept well and slept longer Sunday morning than usual being within 10 minutes of the race course. We had a four-lap race for the XC at Allatoona Creek. The trail was mostly singletrack, but there were several open sections early in the lap where you could pass and also lay down some power. The start and finish were the same as the short track so it was a wide, fast start with a mix of grass and gravel before the singletrack, with a fast gravel road toward the finish with a sweeping left turn and slight downhill into the line.
Our Acworth apartment
Pro/Cat. 1 19-39 group on the start line before the XC
photo by GoneRiding.com
I totally botched the start. Not only did I miss clipping into the pedal, I missed the pedal completely. In 18 years of racing I have never done that before. I was way late off the line, but once I got the foot clipped in, I used that surge of adrenaline to sprint to the back of the field as we transitioned from grass to gravel. I had a head of steam and was catching the draft so I used that to slingshot my way through the pack and took the hole shot off the gravel. It felt awesome to turn my worst ever start into one of my best. I led into the woods and kept the pace high, splitting the group in the first section. I actually got a decent little gap on the next fire road section, but the group behind was chasing hard and the top dogs slowly worked their way back to me. But the first selection had been made. I slowed some in the second half of the first lap, but not much. Five riders were able to get across the gap by the end of the lap, making for a leading group of six after lap 1.
Me with a little gap again near the end of the opening lap
photo by GoneRiding.com
I moved over once on the gravel road to let someone else do the work and they did come by this time. It was then a sprint around the field to see who could get back to the woods in front. Dustin White was in there first ahead of Justin McMurrer, Harrison Klapheke and myself. Harrison had a slow leak on his rear tire and was debating whether to stop or not. We hit one of the twistiest sections of the course where there were several line choices through the pine needles. We all chose the same line and it bottled us up. This line also wasn’t completely clean and a big hunk of wood got flipped out into the group. Harrison was first to hit it square and it shot him across the trail. The chunk then went into the air and right into my path. I ran over it and flipped it up into my front wheel. I was already off balance and then came the sudden stop of the chunk wedging between my wheel and the fork. I flew over the bars, landing hard on my back. It knocked my breath out and took me a few seconds to get up. Luckily, my bike was fine. All spokes were intact and my body seemed to be ok as well. I got back on, now in sixth, and began to chase. I quickly came upon Harrison who had stopped to add air to his rear tire in hopes the sealant inside would finally stop the leak.
Ahead of us, the group was now split up thanks to my crash. Dustin and Justin were not waiting around and upped the pace even more, which kept me from chasing back across the gap. It took me a while to get back into my rhythm. Shawn Smith came by me as leader of the Cat. 1 40-49 class and I couldn't even get onto his wheel. But I kept working hard the rest of lap 2 and was able to catch and pass one rider. Just at the end of the lap I found my mojo again and was able to get across to third place, who was Jamie Babcock.
Dina ending her first lap...
...and starting lap 2.
Jamie and I starting lap 3
I led Jamie into the woods on lap 3 about 45 seconds behind the two leaders. Harrison was now chasing behind us at about 25 seconds back. I attacked Jamie several times on lap 3, pretty much at every spot I saw as an opportunity to get a gap on someone. But he was strong and kept answering the bell. I was pretty tired by the end of lap 3 and Jamie was still on my wheel. Dustin and Justin extended their gap on us to over two minutes as we started the last lap. It looked like we were now racing for third. Harrison got to within 10 seconds of us at one point, then began to fade back and was now 40 seconds behind.
Riders finishing up their second lap
Justin now leading Dustin as they finish their third lap
Jamie back in front of me again on the gravel road to start lap 4
The Stanley Cup Finals were going on at this time with the Pittsburgh Penguins playing our beloved Nashville Predators. We referred to this picture of Dina tossing her bottle in the feed zone as "pulling a Crosby" after Sidney Crosby threw a water bottle onto the ice during Game 5. He said it was not intentional. If it were football, that would have been an incomplete pass, not a fumble because the arm was clearly going forward. Lets just say Nashville was full of people who didn't exactly like Pittsburgh after the way the Penguins played during the series, and how the city of Pittsburgh treated our fans. They tossed one Nashville fan in jail after he tossed a catfish onto the ice in Game 1, which is something we do all the time in Nashville. The city of Pittsburgh tried to squash our tradition before the first game, going so far as to mandate markets to check customers' zip codes before selling them a catfish. Rude! Catfish are now known as "instruments of crime" in Nashville after that term was given in the police report for the arrested fan. Read the story it is funny! Of course you can now get t-shirts to commemorate the day a catfish offended an entire city.
Dina starting her third and final lap
Jamie hit the first section of lap 4 really hard and started to gap me. Just as I felt like I was cracking he cramped up hard. So hard that he had to completely stop on course for a minute before finding the legs to continue. That moved me into third and I rode hard to maintain that the rest of the race. I continued to drop time to the leaders, but I pulled away from those behind me, doubling my gap back to Harrison. Dustin and Justin came to the finish together and sprinted it out for the win. Both were cramping on the final gravel stretch and it was Justin who gritted through it a little better to get the win. I came home over 4:20 behind in third, with Harrison finishing just under six minutes back. Jamie recovered from the cramps enough to hang on for a top five just seven seconds behind Harrison.
A rider comes in to the finish
I felt good again today, but not quite as awesome as in the short track on Saturday. I felt like circumstance got me this time with the chunk of wood flipping up just at the right moment to take me down right as the race was really starting to happen. Still, it frustrates me because I can’t seem to get it right at GSC races this season. I am now officially out of contention for the series, so I will turn my focus to the SERC Series since I am leading.
Dina was the lone Cat. 2 female again today, so she got the W. She was excited about getting to start with one of the men's classes which gave her some faster people to race with rather than riding by herself all day. She racked up the points this weekend and now looks set to take the GSC Series and is also leading SERC with one race to go in each.
Pro/Cat. 1 19-39 podium with Justin McMurrer on the top step
Dina on the Cat. 2 Women's podium
Video: GSC Acworth
After the podiums were over, Dina and I went back in for a little more riding. I found that hunk of wood that wrecked me and tossed it far off the trail so nobody else can hit it. We also found some of the downhill trails in the park and played on those for a few minutes before heading back to the car and starting the drive home.
The hunk of wood that wrecked my day
Three lines to choose from on the downhill trails
Big berms on the downhill trails
Next up on the agenda is an off weekend, followed by another round of the DINO Series where we will visit the Griffin Bike Park in Terre Haute, IN and hopefully break this tie for the series lead. Thanks again for reading and for putting up with my mega-late posts!
