Orono cyclomud
From: Jeff Ingham
Date: Oct 1, 2007 9:10 AM
Well here’s a recap since other than the Gaines brothers I was the
only Gopher crazy enough to show up.
Not liking the weather Saturday I figured I could just race Sunday, it
couldn’t be any worse right. Well I got to Orono and it was POURING.
I figured I’m here I may as well race. I spent about 30 minutes just
circling the football field warming up it was water-logged but at
least it wasn’t muddy. One thing was definitely needed yesterday were
specific mud tires…..I didn’t have those. Started off on with a
loop around the track which was under a good inch of water then off
into the mud. My legs felt great but I had almost no traction. The
start was fast and I had to be really careful in all the turns. I
because of this I quickly fell to the back of the lead group. The
first lap I rode up all but the biggest run up hill but the conditions
quickly deteriorated. Laps 2 and 3 I was basically figuring out a
strategy. I was really moving on all the sections that weren’t gloppy
mud but once in the glop I had no traction, just spinning my rear
wheel, turns were sketchy at best. I really had to slow down in all
the turns.
By lap 3 I had it figured out. Run all the hills, trying to ride them
was much slower. The cattle shoot with the two sharp 180’s were much
faster to run than ride. You had to almost come to a complete stop to
make the turn then accelerating was useless in that gooey mud. I
ended up running quite a bit but it was faster. My strategy was
working. I counted at least 5 people I passed on the last two laps
and I was actually getting stronger/faster as the race went on. Last
lap I just missed catching someone at the line, I took back about half
a lap on riding on the track. If the race went one more lap I’m
positive I would have kept moving up. I was smooth over all the
barriers.
I though it was a fun course, with out the rain I would have really liked it.
The rain really wasn’t all that bad since it wasn’t cold but the mud
sucked, I’ll have to change all my cables/housings since they’re now
filled with mud.
Lessons learned:
Mud specific tires were essential
Toe spikes for my shoes would have helped
Need to start faster (It always takes me a few races to figure this out)
I encourage everyone to check out the pics on skinniski they’re hysterical.
Reminded me of chequemegon circa 91-93
Good Times!
P.S. the newest Gopher will be arriving this Thursday (if not sooner)
so I probably wont be around next weekend.