No rain, no mud, no tears. This past weekend's course at Seven Springs was dry and fast, and was one of the best times I've had on a bike all year. Oh yeah, and we won too.
For the drive out, I had my friend from college, Champion, join me and on the way I picked up Das Schobernator in Lancaster before hitting the long stretch to Somerset. Nothing of note happened on the drive, amazingly. When we showed up at the team 'chalet', I was a bit numbed from the road, and things sort of blur together, but I'm pretty sure Gretna Bill was doing a lot of rambling about crazy things. He's the best.
After about an hour of that scenario, it was time for some shuteye. Upon walking upstairs, I was greeted with the team sleeping quarters. A large room littered with barrack-like bunks I quickly set out finding myself a top bunk and got some sleep. This would be the only time I would get real sleep for the entire weekend. yay.
Upon waking, we quickly set out to the top of the mountain in search of our number plates and registration paraphernalia. The weather was gorgeous and was a sign of things to come. Luckily, we chose to drive up, as when we arrived we found the staff had not shown up yet and so we hastily jumped back in the car to join the rest of the crew for a delicious buffet breakfast at the main lodge.
After enjoying our 3 course breakfast, there was much rejoicing and discussion on what was to come for the next 24 hours. We headed back up to the top of the mountain to sign our waivers and then back down to the chalet to get everything ready. Another pal of mine, and cyclocross nemesis, Bad Andy, was our lead off for the event. This meant that he would do the LeMans run around the lake. I did this a few years back, and I wasn't too enthralled. Second in the lineup came yours truly, followed by 3 more fast dudes then 3 solid dudes, with Gretna Bill pulling up the rear. This made for 8 total riders competing for Corporate Team Glory (which in this case turned out to be a jersey, medal, and real schwag bag, but more on that later). When it came time, I suited up for lap one and headed out on my warm-up ride before making my way up to the mountain top and our team encampment. Our said encampment was pretty impressive, consisting of team bus, multiple tents, stoves, chairs, tables, support, and a storage shed. Gretna Bill was on hand to give me some last minute instructions and I was off to the transition area to wait for Bad Andy and head out on my first lap.
My first lap went much smoother than anticipated, as I only blew a few high-speed corners. You see, I didn't pre-ride the course. Luckily for me, The Experience was on hand to guide me through the first half, which was just as good as pre-riding. Actually, no, it was better. Sadly though, I was on a mission and he was not, so he shut it down after halfway to save some energy to help his friend out who was racing solo for the weekend (solo is another word for nuts). Coming into the transition area I quickly swapped our ankle chips to our next rider and we were happily on our way to what would be a 20+ minute lead after 5 laps. Satisfied with my first performance of the weekend, I swept back over to the tents to give my brief synopsis of current events and glided back down to the chalet on the wings of sparrows to shower, eat, stretch, and get a little nappy-nap in before heading out on my night lap.
Now, I'll have to admit, I was a little nervous about the night lap. I hadn't ridden at night for quite a while, and the last time I did it was with a woefully inadequate setup. Luckily for me, I was racing on the Lupine Lights Corporate team for the weekend, one of my sponsors, and I was set up with two of their super sweet Wilma lights. One for my bars, and one for my helmet. Ladies and gentlemen, these babies are like stadium lights. Once I turned these bad-boys on and started pedaling, I completely forgot I was on a night lap. When I got to the transition area though, some of the nervousness creeped back in as I found out we had slowly lost the lead and that Bad Andy was working to pull us back. When he came in, we were still 50 seconds back. I blazed through the trails at the same pace as my first lap, and if not for a mechanical mishap I would have more than likely equalled that first lap's time. Upon finishing, I had put in a few solid minutes on second and we were back in the lead again. Whew!
With the night lap completed, I was pretty spent from my second all-out hour-long effort of the day, and was looking forward to another nappy-nap. I forced myself to stay up long enough to eat a proper recovery meal and shower, then put on my SKINS recovery tights and went to sleep. Luckily I set my alarm, otherwise I would never have gotten up in time to get out on my third and final lap Sunday morning. Getting up for a quick breakfast and to get my gear ready again was a no-fun scenario. I slowly woke up, and eventually managed to suit up again and head out. This time, I decided to skip a warm-up, and save all my energy for the course. I was feeling confident as I headed to the transition area, despite a little tiredness. I crossed my fingers as I waited with Bad Andy to see how Gretna Bill's last lap would be. Unfortunately, we again lost the lead, but this time it was REAL close, only about 15 seconds off. Bad Andy flew off the transition and went about pulling a super strong lap which started the back-breaking process for good. A quick transition and then I was off. My no-warm-up plan paid off in spades as I pulled off another strong lap consistent with my first, despite feeling tired, having furthered our back-breaking tactic on second place. Once again, it was off to the chalet for recovery and this time back up to the venue to see the finish.
Once again the weather was beautiful as we all sat on the hillside watching racers pass. We waited in nervous anticipation for Das Schobernator come through so we could determine the gap to second place. When he came through, the gap was 16+minutes. YES! It seems as though our tactics had worked in the end. With Das Schobernator in, we sent out Clinton for our last lap and with the times showing on the boards and the gap back to second place, it was a nail-biter to see whether or not they would be able to go out for their 21st lap as well.
As the clock ticked down, it was getting closer and closer to doomsday for the second placed team. I ran over to the transition area as they came around the lake, knowing that it was going to come down to seconds. They had until noon to get in, and as I ran my cell phone clock showed 11:59. I sprinted over to the tent just in time to see the look of dejection on all of their faces. Hiding my excitement, I glanced up at the official time to see that they had missed the final lap by less than 20 seconds!! VICTORY WAS OURS!!!!! After dumping Gretna Bill with his victory ice ala superbowl winning coach, we headed over to the awards to stand on the podium.
It was great to be a part of an amazing team effort for the weekend, and I'll definitely be back next year for more. We have a title to defend now! BIG THANKS to everyone at Gretna Bikes & Lupine Lights for a fantastic weekend of racing. Also thanks to SCHWALBE tires, whose Racing Ralphs and Nobby Nics graced literally EVERY BIKE we rode.
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