Photo by Tom BorrowsThe weekend of 7/13/08 was Fair Hill Classic, which is the longest course of the year and is very fast as well...just like last year it was a good scoorcher out too...The turn out is always so HUGE at Fair Hill due to it's central location to ALL the states...and it is just so damn fun!!!! Great seeing a lot of folks I haven't seen since last year, and once again meeting many more new friends...The Single Speed group saw a very large turnout (all the other classes did too, Fair Hill draws a lot of non-MASS members) we had 26 in the group...the course was 22 miles...Fair Hill is a perfect course for Single Speeders...from the start I hung with fellow team mate Holt Benner for approx. 5-6 miles, then on a little tree climb a rider in front of us "clipped" out...conversely Holt pulled away while I was to deal with getting around the guy...at this point I never caught back up to Holt...when I reached the top of a climb, I saw Holt heading back down adjacent on the gravel road...Fair Hill had a few climbs but nothing that would "break" ya...Lung Buster Trail was tough but doable...the three water stations were great on such a hot day...one of the water stops was actually a "soaker" stop, guys in speedos with water cannons....what a relief!
After "Crack Head Bob" (which is approx. 2+ miles in length, but you only travel 1/4-to 1/2 mile...very twisty)...it was a relatively short ride to the finish, about 3 miles remained...I got behind a fellow SS'er and we pushed it to the end...he was pulling away at points, and when I'd try and attack my quads AND calves would completely lock up...never had cramps like this before...funny at the start line Holt was telling me about the very same thing happening to him the year before...JINKS...at one point every time I tried to stand and "grind" the legs locked and I would scream in pain causing the SS'er in front of me to go faster...well just before arriving at the edge of the woods towards the finish stretch I caught up to him, we "popped" out of the woods onto the pavement he climbed up to the finish "chute" pulling away, I dug deep, squeezed through the pain, (see picture above) and was pulling up, when all of a sudden he just stopped pedaling to coast across the line...thats when I punched it and just by half a tire length beat him across the finish line...when I came to a stop I had to fall to the ground cause of the cramping...
After "Crack Head Bob" (which is approx. 2+ miles in length, but you only travel 1/4-to 1/2 mile...very twisty)...it was a relatively short ride to the finish, about 3 miles remained...I got behind a fellow SS'er and we pushed it to the end...he was pulling away at points, and when I'd try and attack my quads AND calves would completely lock up...never had cramps like this before...funny at the start line Holt was telling me about the very same thing happening to him the year before...JINKS...at one point every time I tried to stand and "grind" the legs locked and I would scream in pain causing the SS'er in front of me to go faster...well just before arriving at the edge of the woods towards the finish stretch I caught up to him, we "popped" out of the woods onto the pavement he climbed up to the finish "chute" pulling away, I dug deep, squeezed through the pain, (see picture above) and was pulling up, when all of a sudden he just stopped pedaling to coast across the line...thats when I punched it and just by half a tire length beat him across the finish line...when I came to a stop I had to fall to the ground cause of the cramping...
I went over to thank him for the challenge, he said..."dude, you didn't have to do that, I'm not in your class"...WHAT!!! I looked down and his number plate was not my SS catagory...he was merely riding a SS just in his age group, though...oh well, you should ALWAYS push hard till you cross the line no matter what, shaved some seconds off anyways...
I finished 15th out of 26th or 107th out of 206 over all sport class....my time was 2:05:03, the leaders time was; 1:47...the young guns were really "smokin" today...
Thats what keeps me motivated is the age of the guys in my group...I'm 50 and most of the others average mid 20's to mid 30's, with a couple three in the 40's...if I can get ahead of any of the younger guys thats a successful race for me!!
Thats what keeps me motivated is the age of the guys in my group...I'm 50 and most of the others average mid 20's to mid 30's, with a couple three in the 40's...if I can get ahead of any of the younger guys thats a successful race for me!!
Fair Hill is always a great place to ride, the Delaware Trail Spinners do a superb job of keeping the trails up and organizing a great race venue..thanks to all of the volunteers that made it so enjoyable...and the team commaderie after the event is what makes doing this the best part.
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