jump to navigation

Iron Cross VI-Two Mark’s Views

39 Mark Drajem DCMTB/City Bikes         5:03:59.2

As I slogged up the big last climb of Hogshead hill, three-
quarters of the way through my third Iron Cross race, I did a quick
calculation and realized I was in good shape for a fast finish — at
least fast for me. “All I need to do is avoid a mechanical failure
or a physical breakdown,” I thought.
Cue the ominous music.
The race had gone well up to this point. I started closer to
the front, and was able to get into some faster groups on the road. I
handled the trail section better than I had before — even passing a
few tentative roadies.
Now, probably halfway up this 30-minute climb, there was a
short, fast descent on the gravel road. I must have nailed a sharp
rock because may back tire punctured. It wasn’t good, but thats’ just
par for the course on these rough roads and rocky trails. Then the
disaster: I pulled out a new tube from my bag to find the sickening
sight of a schrader valve. What a numbskill packing job on my part. I
had two spare tubes, but I might as well as carried rocks in my bag.
There were two guys stopped nearby but neither had a tube. I decided
to start hiking. After about five or ten minutes of walking a good
Samaritan offered help. He tossed me a tube and a few moments later I
was back on my way.
The last 12 miles of the race is through some fun single and
double track. It was fun riding, until the short climbs hit. My legs
were rebelling; they had no juice and were starting to cramp. It was
a slog up every uphill, but I redeemed myself by passing this DC Velo
roadie in the singletrack and holding him off when he took a slight
wrong turn on the final road section. In the end I finished in 5:04
to the cheers of my kids and parents.
Mark Wigfield was the other DCMTB rider out there, and he
finished just a few minutes later, looking strong and happy.
I’ve been singing the praises of Iron Cross these past few
year and love the mix of climbing, pack riding on the road and trail
sections. Those last few sections of hike-a-bike on the trail,
though, are incredibly miserable. I’m not sure I can bear it again
next year. Who knows, though. In another 350 days I may feel
differently.

49 Mark Wigfield DCMTB/City Bikes  5:18
The most fun part about this race for me is riding singletrack on the cross bike. You can find a good line most of the time, and it’s just a blast picking your way through it. Also gives mtnbikers an advantage because lots of people walk stuff or take it slowly. The first stretch of singletrack has a long downhill section threading through rocks, and the roadies were standing on the side of the trail watching.  I’m not sure why it’s so much fun — it’s probably the trail itself, the novelty of it, and it takes me back to when I was  a kid in pre-mtnbiking days and would sometimes take a sidetrip on a trail  w/ my schwinn 3-speed. Didn’t work that well but was fun!   Near the end, before you get to Drajem’s bane (a deceptively steep climb out in the sun on scrabbly, energy-sucking dirt trail cutting through what looks like some kind of reclamation site), the single track is fast and swoopy through the woods and I passed a lot of folks. Felt good.  That said, I would say only about 10% of the course is singletrack, so you have to be ready for lots of fire road, gravel road and blacktop ridng. I was running 35s at 50 psi, which worked well enough for me.

There are also some screamingly fast road downhills on this course that are a blast, but watch that deep gravel on the back roads. I didn’t see too much blood this year from wipe outs on gravel, but one woman last year lost a lot of skin.   The climbing is tough, no doubt. I was able to ride all the road/fire road climbs w/ a low gear of 28/39, but was off the bike a couple of times on the off-road sections.

I think my time was about 5:18 — though not sure. If it was, I was about 3 min slower than last year, but considering i didn’t train for or ride the SM100 this year, didn’t feel bad about the time at all.  The everyman goal for this race is a sub 6-hour time. If you want to place, you gotta bust your butt.

Comments»

no comments yet - be the first?