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The
idea of riding (racing?) in the Chequamegon started for me about 8
months ago. I actually knew
very little about it, other than the fact that some of my friends form
Minnesota always talked about it as an "epic" event and
probably the highlight of their racing season.
I checked some info on-line about it and found that i) they limit
the field to 2500 racers, ii) it's in a beautiful wooded area near many
lakes in Wisconsin, and iii) since it takes place in September it makes
for a hell of a good excuse to get out of the scorching heat of Arizona.
So off goes my entry into the "lottery" and sadly I did
not get selected for the Cheq-40, which is the 40 mile epic event.
Some of my Minnesota buds also got shut out. But there is a consolation prize of entry into the
"Short & Fat", which is a 16 mile version taking place in
parallel. Todd, Dave and
Tim made it into the 40, while John, Rob and myself were relegated to
the S&F.
Arrived
a day early in Minnesota and enjoyed some time water skiing and jogging.
Not your normal race preparations, but the weather was beautiful
and the water was warm. Packed
up the car and started the drive to Cable Wisconsin.
Weather forecast was for the rains to stay to the south (yeah,
right) so we hoped for a dry, fast course.
The race HQ was the Telemark Ski Lodge where we picked up race
goodies and enjoyed a nice pasta feed.
Skip the vegetarian sauce and go straight for the meat.
Did I mention it was raining yet?
Well, just a drizzle. Should
keep the dust down, shouldn't it? Prepped
the bikes and then we bedded down in Hayward and listened to the rain
hit the car hood outside my window.
No doubt would clear by morning.
Made
our way to the start and it was actually not raining anymore.
Immediately
upon starting, I realized that we had lined up way too far to the rear.
Spent the first 10 minutes passing about 200 riders all fumbling
around trying to shift their gears while adjusting their Walkman
headsets - Geez!. As the
paved starting road turned to wet dirt finally I started to spin my legs
a bit. The first few small
hills came and went with no problems.
Continued to pass a fair number of people as things spread out a
bit. The dirt road twisted
through some very pretty areas and quite heavily wooded ski trails.
Got hung up on one sandy bog and lost sight of John, but I
figured I'd catch up with him again (which I never did).
The trail cut off onto some nice groomed XC ski trails with some
good ups and downs. The
only dismount was on "Big Bertha", but even there I was
jogging faster than the granny gear users were riding.
Probably using less energy too.
Some more sweet singletrack wound its way through the woods and
finally dropped out on the ski trails again and swept into the grassy
finish area. In all
honesty, the race was over way too soon.
1:16, or something like that.
Starting at the back of the pack hurt my standing somewhat and I
think I had way too much gas left in the tank at the end, but that's the
price of not knowing the course - Just wait until NEXT year!
Sunday
was one of those "postcard" days.
Just beautiful fall weather, the kind that I hadn't seen since
moving west 10 years ago. Lots
of fun events at the Chequamegon. Rob
and Carrie entered the "Rough Stuff Rendezvous" which is a
kind of mountain bike orienteering event.
I liken it to "hide and go seek" on bikes in the woods. Carrie ended up taking second place! John and I checked out the crit course and had intended to
enter the SS crit race, but honestly the 3 lap race didn't seem to
justify the $14 entry fee. So
we took off into the woods and rode some pretty cool XC ski trails.
Ever wonder what a double black diamond XC course looks like?
Oh my God. This is
some serious shit. I can
not for the life of me imagine anyone barreling down these trails on
skis. Is a header into snow
any less painful than an endo into dirt?
Arrived back at race central and hung with some of the P.O.S.
team. We tried our hands at
the hill climb, log pull, and spiral of death.
Although to be honest, SS was a huge handicap especially in the
hill climb and log pull. For
next year I proposed some modified events for Singlespeeders like seeing
how fast you can pull a bundle of marijuana plants up a hill or seeing
who can bunny hop over a beer keg.
Set up a trash can 25 feet way and see how many shots it takes to
through a derailleur into the can.
Bonus points if the shifters and cables are still attached.
So
that's it. Another
adventure for the books. The
racing was actually the least of it, although I do vow to make an
improved showing next year. But
I can tell you this, it'll be hard to beat the overall enjoyment I had
at this event.
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