Wildcat 100K Race Recap

Spoiler Alert!

Ok! The 'ole 100K race recap.  These are always tough.  Mental accuracy fades over the course of that many miles, things blur and fade together and eating a bunch of horse poop doesn't help things get any clearer.  SO without further ado...

*Disclaimer* This report will be peppered with some criticisms of the event but please be aware that they are meant to be 100% constructive.  I have a lot of respect for anyone who dedicates the time and effort into putting on an event like this.  Many people, racers included, have absolutely no idea how much work it is.  I think this race and this course are a good local addition to this series and with a few refinements will be a damn classy event.

The venue at Williams Lake was an interesting spot.  Really kind of perfect for something like this and I think it could even have supported a bigger race with a tad bit more organization.  They let people kind of camp/park wherever to a certain extent which was nice and worked out fine.  Next year I would rent more port-o-potties though.  Bikers poop and pee a lot with the pre-race jitters and the what not.

tents are for squares

Morning of was a bit discombobulated.  Many of the timing chips had not been ready for pickup the day before at packet pickup so many riders were trying to get that squared away.  My timing chip (and it seemed like many others) was missing and I ended up just getting a green dot drawn on my race plate to indicate I was to be manually timed.  This worried me a bit but it ended up being ok.  It was confusing in the moment and you could tell lots of riders were a bit frustrated and confused before the start.  If there is one thing you want to have completely dialed, for an event of any size really, its timing and results.  Nail that and lots of people will overlook other things.

They lined us up on main street by bib number and I was assuming this was to let us off in maybe 50 person intervals or something.  I was towards the back with a number of 250 out of about 300.  Then we got the Go! and low and behold it was a giant mass start.  Everyone at once.  This was a bad call.  Next year stage the start.  Maybe they thought the initial false flat/climb before getting back to the campground's singletrack would be enough to string the field out but it was not.  I was able to find a vein and sprint up the left hand side of the road and probably passed about half the field or so but we all hit the singletrack together and it was a tad ridiculous.

Great trails around Williams Lake.  Nice technical singletrack with some cool mines and even a giant cave to ride through.  But it was a whole lot of stop/go/walk/run/stop/walk for several miles.  I think racers did a pretty good job of keeping things civil.  I got scolded by some women as I ran/weaved my way past racers when and where I could to 'relax, its a 100mi race' and as people continued to not be able to ride features people got more and more antsy to get moving.  It eventually got sorted out once we got back to town and the next road climb was quite a bit harder and started to string things out.  But by this time I had no idea where I was in my class and was worried someone had snuck farther up in traffic and was long gone.  It was probably better that way anyway.  Forced me to just ride my race.

We traversed out of town on some cool singletrack trails that I liked a lot.  Unfortunately I caught up to a group with some guys that had some issues riding certain things that created some bottlenecks but thats racing.  After some pavement connectors we got into the 'Gunks and the historic carriage paths / climbs.  Gorgeous terrain even though we couldn't really see much of it due to the weather.  We passed a massive waterfall that was amazing and you could really get a sense of the history of the area, I thought it was pretty cool.  The climbing was tough but not very punchy which was good for me to get into a rhythm.  I was actually riding with Amanda for much of this middle section of the course.  Yo-yo'ing a bit on the harder and then flatter sections.

Then we got to the carriage path descent down off the ridge.  HOLY CRAP AWESOME.  30-40mph at times.  Ripping switchbacks.  Just plant the outside foot, drift through the turn, use the full width.  So much fun.  Felt like old school mountain biking.  I was a tad freezing by the bottom though.  Temps weren't all that cold but I was soaking wet and the wind sucked the heat right out.  Finger tips needed some coaxing for a bit afterwards to get back on terms.  Luckily some of the Orchard sections had some nice false flats with peanut buttery mud to warm me back up.  The kind that require 200-300 watts just to keep from tipping over.

I still felt pretty good at this point but I was starting to get swept up by geared riders I had left on the climbs and I was worried that if I didn't keep the gas on that any SSer geared a tad larger than me would get back to me on the predominantly flat run into the finish.  Luckily there were a few mini bumps and with the mud even flat sections were bogged down and hard which in a way makes them a bit more like climbs which brings my gear back into contention.  I went off course a bit exiting the orchards.  There was a non-intuitive turn that was basically off a cliff that in my opinion could have been marked a bit better but I figured out my mistake relatively quickly and the damage was minimal.  Speaking with folks at the finish others made the same mistake I did so I wasn't alone.

I was then eventually banished to the 7th level of SSer hell.  A 13-15mi stretch of pancake flat rail trail.  Spinning 100-120rpm for 13mi straight is a very particular type of horrifying.  Won't necessarily induce cramps and doesn't require any kind of crazy wattage.  But the CHAFFING.  Dear god so much friction.  Non stop.  I would have loved to have some climbs just for the corresponding descents to take a breather for a bit.  Being mentally strong was very important for that stretch.  Very much a 'watching the pot boil' effect.  Nothing else to do but watch the Garmin and the miles tick by sloooooowly.

Finally got back into Rosendale and started the climb back up to the venue.  The trails had gotten greasier and the going was tough but I popped out on the road and started up my 150rpm sprint to the line to try and finish strong...or so I thought.  I sat up after coming through the finish area and then I start hearing yelling and it dawns on me that they are yelling at me to keep going.  This confuses me thoroughly because I had studied the race route pretty well and was certain that 100K riders were done upon reaching the campground.

seeeeeeee!

This is a screenshot of the GPS data sent to riders.  My cursor is at about mile 66 and change at the end of the courses data and you can see the blue dot just a hop skip and a jump from the red finish marker.  BUT according to the people yelling at me I had to go and do another loop of all the singletrack that we did earlier in the day.  Now that I am clear of the moment I'm happy we did that because they were cool trails and because of traffic I didn't get to actually ride them earlier.  In that moment however I was a tad pissed.  This turned our race into much closer to 70mi which sure on one hand "its only a few more miles, whats the big deal?".  But why don't you go ride 66mi in the mud/rain and when you are certain you are done I will force you to ride 4 more before allowing you to get warm and eat food and I think you might sympathize a bit.

Luckily the food and beer was front and center once I finally finished and I partook immediately.  Still had no idea where I was in the standings.  I had ridden a lot of the course primarily solo and had only seen a few singlespeeders early and I was fairly certain they were all 100 milers.  All I knew was that I felt strong all day and that I had kept things consistent.  I figured I should be up there but was worried someone had snuck away in the early confusion.  Dustin came in about 7-8mins after me with a strong ride.  Results were taking a while so we eventually went to get out of our kits and warm up a bit.  Got back to the finish area and early results were just being printed off.  It was a nice partial surprise to indeed see my name at the top of the list (as well as the bottom due to being DQ'd for not having a timing chip but that was all sorted out).

You can tell you took a bit too long with results when folks who have pay-outs coming don't stick around.  2nd place on our podium bailed with $100 coming his way and several other podiums were missing folks.  Bad sign.  I had whiskey coming though so I figured I would hang out.  I love when promoters incorporate some local stuff into awards.

looking forward to this.

A few hiccups here and there but all in all I'm glad I tried this race out.  It was challenging and even with a lower percentage of singletrack than I would usually be interested in I thought the course was interesting and really put that area on display.  Hopefully the promoters will learn and grow and be able to continue this event well into the future.