Book of Chad

Leading up to the race. 3 weeks before the race I entered an enduro to get a friend who is quite good at mountain biking into racing. The day before the race we pre-rode the course and on one stage right after where the finish line would be was a bridge my back tire slid off the bridge and slammed on the backside of the ditch it was built over. “Wow, that was close,” I exclaimed as we rode away. There was some foreshadowing in that comment as the next day during the race it turns out I missed the bridge completely. I’m not sure what happened but one of the guys told me that my front tire dug into the backside of the ditch and I was ejected over the front, landing on the side of my head and shoulder. After seeing the bridge ahead of me the next memory I have was standing at an aid station to fill waters when that same guy told me I should probably call it a day and head down the hill. I lost approximately 20mins of memory that I will probably never get back, and I even got lost on my way back to the parking lot. The next day I headed to the hospital and had xrays and a CT, the results were a broken collar bone. My BWR ambitions were probably not going to happen.

I lost some training even though I was able to ride the trainer lightly it was not great prep for the race. I had not even received the frame and fork for the bike I planned to race. Things were not looking promising that first week. However, things started to look up and the 2nd week brought news that RodeoLabs was going to get the frame and fork to me the weekend before the race and I would have a bike to race. My head started to feel better and was able to ride harder on the trainer. With the help of Fort Street Cycle, we got the bike built and I spent that weekend riding outside a day less than 2 weeks after the crash. I put the bike through its paces by getting in 250kms that weekend and the body was pretty ok as well. Maybe, I will be able to get through the race although I will have to lower my expectations a little, as I can’t lift my front wheel and I can’t climb out of the saddle efficiently.

The morning of the race. I got to the start line and had a lot more questions of myself than answers. Would my shoulder make it the 220kms? Would I even be able to climb some of the gradients since I had issues being out of the saddle? I had everything else ready to go my hydration and nutrition plan was sound, and the bike was ready to go.

The first 2 hrs were hard and it was a bit of a fight to get through the crowds and establish a group. The first single-track climb was a complete gong show with everyone coming to a stop at the pinch point entrance. After that the off-road descents were covered in guys that had the road power to get there but none of the off-road skill to stay there. Then the crashes started, the first big one was descending on the road after the mountain bike sections and a guy went flying past me, as we approached the roundabout at the bottom of the descent he locked up the back wheel and slid on his side until striking the curb and flipping over the sidewalk with his bike. The next victim was through a transitional single track section when I came across a guy who had missed a bridge and broke his collar bone, where have I heard that story before? Finally, a good group of roughly 15 of us were working well together and then I cramped. 50kms in and almost exactly 2 hours and I cramped. I took a gel and continued to pedal softly as I watched my group disappear up the hill. I got the cramp under control just in time for the next group on the road to swallow me up.

This group was about the same size and was working well and I planned to just survive with this group to Goldstream Heights, where I knew the climb would shatter the group. The group was climbing harder than I wanted to throughout our time together and I began to sag climb to conserve some energy, if you don’t know sag climbing is leading into the climb and allowing yourself to fall back through the group on the climb. Every climb I felt like I was about to be dropped and then as we crested I would just catch back on and live a little longer. Then we got to the bottom of the 13km Goldstream Heights climb. I put my head down and watched my power number at the same time as watching the group disappear up the road. I rode to my number this whole climb and started passing people in the group that had blown up. Then I reached the top and descended passing even more of the group on the tricky winding gravel descent. By the time I reached the bottom of the descent most of the group that dropped me on the climb was now behind me.

Alone at last. I knew it was going to happen at some point and 5 hours and 20 minutes in I found myself alone. I just focussed on keeping my pedal stroke efficient and my speed high on this section which is essentially a gravel false flat down for roughly 60kms, I was alone for almost the entire section 1 hour and 40 minutes with my head down until I caught up to 3 riders at the next aid station. We rode together for the rest of the double track and were eventually joined by a few others on the final road sections heading to the final climb of the day.

The final push. On the climb up Mt. Provost I was dead I just tried to ride at 220w and to keep moving. It was working too, only one person passed me and I passed several. Near the top of the climb, I found Damian Parlee who is normally quicker than me on the long rides however he went a little too hard and was beaten at this point. With the broken shoulder, I explained that I was going to take it easy on this descent and he was out of sight in no time. In the final section I passed a couple more guys and went through the finish line at 8:50:00.

Distance: 221km
Time: 8:50:00
Avg Speed: 25.1 kph
Avg Power: 168 W
Normalized Power: 209 W
Elevation Gain: 3354 m
Place: 67th