Crybaby Classic MTB Race 2011........

I got myself up early Friday morning to head over to meet Erin @ her place for 8:00 am.  It was a girls road trip to Petowsky, MI for the 2nd Annual Crybaby Classic.  (I was going back to defend my title!)  We loaded up her car and headed North!  Not quite 5 hours later, we arrived at the venue, Nub's Nob.  It was overcast and low 40 degrees F.  Erin and I signed in, put our layers on and went out for a pre-ride.  The first few miles of the course was as I had remembered it (including the Crybaby climb).  We then went into a section of single singletrack.  It was a great addition to the course (off camber and tight).  After the 1/4 mile or so of singletrack, the course opened back up and then you were sent into another section of more flowing, wider singletrack.  Towards the end of the approx. 9 mile lap, we had the same awesome fast, steep, flowing downhill as last year.  The course was exactly what you hate to love....... CLIMBING!  I was pretty pumped that the promoters listened to what the racers had asked for after last years race, some singletrack!  It made for more of a MTB race course!  Friday night was low key.  We bundled up and cleaned/worked on our bikes, ate in at the hotel and in our pj's by 8:00 pm!  That doesn't happen often!! 

Our race was @ 10:10 am on Saturday.  There were clear blue skies and high around 40 deg. F.  Needless to say it took a while to warm up on our warm up!  They added a $20 "prime" to our race this year for the fastest person through the start loop (short grass climb).  I took the holeshot and the "prime"!  :)  I was out front on the opening sandy downhill.  I was relaxed and didn't plan on pushing a hard pace to start.  Well my strategy quickly changed!  As we headed down the descent I had my rear wheel taken out by another female racer!  I flew over my handlebars and had no idea what just happened!  My pedal hammered the back of my right calf (giving me an instant "charlie"), smacked my face off the ground (small cut over my eyebrow), and banged my left quad!  I picked my bike up, did a once over on it, everything appeared to be ok (only to find out later that my front tire has serious wobble and brake rub).  I let out a few inappropriate words (oops) and with a little extra fire I had to chase down the girls!  The pro women's field had some strong climbers and Johanna Schmidt was out in the lead.  I knew I couldn't let her go!!  One by one I began to catch back up and brought Johanna into sight.  Just before the Crybaby climb I was able to get in front of her and take over the lead.  After a quick recovery and heading up a gradual climb I reached to grab my bottle.  Only to realize I had (1) bottle left!  With Jay not able to go to the race and both Erin and I racing I had no one in the feed zone, so I opted to put (2) bottles on my bike and (1) in my back jersey pocket.  Well after my crash I lost (2) bottles.  I knew this was not the race to be drink deprived!!  (No race is!)  After lap (1) I was in 1st and there was no one within sight behind me.  So the plan was to stop where I crashed and recoup my bottles.  I came up to the spot and did not see the bottles!!  So I carried on through lap (2) sipping what I had!  Lucky for me, thanks to the promoters, just before the final downhill there was a neutral feed station!  I stopped, asked the kind lady if I could fill my bottle with a Gatorade and voila full bottle to drink!!  Went out on my 3rd lap still in the lead.  As I was heading up the gradual climb early in my final lap, there was a women offering me MY water bottles.  I thought that was really cool and explained I should be good to finish.  She told me she would hold on to them for me!  So I came across the finish line in 1st place, Johanna in 2nd and Erin in 3rd!  Full results

I was out in the parking lot cooling down and Susan Vigland came over to me to hand me MY water bottles.  I was confused.  She was racing against me, how did she have my bottles?  Well here's to good ol' sportsmanship!!  It was her that (accidentally) took me out on the downhill, she flatted soon after, DNF'd, grabbed my bottles to meet me on the climb to make sure I had a drink and now was apologizing for the accident.  Wow I really appreciated it!!

What a great couple days, great race, great people, great fun!!  Hats off to the promoters, aside from the addition of singletrack, they also did equal payouts for men and women!!  Thanks to the MANY volunteers who were so encouraging throughout the race!!

So now a day after the race, I feel like someone beat me with a bat!  I am sore from the crash and trying to brace my fall.  My body is also a bit fatigued from the approx. 1150m (3772') of climbing we did in 3 laps!!  The aches and pains make me feel alive!!

Cheers,

Sue