The Candid Cyclist: Moose Brook Fatbike Race 2019

I suck more than ever. We'll get to that in a minute. I've done this race for 5 years and the forecast seems to be either way to warm for fatbiking or way too cold to be comfortable.

2F for the start of the race

This year was the latter.

We didn't really want to get out of the car.

I'm really not sure why it wasn't my race. I went out strong and stuck with the lead group for the first few miles. I'd checked last years results where I had warned my future self not to get stuck behind slow people. As far as I could tell there were only about 8-10 people ahead of me at the start of the race. And I knew that I wasn't competing with them. After the first few miles everybody had found their rhythm and I wasn't passing or getting passed.

It's not the heat, it's the humidity. I mentioned that it was cold

In any case. The big climb started at about the 7 mile mark and I passed a few people. The climb really did seem miserable. Once that was over the fun was supposed to begin. Well, if your idea of fun is washed out cornmeal snow ruts then your were in luck. At least it was mostly downhill. During this section I passed a few riders and got passed by a few riders. This part was all about skill and to some extent tire pressure. I did stop to bleed out a few PSI from my front tire which helped some. I probably should have done more. Lots of things go through your head while racing and during this section a lot of it was "Fuck! I suck! This sucks!". I will say that mountain bike racing does take quite a bit of mental focus. There isn't much time where you can take your eyes off the trail and not be planning for the next section.

Our bikes have finished

So, when I finally crossed the finish line I was thinking I was around 10th. And when the results were posted I was more like 17th. I barely managed to make mid-pack. I think a lot of that had to do with the the caliber of racers that showed up this year and nothing to do with all the extra cookies I have been eating lately. Oink!

Whoops

It probably didn't help that I did the entire race with my chain routed through my derailleur wrong. If ceramic pulleys save 5 watts I wonder what dragging the chain over the metal cage adds. I'm going to have to speak with my bike mechanic. The funny thing is that I must have been riding with it like that for the last 100+ miles. I changed my chain a month ago. Maybe that's why I feel slow lately.

Podium earns maple syrup!

It was my wife that stole the show. She decided to do the race the day before and managed to pull of 2nd place for the women's short course.

What I didn't realize it but the hardest part of the day was still to come. Lunch was absolutely delicious. BUT! There was 16 ounces of sloppy food packed in a 14 ounce cup with a piece of bone-in chicken sitting on top of it which was to be eaten standing up while trying to move out of peoples way. It was comically hard to eat. (I should have got a picture) The term blivet comes to mind.

Good Day

The jacket I had worn was frozen solid in the car

Is that jacket frozen or are you just happy to see me?

As always the course was groomed to perfection. The ruts at the top weren't any fault of the groomers. Other than being messy the food was fabulous. Too bad it is the last year. We'll see what the Coos Cycling Club comes up with next year to replace it.

It had warmed up to 10 by the time we left.

I guess we were lucky. The night before Mt Washington, a few miles away, had overnight lows of -23F and average winds of 80MPH. Check to see what it is now.