Race: Tour De Tykes

Fun Stuff!

The weekend started out normal enough, bolting out of work like a child on the first day of summer and screaming yippy all the way to the car. Once we were all packed Heather and I headed north for the Tour De Tykes in Danville PA directly behind Geisinger Hospital. This was a race to benefit the Children’s Miracle Network at the Janet Wise Children’s Hospital. I must admit that I was looking at this race as an opportunity to do something charitable and to train for the later season.

It was a quick trip 2 hours later and we were in my parent’s driveway. And though they were not going to be there for the weekend (they were visiting my new niece) we deiced that we would stay there. We could do this because we have a key! Yes, we have a key that we had left in Maryland. Oh well, we thought a night at the grandparents house will not be bad at all, it will be a wonderful opportunity to visit for the night and good food too.

After a night spent awake, partly because I am anxious by nature, and partly due to the 90 + year old grandfather clock chiming the Westminster chimes every 15, 30, and a full on version at 60 minutes and a great breakfast we were on the road to Danville.

Pulling into the lot was a surprise for me. There were a ton of folks riding and watching this one. I pulled in swerving to miss small kids on bikes and adults on foot, I found a spot and picked up my number and swag. A quick change of cloths and some checking over of my bike I was ready to go and after some warming up so too where the rest of the racers.

At the start racers exchanged pleasantries and talked of the fun climbs ahead, and then, it started. The first thing that shocked me was that I was suddenly not nervous at all and the second thing was the steep climb that had just smacked me in my face. The field of sport racers quickly pulled away but I just picked a steady pace that I wanted to maintain for this race, after all this was more training than racing. This decision to hold back in the beginning was both a blessing and a curse. It was a blessing because I didn’t explode before the race ended, and a curse because I was unaware that there would be almost no place except the first .25 mile to pass. Lack of fitness? I am not convinced that is that was the cause of my finishing time, I think it was a lack of experience and no pre-ride that got me on this one, I just simply couldn’t pass later on. But enough of the excuses, lets talk course.

Generally the course was extremely smooth with some technical and rocky up/down hills. What made this course tough was the narrowness of the single track, extremely tight turns, and steep climbs that put you within kissing range of your headset.

Climb, climb, climb, around every turn there was more climbing. Then an all too short steep and off camber down hill that would make one hair raising turn after another, and just when you thought you had it licked with out warning a sudden dip and then a climb so steep that the line of single speeders in front of me stopped like a train wreck, crunched up like an accordion. Later on the same scenario, I and another 29er guy riding down a steep descent, sharp right, sharp left, Pine tree, CLIMB! And like a slow motion video I could see the climb coming at me but there was no time to shift. One pedal stroke, two pedal strokes, right calf cramp, left calf cramp, unclipping, running. At the top the other 29er guy looks at me, and I at him. “Caught with our pants down (pause). In terms of gears I mean,” he says. I laugh, “this is where a pre ride woulda’ helped.”

Further on, climbing up the trail, negotiating the sharp up hill corners, through a patch of pines and I can hear the music. The end is near, and as soon as it seemed to begin, it ended.

After 3500 feet of vertical climbing over just 13.5 miles I felt like I could have gone for the 18.5 mile race, but I was satisfied with my performance and feeling the gains from that race in my riding now. At 1:53:16 and 7th out of twelve riders (20 mins back from 1st) I can honestly say that I think with some more experience I could have done better. I also notice that I was able to pass climbing but was unsure on the down hills. Given this I think that if I practice my descents more and could stop holding back so much I might do much better next time. An excuse or the truth? Only time will tell.

Next race, On the Rocks at French Creek May 8th!

Jesse Suders