Race Report Landmine 2012, cat1 single speed

I was looking forward to this year's Landmine for a lot of reasons:
> It's an awesome, one lap, 25 mile course.
> And an extremely well run event that's only 1.5 hours from us in the mid-Cape area.
> I wanted to make up for a poor showing and DNF at TVR.
> And wanted to see how I'd do if I went out a bit faster at the start of the race and see if I could hold the wheels of the lead guys.  Apparently I wasn't the only one thinking that...

So a bunch of strong guys lined up at the start. Fast guys, good technical riders - could be anyone's race. 

Whistle and we're off. Notoriously fast starter Dave Terrell takes off and sets a quickpedal pace that everyone tries to match. He got the single speed train cooking along nicely through the first flat mile or so. Eventually Jake Colvin went by Dave, and sticking to my plan to stay up front, I went with him. Soon Pat Higgins went by both of us. I saw Royce Yeomans just behind me and heard Gerry LaFleur yell at me too, so I knew we were still all pretty close as we hit the rough stuff. 

Jake then me. Going according to plan at this point, but...(photo: notaskitrail on mtbr)

...Pat the wrecking ball is lurking. (gotta love the lefty pron).  (photo: notaskitrail on mtbr)

We went in that order for a while. Jake and I traded spots and worked together a bit on the linking road and fire road bits. Pat was in front of us, but since I had beaten him at Massasoit earlier this year after he ran out of water and faded towards the middle of the race, I figured he might do the same again (the fading, not the water-running-outting...ironically, I ran out of water at Landmine, but it was late enough in the race that it didn't affect me).  So I was thinking it might come down to me and Jake fighting it out for the win...but I was weary about the fast guys behind catching us...so the pace was still cooking.

After a few miles, Pat had inched away, out of sight.  I started to worry a bit, and decided to go get him. I put in a strong push and finally reeled him back after about 5 hard minutes. Jake dropped off a bit behind me, so it was just me and Pat at that point. I passed Pat, and considered putting in an attack, but I decided to recover at that point. Then we got caught up in geared traffic, and a guy crashed on a bridge in front of us.  As swearing geared guy righted his bike and swore his head off, Pat got by me and got an immediate 10 - 20 seconds on me. 


The guy who crashed in front of us was near me in the woods for a while.  He kept on crashing and then swearing like a trucker at the top of his lungs. At first I was kind of put off, but then I couldn't help but laugh my butt off. This made the "constant barrage" of roots and rocks a bit more fun.

I crashed a couple times too and bobbled a few times, but I was still confident that I would catch Pat. I was sure I'd see him around the next turn.  But the rocky/rooty miles went on and on and I never did see him. And I was pushing - so much so that I was really happy with how I raced.  But the next time I saw Pat was at the finish line.  He was a wrecking ball out there on a technical course.

So I got 2nd and Jake got 3rd. All the cat 1 single speeders came in really soon after, one after another. So it really could have been anyone's race. Awesome.

SSers raced awesome Sunday

Me, Pat, Jake

So my season...started with 2 wins in cat 2; then I upgraded and got a 4th, a 1st, and two 2nds. I finish the season feeling really good about it and knowing what I need to work on to get faster (technical stuff) and knowing that when I am feeling good, I can probably go harder.  I'm really hoping that the crew that was racing Sunday is out there next year, along with the faster Cat 2 guys.  It'd be nice to get a real big, competitive group going.

One of the prizes was a pint glass.
Couldn't wait to fill it up...and then empty it. 

I owe a lot of thanks on the season to my team shop, Sea Sports in Hyannis. Owner Jeff is super supportive and knowledgable about racing.  If you're ever down the Upper/mid-Cape and need anything cycling-related, Jeff's shop is the place to go.  I'm already looking forward to our epic shop winter training rides.  And Sea Sports mechanic and teammate "Majick" Mark kept our bikes humming. 

Shouts out to Cape Cod Beer and Cannondale for helping us out also. 

Congrats to teammate and "iron man" Lucas Provost for winning the iron rider award again and leading our team to a great year.  Everyone did really well. 

Thanks for reading.