Dirty Spokes 6 hour Men's pairs race - Unicoi State Park, Georgia, USA
OCTOBER 2009
So, North Georgia, USA isn't exactly local but we're in the US for the Pisgah 4-day stage race. We'd ridden the 1996 Olympic Games circuit at Conyers, Atlanta and the idea was that the Dirty Spokes race would be a good way to stretch the legs.
Having pre-ridden the course the day before we knew it was going to be pretty tough. The course largely consisted of two big climbs and some fast steep descents with switchbacks and roots galore. To make things harder, the weather hadn't been too kind in the preceding days and the course was wet and slippery. More rain was forecast for race day.
We rode down to the start line from our motel in downtown Helen somewhat pensive. We had no idea what the competition would be like or how the race would pan out.
On the start line, the weapon of choice seemed to be the single speed hardtail and sitting in the second row I was one of the few riders on a geared full suss. 'Rocking' my Beyond kit, with white shoes, white gloves, green Oakley Radar's and Catlike helmet we had brought the Euro look to small town USA.
The horn sounded and I raced from the start line. Starts are rarely my strength but today things went to plan and I moved around several riders within the first 100 metres to move up into third for the first climb.
My legs felt strong and the rider in front on his singlespeed set a comfortable yet quick pace over the first half of the course. I sat on his wheel for most of the lap, trying to find a rhythm and half expecting a peloton of riders to come steaming past at any moment. But this never happened and just as I was thinking of moving past the second placed rider I crashed. Big style!
There was a short patch of two-way traffic which in the slippery conditions was a ridiculous thing to put in the course. As I came round the corner my front wheel slid out and I hit the oncoming rider head on. To be honest, it happened so fast that I don't really know what happened. I was covered in mud, the handlebars were twisted but other than that we were both in one piece. I righted everything and sped off knowing that the end of the lap was only a couple of minutes away. I'd dropped a couple of places but things were still looking good.
I handed over to Stephen at the transition zone. We'd slipped to sixth overall and third in the men's 6-hour pair. Stephen put in one of the quickest laps of the race and we moved into first place with a few minutes in hand.
The next few laps were pretty uneventful and although Stephen had some trouble with a loose non-drive side crank arm we continued to extend our lead. The course conditions were getting worse but we were still putting in consistent times and this was hurting the competition. Stephen completed his third lap and handed over to me with 1hr 30 left on the clock. By now we had 20 minutes in the bank over second place and barring a major mechanical one more lap would seal it.
The clock showed 5 hours and 17 minutes as I crossed the finish line on my fourth and final lap. We'd pretty much dominated the men's 6 hours pairs and we were pleased with the way we'd ridden. We knew that Pisgah was going to be far more technically demanding and a world of hurt. But this had been a good showing and had done no harm to our confidence. In five days we would be lining up alongside some of the biggest names in US mountain biking. We needed all the confidence boosting we could get!
Thanks as ever to our sponsors Beyond Mountain Bikes and Specialized.
