EFTA Moody Park Race Report - 6-29-08
6/29/2008 Moody Park, Claremont, NH
Conditions:
Just like what was happening over at Mt.Snow, VT the day was warm, trails were wet from torrential rains the night before.
The course:
4.2 mile loop on some rolling terrain. There are two hills of significance; the “gravity cavity” with a decent exit climb and a long strech of slight uphill. The thickest mud possible was around every corner and it felt like there had been a stampede of wild animals on the course, we soon became them.
Experts did 4 laps.
Results:
Keith Reynolds – Expert SR2 (27-34) – 2nd
Anthony Laskaris – Expert Vet2 (42-49) – DNF
Matthew Johnson – Kids race – 3rd
There was no pre-ride necessary, we saw the previous bike racers covered from head to toe in mud. Kurt decided not to risk any kind of injury and helped his son Matthew prep for the kids race. Matt had a good finish in 3rd! Once that commenced Kurt turned his attention to helping Anthony, myself and others who were all too optimistic on the conditions.
Mechanically I was hoping both my pedal and rear brake would be okay. Last week the pedal backed out a couple of times forcing a DNF and the rear brake was fading… faster than I thought. I delayed the routine brake maintenance as I thought the course would be another “roadie dream”... bah!
We lined up and the group around me felt sizable, about 10, but the parking lot felt like a ghost town. The smart ones stayed home. The starting pace wasn’t so hot so I took to the font and made it about a mile into the course where things really slowed down and dismounting made the most sense. Mud was calf deep, and painted the bike and body
in a thick brown clay paste. Two guys were running it and slowly pulled away. I would make contact with them over the next two laps while Kurt gave out bottles, told me how much time I needed to chase the leader, and cheering along with Matt.
Seriously, Kurt and his son Matt were my only motivation that day. The mud sections were just awful – I lost my rear brake for a lap then in sheer bliss it came back (how strange!). Later I find no pad left and it’s partially stuck on. More bad things happened, riding through the mud and trudging through the muck left me with the worst leg pains I have ever had. You’ve got to feel bad for the spectators as you spray mud (Kurt is it raining?) and you nearly swerve into others because you can’t force your leg to move & reattach to the pedal. The last two miles I left minutes behind due to the crawling speed.
Anthony went through similar trials and smartly put an end to the misery. We couldn’t be happier to end the suffering and pack our bags.
Oh and in case you are wondering where in the world Michael Good has been, he’s been laid up in a hospital bed for week. In hind sight it seems minor, but there was an infection in his knee (not cycling related). Keep an eye out and welcome him back as he’s back enjoying the roads today.
Happy 4th- see some of you atop WaWa!