2016 Lake Sonoma

[Mark Ingwersen]

Since this would be my first race of the season and on a course I'd never even seen, I was unsure of what to expect. Greg and I drove up early and had plenty of time to check in and do a leisurely warm up/recon lap. My initial thought after seeing the narrow first decent, slippery bridge and nearly impossible to ride muddy uphill singletrack was  that the first lap was going to be a win or lose decider.

I was glad I set up my Pivot Les 29er with wider carbon rims (Thanks Ken!) and WTB Weirwolf 2.5 tires at 28psi front and rear. I upped the pressure10 psi on my Fox fork to 95 to keep the bobbing in check on the out of saddle climbs. I'm not sure it made a useful difference though.

Our group took off up the first climb at a very quick pace, my goal to make sure I'd be as close to the front as possible before the singletrack. There'd be no hope for passing and a high likelihood of getting caught behind a traffic jam after the bridge. In fact, right when I approached that bridge I had the wrong line and missed it. A quick yank on the bars got my front wheel over the ditch and me back on course! In front of me was ACME team mate Otis and a masters rider who I knew to be fast. My goal was to hang on as long as I could. I heard my other team mate Greg behind me but the trail was needing 100% of my attention so my focus was up front. The wet mud gifted no traction and I rode the grass to the right as long as I could (a good tip from pro rider Carson!) then jumped off to run. Unlike Greg, I was lucky enough to squish the muddied cleats into my TIME pedals without trouble and continue the chase. By the time we reached the halfway point of lap one the three of us were out front. Our pace had us catching up with other riders and I found myself making passes anywhere I could to stick with Otis who was doing a great job making sure I stayed with him. By the end of the first lap, we had dropped the masters rider and were keeping a solid gap on those behind. The course was well marked but that didn't keep riders from making wrong turns or missing them all together. This jumbled the riders up a bit and soon I wasn't sure if we'd caught up to the group that started before us or ones we were lapping. I swapped positions with Otis briefly on an uphill singletrack which he handily took back on the upcoming fire road. Since Otis was keeping such a strong pace, I continued to stay with him to keep me charging hard. On the second lap, Otis shuffled for position with a varsity rider and in that dogfight they pulled away. I caught them a few times as they slowed their pace and we sorted out who was in what category. On our third and final lap, Otis and the other rider had started pulling away and I decided to save some energy since I had no one on my tail. On the last climb up the loose and rutted hill I was still feeling strong but glad I didn't have to ride another lap. I finished first, covered in mud, and cheered as Greg and Dave flew past the finish proud to be part of an amazing team that took home several medals!