Old Cabin Classic 2017

[Jim Hewett]

This was my second year doing the recently revived Old Cabin Classic.  Last year I finished 5th in a pretty strong Pro  field on the 3 lap, 33 mile course.  I was back for more this year and I hoped to put in more consistent lap times.

Cathy and I arrived Friday and did a pre-ride.  Definitely a good idea, as there were a few technical sections and one tough short climb that would have surprised me if we had not.  The course conditions were a little different than last year, and we would be anticipating some wind on the more wide-open sections of the course.

I was racing my Trek Top Fuel, with no dropper and Bontrager XR1 2.2" tires.  The rear suspension would definitely help with the many bumpy and rutted sections, and hopefully regain some of the traction I was giving up with the fast rolling tires.  Weight of the bike was 21 lbs.

The start list for Pro men had been posted, and it looked like there would be at least 5 really fast guys out of the 14 registered racers.  At the start line, Colin Daw and my teammate Carson Benjamin were absent, so that relaxed things a little.  Young CX star Tobin Ortenblad and Shane Kloepfer were locals that had beaten me the year before, but I couldn't discern any other real threats from the group.

We started pretty fast and Tobin, Shane, and I were following an unkown rider in Trek Volkswagen shorts.  Not sure when that team last produced a kit, but this guys was in it (at least the bottom half) and he was leading us all into the wind.  The pace was manageable, but we made a pretty quick separation from the rest of the field.  I was on the back of the train as we climbed the switchbacks and made our way over to the first descent.  The other 3 guys were on hardtails, which I knew would make the smooth climbing a little more efficient but take its toll on the rougher sections.  I had fallen back about 5 seconds as we began to go down a rutted trail.  I reached down to move my shock into the "open mode", but took a little too long and crashed pretty hard.  I was back on the bike quickly, but I had lost contact and my knee was very scraped and feeling numb.  That was a dumb mistake to make in the first 10 minutes of the race!

I charged my way back to the Trek Volkswagen guy, but Tobin and Shane were now pulling away from him.  As we climbed out on The Old Cabin Trail, I stayed on his wheel and waited on my chance, a little anxious that the first two were getting away from us both.  Once we were headed down again, I tried to pass and he blocked me.  Soon I saw a widening of the trail and made my way around him.  I tried to descend well and punch it on the climbs, and I eventually put some time between us.  As I climbed a fireroad about halfway through the lap, I came upon Shane walking his bike.  He said he had flatted and did not have a spare tube or pump.  Not carrying the bare essentials to fix a flat was a rookie maneuver, but it seemed a shame that he would be out of the race so early, so I dropped my tube and a CO2 for him.  Maybe not so smart on my part, but I anticipated that he would fix his flat and get back into the race.

I did not see Tobin and focused on riding the rockier sections of Enchanted and Zane Grey fast but safely.  I clocked the Trek Volkswagen guy at about 1 minute behind me as we started the second lap, which I didn't find worrisome.  I  was getting mixed reports from anonymous bystanders about Tobin's lead, but I figured it was probably 4-5 minutes.  That is a big gap for less than an hour of racing, so I resigned myself to a fight for second place.  All of the sections were more familiar on this second lap, though the climbing slowed a little.  My first lap was about 48 minutes, but my second took 52 minutes.  Not at all the consistency I had hoped to see, but I seemed to have a couple minutes lead over third place as we started out on our third lap.  I stayed steady, though slower, on this lap.  There was no cramping, and my knee was not hurting, but my body was feeling the effects of almost 2 hours of racing with 30 minutes to go.  After a report that Tobin was 10 minutes ahead of me (ugh!), I accepted the inevitable defeat.  Pushing on, I tried to stay smooth and avoid a flat, as I had given my spare tube away.  I rolled into an uncontested 2nd place finish, happy to be done but a little disappointed in the loneliness of the experience.