Black Bear 2007

The first surprise was the requirement to put the bikes into these log racks about a block away from where we got the pre-race info meeting. Rodger and Dave knew the best strategy was to put them far up the racks rather than nearby so you didn't have to weave your bike in and out of others trying to extricate theirs before you could actually mount and take off. It worked great. At 8am sharp the race bell clanged or the buzzer buzzed or whatever and 265 of us were off. I was carrying two water bottles on my back and a bunch of food, my cell phone, and an extra change of clothes and a six pack as well as a lug of cherries that I'd purchased in Traverse the day before. It felt that way, anyway, as I ran with all the stuff clonking against my back. But really, you didn't have to worry too much about the run because once you were under way on the bike it wasn't hard to fold into the pack and move toward the front.

The pace was fast early on, though, due in part to our magnificent Two Wheel Tango team, Dave F, and a few Wolverines (Tim something? was one) fresh from Super Week. We were just juiced to move I think. After a bit I got a little worried that I'd fry myself long before the race was halfway, but I couldn't help myself. The air felt good and the energy was certainly there. There were also some independent riders who were hammering at the front, particularly some muscle laden tri-guy who had amazing stamina throughout the race for all the energy he expended pulling people back.

Within a few miles we settled into a pace and had time to look around. It was like a mummer's parade, bike tour, bike race with all these crazy mixes that you wouldn't see in the typical MBRA crit. Recumbents, guys in complete time trial outfits, a few mountain bikes, bikes with fairings, and one or two land speed record capsules that looked like rolling suppositories. "It was a come from behind finish!" Sorry. One of these guys motored on out at about the five mile mark, I think, and we never saw him again. I later learned from Geirdra, Rodger's wife, that he fell over a couple of times at the tops of the steeper hills and, like a flipped over turtle, couldn't right himself without a lot of work. He'd try to get momentum to the top of the hill, peter out, teeter, then plop! because he couldn't put his feet down. I'm not sure how he got going each time, but he only beat the lead pack by five minutes and I imagine the margin would have been much wider without these issues. Yes, he did win overall, but he was the only version of a recumbent to beat us. Recumbents, by the way are a little freaky to ride alongside, because they don't seem to have the same stability as regular bikes. Either that or they aren't used to riding in packs. Nothing against recumbents. They're bikes and that's good. Just an observation.

At about the thirty mile mark some guy who'd been pulling his tail off the whole time was talking to a guy next to me and he said, "this race will be the farthest I've ever ridden in my life." A few miles later I never saw him again. What was he thinking?

The route wasn't too hilly, but it was rolling and there were certainly enough steady uphill grades to keep it interesting. There were at least two good size hills, maybe three that kind of hurt, and one of these in particular at about the 70 mile mark came as more of a surprise than I'd anticipated. I thought I was reaching the top and I was still somewhere near the front when it took a turn and continued on up. That was not my favorite moment. I'd dosed my efforts for my version of the top. I even cramped for a minute, but I told my muscles to cool it and everything settled back to somewhat normal.

At about the 45 mile mark or so a couple of Wolverines got away with this Time Trial guy laden in the complete TT outfit with his water pack on his back under his jersey and the sweat inducing TT helmet. Must have been a clambake under there. He was really acting weird through most of the race to that point, going off the front, getting caught by a few of us, then dropping his speed way way down. It got annoying, to be honest. If he was TTing, then why not just do the TT thing and pull whoever wants to be along? He finally did that in the break and they were out for about twenty minutes or so and nearly out of sight. Five of us worked our butts off to try to pull them back, but it was the same small group who'd been doing a lot of the work all along and we were getting pooped. I dropped back to look for help and talked to a guy named Cliff who put together a new team out of Traverse named Haggerty. Everyone saw them as the Big Blue Wave because there were so many of them in the group. But they'd done nothing to pull at all up to that point in the race. I asked Cliff to get his guys to help out and soon we had quite a lot of blue at the front and soon the Wolverines and Mr. TT were back among us.

Cliff had muttered that he was saving his team for the second half and he didn't disappoint. From there until the end they attacked over and over, but they didn't quite have the strategy down or the legs to pull it off or something, because we always brought them back. But it was fun and kept the race rockin'. There aren't many places to race up north, so they're still trying to get their act together, but it looks like they have interest and they were definitely into the scene.

At about the 80 mile mark the pace slowed down considerably and a few guys were frustrated that we weren't able to keep the pace up to beat last years time of 3:52. But nobody was into it and I think a lot of the slower riders who'd been dropped got a chance to latch back on. The Wolverines and Haggerty kept going off the front, but nobody was letting them stay. Our group just settled in for the finish. We'd done a hell of a lot of work up until then and I certainly wasn't in the mood to kill myself needlessly any more. Even Dave, who'd been yanking at the front all along told me he was kicking back until we saw the banner.

There were some great "natural break" issues along the way. Early on in the race I was cruising along and realized that a guy a short ways ahead of me was in mid-stream while still in motion. He was still clipping along at a good pace. It was one of the most impressive things I've ever seen in a race. He was just cocked sideways on the bike and a great natural stream was arcing into the gravel shoulder well away from him and from anyone else. I gave him wide berth as I passed, but it really wasn't necessary. Later, Andy was in need of a natural break himself and, now this is somewhat hearsay, but he apparently began the process of the "stream in motion" then thought better of it and pulled over, nearly endoing in the process. (Andy, please correct this if I've got the facts wrong, but I like the story this way). He did his thing and by the time he was done the pack was gone. But, there were scads of vehicles behind us. Support for the riders, drivers wondering what the heck they got themselves into, and support vehicles for the paddlers (there are paddlers involved in this race, but you'll have to read about that somewhere else). So, Andy paced back through the cars and caught back on. He came up to me at this point and told me it was like we were in the TDF with all the vehicles back there and I wondered how he knew this, since I didn't know his escapade had unfolded. Must have been pretty exciting, though. He asked for water after that, so I should have caught on, but hey, I'm oblivious most of the time.

At the end we never saw a banner. My computer had glitched a couple of times along the way, so I didn't know if we were even getting close, but after we crossed some railroad tracks I noticed Rodger and Dave kick it into high gear. There was a flag person ahead and I figured something was up, but I thought we were just jockeying for position before some big turn, so I got onto Rodger's wheel. Apparently Andy got on mine. The next thing we knew, we were herded into a narrow slot defined by the race table on one side and orange road cones on the other. Then we crossed the chip timing mats. I was barely into my kick and the race was over. A few people missed the mats altogether and were still outside the cones. But we finished 10th (Dave), 11th (Rodger), 12th (Rob), and 13th (Andy) with the suppository well ahead thank god because my butt was really sore at that point. Anyway, I'm not sure where the others finished in their age groups, but I was second in mine (41-50). We did pretty darned well for all the work we did throughout and it was just fun to ride as a team for once as well as to ride with Dave, who's an old hand at this race. Ian was there, though he wasn't into the sprint because he's saving himself for Nationals in Northern California next week. That was the only real disappointment of the whole race, learning that Ian's moving to California because he can't live without racing alongside Paul Kundrat. I think that's the reason, but you'll have to clear that with Ian. I'm sure he'll love it there, but he's awfully fun to know and to ride with. Maybe we'll have to get the team to go out next year to race with him. Andy, you want to get on that? We finished at about 3:58, so about 25mph for the 100 miles. I'd do it again. It was just wacky enough to be interesting, yet there were some awfully good riders in there keeping the pace up and spirits were good throughout.