DGS – Ugh
By now the word has spread though the interwebs about how bad the conditions were at the DSG. Like two years ago when we attended this race everything was run incredible well. The only issue this year was that mother nature did not cooperate.
Since I’m avoiding 12 hour solo races in the year part of the season to build up some speed, Namrita & I joined Cara Applegate for a 4 person team. Yes, I can do the math and I planned to take up the extra laps. I was elected to do the first two laps to get through the crowd and then the ladies would take over for a bit. I was sure I was going to be doing the final laps as well, so I planned for a long day. I was also hoping to take a crack at the fastest lap after I warmed up a bit. All of these plans went out the window at the start.
With a remote control airplane equipped with a video camera flying over head the cannon was shot off for the start. The rain had started just a few minutes earlier causing some trepidation as waited to go. I didn’t kill it on the run, but quickly realized I would be in bottleneck if I didn’t get going. I grabbed my bike and weaved my way through the crowd. The opening mile+ was around an open field. I began passing riders to get into the woods in a decent position. This worked just fine as my legs were feeling good.
The ground was saturated from the spring rains so the mud formed quickly. In the woods thing only got worse. I continued to pass riders as I negotiated the mud, wet roots and rocks. Right before the race I had switched tires from the Conti Race King to the Mountain King for the wider spaced knobs and was very happy with that decision. The rain intensified and the lighting was hitting close. I made a left hand turn up one of the many steep little climbs and shifted to a bigger cog…..and then right over the top of the cassette. I jumped up and dislodged my chain as a number of riders came by. I removed the chain and was rolling again in a minute. I quickly regained the few spots I lost and was right on Rebecca Rusch’s wheel as we descended the deteriorating double track. I followed her as she passed a few riders. We rounded another hard left turn into a steep climb and about half way up I snapped my chain. I pocketed it and trotted up the hill, coasted down the next and then let some riders go by as I walked up the next. It was legal to exit the trail for repairs so I headed back to the pit which was all down hill.
I hosed the bike off, put a power link in the chain, lubed up and headed back out. I only lost about 10 minutes and the chain repair would have been a nightmare in the mud out on the course. I was back out there and not even in last place. I began passing riders again as I progressed with a little less urgency as before. We were here for fun and I decided not to save my energy for the fast lap later in the day if/when things dried out. For now I’d just get this lap over with.
I crossed the top of the ridge that made up the course and entered the Slick Rock trail. The name amused me as I slipped and slid on everything but the rocks. This trail traversed back across the face of ridge and was mostly down hill. I was still passing many riders who were either stopped trying to figure what they were doing or how to proceed in this muck. The rain had stopped and the mud was beginning to congeal into a paste. After an extended descent the trail turned upward again and I lost traction on some unseen roots. I jumped off to run up the hill and push the bike along with me, but the bike didn’t move! Before the race my Rotwild weighed in at 23 lbs, now it was 60+. It was shocking how much mud, muck and debris was attached to ever inch of the bike. I knocked some big chunks off the trudged on.
The rest of the lap went on this way. Ride a bit, mostly down hill, then scrap enough mud off the push it up the next hill. There was a particularly bad section in which the wheels locked up and could not roll through all the stuff wedged in everything. I’d scrap, push 30 ft, scrap, push 30ft, scrap, etc… I finally came to a descent, jumped on a pedaled like mad. I aimed for the deeper puddles to clear some mud off the wheels. This worked to some degree. I rode hard up the next hill and cleaned it. Again I aimed for puddles so I keep enough momentum to keep riding rather than push.
I finally made out of the woods about 3/4th of the way through the lap:
I tried riding in the grass were there was less mud and water, but the grass would just add to the mud creating even more resistance where ever it collected. I entered the woods again, made it about 400 yards in before having to scramble up the muck covered little climbs with a 50 lb bike. At times I was dragging it up by the stem. I’s have to stop to remove some weight before moving on to the next climb. I made it to double track where a large puddle had collected and stopped to “wash” the bike off in hopes of riding the last single track. I scraped mud and rinsed with the muddy water until the bike loss 20 lbs. I rode over the next little rise to see two others doing the same thing in puddles. I laughed out loud.
My hopes of riding the next single track was short lived. I rode hard as I entered, but the mud collected so fast that I quickly off and walking. There were 3 of us riding sort of together. One would ride a section while the others were walking or clearing mud, then one of us would clear the our mud and ride pass this others. The section was only a half mile or so, but it took a good 15 minutes to get over the top of the climb. The descent was nuts. 3-4 foot wide single track with huge chunks of rock jutting out of the mud. I could sort of used the rear wheel as a rudder to steer around most of the rocks, but more than once I had not choice but to take them head on.
Back in the field I stuck to the mud filled track rather than try the grass having learned my lesson earlier. I passed by our pit and was informed Namrita was waiting to go out for the next lap. She was in for some fun.
Cara cleaned up my bike for me while I removed mud from shoes, gloves, glasses and helmet. I loaded up on Powerbar drinks since I didn’t want to touch my bottle out on the course. Once Cara returned with a pretty clean bike I when crazy with the lube. An hour later someone offer some Pam to coat the bike in and I apply liberal amounts of that as well. I watched rider after rider covered in mud, some pushing their bikes because they could no longer ride them. One mud covered guy walked by with no bike at all. I think he just left it out there.
I stayed dressed in my dirty kit with the thought that I would ride the next lap when Namrita returned, but after two hours of sitting on that wet chamois I was having second thoughts. Then I hear I my name being yelled from across the field. Namrita was shouting and waving her arms at me. I rode to where she was and she dragging her bike out of the woods. She asked if I could carry her bike for her, and I could barely lift it. I scraped the mud off and headed out.
We were here for some fun and nothing looked fun about going back out. There was also the thought of trashing the bikes even more for no particular reason. We hung out to the end and watched the carnage.
I think this video shows the conditions best: