Anyway, I started the Fat Bike season with 5 races locally on mostly single track trails. I probably didn't run above 5 PSI in any of those races...the snow has been DEEP!
Then duty called and I had to travel for 2 weeks to Singapore and Korea for my work as an Engineer at Seagate. Besides losing some fitness, the other down side of the trip is that I missed the Frozen Fat Forty, a 40 mile singletrack race that was one I was pumped about doing (and one that suits me well). I did manage to one more race after I got back before the Fat Bike Birkie (FBB).
From the gun, Jesse Lalonde, Jorden Wakely and I pulled a group of about 10-15 for 95% of the first 2/3 of the race. There was some air drafting, but the more significant drag was from the light crust of snow. Either way, I wasn't under a lot of pressure and got of the front a few times by just bombing some downhills. There were some other small attacks, but nothing that stuck.
Then about 2/3 of the way through the race Ned Overend attacked with Jesse, Will and I tracking him down. These accelerations whittled our group of 10 or so down to 4 or 5. Then in the midst of another Ned acceleration, my bike kicked sideways when I hit the pacing snowmobile's ski track. I went into the deep stuff and lost probably 15-20s and a few spots. I put it in TT mode for a few min and blew past the remaining stragglers to get up to Ned, Will, and Jesse again. I was on the rivet pulling them back when they were really pushing the pace. I just needed about 1min to recover from the chase, but that wasn't to be. One more acceleration by Ned and I fell off...doh! I had to recover for a few min, and I couldn't see anyone behind me. From there I caught Jesse and we yo-yo'd with each other for the rest of the time. We were both pretty tired after all the driving on the first part of the race. In the end, I just missed 2nd place by a few seconds. Ned was super strong, and it is so impressive that he can still rock it on the bike like that! It is always an honor to race with a legend.
I would tell you that next time I will be more patient, sit in more, and save my energy, but I know that won't happen. Patience and tactical racing are not aspects of bike racing I am interested in=)
On equipment, the 9:Zero:7 Whiteout simply ROCKS! Pair with that the Hed Big Deal wheels and Shimano components (yes XTR brakes too!) and I couldn't ask for a better racing and riding Fat Bike!
