2008 Cohutta 100 - The Good, The Bad & The Muddy

IF was well represented at the Cohutta 100 with riders featuring in the results in Men's open (6th - Harlan Price), Women's (4th - Trish Stevenson) and Master's (3rd - Chris Wurster). The previous day's recon ride of the course proved to be all for naught as Friday night brought showers and the Saturday morning start still had a cold mist in the air. Despite checking the conditions of the soil at the starting area for moisture and determining things would be similar to home, I came up with the wrong call in a big way. With a lot of insight from Harlan I was anticipating a fast course with good hard packed conditions and the opportunity to post a fast time. Well if you ever watched My Cousin Vinny, there was no embellishing by the director in the scene where Joe Pesci sleeps in the Caddie only to be awakened by thunderstorms and mud that is like pudding on a linoleum floor. After the opening climb up Route 64 we turned onto the fast flowing single track section that would last for the next 15+ miles, only it was no longer a fast flowing pump track, now it was a survival course that felt like one was riding on ice. It didn't help that I had opted for Killer Bee 2.4s which when new have little tread, and this was a worn set, so it was a close to riding slicks as you can get. The result was that by the time we got out onto the fireroads I had ridden too hard, sliding everywhere, spinning the rear on every small climb and had failed to keep properly hydrated - this was going to be a long painful day if things didn't get better and fast! Early into the fireroad riding I learned that most of my competition in Master's were behind me which provided a bit of an uplift and let me focus on settling into good pace for the duration of the road section. Shortly after 40 miles I came on fellow IF team rider, Patrick Jones, who was suffering from stomach issues and not having a good day. We decided that working together as teammates was going to be the most beneficial to both, would keep Pat going and keep me focused on maintaining a good pace position. We worked together over the next 40+ miles, alternating taking the lead and were able to pull out solid distances over the riders around us. At the last aide station, in a selfless act, Patrick urged me to go off on my own, as the stomach issues were upon him again, to secure my position in class. The final pair of climbs took everything I had left. After 80+ miles on muddy, soft, freshly graded roads and being slightly dehydrated I began suffering from cramps and tightening hamstrings which slowed my pace and allowed a couple of riders to get by. The final insult came in the final mile when I lost all focus and caught the guardrail and went down hard on the only paved section of the course! Managed to get is all back together, get on the bike and bring it home in 3rd place in the Masters with a personal best of 9:20, shaving 1:17:00 off of my previous best 100 time and making the podium for IF - there wasn't a better feeling then climbing onto the box flying the colors of Team Green!