Chequamegon 40

Cable, WI
Chequamegon 40 Saturday September 19, 2009
by: Bryan Fosler

With my 1st Chequamegon 40 in the books, I can look back and say that I had a pretty good race. For not a ton of MTBing this year, I’ll take 49th in the Men’s race (54th including S.S. and tandem riders). Here’s how the race went down:

Started in the 2nd row of the preferred starts, right next to all the Pro’s. I brought my skinsuit, so I thought it was only fitting. I had a few people make fun of me for wearing one and stuffing the shit out of my only pocket with food, but Coach Dave says that skinsuits are “free speed”. Who would argue with that?

The gun shoots off and we all scramble for positions even though it is a “neutral” roll out. The lead ATV pulls off the group and we increase speed, until we hit 28mph. About this time, I was maxed out in my 42x11. Matches were getting burned, but I was sitting in a great position.

After hitting Rosie’s Field, we begin to form a group in single-file. Speed slows to a very welcome 22-23mph and my HR is still at my lactate threshold. After about 4 miles of the Berkie, I think to myself “Hey Bryan, you’re feeling good right? Maybe we should think about attacking the field.” Bad idea. Remember all the Pro’s and Cat 1 MTBers that can whip your butt? I was humbled.

The group that I was for the first 25 or so miles was about 35 guys long. I remember people gasping at the group size as we pass the feed zone. I was pretty shocked at it’s size and how we all stuck together. Somehow someone was pulling all our asses because nobody was able to get up front and push the pace any higher. At this point, you could only pass 1 or 2 people at a time because the wind speed and change of line slowed you down so much.

I think this was on the Birkie trail sometime before we hit the Firetower Hill. You can tell that because the pain face isn’t so grimacing quite yet. (Skinnyski.com)

Around mile 27 I begin to pop and I see it coming from a mile away as I slow my speed and try to conserve for the last 1/3 of the race. I lose sight of Gehling sometime during a climb as my eyes are glued to my HR monitor trying to keep my legs from exploding. I ride solo for a while and try to chase back on, but I thankfully got caught by the group behind me. I rode with singlespeeders J.M. Lalonde and J. Curtes for a while until they blew me away by pulling out some crazy running skills up the Firetower.

Mile 31-34 were the toughest for me, I was physically and mentally exhausted from riding hard and trying to chase all morning. I finally got into a groove again near mile 34 when I ran across the bearded single-speed demon Ezra Taylor and David Meyer. Those guys pulled my ass for a few miles while I caught my breath, but my rear tire punctured going down a fast descent with 4 miles to go. At first I thought I was screwed, but after Stans pissed around everywhere for a minute or so I carefully continued to ride on the tire. It felt like I was running full suspension because so much air had leaked; I couldn’t sit on my saddle when descending because the tire was bottoming out at every bump.

Riding it out over the last few miles really sucked because I had to ride really slow and got passed by a few riders coming off a group that was fast approaching. One of the riders that passed me was kind enough to let me know about this group and I decided to screw the flat thing and see if I could empty all the gas left in my tanks. I nearly got caught by this group, but managed to stay in front of them through the last tough descent; I nearly rolled my rear tire on the last tight left turn into the finishing straight.

I checked my tire after the race and it had somewhere near 10-12 psi for the last 4 miles. At least the Stans held, but it was quite a squishy ride. Overall, I was pretty happy with my finish for my first forty. I made a few mistakes during the ride, but I was smart enough to ride around other major mistakes and place well. I guess the preferred start was worth its weight for this year, otherwise I would have been hauling ass passing 1000+ riders on the trail.

Oh yeah and a side note, I rode the 40 so hard that I broke my frame.  Don’t worry G. Fisher is giving me the hook-up on a new frame, because getting rad is always in style.

B. Fosler
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