WORS #11 Wolf River Rendezvou

White Lake, WI
WORS #11 Wolf River Rendezvous Sunday September 27, 2009
by: Rick Walls

It seems strange to me how quickly we go from wearing 4 layers of clothes and huddled around a fire to sporting a thin layer of spandex and foam pad for the race. Cold, drizzly, and overcast made for nice camping weather, but it had us guessing when chamois time came along.  When our wheels touched the line, the sun greeted us.  A few dark splashes on my METAL let us know the day had other plans.   The weather, uncertainty about the course, or perhaps late season ennui had the field looking pretty sparse, and quick head count had me finish no worse that 5th.  That’s right, I used the word ennui.  Go look it up.

As the Don sent us on our way, I was left to finding my pedal and Krazy Karl went for the holeshot.  I found my place about fourth wheel back, and had moved up front by the top of the lung buster climbs. Muddy Cup Roger got tired of us hacks, and rode us off his wheel.  My lead went with him as a day of back tag grabbed his wheel.  And the rest of us made our way to the good stuff.

The course was a solid mix of twisty north woods singletrack, grassy doubletrack, and logging roads.  The single picked its way over roots and around very ominous granite boulders that promised a painful lesson in technical riding.  Lucky for us it seemed to take the last night’s rain well.  Being a northwoods trail in fall, there were some nice places to stop and maybe take a few pics.  There was racing to be done, and no time for sight seeing today.

The rain made lap 2 more interesting than the first.  The sweet spot on the doubletrack turned to grease, and no one wiped their feet off when they got to the rocks.  I had left my mad skills somewhere on lap one, and it was not a pretty sight.  Also, another AG rider had gotten past.  Was I 3rd or 4th now?  At least no one else threatened to pass as far as I could tell. The end of the came mercifully, but the final lap loomed at the top of the lead climb.  A clunk from the front wheel meant that maybe my trouble in the singletrack was caused by a loose wheel and not the rain… or the six beers last night. 

A quick look down the road at the start of lap 3, and I could see the top of Karl’s helmet.  The race was back on, and I didn’t have much of a lead.  Lap 3 was a display of mad cyclocross and mountainbike skills, because the race was now about getting to the end before the next guy any way possible.  Much of the time was a hazy, oxygen deprived blur but the finish came soon enough.

It wasn’t my best race of the year, but good enough for first loser.

-Rick