Fort Custer Stampede Race Report

Race results:  2:07:48
Placement:  24/30
Average Speed: 12.9
TSB (Biking/SBR): –1.1/-1.9

First and foremost, never, ever forget to put chamois lotion on. I absolutely shredded my skin.  It hurts to walk and I don’t even dare sit on a saddle.

With that said, let’s talk about the race.  Great weather and a much larger crowd than last year.  I believe last year I had eight people in my category, but this year there was 30.  Unfortunately, 23 of them were faster than me.

The one thing I really dislike about this race is the start.  It’s about 60 yards from the starting line to the beginning of the single track.  That means you have a lot of racers elbowing for position.  It also means if you don’t get a good start you could find a big separation between the lead pack and the rest of the group.

I counted about 12 racers in front of me when I entered the single track.  Unlike Sport category, the Expert’s stay together for almost the entire first lap.  As we entered Granny’s Garden, the leaders could start to pull away.  It’s a technical section so it can get backed up a bit with racers.  However, in Expert everybody keeps going.  I remember entering that in the Sport class and it was just a train wreck.  The first lap ended with all the racers within 3-4 minutes of each other.

The second lap is my weakest lap regardless of race.  My head and body just want to quit so I have to pull every ounce of motivation to keep going.  I took a gel pack and eventually found my second wind and was soon passing racers.  As I entered the ‘red loop’ I hit a leaf covered tree stump and found myself doing a superman through the air.  It was one of those falls that felt like my fillings in my teeth came out.  My handlebars twisted around and chain came off.  I thought for sure my wheel was ruined.  The fall at Yankee was not near as hard as this one and my wheel taco’d there.  But the wheel was fine.  I corrected the handle bars, put the chain on and was on my way.  My bike was make a horrid sound so I stopped again and tried to figure out what it was, but couldn’t.  The sound soon went away so I guess my bike healed itself.  I still don’t know how the front wheel survived that hit.

My third lap was faster than my second but slower than my first.  The racers I passed earlier caught up too me after my fall, but I eventually caught up to them and we zipped through most of the trail together.  I tried to pass, but they knew that and every time I attacked they countered it.  I just couldn’t muster enough to pass and just conceded my spot in line.

As always with Fort Custer, may weakness is the first set of gulley’s that we zig-zag through.  Ever race, Stampede, time trial, Xterra, I’m so slow through them.  I’ve gone to Fort and rode those a dozen times trying to improve my time and always feel confident, but then during a race I just putter out.  Oh well, still a fun race and great to see some of my friends make the drive from the east side.