The Nordic Trail Festival is an action packed
mountain biking weekend that should definitely not be missed. Held at the
Nordic Heritage Center in Presque Isle the festival has a down home soulful feel. The event was
well thought out and seemed to have a little something for everyone, including the kids. There were so many things
going on over the weekend it's almost impossible for me to list them all, but I
will try. For runners, there were six
and 12 hour trail running events for solo and team efforts. The children had
all kinds of entertainment including bouncy houses, face painting, several
races and a bicycle parade. There was also adult entertainment for us older
kids too with live music featuring 3 bands, The Marshall Warf Brewing Co. was
there with some great Maine brews and
several food vendors. One of the
highlights of the weekend was the "short track" race. That event was
held after racers had sampled a few adult beverages because you need all the
courage you can get when you're about to race a little kids bike with 14 inch
rims while wearing a full-faced motorcycle helmet. It was a riot watching
racers take a nose dives trying to pedal
over something as easy as a 2x4 (those motorcycle helmets did more than just
look funny) We also enjoyed a fireworks display late Saturday evening. For those of us racing on two wheels they had
6 and 12 hour races for solo and team efforts. Sunday there was the biathlon
which was a combination of mountain bike racing and marksmanship followed by a
downhill race which was another great competitive event. The drive up to
Presque Isle really wasn't terribly long, about two and a half hours, the views
are really quite beautiful. When you arrive on Friday there is live music,
food, drink, an opportunity to register for the races and free camping with
showers. All this and more for $20 if you're doing the 6 hour and $40 if you're
competing in the 12 hour.
The drive up gave me time to think about my
strategy and how I might handle my first 6 hour solo race; my one and only goal
was to stay pedaling for the 6 hours and finish the race. Being new to racing
and this being my second race ever after the Carrabassett Backcountry Cycle
Challenge 50K, I was told this race would be fun and relaxing, the perfect sampling of what the Carrabassett
100k might feel like. I have been mountain biking for about 15 years but have
only recently taken the sport serious enough to race, so this is all a new
experience for me. From what I was told, the course was relatively easy with
some technical riding in the beginning along with some moderate climbing, but
overall free flowing, fun and FAST. I've
never ridden any of the trails there so the course was unfamiliar to me, which
was not ideal. Along with this concern
we had some weather that was rolling in, that made me wonder just how slick the
rocks and roots would be. I had been
told the course was fast, but how fast did I want to go under wet and slick
conditions?
Photo From Nordic Trail Festival Facebook Page
So there I was staged at the start with all the
6-hour riders. It was great to see a bunch of familiar faces in the white and
green jerseys at the start line. Not too long after the start of the race I
found myself behind a large group of riders that lacked technical riding
experience and that definitely slowed me up a lot. I stayed patient waiting for
my chance to pass, I started getting a little more aggressive but not
dangerous, passing only when it was safe for both myself and the other rider I
was overtaking. I kept thinking about staying with my strategy of pacing myself
and not exploding in the first few laps, which was not easy to do, keeping that
excitement bottled up and only releasing a little over time. I knew this was
necessary if I was going to last 6 hours. Six hours would be the longest ride I
have ever been on and my previous night of sleep, or I should say lack of
sleep, worried me. Being sensitive to light when you sleep means you should
probably not pitch your tent where a parking lot lamp will illuminate your tent
like a searchlight would. The light, along with my excitement, had me never
catching a wink of sleep. I was ready to jump out of my sleeping bag and PEDAL!
Ok, back to the race, this is a race report after all. The gist of it was that
I didn't feel 100%, but in what seemed like no time I found myself together
with a group of familiar faces and voices, my teammates from Qualey/Rose Bike Racing. Ahhh… nice, the race now had the feel of
"just another group ride". I
continued riding on with my teammates; before I knew it we were all alone - in
front of me two members of Team Rose, behind me two more members of Team Rose.
It felt great being in that row, 5 long and out in the front. It looked like our team had a chance to sweep
the podium. I wasn't sure where I would be or if I would place at all. I was
still thinking about pacing myself and just finishing. Bill Brown was in front of
me along with Scott Johnson both strong, fast riders so I was quite certain
that they would both place. I continued to ride with both teammates Corey
Odermann and Corey Adams when we came upon a rider having some trouble. As we
slowed down to see if we could help, it was then I realized it was one of us,
Scott Johnson; a stick had taken out his derailleur and several spokes. There
was nothing we could do to help and with a smile on his face he told us
"I'm out." Riding off, I couldn't help but think about his situation
and that our team had lost one of our strong riders. Now the responsibility was
on the rest of us to finish in his place strong! I continue to pace myself on
the first lap and on the second lap, but by the third lap I could no longer
hold back so I made that my "blow off some steam" lap and rode
relatively hard. I made it a point to stop quickly for a little bit of food and
a refill on my water after each lap, spending a maximum of maybe 3 minutes.
Somewhere along the fourth lap the rain started falling again making the trail
conditions even more slippery than they had already been. The mud went from
greasy to tacky and the consistency seemed to change quickly over time.
Climbing became a little more challenging as the tires would stick to the
ground but still be very slick on roots and rocks. I learned a few things about
wooden bridges that get very little sun - never approach them at an angle,
always roll straight across them and DO NOT PEDAL! I think you all know how I
might have learned that little tidbit. My 4th lap had me feeling pretty strong,
I pedaled pretty hard. I was really
enjoying myself, even taking some air, launching over some rocks and drops on
the downhill. I was having a good time,
wasn't really thinking about how wet the root and rocks were. Then something
scary happened, I took a jump and landed on a cluster of rocks. Somehow my
front tire got pushed to right and my rear tire to the left rotating me in a
direction that sent me off into the woods at a relatively high rate of speed.
Amazingly, time seems to slow down when these things happen and I started
thinking, wondering what a helicopter ride would feel like since I was going to
most likely be evacuated by helicopter after this crash. But just as things
started to speed up and I was hurdling off into the woods, things slowed down
very quickly and I came to a complete stop upright, clipped-in and seated. I
looked down; it seems the trail gods were protecting me and wanted me to finish
the race. My foot had entered the butt end of a log; it was mostly rotten with
a hole dead center. My foot entered that hole and my ankle cut its way through
the log almost 2 feet in. Wow! I took a
moment to regain my breath, reflected on my stupidity and gave thanks to the
trail gods. I then backed my way out and pedaled off slowly. Occasionally I would have a rider pass me;
they would be going much faster than I was and seemed to still have a ton of
energy.
Matt Cote being fast (Photo From Nordic Trail Festival Facebook Page)
That was a little demoralizing, but I continued on. After completing my
5th lap I realized those riders that passed me had fresh legs and were resting
while another teammate raced on in their place. At the start of my 5th loop I
felt strong, I felt good; I wasn't sitting on a lawn chair watching everyone
else, I was paddling and loving it. I was much happier sitting on that bike
seat than a camping chair. On my 6th and final lap I was still feeling pretty
good, looking forward to the 7th lap, unfortunately I missed the cut off time
to go back out for the 7th lap. It was
now time wash off all that mud. Later at the awards ceremony Bill Brown was
sitting very close to the front, I remember laughing about that and joking that
he didn't want to walk too far to receive
his gold medal. I was there to have fun and cheer for those who placed. I
really had no idea who that was going to be. It was a big surprise to me when I
found myself walking up to receive a silver medal for second place in the 6
hour solo, my strategy had a paid-off
SWEET!
All in all it was a great weekend for our team. The Qualey
Granite/Rose Bike crew swept the Men's 6 hour solo with Bill Brown in1st,
Myself in 2nd and Corey Adams in 3rd place. Eliza Cronkite took silver
in the women's 6 hour solo. Our boys Eric Roy, Bruce Malmer & Jeremy Porter
raced as a 4 Person Team with just 3 racers and still managed to bagged the
Gold in the 12 hour. Deb Merrill's team
won 3rd in the women's 6 hour. Josh Lawrence and Bill Brown both placed in the
Biathlon. Julie Brown placed 2nd in the
women's biathlon. Josh Lawrence's daughter Josie Lawrence received a medal in
the girl's downhill on a new ride from Rose Bike a few days earlier. Others
from the team and friends of Rose Bike (I think we had 17 team members there in all) put forward some great efforts I might
add and it was very nice to have you all there.
Most of the team before the race
Fireworks show at the after party (Photo From Nordic Trail Festival Facebook Page)
Things
I learned:
- Pacing
yourself and taking a recovery lap is the way go.
- Mud from the
County tastes different than our "local" mud.
- The Dora the
Explorer bike rips it up!
- Only explode
when you have time to recover.
- Just because
beer is free doesn't mean you NEED to take it.
- Get to the
front of the starting cluster right away!
- 4 Pints of
Can't Dog Ale after a race can render you useless.
- It's better
to be passed than to do the passing (get out front).
- Canadians are
crazy competitive creatures.
- Be safe,
smart, but aggressive to win!
- Mountain
bikers and cyclists are some of the nicest people you could ever meet.
I am looking forward to next year's festival and
the good times it will bring. I have much to learn and I'm grateful for the
advice and time that is offered up by my teammates. I'd like to give a special
thanks to my Thursday night fast paced brothers. Thank you all!
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