The Hancock 100..formerly known as the Tour De Tomlinson. was held at Tomlinson Run State Park in West (by God) Virginia. This was my first race of the year & a good test to see how the rehab has gone for my knee. In a previous post I talked about how I sprained my knee so I’ve been on hiatus doing rehab & getting back into the riding.
Anywho. This course was to be a good one for the first race of the year. Not too technical, fast in some spots, huge hike a bikes sections, some fun downhills, and even a snake!...Yes ladies & gentleman, a snake. I’ll get to that in a little bit.
The race was timed. Expert class rides for 100 minutes, Sports/Vet Women race for 75 minutes & Beginners/Jrs race for an hour. (In West Virginia, the Vet women (35+) are all lumped together in one category..sports & experts alike. (I knew one of the girls was a expert so it would be some tough competition). The timing was sort of screwed up…if you came in past the checkpoint under your allotted time, you got to do another lap. So in actuality you race for longer than the allotted time. If you came in over your allotted time, you were done.
Expert Class started first, then there was a 1 minute delay before the sport class, then another minute, beginners/juniors. They do mass starts in these West Virginia races which basically means the women and men start together. What a mess! The sport class is the biggest class of all so imagine if you will, 60 -75 people all vying for position to get into the singletrack. We have about 100 yards of road before the singletrack section. There were bikes & people everywhere. We had to hike into the singletrack b/c everyone was soo bunched up. There were about 6 of us in the Vet Women’s class. I was going to have my work cut out for me. I kept most of my competition in sight at the start but then got bogged down once in the single track section & did not have a clue where I stood. As the first lap went on, I found places to pass some of the sport men and work my way up. Then came the snake…..there was this steep, winding downhill section towards the end of the lap. Along the first curve, there was this black snake…he was in what looked like a defensive/strike position. Oh Crap…he’s eyeing my leg! We’re all shouting snake, snake! As I went by him, I prayed he would not bite me. Yikes! Although we had that bit of excitement, it still seemed as though the first lap took forever.
Into the second lap, I was able to get into a groove. I soon caught up with 3 of my competitors. We traded places back & forth through most of the the second lap. We were riding together when one of the girls in front of me went down on a steep descent. I checked to make sure she was ok then put the hammer down. I soon got to another steep uphill when I say another girl hiking. As I got closer to her, I realized she was in my class. She wasn’t moving real fast so I could either keep her pace hiking up this thing, or hustle up the hill and get going. I chose to hustle. I wondered where the other ladies were & what position I was in. As I continued I noticed another person on the side of the trail…It was Ruthie..(the really really strong fast one!) She had flatted. She was bummed but shouted a word of encouragement as I zoomed by.
As I neared the checkpoint, I checked my clock….cool 3 minutes under..I can do another lap. I know the other girls were not far behind so I had to keep the hammer down (or so I thought) I slowed somewhat in the third lap…the pack of riders had stretched out so I could maintain an even pace but I could tell I was getting tired. As I continued, some of the expert men started passing me. I made sure I gave each of them enough room to negotiate around the “old lady” shouting words of encouragement as they went by. Boy those guys are fast..how do they do it? After the climbs, descents & climbs again, I neared the location of the feared snake. I did not see him the second lap but he was back on lap #3, although he was not looking too good. He was on the ground, writhing. He still had his mouth open but he was hurting. I alerted one of the course marshals as I completed my descent. Finally the finish line was in sight. As I crossed, I checked my time. 1 hr 47 min. I noticed one of the other ladies whom I had passed was already at the finish..I was a little confused. I thought she was only 30 seconds behind….When she came through the checkpoint at the end of her second lap, she was over the time limit..so she could not continue. I still did not have any idea if I even placed. We stuck around for the awards. My nephew TJ Platt won the Expert category… He’s crazy fast. I actually ended up with a second place finish in the Vet Women category. Woo Hoo! Did not see that coming but I’ll take it! Oh..the knee held up well for the most part. A little stiff afterwards but nothing that some ice & a beer won't fix!
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