A Year in the Life of a Bike Racer
Jake Davidson '06
Most college students, myself included, follow a calender that starts sometime at the end of August or beginning of September and ends sometime in early May. This is the calender year imposed on us by our schools which, whether we like it or not, we are obliged to follow. Unlike most college students, though, I also have a second calender: the calender which starts in late March and ends sometime in December. This is the racing season.
I started racing my mountain bike in tenth grade when a wrestling friend convinced me to go with him to the first race of the season. It was the Camp Mac Attack, held at a boyscout camp somewhere in Lancaster. After about a month of preparation after he got back from senior projects I won the race. I was hooked. I went to two or three more races that season and even though they did not go nearly as well as the first, I vowed to come back next season.
That was five years ago. Since then my addiction to bike racing has grown larger than I ever thought it could. Bike racing has become the defining factor of my life. At Dickinson College, where I recently completed my fifth semester, I am known as “Bike Guy,” or “that guy that rides a bike around all the time.” I would not have it any other way. After all, bikes and bike racing are a lot of fun! A bike race is an opportunity to travel, hang out with good people, and ride your bike on some of the best trails in the country until you can't stand straight and feel as if your legs fell off some time during the race. My most recent bike addiction is endurance racing, which is equivalent to the marathon in the running world. Longer distances, longer times, longer climbs, and longer descents make this type of racing more appealing to me. You get to spend more time on your bike and get more racing in for your money.
My 2008 season was a season of firsts. I did my first national level race at the Greenbrier Challenge. After three laps of the most mud I saw all season I ended up in second place, which qualified me for National Championships at Mt. Snow, Vermont in July. I was on my way. I had other races to take care of first though. The next weekend I headed town to Virginia with a bunch of my friends to compete in the 12 Hours of Lodi Farm. This would be my first attempt at a 12 hour solo race. The plan was to ride from midnight, when the race started, until noon, when the race ended, with as little stopping. The course was about eight miles long and I would do laps around it until my head spun. The plan worked for a while until, somewhere during lap three at around 3:30AM my brain shut down. I completely lost the will to ride, but I finished anyway. Seventh place with nine laps. I suppose that is pretty respectable for my first try. The next weekend I raced a 5 hour race at the local French Creek State Park. The weekend after that I headed up to Mifflinburg, PA for the Rocktober Challenge Marathon. A 75 mile race on some of the rockiest trails I have ever seen. It was chilly and rained for the last half of the race. I finished in 8:45. It was one of the hardest races I have ever done.
My next major event was a vacation. I took a week off from my internship at the Materials and Testing Lab, Petrographics Division, at PennDOT. My first stop was the East Coast National at Windham Mountain in the small town of Windham, NY. The was a new race and the first stop of the National Mountain Bike Series to the right coast. I pulled off another second place finish. It was also my first chance to watch the nation's top pro's race which was an amazing experience. To see what those guys and gals do on a bike motivates me to work harder and be the best I can be. After spending the week in Albany visiting friends I headed up to West Dover, VT for the 2008 Mountain Bike National Championships at Mt. Snow Ski Resort. My race was few days away so I had time to get some laps in on the course beforehand, a luxury that I usually do not have before a race. I again finished second place in my racing, getting to stand on the podium at my first national championship event. It was quite an exciting week.
After heading back home, I geared up for one of my big races for the season, the Wilderness 101. The 101 is a 101 mile backcountry mountain bike race held out of Coburn, PA, about 45 minutes east of State College. I had first done this race last year, finishing in a time of 11:04. For this year I wanted to do it in under 9 hours. The race began at 7:00AM. I knew what was ahead of me and I prepared myself for over 10,000 feet of climbing and some of the most fun descents anywhere. I kept it cool throughout the race, trying not to push to hard on the climbs. When I rolled into the last aid station I had about 45 minutes to make my “under 9 hour” goal. I knew the last 12 miles of the race by heart and hit it out on the semi-flat rail trail that took me to the finish. One major climb and a section of very technical trail later I was rolling through the last underpass and entering the last two miles of the race, which were on the paved road. I rolled across the finish line in 8:59:46, just seconds under my goal. I was elated to have done what I set out to do and to just be finished the race.
Two more marathon races and a few weeks later, I found myself moving back into school to start my junior year. My how the time flies. Labor Day weekend, after just a week of classes, my parents picked me up and drove me down to Stokesville, VA for another big race, the Shenandoah Mountain 100. This was the same deal as the Wilderness 101, ride for 100 miles climb almost 13,000 feet, don't kill yourself too early. After riding some absolutely amazing trails I finished in 11:13. I was happy with this, although I plan to improve upon it next year.
After one more mountain bike race I took a few weeks off and began training for my first season of cyclocross. Cyclocross is a type of bike racing where you race modified road bikes around a short dirt circuit which includes obstacles such as barriers and sand pits in any kind of weather imaginable. I did not know how much fun I would have with cross in my first season.
I started the cross season off with a second place in the C men's race and a 15th place in the B men's race at Iron Cross Lite, a cross race held near Carlisle. It was good to stand on the podium early in the season because I figured that my chances of reaching it later would be very small. The next weekend showed just how much cross would consume my life over the next few months. Cross races are set up so there are two races in one weekend at different venues. This requires a lot of driving, especially since the races were always at least two hours from my home base at Dickinson in Carlisle, PA. After Iron Cross I traveled back home to race the infamous Granogue Cross held just over the boarder in Delaware, and the Wissahickon Cross held in Ludwig's Corner, PA. Both of these races drew big crowds and the fastest cyclocross racers in the country. It was, again, awe inspiring to watch. Weekends for the next few months would be much the same, drive, race, drive, race, drive. I raced in Philladelphia the next weekend, and in Bridgeton and Johnstown, NJ the weekend after that. That weekend of racing was enhanced by rain on Saturday, making the already wet and sandy course even more fun to race in, and relatively cold temperatures on Sunday, forcing me to break out more of my warmer riding gear.
The next weekend found me back in New Jersey for the Mercer Cup in Trenton, which was stop number two of the US Grand Prix of Cyclocross or USGP for short. This was another chance to see the nation's top talent battling it out in the fashion only cyclocross can provide. I knew the race would be interesting when it was misty and slightly raining on the drive to the venue. It had rained a lot in the previous few days and I figured the course would be pretty wet. Little did I know that I was in for my first real cross race. Day One of the Mercer Cup was amazing. The course was just ridable, but after a half of a lap your bike was so coated in wet, thick mud that any possibilities of shifting or breaking were immediately thrown out the window. I was staying for the entire afternoon so I ended up in the pits during the pro race with a whole crew of people. Our job was simple, provide our racers with a clean bike every half lap. Their pit bike was kept at the ready and just about all the racers traded bikes every half lap. We were running back and forth from the pits to the bike wash station to the lake to get clean bikes to the riders. We were shin deep in mud, and we were all having the time of our lives. That is what cyclocross, and bike racing in general, is about: camaraderie. Bike races are relatively short, outrageously hard efforts surrounded by time hanging out with your friends. Day Two of Mercer Cup was much the same, except with more mud. The promoters shortened the course to provide some variety. Shortly after starting my race every single racer realized that the majority of the course would be un-ridable. It had rained overnight which made the already muddy course even muddier. Every uphill section and some of the downhill sections involved getting off your bike, shouldering it, and running as hard as you can through ankle deep mud. When you couldn't pick your bike up anymore because it was completely encased in mud, you pushed it and ran. As I am no longer the runner that I was at Westtown this was my hardest race. I gave it my all, and moved up from a near last row start to 11th place in a field of 70 racers. After the race I was back in the pits again, running through mud so sticky that your shoes would come off if you moved to suddenly. This was one of my most favorite weekends of the year.
The next weekend I was back at it again, this time driving to Southampton, NY for a weekend of racing on the eastern tip of Long Island. This weekend's natural adversary was wind. The temperature the morning of the race was probably around 25 degrees with a windchill somewhere in the single digits. I suppose it worked to my advantage as I managed two of my best finishes of the year. After a brief respite from racing for Thanksgiving I was back at it for the Pennsylvania State Cyclocross Championships, held in Allentown, PA. It was cold that day and I ended up 14th.
At this point, I could almost feel my academic semester and the racing season winding down. I had two more challenges to overcome though. On December 7th I packed up my car and drove down to Reston, VA (just outside of Washington, D.C.) for the final race of the series I had been racing in. It was cold and windy, but I was motivated and really excited to race. I fought up from a back row start to 24th place out of about 60 racers. It was my best series finish for the year and I was happy. Now I had to focus on my one exam and my two final projects before embarking on my next adventure.
After finishing a final exam and two projects I found myself on my way to Slippery Rock University in far western PA to meet with a friend. Our plan was to pack down the car and head out to the US Cyclocross National Championships in Kansas City, MO. 16 hours of straight driving later we were falling asleep in hotel beds some fifteen minutes from the race venue. I was there for two races; the Under 23 Pro race and the Collegiate Men's Division II race. In the U23 race, my goal was to not get lapped by the leaders and subsequently pulled from the race. I wanted to win the Collegiate race, although I realized that that goal was a bit of a long shot. Race day rolled around and I managed two second row starts. In the U23 race I narrowly missed my goal when I was puled with one lap to go. In the Collegiate race the next day I ended up 19th place. A day later I was back on the road, headed to Carlisle and, eventually, home.
So as far as my racing goes it has been a really good year. I have been to so many new and interesting places and met so many interesting people that I couldn't even begin to categorize all my experiences. I have learned so much about myself this year, and I continue to learn every time I throw a leg over my bike. I have learned to be even more persistent and dedicated that I was after four years of wrestling at Westtown. I never thought that the lessons I learned on the mat would transfer over to cycling but they invariably have. I have needed every ounce of my mental and physical strength to get myself through the season and now that I feel mentally and physically recharged I am ready to do it all again. The 2009 mountain bike season starts off in April and I am going to hit the ground running, or pedaling as it were. I encourage anyone and everyone who can to come out and watch a mountain bike race. The two most convenient to Westtown are the Escape from Granogue on May 2nd, and On the Rocks at French Creek on May 9th. If you wish to come out and support me at these and other races please contact me at davidjakeson@gmail.com. Until then I wish everyone good luck in all they do. Ride on!
So that's that. In other news I'm back to school in a few days. I work in the kitchen at Westtown from 7:00-3:30 tomorrow, then frantically pack up my car and leave my house. First stop is the DCCofD Prom at Fatmarc and Monkey's abode. Should prove to be great fun. Then a ride Sunday and back to Carlisle for semester 6/8.
Semester 6/8 brings me Stuctural Geology, Hydrogeology, Global Environmental History, and a Guided Reading on Pillow Basalts in preperation for my summer of research and my senior research. I am really looking forward to it all...
Peace...
Oh and Brett, the article is 2522 words long, coming quite short of my previous posts 44,000 implied word worth...
