Shenandoah Mountain 100 NUE

Watch more video of 2012 Shenandoah Mountain 100 NUE on cyclingdirt.org

I headed east for the Shenandoah 100, but the best made travel plans were laid to waste by a hurricane named Isaac. After a late arrival into Baltimore, I got to bed after 2am. We got up and made it to the venue in time for a few showers to roll through. It seems like nearly every trip I make east for racing ends up a muddy mess!

I was still on Pacific time I couldn’t seem to sleep a wink that night and “woke up” at what seemed like the witching hour. I got on my bike for a little warm up ride only to discover that I’d inadvertently forgotten my legs in sunny (and not so humid) Oregon! The race began with some road work and I still wasn’t waking up so as the trail went uphill I went backward.

When we reached the first trail segment, I was behind a few too many folks and lost considerable time on the first descent. After a bit more roadwork, we passed Christian Tanguy fixing a bummer flat on the next downhill. Thank goodness for Michael Simonson racing hard and helping me work it back as he kept hammering up to us and generously adding some horsepower on the road sections. The climbs steeped and I gradually left my early companions.
Soon I caught and eventually left Brandon Draugelis on the next climb/descent cycle. Near the top of the “big climb”, I passed Sam Koerber to move into second place then the race tbegan to fall apart when the neutral bottle swap wasn’t available at aid station five. I pressed on believing I would get a feed at the final stop. I caught Jeremiah Bishop on the next downhill only to go bottleless again as I followed him past the last aid station. In the confusion over where I might get a bottle JB got a gap, and I still missed the feed which turned out to be critical.

On the final climb as I ran out of fuel Christian finally rode by effortlessly as only he can do! Even more tired than I was when the day began I managed to finish in third place which seemed like a gift under the circumstances!

Watch more video of 2012 Shenandoah Mountain 100 NUE on cyclingdirt.org