Live Free and Bike

In 1809, General John Stark, a Revolutionary War Soldier from New Hampshire, declined an invitaition to a Battle of Bennington reunion because he was ill. Since he could not make the event, he sent a letter with the quote "Live free or die: Death is not the worst of evils."  to be read for the toast. New Hampshire later used part of this toast for their State motto: Live Free or Die. I like this State motto because of how it shows strength and doesn't try to hide behind a more politically correct use of words. I also like how the twelvth race of the NUE Series, The Hampshire 100 in Greenfield, NH decided to partly use this motto for their race logo.  Yes, freedom and bike riding go hand-in-hand for me, my friends.

Not only does the Hampshire 100 have a cool logo, but they also have one awesome 100 mile mtb race. The Hampshire 100 has a good mix of trails to make it a tough and interesting course.  Additionally, the race is organized very well and also does a great job at supporting all the riders before, during and after the race. And, for having one of the smallest field of riders, this race has one of the best/deepest payouts.  I think other NUE promoters should considering using this type of payout structure.

After getting my fifth NUE Series Race win at the Widerness 101 at the end of July, I almost thought about not doing the Hampshire 100.  I started to think that there was more to lose than there was to gain by going.  But, then I remembered the fun I had at the race last year and also decided that doing another 100 mile race before the Fool's Gold NUE Series Championship Race would be good "training."  As I have said before, there is no way to replicate racing and I knew that I needed to keep racing in order to be fast at Fool's Gold in September.

The Hampshire 100 is not a friendly singlespeeder course, at least at the start.  The race begins on fast dirt/paved roads and rail-to-trails before leading the riders to a few very steep and technical climbs. The course then becomes pretty friendly to singlespeed bike use when it goes into mostly double and single track trails during the second half of the course.  After looking at previous race times, I decided to use a gear that was way too low last year.  It was okay for the second part of the course, but caused me to lose a ton of time on the fast stuff.  Learning my lesson from last year, I decided to use a much stiffer gear this year and I've got to say that I liked the course a lot more with the harder gear.  I also added a suspension fork to my bike this year and I'm sure these two changes are what allowed me to ride a faster time this year.

Look at that Team CF contingency at the starting line!

With the use of a higher gear, I was able to hang with the lead pack until the first long, steep and technical climb, which was about 20-25 miles into the race.  I even helped take some pulls at the front of this group because I didn't see any other SS racers in the small pack of about ten riders and I wanted to gain as much time as possible on the others racing in my category.  After I was dropped from the lead group, I was caught by my teammate Jesse Kelly and a couple of other guys.  Unfortunately, this group did not stick together too long and I soon found myself riding alone.

I rode alone for a long while and towards the end of the last lap was starting to dread the the fast section of course at the start of lap number two.  But, as I entered the finishing area, I saw another rider ahead of me.  I was hoping to catch a draft from this rider after the transition area, so I made a fast pit stop at the start/finish line area to pick-up my waiting CarboRocket fluids.  My pace on the fast roads didn't slow down much because my bigger gear allowed me to keep moving faster than last year, but I still wasn't going as fast as I could with having the assistance of a geared rider with me.  I kept looking over my shoulder, but saw no one around to assist me.

On a section of course that runs along side of a railroad track, there was a bridge that required a mandatory dismount off the bike.  After I got across this section, I decided to stop and take a leak.  Not only did it feel good to do that, but I also saw another rider coming across the bridge just as I finished my business.  What a great time to stop, I thought to myself, as I prepared to give chase.  After he crossed the bridge, I jumped on his wheel and caught an awesome draft.  Even if I could not actually draft on a lot of the stuff we rode, I was certainly riding faster by having a geared rider with me.

Eventually, there was another one of those long, steep and technical climbs on the course that required me to push my SS bike.  It was at this climb, about 80 miles into the race, where I was left to ride alone once again.  This time, however, I at least had 100K riders in front of me to catch.  I always enjoy the hunt of chasing riders in front of me down, even if they are a lap behind and in a different race.

The next twenty miles went well and were a lot of fun.  I didn't see anyone chasing me, so I rode at a comfortably fast pace.  I didn't want to take any unnecessary risks, but at the same time, I set a personal goal before the race to beat an overall finishing time of eight hours.  Keeping this pace meant I had to go over 26 minutes faster than I did last year, but I knew it was possible with the bigger gear I was using and having this goal kept me motivated throughout the entire race.

Watch this 13 second video to get a feel of what this course is like.

By the end of the race, I was able to finish seven seconds ahead of my eight hour goal to take the singlespeed category win.  It was certainly a perfect way for me to keep my focus on winning a fifth straight NUE Series Championship.  I also had the chance to put a few new parts to the test during this race.  I switched over to Xpedo M-Force 8 CR Pedals a couple of weeks ago and have raced on them twice.  These pedals are great!  They have a positive engagement and release; spin super smoothly; and definitely held up to abuse of the New Hampshire rocks this weekend.  I also raced on a pair of mtb tubular wheels/tires at the Hampshire 100.  The only thing I can say about this experience is to give the comparison of the feeling I had switching from riding on tires with tubes to a tubeless set-up.  Yes, it's that noticeable!  After doing this race on tubulars, I can now understand why many of the World Cup racers are using them.

Team CF had a great showing at this race with four riders finishing in the top ten overall: Christian Tanguy in second, Rob Spreng in fourth, Jesse Kelly in tenth and me in seventh overall.  Way to go team! Also, I cannot end this post without saying thanks to race promoter Randi Whitney, her support team and all the volunteers that made this race so good! Remember to Live Free and Bike!

Happy Trails... Gerry

I heart ABRA

First off, I want to clarify the title of my blog post and tell everyone that what I like is the Appalachian Bicycle Racing Association (ABRA) and not the 1970's Swedish Pop band ABBA, best known for their song Dancing Queen.  If you have no idea what I'm talking about, then you're much younger than me. I just had to throw some of my own personal silliness and humor into this blog post, sorry.

Anyway, the man behind ABRA is JR Petsko.  Without him and his racing association, there would be a lot less local racing in the Morgantown - Pittsburgh Region.  I've thanked him before for all the work he does to put on so many fun, competitive and well organized races, but I don't think he can be thanked enough by me or any of the many other local racers that get to race his events often.  If you haven't tried one of his races, then you need to do one soon!

I had to work this weekend, but I was still able to do a race on Saturday because there was an ABRA mtb event near work/home.  The White Park Throwdown XC race was held in a small park in Morgantown, WV on a super fun and semi-technical 4 mile loop.  I say it was semi-technical because there was nothing real difficult to ride there, but it was tight, twisty and tricky enough to keep a rider's attention completely focused on the single track trails during the entire race.  Additionally, with three days of heavy rain falling before race day, the trails were muddy and slick, which made the course even more difficult (but fun) to ride.

I like doing local races when I can find the time in my busy racing schedule to do them.  Regrettably, I was not able to do any other ABRA mtb races this year, so I didn't qualify for the overall ABRA Series standings.  I guess a lot of other riders had other commitments this year also because JR was talking about possibly not continuing the ABRA Mtb Series next year. If this is true, I (and I'm sure many others) hope JR can still find the time to promote a few local mtb races next year.

A steep downhill leading to a narrow and muddy bridge.  Talk about tricky...

I have found that doing local XC races is a great way for me to practice my riding skills and to keep my fitness at a high level, especially with all the fast competition I have in my area.  I know my national level racing would not go as well for me if I didn't get to compete against all the fast guys living in my neck of the woods.  There is just no way to replicate the hard effort produced during a race and being able to do hard local races is a big help in preparing my body to do well at other races.

The White Park Race started on a quarter mile stretch of paved roadway leading to the single track trailhead.  This stretch of road was a bit too fast for the gear I had on my SS, so I didn't get into the woods as close to the front of the pack as I would have liked.  As a result, I spent some time riding behind other riders going at a slower pace than I wanted to ride.  Meanwhile, the lead group of riders and one singlespeeder, Nate Annon, were able to put a good amount of time on me.

I chased hard to make up my lost time, but the slick course was not very friendly to speed and not knowing the course well also didn't make my chase any easier.  But, eventually, I did start to catch riders and saw Nate riding about 30 seconds in front of me.  The time gap between us did not change much for the next three laps, but I never gave up my pursuit of him.  With about an half lap to go, I finally caught Nate and moved into second place overall with my long time friend and competitor, Gunnar Shogren, leading the race a head of me.  I was motivated to catch Gunnar and make an attempt to get by him for the overall win, so I pushed myself hard to close the distance between us with less than two miles remaining in the race.

At least the top of the ridges were dry!

My effort paid off and with about a mile to the finish I rode up to Gunnar's wheel. But, at the same time I caught him, I also caught my handlebar end on a small tree and was thrown to the ground hard.  I heard a loud cracking noise coming from my body when I hit the mud with my side and shoulder.  When I heard this noise, I immediately thought my collarbone had snapped, but jumped back on my bike without hesitation  because I was in full-on competition mode.

I must admit that I was a little tentative for the next few hundred yards of riding, while I tried putting different pressures on my arm to take inventory of my body parts and diagnosis if anything was broken.  To my delight, nothing hurt when I applied pressure to my arms and I was soon able to get my speed up to full throttle again.  However, it was too late in the race to catch Gunnar by the finish, so I finished second overall and took the singlespeed win.

I doubt my words can explain how much fun this short, tricky little race was.  I also can't explain how happy I was to learn that nothing on my body was busted-up from the crash.  It was also fun to learn, while cleaning-up the mud on my bike and body after the race, that the cracking noise heard during my crash was made by a lens popping out of the sunglasses I placed in my jersey pocket part way through the race.  I just had to laugh when I figured this all out.  What fun is life if you can't laugh at yourself, or an old song by ABBA for that matter.

Thanks again to JR for his tireless work at promoting bike races and to Fred Jordan for always capturing the perfect photos at a race.

Happy Trails....  Gerry

Playing on the road

Most of my rides and races these days are done on a mountain bike.  I used to do a lot of road racing and riding, but haven’t done too much of it the past couple of years.  I just like the versatility of using my 29er mtb more than being stuck on a paved road.  With my 29er, I can ride anything from single track trails to fast stretches of roads.  Additionally, I feel most comfortable on my 29er and also think it’s best to spend more of my training time on the bike I race most often.

However, I decided to switch things up a bit by doing two road bike rides and a road race this past week.  I don’t remember when I last did a road bike ride, but I do know the last road race I did was in April of 2012.  I’m pretty sure that race was also the last time I was on my road bike.  I enjoyed my two road rides and couldn’t get over how much faster I traveled on a bike with skinny tires.  Of course, having the use of gears, instead of being on a singlespeed bike, also played a big part in being able to go faster during my road rides.

The only thing that could be better with this elevation profile is an up hill finish.

Since I felt pretty comfortable on my road bike during my two rides, I decided to register for the Mount Davis Challenge Road Race in Confluence, PA.  This was a forty mile race with 5700 feet of climbing and was close enough to my home for me to ride my bike to/from the race.  When I decided to do the Mt. Davis RR, I was more interested in having a hard, but safe day of riding and racing than I was with actually doing well.  But, once the race started, my competitive side took over.

I raced okay, but only good enough to take third place in the 35+ master category.  I was okay with that finish though because I had a lot of fun doing something a little different than normal and seeing a bunch of friends I haven't seen in awhile.  And, I must say that doing the 30 mile ride from my home to Confluence before the race and using a different route to ride home after the race made for a great overall day of riding and training.  By the end of the day, I ended up with 107 miles, 9884 feet of climbing and a ride time of 6 hours and 15 minutes.  My day of riding certainly turned out to be exactly the type of day I wanted to have: fun, safe and hard.  I guess playing on the road occasionally can be a good thing. 

Thanks to Jim Sota and all the volunteers he gathered to put on a fun, safe and challenging local road race.

Happy Trails....  Gerry

Good Times at the W101

The Wilderness 101 in Coburn, PA is one of my favorites of the NUE Series. The course just seems to suit me with the long fire road climbs and technical descents.  I guess this is because it is similar to the stuff I ride around my home in the Laurel Highlands of Pennsylvania.  The W101 is also a favorite of mine because there is always a good time to be had at the finishing line and this year was no exception.

To have a good race at the Wilderness 101, as a singlespeed racer, it is important to make an attempt at riding with the fastest geared riders up the first initial climb because the pack almost always splits apart on this climb. Riding with the lead pack over this section of the course helps time go by a lot quicker on these very fast and singerspeeder unfriendly roads which lead to checkpoint one. I was lucky enough to make this initial selection this year with only one other SS racer, Matt Ferrari, in a lead group that contained about 15 riders.

The lead group was split up a bit more on the next critical section of the course: the rocky climb after the first checkpoint. By the time we started the next climb, Christian Tanguy and two other riders had created a substantial gap over me and about 6 other racers riding in the second group.  Eventually, this group I was riding in was whittled down to my teammate Jesse Kelly, two riders from the DC MTB Team leading into the Three Bridges Trail. Our fast little group of four was riding very well together and stayed together until checkpoint two.  At that checkpoint, one of the DC MTB riders stopped to repair a mechanical and on the next big climb Mike Tabasko fell off the fast pace being set by Jesse up the climb.

Once we were alone, Jesse pulled me along on the flat fire roads like he was Team Sky member Richie Porte working for Chris Froome at the Tour.  Unfortunately, Jesse was not descending too quickly and he lost contact with me on one of the technical single track descents before check point three. During this time, I was also able to catch and pass the two riders who had initially escaped with Christian, which put me in second place overall.

The finish always feels good!

I rode by myself for a long time after that until being caught during the last five miles of the race on the Fisherman's Trail by Greg Jancaitis. I had broken my pedal a few minutes before being caught and was having a lot of difficulty riding the technical Fisherman’s Trail without the complete use of my pedal. I did manage to hang with Greg when he caught me, but there was no way for me to sprint or go hard with a broken pedal, not to mention only having one gear, so I was happy to limp across the finishing line with my broken pedal in third place overall and as the first SS racer.

The Wilderness 101 was a great time this year and I really enjoyed the new course changes. Thanks to Chris Scott and his most awesome group of volunteers for putting together a perfect race, once again!  It was certainly a good time!

Congrats to all of my CF Teammates that rocked the W101 course...  Christian Tanguy - 1st Overall, Kathleen Harding - 2nd Woman, Roger Masses - 2nd Master, Jesse Kelly - 4th Open Men and Jim Mayuric - 10th Open Men.

Happy Trails....  Gerry

Tatanka 100!

I traveled out to Sturgis, SD this past weekend to do the seventh race of the National Ultra Endurance Series, TheTatanka 100.  Since this is a new race to the series and located in a state I have never visited, I figured it would be an adventuresome race trip.  I wasn't wrong: South Dakota is a beautiful state and the race was definitely a backcountry mountain biking adventure.

Often times it can be quite difficult to pick the right single gear to use for a race.  Making this choice is made even more difficult when I've never before raced on a particular course or in the geographic area.  I mostly use previous race times and the course elevation profile to chose my race gear and have had good luck using this method.  By considering this information for the Tatanka 100, I decided to use the same gear I used at the Mohican 100 this year, 40x23.  

The Tatanka course has two different personalities.  The first part of the course is mostly single track and also has a lot of long, steep climbs over the first 50 miles.  The second part of the course is very fast and mostly on double track trails or gravel fire roads.  Overall, this makes the course very difficult to do on a single speed bike because finding the right gear to use is almost impossible.  Nevertheless, I would probably use the same gear I used if I raced here again.  The gear ratio I used was manageable on the first fifty miles of the course, but I found it to be a bit too easy during the second part of the race.

At the start of the race, I felt very good and was able to escape with a few other riders during the initial miles of single track. During this time, another single speed racer, AJ Linnell, also made this early split from the large pack of riders behind us.

I noticed my breathing was a bit more labored than it usually is when I was climbing the first couple of steep climbs on the course.  I'm quite certain this was due to the thinner air of being at over 5000 feet in elevation. Eventually, AJ was able to take advantage of my lack of being acclimated to the higher altitude and he put a gap on me during a particular difficult climb somewhere in the first twenty miles of the race.

Thinking I had plenty of time to catch AJ, I allowed for myself to recover from chasing AJ up this difficult climb and hoped to catch him later in the day. But, when I arrived at the third checkpoint and discovered AJ had already put six minutes on me, I knew it would be difficult to catch him.

Additionally, with the course conditions becoming much faster during the second part of the race, I was unable to close any meaningful amount of time on the lead single speed racer. I continued to ride hard, though, and actually battled back and forth with the second place open male rider, Kip Biese, for much of the race. This helped keep my pace high and also made the race more interesting and fun.  

At the end or the race, AJ maintained his lead over me to take the SS win and second place overall. I chased hard until the end and was able to hold on to second place in the SS class and fourth overall. It would have been nice to win this race, but I am not disappointed about my result because I still felt like I was riding very well. Additionally, it was also very cool to ride in an area I've never seen before and to race on this very beautiful course.  

I can't close this race report without saying congratulations again to my tough singlespeed competitor, AJ Linnell.  He rode a very strong race and helped me remember that winning a race is never an easy thing to do.  

Anyone curious as to what the Tatanka 100 single track is like can watch this video to view the beautiful riding in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

Happy Trails.......  Gerry

West Virginia

I've spent the past two weekends racing in West Virginia.  Two weekends ago I did the Big Bear 2x12 team relay MTB race and I did the Hilly Billy Roubaix American Ultra Cross Series Race this past weekend.  It sure has been a blast doing these races in the State where I used to spend so much time racing, but now days cannot get there as much as I'd like.

For the Big Bear 2x12, I entered the singlespeed category with my Team CF Teammate, Rob Spreng.  Rob usually races with gears, but he owns a singlespeed also and does ride it from time to time.  Regardless of the bike he uses, Rob is fast in technical singletrack and I knew having him on my team would make us hard to beat if all went well.  As it turned out, things did go very well for us and we won both the singlespeed category and the race overall.  This is the fourth year in a row I've been able to win the singlespeed race at the Big Bear 2x12 Duo Race, each time with a different teammate.  I've had a great time each year I've done this race, but winning it with my Team CF Teammate and taking the overall win made this victory a little more special than my other wins there.

I was hoping my winning form from the Mohican 100 and the Big Bear 2x12 would carry into the Hilly Billy Roubaix.  After winning the very first Hilly Billy Roubaix overall on my singlespeed in 2010, I switched over to doing the race on a geared bike and never raced quite as well there as I did in 2010.  I don't think anyone, including myself, can understand how I am a faster rider on a singlespeed than I am on a geared bike, but a singlespeed does seem to be the fastest bike choice for me.  For this reason, I decided to switch back to a singlespeed for the 2013 edition of the Hilly Billy and for the 2013 American Ultra Cross Series.

Riding some of the early mess with my buddy, Jake.

Every year I've done the Hilly Billy it seems to start in the same way, with the most important breakaway happening on the initial gravel road climb a few miles into the race.  The lead group then gets cut down a bit more after traveling down the always muddy Indian Creek Extension section of the course a few miles after the initial climb.  Things were no different this year and I was fortunate enough to make into the early lead group again this year with seven or so other riders.

As in previous years, it was HOT at the Hilly Billy again this year.  This heat combined with a ton of  climbing over the short, steep climbs on this course does seem to take a toll on the riders.  The hills and the heat were a determining factor again this year and eventually split the lead group to only Adam Driscoll and me.  This final split of the lead group occurred when we were climbing out of check point #2, around 38 miles into the 75 mile race.  At this time, Mike Simonson was actually ahead of Adam and me, but we caught up to him after he had to stop and repair his second flat of the day at checkpoint #3.

After check point #3, Adam and I knew that more than likely one of us would win the race.  We still worked together for the most part, but we also took turns at testing each others legs for weakness.  Knowing the course pretty well from my previous attempts at doing it, I knew it would be hard to drop Adam on my singlespeed mtb when he was using a faster geared cross bike, especially because the last few miles of the course are relatively flat and much better to ride on a bike with multiple gears.  Taking this into account, I put in a hard effort on the last rough and muddy section on the course to see if I could separate myself from Adam.

My attack on this section of the course seemed to give me the gap I needed over Adam.  With only about 4-5 miles remaining in the race, I put every last ounce of energy into staying in the lead and not being caught.  When I'm riding in circumstances like this, the pain and discomfort my body should be feeling at this point in a long, hard, hot race seem to disappear.  The ending miles went by quickly and it was a great feeling for me to look over my shoulder and see nobody near when I turned into the finishing venue at Mylan Park.

After winning the Mohican 100 and the Big Bear 2x12 overall, I never expected to be the overall winner of the Hilly Billy Roubaix this weekend.  Winning a race always feels good, but being the overall winner of three consecutive big races in a row and doing it on a bike with only one gear is a bit overwhelming to me.  I'm not quite sure why I'm riding so well right now, but I'm going to do my best to not change anything.

Thanks to Mark Schooley, the promoter of the Big Bear 2x12 Duo Race, and JR Pesko, the promoter of the Hilly Billy Roubaix for putting on the great races they did.  I've said this before, but anyone that races should be doing these excellent events if having a good time at a well run race is important to you.  I also need to say thank you to all the volunteers that help make these two events run so smoothly.  Without the help from all these volunteers, these two races would not be what they are...great!

Happy Trails.........   Gerry

Thanks to Mike Briggs for the first two photos and Greg Flood for the finishing shot!

The Mohican 100 and Perfection

When I arrived in Loudonville, OH for the Mohican 100 registration packet pick-up on Friday evening, it was raining pretty hard and I had a flashback to the really muddy 2010 race I did here.  I was hoping things would not be that bad again, but the weather.com radar map I viewed on the morning of the race did not look good and made the threat of more rain seem certain.  With the course more than likely going to be muddy and wet, I decided at 5:00 AM on race day to take off my front suspension fork and replace it with a rigid fork.  I also put on a frame fender to keep mud from splashing in my face all day.  I don't like making game day changes, but I was positive these changes were the wisest.

After completing the work on my bike, doing my other pre-race prep, and rushing off to the race a little later than I would've liked, I had the "joy" of starting the Mohican 100 with its usual painful sprint straight up the wall-of-a-road-climb on the outskirts of town.  Since there was a $200 preem on top of this climb, the pace was fast and furious to the top.  The pace didn't let up from there and even though I was able to catch on to the tail end of the lead group of riders before entering the trails, I didn't hold the fast pace being set at the front for very long.  I found the trails to be a bit slick from the rain showers that fell over night and after losing traction through one turn and banging my shoulder off a tree, I decided to back my pace down to a more comfortable and controllable speed.  One thing I've learned over the years of doing these 100 mile races is that these things are long and it's better for me to not over extend myself too early in the race.

During this time of riding the initial miles of single track alone, I must admit that I did have some concern that the two singlespeed racers ahead of me, Ron Harding and Patrick Blair, might be hard to catch because they were riding with a fast group of geared riders.  But, I decided to stick to my game plan of riding a more steady beginning pace to conserve my energy for later in the day.  Eventually, the seemingly endless single track trail came to a hike-a-bike section about 20 some odd miles into the race and I was happy to see Ron directly in front of me and Pat not too far in front of him.  I caught Ron by the top of this steep hill and we rode together until the trail exited onto the roads leading to checkpoint two.  

I had a slight gap over Ron coming out of the trail and I could see Pat and four other geared riders perhaps ten seconds up the road.  I put in a hard effort to bridge the distance to these riders and was able to drop Ron in the process.  My legs still wanted to go when I closed this gap, so I kept my speed high to see if Pat would try to match it.  He was the only one to come with me and we rode away together into checkpoint two.  At the checkpoint, Pat requested a pump and I was able to sneak out of the checkpoint before him.  Luckily, a 100K racer, Brian Schworm, made a quick transition out of the checkpoint also and the two of us rode together to checkpoint three where the two race course distances split. 

After the two courses split, I rode the rest of the race alone.  There are so many fast gravel road and trail sections on this part of the course that I thought for sure I would be caught by some geared riders.  As a matter of fact, I was actually hoping to be caught by a geared rider, so I would have someone to help share my workload.  But, I would look back and see nobody in view, which forced me to keep my pace high alone.  At some point after checkpoint four, I received a time split of three minutes behind the overall race leader from some people watching the race out on the trail.  Before hearing this time split, I was pretty content to be the second place overall rider and the lead singlespeed rider.  But, once I heard the time split, I was motivated to push myself harder to see if I could catch the overall race leader, Mike Simonson.

When I eventually did see Mike in front of me, I could tell he was tired by the way he was riding.  I shared some words of encouragement when I caught him and then continued on my way.  I knew if I could maintain my lead heading into the last section of single track after checkpoint 5, I had a chance of being the overall winner of a NUE Race on a singlespeed.  I did make into the final section of single track first and had an absolute blast riding the final 8 miles of these buffed-out trails to the finish.  Riding across the finish line in the first overall spot was an awesome feeling and being able to do it on a singlespeed made it feel even more special.

It really blows my mind that I was able to win this race because I wouldn't consider the Mohican 100 course to be a very good course for a singlespeed bike.  This is because the 100 mile Mohican course has a lot of super steep climbs and also a lot of long, fast gravel road sections that make picking the perfect gear difficult.  Otherwise, the course is a pretty good 100 mile race course with a good mix of everything to keep it interesting, especially for bikes having the ability to change gears.  But, since I'm a singlespeed racer, I'm never too concerned about whether or not my one geared bicycle will be able to keep up with bikes having gears.  Instead, I prepare my bike to be the fastest against competition with other singlespeeders and not the fastest overall.  

The gear I picked (40x23) and my other equipment choices, including my day of race changes, had me feeling confident that my bike was ready to go.  Fortunately, my legs and body were also ready to race.  Over my many years of racing I've had a lot of good races, but never one that seemed almost effortless like this one felt.  It is probably as close as I will ever get to having a perfect race.  And, to make the day even better, the big radar blobs of rain I saw in the morning never materialized.  Yes, it was a perfect day!