Poor Farm Fall Cup

The Fall Cup was the last race of the season this year. Originally scheduled in October, it was postponed until November due to weather. The day of the race was cool to start, and perfect by the time we got on the bikes.

My friend Rick and I have been talking about moving over to the Enduro category next year. The Enduro racers ride for 5 hours at whatever pace they feel like and do as many laps as they want to do. But that’s next year. This year I am racing beginner.

I chose beginner because of the distance. It’s 14 miles long, the next step up is 21 miles long. The last time I tried a longer race, my back locked up on me. Since then I have ridden in the beginner category for the shorter miles.

Starting the Race

The race, as always, was a Lemans start. We had to run 50 yards to our bikes and from there head across a field and into the woods. Even though I run a lot, I’m not a fast sprinter. I was towards the back getting to my bike. I was able to mount quickly and get up to speed in a reasonable amount of time. By the time I entered the woods, I was about middle to back of the pack.

The trails at Poor Farm are pretty simple overall. The course for the race took the easiest of all the trails and made our race course. There were only a couple hills and a few log crossings. But even though it was easy, there was a wreck early into the race, less than a 1/2 mile in I think.

Pass the Buck

Whenever these races start I am always caught behind slow bikers. The same was true here. I stayed behind this first guy until the wreck I mentioned above. Several riders in front of me dismounted for the wreck, so I took that as my opportunity to pass them. I think I passed 6 folks here. I still had several to go.

As soon as I would make it past one group of people I would come up on another rider. It seemed like when I caught the rider, he would speed up. I kept thinking, maybe he is faster and I don’t have to worry about passing him. That was never the case though, if I caught them it’s because they were slower than me. Eventually, each of the riders would slow down from a too fast pace, and I would pass them.

I kept passing folks and before long it seemed the people had spread out a bunch. About 3.5 miles into the ride I passed another Beginner rider. I asked him if he was in front and he wasn’t sure. I knew I was faster than him since I caught him, but he stayed on my tired for a mile. He caught up to me on the down hills and I pulled away on the up hills and flats. After having been caught on another downhill I decided to stop using my brakes. After that, I didn’t see him until the finish.

When I ride with my friends, I can never pull away from them (in fact there are several I can never catch). It was weird to do my normal pace and to pull away from other riders.

Finishing Up

The rest of the race was pretty uneventful. I was only passed by one person and that was a super fast Youth Expert. He flew by me so fast that I had a hard time figuring out why he was behind me to begin with.

Towards the end of the race, I started to slow down some. I knew that I had won my division and there wasn’t anyone near me. My second lap was over a minute slower than my first and that was due to my slowing at the end. I actually had a really fast first half of that second lap since I didn’t have to pass anyone.

I ended up winning my first ever race of any kind. It was my second podium in mountain biking - I placed 2nd earlier this year. I was very excited with my first win. It was also nice going out with a bang.

More race recaps here.