I have always heard of a legendary race up in the north;
more than 110 km, river crossings, hills that may as well be mountains, ferocious
animals, and crazy, CRAZY guys that race these distances. This race is known as
Ontario’s toughest mountain bike race: Lost in the Rocks and Trees, up in
Mattawa, Ontario (about as far north as you can go from Toronto without going east
or west or crossing into Quebec). I have always really wanted to take on such a
challenge, and even if I don’t treat this kind of event as a race, surely it
would be a grand adventure! Unfortunately though, there are no other riders
crazy enough to do such a race around here.
After searching for travel partners, I found my companions
in the strangest place: the lab that I work at. This summer, the School of
Environmental Sciences at the University of Guelph has played host to many
exchange students, including several Germans. It turns out that my friend
Therese knows a couple of them, and they had their plans fall through for the
weekend. After putting a “fun guarantee” on my trip, and loosely explaining the
details of a car rental, some tents, and places pretty far north, I had new
travel companions: Therese, Jonas, and Lisa.
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| Therese, enjoying a free ride northern style! |
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| The mugshot that police took of Jonas when they told him to shave and find a house... |
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| Lisa is quite charming! |
After several setbacks, we left Guelph around 6:30 on what
was forecasted by google maps to be more than a 6 hour journey to the race
start. By the first ten minutes of the
car ride it was clear that I was in great company; Jonas and I talked almost
nonstop the whole way up, and the girls were a bit more quiet, but that may be
because they were in the back seats. After a naked (just Jonas and I) pit stop
at a waterfall, and a plethora of Therese’s delicious homemade peanut butter oatmeal
cookies, we arrived at the race course at 1:30 (am). Race start in 7.5 hours,
great! I quickly set up the tents, to the right of the start line (had no idea
where else to pitch) and was in bed before 2, only to be woken up at about 7 by
the activity on the race morning.
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| Tent at the start line, notice the massive hills in the background... |
I watched as many riders showed up, and one in particular
stood out as a serious contender: Paul Guenette – winner of the most recent
Ontario Cup in the expert division, He made it clear that he was there for the
win, and that this was not his first time racing the race. I decided not to
mind him, and to make sure I would keep an eye on him once the race started –
but I was busy prepping by bike for the race!
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| Keeping the bears away and annoying the competitors with my bear bell! |
Upon race start I positioned myself right behind Paul, and
we rode together until two more guys caught us (after a wrong turn by me). There
was a notable gravel road section in the first 15 km, and this was when I gauged
the speed of the other 3 riders in the top pack. We let Paul set the pace
first, and I was more than comfortable following this pace (but this being my
first endurance event of this caliber, I had no idea how really I should ride).
Two things happened when I set the pace; firstly, I got stung on the neck
(right under my helmet strap) by a bee, and secondly, I got yelled at because I
“would never keep that pace for 112km”. After
realizing that I seemed to have more dispensable power at my 75% of max effort,
I broke away and let them catch me back once or twice, just to put an early
burn on my opponents legs.
All was great and I was setting the pace for our lead group
of four until I had some chain issues! Terrible chain suck between my front gears,
which took about a minute of standing around getting eaten by deer flies on the
side of the trail to fix. Luckily my chain was not broken, and I was back on my
way – but the guys ahead had got a free minute ahead of me. I rode a steady
tempo for 15-20 minutes until I caught them again, and resumed my position as
the front man for the race.
The trails around Mattawa are certainly some to be reckoned
with! If I wasn’t climbing up a massive hill that was full of washouts and
cobbles, I was slugging through a sand section that was as though I was riding along
a beach, or going through creeks and muddy rut sections. To me, all of this was
quite an adventure though! Descending the hills was an art unto itself; they
were all ridiculously steep, had deep ruts eroded through them, and filled with
rocks the size of baseballs, but sharper, and to make matters tougher, light
and shadows through the trees made it hard to distinguish where rocks began and
ended. These factors (and my sweaty sunglasses), led to the untimely demise of
my rear tire. About 25km into the race I had a flat tire from a rock that
slashed through it. A quick assessment of the situation showed a puncture that
I was sure would seal itself with some special goop inside the tire if I gave
it a quick shot of air. Unfortunately I was wrong, and spent almost 12 minutes
fixing a flat tire! I kept calm though, figuring that I had nearly 4 hours to
make up for this blunder.
When I came past the next checkpoint, I stopped to refill my
water bottles, got some food, and was told that the leaders were 10 minutes
ahead. Challenge accepted. The following time-splits told me that I was 7, 5,
then 2 minutes from the leaders. Sweet, I’ll catch these guys no problem! It was
the next time split that was confusing and disheartening: 15 minutes. I guess
there was some time split confusion, but I couldn’t help but be a bit
discouraged. One good thing did happen however; there was a beautiful carbohydrate
power gel in the middle of the trail on a rock, and it was full! The bike gods
had begun to smile on me.
Through the constant problems with my chain (and eventually
deciding that I wouldn’t be able to shift my front gears anymore to the small
one), and hours of solo riding in the bush, I finally came up on Paul, who was
dogging it a bit by this point.
“Come on man, let’s go!”
“I can’t, I’ve got no energy left”
“What place are you in?”
“3rd, good luck!”
Really?? I was in third place?? AWESOME! This in itself was enough
to pick me back up, and put a grin on my face! It wasn’t long until I found
myself in second place, though apparently the winner was “At least half an hour
ahead”, and was on his way to his third victory in a row at this race.
By around kilometer 90, I was finally starting to feel the
34 degree weather. My legs would cramp any time I extended them absolutely
straight, and I was constantly on the verge of vomiting. The last checkpoint
was a welcome break where I took my time, refilled bottles, and ate a banana.
Unfortunately, the guy who I had just passed very easily had a second wind, and
he meant business. I rushed back off on my bike, and was stopped not even 200m
later with the same recurring chain issues at the bottom of a hill, and while
walking up the hill I was passed by someone with obviously more energy than me.
I fought my way back to sit on the wheel of the second place rider, and when we
got to the top of a big downhill something encouraging happened
“Pass me, I can’t ride down these hills as fast as you do,
you’re nuts.”
Hey! There we go! It was always part of my strategy to let
it all hang out on the hills, because as far as I’m concerned, for no extra
effort, you can make time on the other guys who aren’t willing to take the
risks and speed that I would.
The extra time gained on the hills was just not enough for
me though, and I rode into a stellar third place finish! It looks like I’ve
found my real strength: endurance racing. Next year, if I’m in Ontario, I’m
coming for a win!
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| My companions during my race...on the way to the lake |
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