2009 Iceman Cometh -2009 Ice Cross

I was trying to remember when I first went up to this epic event, it looks like 2001, I was thinking 10 trips, but it's only been 9.After skipping 2008, my wife decided a change up was in order and we would leave town on Thursday night right after work with as many in our group as possible. It was a little bit of a hassle getting ready earlier in the week, but it certainly made the weekend and the drive much nicer for all involved. We slept in a bit Friday morning, eat breakfast, and continue the remainder of the drive to Traverse City.

Funny, I was looking over some past years finish times and they just don't seem so bad over the long haul. I think the biggest reduction was a few years ago, when I removed 20 minutes off my previous year time. I think those kind of time cuts are long gone. The last few years, it has been a battle over minutes, three, five, seven etc. This year I knew I was going into this race with better fitness than ever and I was hoping to sink in under 2 hours. My goal was 1:50 which is dang respectable in this event. The variable here is that for 2009, they lengthened the course.

I got a great spot at the line by my super sneaky move I planned all year after seeing it done at a few other races this year. It worked, I was right on the front row. At the buzzer we all went off like a cyclocross race start, fast and hard. I was sitting with the top 20 in my group all the way from downtown Kalkaska until we got to the double track and off the pavement. I settled in and got my HR down to a manageable place. I tried to play the pace game and sit on as many similar paced riders as I could, wait till they started to fade and move to the next rider. I managed to keep the front 15 leaders of my group in my sights until about mile 8 or so. I was ecstatic to keep with them that long. My pace line strategy seemed to work well, until I could not find many after mile 15 to ride behind. Many people were popping and most of those passing me were going excessively fast for me to get on board. As I neared some familiar sights along the course, I was surprised to learn how fast I had arrived at these sections. With 7 miles to go, the course difficulty goes up about 30%. More hills and fewer chances to pass. I looked at my time and put the hammer down watching an hour 30 min tick away. In my mind, I had 20 minutes to get to the finish. There was a guy riding the single track way slower than I was and I had to ask him a few times to move over, so I could get by. It’s always a brain tease, when you get close to the finish here, you can hear the sound system, the announcer, the crowd for a bit, then you turn away and ride back away from the finish, only to come back around to the finish in the Timber Ridge Campground.

I would say, this would go down as my favorite year out of the nine. Not just because of my finish time, but because of the great friends around in our Condo’s for the weekend. Ben did his first Iceman on a SS and killed it. Tim took 20 min off his last time and finished with Andy just under 2 hours at 1:59, Tim was very happy and should have been. Layne did very well and finished under 2 hours on his 29 custom SS.

Like my friend Ray said, it is a great tradition and I am sure will continue to be for a few more years.

Garmin 705 Ride Stats:

28.33 miles

14.5 mph - average speed overall

155 average HR

1250 Feet of elevation gain.

1:57 My new record time (1:50 for the past years Course-yeah I am giving it to myself)

I would say with the additional mile or so, I would have been at or within seconds of my predicted 1:50 finish time.

ICE Cross 2009
Sunday, we got up early to go race in a local Cyclocross series. Tim, Layne and I were the only suckers/idiots dumb enough to find the effort and energy to go race our cross bikes. Ben and Cara, bailed out of town and Andy decided to sleep. Julie and Jen both joined us to holler, shake a cowbell, and take pics and video.
This was one of my favorite cross courses yet this year. It flowed like no other this year and suited my skills to a tea. I never felt this fast all year. I could have done the hour (A) race after and been competitive or just done the A race and I think keep up with a few of the leaders. I had great legs and felt just amazing. So, with that, I had a great start, was second going into the single-track and sat on the guy in front, letting him pick the lines and find the way through the woods. I was having a hard time seeing; the sun was peering through the pine trees and remaining needles. The guy in front was keeping a solid steady pace and I was having no issues staying on his wheel or keeping with him. It was the guy behind me that came out of nowhere in lap two; I did not have the gas to stay with. He was killing it, come to find out, he is a Pro MTB’r from Michigan and an Elite level cyclocross racer. So….can you say sandbagger? WTF is he doing in the B race? Winning some stuff of course! Anyway, I was passed by another speedy demon at some point, but there were no others between myself and the finish. I got 3^rd PLACE! My best finish this year in a cross race.

I won a sweet winter under the helmet winter hat, which I really like and some sweet white sunglasses, which I bequeathed to my wife for her support and bike love.

Garmin 705 Stats:

Avg. Speed: 14.53 mph

30mph Max speed

Avg. HR – 154

(this is low for a cross race and I would imagine is a sign of fitness and or/being tired)

122 feet of elevation gain (yes flat course.)