Lost Valley Race Report

by Matt Hayes

Unknown rider from Team de Seagal , but damn, look at that sweet new switchback hotness!

Several GORC members attended the Lost Valley race. Craig and Steph were on GORC Bike Patrol and the crowd appreciated the assistance in the Kid's Race. Larry Koester, Bryan Adams, Scott Piepert, Greg Ott, John Twist, Curt, among many more whom I can't recall due to my race-fogged mind, rode circles around Lost Valley. While some of the guys weren't directly racing for GORC, I donned the green GORC jersey and tried my best to show folks that we're more than just a bunch of trail-building fools. We had just laid down fresh Lost Valley (LV) trail the day before and I felt the need to market the club as best I could.

I raced the single speed class and knew it would be hard on me . . . I'm just not a fast spinner and Lost Valley is all about the cadence meter. I pulled the Lynskey from the basement - last used at the Berryman Epic - and hoped the 2:1 magic sprocket set would get the job done.

Larry Koester rackin' up laps of Marathonic proportions

Nine SS'ers who chose not to race Marathon class (gravel road madness! - Ouachita without the trails) launched off the line on the Hamburg trail and rocketed away. I kept up early on but backed it off because I was gonna die in the first 30 seconds. I never knew people could dole out the pain so swiftly. You know, pedal, pedal, pedal, OK, boom, 20mph follow me now mf! - that's what it felt like anyway. Greg Sandknop of Team Seagal kept the pace sickly fast with fellow team mate Eddie K. right along side me. Eventually I found my groove about 40 seconds behind Greg and 40 seconds in front of Eddie. I felt ill the entire ride (I mean race) as there was no time to actually recover. I gave it everything I had and was coming up short. I found my flow on all the narrow and gained time on Greg only to lose sight of him on the flats. I couldn't spin any faster. Hell no.

The new singletrack is terrific, by the way. It was cool to see people on the opposite side of the valley drains with the slight hope of catching up to them. The new stuff was a bit bumpy and slow but it will simply be mind-blowing fast this fall.

But back to the race report.

Everyone rode well. The marathoners did 40+ miles while I opted to break off my personal tachometer in the SS class. Turns out I did pretty well. During the entire race I thought Greg was pacing just behind the 1st place single speeder who was out of his sight. I told myself it was insane the speed these mofo's were pushing. A 36x16 would've been nice. I'd never punished myself so hard.

Scooter on the 3-hr Marathon trip

Finally, at the end I found out I was 2nd and not 3rd . . . cool with me, my head was spinning and the edema/COPD-like lung fungus kept me cross-eyed for a while! I was satisfied because I knew there was nothing left - I'd tried my absolute very best to win while flying the GORC banner. For a non-dedicated race-when-I-feel-like-it who prefers trail building over training, my day was made and - behold - beer was in sight! Oh, damn, beeeeer! ASAP in the belly, and then quickly, the little Drinky-Crow on my shoulder said another would do me up so I bummed a tasty Miller Lite (thanks Steph!) for some additional supplementary enhancement. Instant heartburn, but such relief. Even as I write this I am still coughing up bits of scarred lung. I gotta hand it to the Seagal kids - they're a fast bunch doing mega rides left and right and their PBR-sponsored beer tent is much appreciated - so much so that it was completely destroyed and left a crumpled shell in the wake of the race.

Mesa Cycles put on a great event and everyone agreed the new singletrack addition at Lost Valley is super cool. All in all, a superb weekend to be on the bike. See you all at Greensfelder this weekend. New trails, more beer, good friends. Perfect combination.

Race Results can be found here...