DINO Muscatatuck Mountain Bike Race Report

10th place overall; 2nd place 40-49 age group - Results
Strava data

I missed the first couple of races in the DINO Mountain Bike series as I focused on my running objectives through Spring & early Summer.  They're great opportunities for me to build fitness and bike handling skills for cyclocross later in the year as well as representing The Bicycle Station in local races.
The events are very family friendly with kids and junior races being held at each event - so I was excited to have Angus planning on joining me for his first race in the Junior category which mean he would ride a full race lap starting just after I was expecting to complete my 4 lap race.
The race laps for DINO are typically 6-10 miles with the Category 1 & Elite / Pro race being either 3 or 4 laps.  The Muscatatuck course is one of the shorter laps, 6.5 miles through twisting single track with no sustained climbs, the lap took about 30 mins to complete.  I hadn't had the chance to pre-ride the whole course so my first lap was going to be a learning experience!
At the start, the small Elite / Pro racers set off 2 mins ahead of the larger age group Cat 1 field.  I got a bad start, losing places on the fast grass sprint to the first section of single track - I'm always anxious about my lack of trail riding skills and worry about jumping in front of people, then holding them up in the technical sections.  As we settled into the first lap I let a couple of riders pass as they were clearly faster on the initial downhill twisting singletrack but I also passed a few riders who slowed dramatically on the first short climb.  Things quickly spread out, by the start of the 2nd lap I was part of a small group which gapped me on the more technical sections, but I quickly caught up when things leveled out or went uphill.  People were tiring quickly and I was able to make more & more passes stick, still ending up with clear trail behind me even after the twisty sections.  In the final two laps, I progressively caught & passed several of the riders I had seen riding away from me earlier in the race - I was hoping to catch up with Bicycle Station team-mate, Denny Barber on the final lap, but it wasn't to be - he rode a great race to finish 9th overall, about 90 secs ahead of me taking 2nd in the very wide "50-99" age group!

Me looking worried on the technical downhills....
Photo - William Snyder

I finished in 2:00:08 and had just 14 mins before Angus' race was due to start - having seen the whole lap for the first time in my race, I'd decided that I would run behind him to help instead of trying to ride alongside him.  I dashed to the car, grabbed a fresh water bottle & energy gel, pulled on my running shorts, a dry top and trail shoes and ran back to the start!
Angus' race was an emotional affair - his first real experience of technical mountain bike trails - we had to get off & walk over a lot of the obstacles and he got bounced around on a few roots & rocks which shook his confidence.  It took 90 mins to complete his one lap, about 30 mins of that was stationary as we let other riders pass and took some time-outs to get confidence back - despite some tears part way round, he finished strong with an arm in the air over the finish line.

Angus - still smiling at this point on the lap!
Photo - William Snyder

For me, the additional 60 mins of running / pushing completely emptied me.  Only afterwards, I realized I hadn't managed to eat or drink enough during my 2 hour race - it's a very different problem to riding on the road - it's a challenge simply finding time to take hands off the bars to find a bottle or snack.  My next event is a 6 hour mountain bike endurance race - I will have to do a better job at managing my nutrition if I'm going to finish that with any success.