Yet Another Brief Race Report from the Caboose....

A brief synopsis of the Pre-Fat Seeley MTB Race
“A bird in the hand's worth two fleeing by.”

Even though itz been nearly ten dayz hence, the Pre-Fat is still fresh in my frail mind. To my delight, race day dawned beautifully cloudless and cool with a slight breeze coming off the grand lake. Even by 9:00 a.m. (90 minutes before the scheduled start) nearly one hundred ‘long-course’ racers were already enthusiastically gathering from both points North and South in the quaint little hamlet of Seeley, Wisconsin to challenge a North Country race course that is both varied and very fast.

It is a unique course, in my view, because it presents what has of late become a rare opportunity for the steely-eyed fearless speed demons to really shine and thus exploit the rest of us. The descents @ The Pre-Fat are such that if one has the guts and the resolve [and the Medical Insurance], a talented rider can just let ‘em run wild at very high speeds.

As alluded to above, the potential these rolling Seeley-Hills with there steep descents afford the capable rider in terms of “break-neck” speeds is now a rare thing. Sadly, long gone are the dayz of the Lutsen and Giant’s Ridge races that too allowed the crazed, albeit skilled ones to defy the confines of gravity and essentially fly down the rocky descents, while the rest of us awkwardly braked our way down, down, down…Of course, upon reflection itz probably a good thing for the author that these kinds courses are going the way of antiquity.

The Seeley course also contains a fair amount of technical single track of the fast kind…Yet the course is unique in that the aforementioned super fast rolling ski trails come mostly at the first half, while the techy stuff hits one in the second half of the approximately 90 to 110 minute overall effort. The way I remember it; the technical single track which for me and my counterparts came after about an hour of hammerin’ in small packs caused some of the riders a kind of sudden "culture shock." Essentially, the sudden change of terrain offered such a stark contrast that it was difficult for many of the less adaptable riders to transition in a timely and efficient manner. In other words, I was all over the place, crashing and blasting through those trails like a "gut shot" yeti. I could not stay on my bike!

The truth is that even on my good dayz (given a course comprised of mainly benign ski trails), I can still somehow, although desperately, hang-on by shamelessly gluing myself to faster rear wheels; but once these riders commenced onto the tricky single-track, I knew my place and so with a chivalrous heart, I pulled over and let the real racers get on with the business at hand. Yes indeed, with a purely benevolent conscience as my guide, I waved the likes of Todd McFadden, Sara K-J, Tim Stone, Ezra Taylor, Barry T, Rosscoe.,(and I am sure several others) past the old trusty Gunnar…and when the last had pasted with a smile on my face, I pulled back on and took my rightful position in the caboose…so it goes…Note: Apparently, according to my sources, there was an even faster drama unfolding a good ten minutes ahead of my crowd which included among others, Scotty and Brad Johnson, Jesrin Gaier, Jeff Hall, Scott Chapin, Sam Ofendahl, Tim Swift, The Russian Rocket, TJ, Harry Anderson, et. al.......Next to Led Zepplin, I love bike racing!!!!!!

Friday: 150 minutes of Feeding the Rat...At first I felt sluggish, but by 75 minutes or so, I felt like SEABISCUIT