After a solid weekend of racing in Missoula and rest week, I was hoping for another good result this past weekend at WORS #4 (MT. Morris). This is where I did my very first mountain bike race back in 2009, and it's the course that got me hooked! It's pretty old school, tight twisty single track up and around a ski hill with lots of roots and rocks.
GOOOOOO! PC: Danny Marchewka
I know the course well and was excited to race, but from past experience, I know my body just doesn’t cope well with racing in extreme heat. As I “warmed up” in the 95-degree heat I could tell I was in trouble.
PC: Danny Marchewka
The start confirmed that. Cole House, Pete Karinen and Ben Senkerik charged ahead for the hole-shot leaving me in fourth like I was standing still. I headed into the lower sandy section in the woods chasing hard but not making up much ground on the front two.
PC: Danny Marchewka
I managed to catch up to Ben right before we headed back up the ski hill but when we hit the climb I just didn’t have the legs. Payson Partridge passed me at the top of the climb along with Trysten Schouten. I hopped on Trysten’s wheel and finished out the lap with him.
PC: Danny Marchewka
Going into the climb on the second lap I passed him back struck out on my own. I knew I just didn’t have the gas, so I set a steady pace hoping to catch up to Ben or Payson.
PC: Danny Marchewka
I ended up just riding laps 2, 3, and 4 completely solo, chugging water and melting ice socks on my neck like nobody’s business. It wasn’t the result I was looking for but I’m happy to have landed another podium and not have to pull the plug.
PC: Danny Marchewka
As always thank you to my team Linear Sport RT teammates for helping me stay cool and hydrated and to our sponsors: Trek, Bontrager, Wheel & Sprocket, Styled Aesthetic, Kettle Moraine Preservation and Restoration, and David Hobbs Honda. Big thanks as well to my personal sponsors, Englewood Grass Farm, TOGS, Fox Racing Shocks, Honey Stinger, Mike's Mix, Wolf Tooth Components and ESI Grips.
Next up is WORS #5 in Eau Claire, be sure to follow along on my social media @cswartzz and check back next week for a race report. Thanks for reading!
Missoula Pro XCT baby! I was out in Missoula, MT in October for Collegiate Nats and before that, I raced there in 2015. The course is super fun and very demanding, 700ft of climbing up and then straight back down! I flew out on Thursday and did a few laps on course. On Friday I did one more lap and then spun out my legs for a bit.
On Saturday I didn't race until 7PM so in the morning I rode up to some local trails and got the legs ready to rip. Needless to say, the views were pretty incredible. Thunderstorms were inbound for our race and it was drizzling as I warmed up and went to the start line. I was the very last call-up out of over thirty riders and I had my work cut out for me right from the gun. I moved up on the inside in the first corner, leading up to the fly-over and up the first few two-track switchback climbs. By the top of the climb, I found myself in 6th place. On lap two Cole Paton and Howard Grotts were alone at the front up the climb while I was glued to Cypress Gorry's wheel, with Minnesotan Sam Elson behind me. At the top Cole got a flat and we passed him before heading into the descent.
Photo: Derek Johnson
Cypress and I railed the descent and caught up to Howard going into the third lap. Things started to heat up and Howard and Cypress got a few second gap on me before the descent. Sam caught up to me at the start of the fourth lap and surged around me chasing after the front group. I was pretty gassed and let myself recover until Cole caught me. I then hopped on his wheel and we caught back up to Sam.
Post race storytelling
In the end, I just didn't have the juice to stick with Sam and Cole. I lost contact with them midway through the fifth lap and was stuck in no man's land. I emptied the tank up the climb on the last lap to hold off sixth place and secure my podium place. It was an incredibly difficult mental battle to keep pushing myself without anyone to see in front or behind me, while I was maxed out.
I finished in fifth only ten seconds ahead of sixth place, and 3.5 minutes behind Olympian, Howard Grotts. I couldn't believe I'd worked my way onto the podium in my very first Pro UCI race! It was probably one of the hardest races I have ever done, and possibly the deepest I have ever dug.
Photo: Derek Johnson
On Sunday things got pretty gnarly in the short track race. I pulled the hole-shot and led the first lap which was very exciting, but I soon found that my legs did not have the juice I needed. As I tried to recover from the hard start the front group surged and I lost contact with them.
Photo: Derek Johnson
Midway through the race I was sitting in the top ten as it started to hail and rain violently. Making the course slick and muddy for the last few laps of the race. My legs just weren't there and in the last two laps I lost three or four spots.
Photo: Derek Johnson
I ended up in 11th place only ten seconds behind 6th place. It was not the result I'd hoped for but I burned a lot of matches in Saturday's XC which was the main focus.
Sam Elson and me, Midwest power!
In all, it was an absolutely fantastic weekend of racing and way more than I could have even hoped. I have to give a big thank you to Mike Kernan for hosting me the whole week, as well as Matt Knowles and the Elson/Carlson clan for helping me out with cheers, transportation, bottles hand ups and more! It takes a village and when I'm out on my own at big races I can't thank the great friends that step up and help enough!
Now as always I want to give a big thank you to my team Linear Sport RT and our sponsors: Trek, Bontrager, Wheel & Sprocket, Styled Aesthetic, Kettle Moraine Preservation and Restoration, and David Hobbs Honda. Thank you as well to my personal sponsors, Englewood Grass Farm, TOGS, Fox Racing Shocks, Honey Stinger, Mike's Mix, Wolf Tooth Components and ESI Grips. I'm so proud to have represented them all at a national level this past weekend!
I am out in Missoula now for the Pro XCT UCI weekend so I will keep this brief! This was WORS race number three of the season! This time on my home trails in Cambridge, just 25 minutes from my house.
After a weekend off from racing and plenty of big miles, I was hoping for a big result with a bit of home-course advantage. From the gun I pulled the hole-shot up the infamous start hill, past the big crowd all the way to the top where I preceded to get bogged down in some would chips right at the top of the hill. I had to unclip one foot and it dropped me back to 9th place. I gained two spots back before entering the single-track.
The course was so tight and twisty that there was nothing I could do to move up until we popped out on the gravel road part way through the lap. I knew it was the time to move up and latched on when Ben Schmutte sprinted to close the gap on the top three. From there the lead group of five was established, Cole House, Pete Karinen, Brian Matter, Ben, and me.
On the third (maybe second?) lap, Ben attacked and stayed on the gas for a full lap straining the group but never breaking anyone. The rest of the race was a series of all-out assaults followed by soft-pedaling. We were all pretty evenly matched and when it was really hard, it was hard for everyone but not quite enough to drop anyone, and when it was easy, it was easy for everyone.
At the end of the fourth lap, I was dangling a little bit and when we hit the start climb Cole attacked hard. Everyone stood up and went with him, I tried to as well but I seemed to just stay in one place as the group drifted away. I was about 15 seconds down, but luckily the group slowed down and I caught back on. When we popped out on the gravel road with half a lap to go, everyone just looked at each other and no one made a move. We basically soft-pedaled the upper single-track section all the way back to the bottom of the finish climb. We rolled up through the switch back berm climb and down the little single-track descent and into the two-track portion of the climb. Everything hit the fan there as we sprinted up the climb through lapped traffic, I came out and around Brian into fourth position before we hit the last single-track section and then into the finishing shoot.
I came through in fourth place, just a few bike lengths behind the win making it the first time I have ever been in sight of the finish of a WORS race! Overall it was a decent race for me but I was definitely hoping for more. I just didn't have the legs to really take advantage of knowing the course so well or to make a move before the sprint to try and get away and obviously going into a five-man sprint in fifth wheel is never the proper move.
The highlight of the day was getting to finally, actually race with my teammate Brian Matter. Brian is someone who I have looked up to as a role model and a mentor since I first started racing ten years ago. He's helped me grow throughout the years immensely and especially in 2017 as he helped me train to win a national championship title and for MTB worlds in Australia. There is no racer I respect more and crossing the line ahead of him accomplished a goal I've had for years :)
As always big thanks to my team Linear Sport RT and our sponsors: Trek, Bontrager, Wheel & Sprocket, Styled Aesthetic, Kettle Moraine Preservation and Restoration, and David Hobbs Honda. Thank you as well to my personal sponsors, Englewood Grass Farm, TOGS, Fox Racing Shocks, Honey Stinger, Mike's Mix, Wolf Tooth Components and ESI Grips.
