EFTA’s Battle at Burlingame is the first race in the NECS (New England Championship Series), and was sponsored by NBX. Located in Charlestown, RI at Burlingame State Park Campground, the course offered extremely fast and buffed out singletrack with two key technical sections, loose sandy corners, and a couple short but steep rocky descents that were just enough to keep racers in check of their speed. Those who weren’t careful were destined to kiss the ground.
The morning was chilly, but by the time our crew was racing at 11:30 it was comfortable enough to race in a t-shirt and shorts. From the starting line, the groups lined up by category from elite to singlespeed and on to the rest of the expert racers by age groups. The start on a portion of pavement just off to the side of where we would go through on consecutive laps; this worked well because it avoided sending us immediately into trees at the start.
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| Starting line - Elite Women - courtesy of John Robertson |
It seems that even with some minor crashes, everyone had a fantastic time, and all were able to push themselves beyond their comfort zones to new levels of achievement. Racing in the expert women’s category, here is Tracy’s race experience:
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| Tracy aka T-rock - rockin' the 29er - by John Robertson |
“Battle of Burlingame was more like blunder at Burlingame for me. This being my first 27.5 mtb ride, never mind race, in a few years made me wonder if I could even finish. I felt like I was rested up for this race; however, my head just wasn’t in it. I have been having a difficult time this year being mentally prepared for most races, and this one was by far the worst. I never felt like I got in the racing zone or found a flow. I made many, many, stupid mistakes including going off course and crashing.
“The course was mostly single track with some wide open areas, as well as sections of bridges and a technical ridge. I find single track and of course technical areas difficult - especially when faster riders are coming up behind me. I found myself to be a blundering idiot losing any skill I had and would often slow down riding through the brush or stop completely to let them by. Fortunately or not, Bo has so graciously volunteered to ride behind me to let me get use to this on training days. Hmmmm not so sure this would be a good idea. I wouldn’t want to get too irritated and scream at him, especially since I lack direction and he is faster than me.
“Anyway, we raced 5 laps that have meshed together into one big confusion in my mind. I only remember some small highlights like vomiting in my mouth, trying to jump over a rather large log and biting the dust, and that stupid dirt hill that I couldn’t make up. Really that dirt hill shouldn’t have been that difficult.
“Overall it was a good day; I got to race my bike with a bunch of wicked cool peeps. I also have to say that all the faster riders passing me were great; they were very appreciative and encouraging. You have got to love mountain biking!!!”
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| Steve-O - smooth riding - by John R. |
Steve O represented in the open singlespeed category alongside a mixed lot of racers with all different combinations of gearing that allowed them to either suffer the entire 27.5 miles with a tough gear setup or spin like mad with an ‘easier’ setup, and whatever gearing they had to begin with was what they had the entire race. Here’s Steve’s recap:
“The Battle at Burlingame is a fun, FAST course... it's got several long wide-open flat sections that wind in and out of the campsites at Burlingame State Park. RV campsites are not very techy, generally speaking. The climbs are not long nor steep either, since this venue is almost at the beach. And the terrain that links it all together is very flowy. To break things up, they are almost forced to throw in a few sharp 90-degree corners right at the bottom of some fast-rolling downhill sections.
Ah, but then, you've got the interesting bits: The Bridges, and The Ridges. The Bridges (aka “"The Bridges of Burlingame" that actually have their own Strava segment) are a series of AMC-built plank bridges crossing a swampy area of the park. The bridges are slippery-when-wet, but we had a lovely dry day. The bridges are also diabolical, dry or wet. Transitions from one to the next are rocky, bony, rooty, and seem designed specifically to trip up a mountain bike. And then we've got The Ridges. Really the only classic New England-style tech section on the whole 5.5-mile loop, The Ridges climb, well, up a ridge of course. The trail is always going either up or down and always going around a sharp corner at the same time, and the terrain features rocks right where you'd otherwise like to put your wheel.
“This race course is a good one for gears. Mostly because you can go really fast on those flat sections if you've got some gears. However, with my geared bike down for frame repairs, I brought a knife to a gunfight: a borrowed Specialized Rockhopper SS rigid running my preferred light gear, a 32-20. Kind of useless in the fast sections, but what I love about this gear is that I can ride out pretty much anything, and once those painful laps 4 and 5 come around, it's luxurious to be able to pedal up those inclines, as slight as they may be.
“I briefly debated registering in SS Open versus running the SS alongside the geared bikes in Expert Masters. I was thinking it didn't really matter all that much; I'd be bringing a certain disadvantage into either class. SS Open got the nod. I was a bit surprised that they lined us up right behind the Pro Women. That meant all the Expert classes would be running right behind us and filtering through us during the race. And that's how it turned out. I got to say hello to a whole bunch of riding buddies as they passed me at various points during the race. The first three laps were fast and furious, keeping other SS competitors in sight most of the time. In typical fashion, laps 4 and 5 were a cramping, painful death-march. Once the quads cramped up and checked out, I found all sorts of new muscle groups to pedal with. By the end I think I was using just my toes. That's the beauty of Single Speed... your body is your gearing.
“I can't complain about my result: 2:20:39 was a full four minutes faster than last year running a geared bike, although the course was wetter last year too. I am pretty happy with 6th out of 13 starters, one tick ahead of dead midpack. Reviewing results, I had a nice chat with Finn Maguire who took 2nd, who pointed out to me that the 7-minute gap from first (Shawn Mottram) to second was bigger than the gap between the next FIVE places. So I finished fifth in the second group, or something like that. Hey, I'm happy.”
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John Y was one of those guys who raced up alongside of Steve in that crazy class of singlespeeders (not to be confused with what Liz A refers to in her comments as having class). His first race back in awhile, he decided to make it count by rocking the 26 inch wheels and going with one speed for the 27.5 miles:
“Well, the race went (fortunately) as I had intended as a good long training day and (unfortunately) as I expected results wise...I made a mid-week decision to break out of my comfort zone and move up to the expert class which would have been hard enough for me but I decided to go singlespeed. I had a good time except for the death march of a last lap but I achieved my goal of riding as hard as I could and finishing. I did come in last (there were 2 DNF) by 14 minutes to the 11th place guy. While I wasn't surprised to come in last I was surprised at how much slower I was than the rest of the group as a whole. I have a decision to make, I'd like to keep racing in the expert class as I like the longer races but clearly I'm not at all competitive. I'll take it race by race and just keep working hard at it.”
Lining up with a small group of elite women, Liz A got to do a 6th lap to make for a total of 33 miles. She was back and forth about racing her singlespeed for this race, but was glad to have chosen gears.
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| Liz - CHEESE! - by John Robertson |
Here’s her story:
“While I am tempted to cut and paste the play by play of the race from my personal blog, I will avoid taking the easy way out this week and attempt to replay the race with an alternative spin...
“Lining up with the elite women, I was delighted to see that in addition to Karen P. (the only other elite woman besides myself to prereg), Kate L. and Sue L. had both shown up. Sure, it’s fun to know that you’re guaranteed a podium when only two or three women show up to the start, but that pretty much defeats the purpose of racing besides the aspect of beating previous PRs and pushing yourself past your own limits; racing is much more exciting when you have a bunch of really good competition. Coming off of last week’s SSAP, I hadn’t really gotten to ride much during the week because I’m in the thick of finals, but I felt good knowing that my legs had felt strong the previous weekend.
“I arrived to Burlingame with plenty of time to set up and warm up, and I joined Mr. Loize and Mr. Beaupre for a leisurely lap around the course. It was almost entirely as I had remembered it from last year - a freakin’ speed-racer bonanza with berms and a couple of slow-ya-down tech sections. After attempting to line up without my race number, I still managed to arrive at the start line with plenty of time to spare. Knowing that the race started off with a funnel into a drainage ditch full of rocks resembling crocodile teeth, the elite ladies kept the start respectable by easing our way through there and on up to the first big log before actually starting to race one another. That’s the cool thing about racing with classy gals - we don’t feel the need to pummel one another in the first 30 seconds of the race. I hear some of the men’s categories were not as classy... however, they had many more racers than us; it’s probably easier to have class when your group is small.
“I raced a solid race, and I definitely picked up speed on my last two laps. Hoping to finish in under three hours, I was questionable about whether or not I’d do it at the halfway point because I was finishing my laps in just under 30 minutes. However, laps 5 and 6 were an all out effort, and that reflected in a finishing time of 2:54 for 33 miles. I’ve definitely improved over last year: I finished 12 minutes faster, felt really strong the entire three hours, and finished in second place despite a crash and some seriously sloppy moments out there. I’m truly looking forward to being able to get out an train on a more regular basis now that school is coming to a close.”
The team will be racing next weekend at one race or another... some at the Boneyard and some at the Weeping Willow. See you somewhere.
Since I'm the only DAS racer who raced this weekend, I think I'm allowed to take the easy route and just post a link to my personal blog so you can get an in depth idea of what the race course was like. 
