Knob Scorcher

by Rebecca Leeb

Place: Tsali, Bryson City, NC
Date: 4-12-2003

First I'd like to say something about URIs (unidentifiable race injuries): where do they come from?! How do they appear? Is there some sort of URI Fairy that visits you during or just after races that puts bumps, bruises, scrapes & scratches in places that never touched anything but air?! I just don't get it!


In the week leading up to the race the southeast received 7 straight days of rain totaling as much as 6" in some places. My plan had been to get out there the weekend before to camp & pre-ride the course but due to the nasty weather and a drastic change in plans I never made it. To add to the confusion Asheville NC (just east of Tsali) got a foot of snow, sleet, & hail on Thurs. 

Weather aside I had had a rough couple of weeks leading up to the race and had managed a total of exactly 2 rides in 2 weeks. I'm pretty sure there aren't any training programs that suggest that piling no training on top of huge stress as a good pre-race strategy. On the other hand, because of all the stress I've probably dropped 7 lbs in the last 2 weeks. Talk about saving weight!

So there we were in Bryson City, NC at 7:45pm on Friday night. Wooo hooo, party on. We checked into our cabin, dumped the bikes, and headed out for the requisite pasta dinner at the only "Italian" restaurant in town...we didn't bother unpacking anything since they roll up the sidewalks in Bryson City at 8:30pm and if we didn't eat before then we would have been feasting on powerbars & gu.

The cabins we stayed at were great. They really cater to people who go up there to do outdoors stuff. Clean, cheap, & functional: No TV, no phone, no frills. No carpets either, and they not only put up with but expect that you will bring your bike into your room. They also provide a bike wash. The bonus is that they have a coffee shop on the premises and that is where everyone gathers. We met & recruited a couple of guys (one of whom was racing later on Sat. with masters
expert 40+, and the other who was racing on Sunday in sport) to work the feed zone for us, went back to our cabin, got things set up and went to bed.

We woke up Saturday morning to brilliant blue skies (the first we'd seen in over a week) and views to die for. I did not bring a camera but wish I had, since we had the rare fortune to look out over the Blue Ridge Mtns to see spring emerging and snow capped mtns in the distance. Wow!! Our race (women's sport) was scheduled for a 10am start time so to give ourselves plenty of time to get nervous we headed over to the registration tent at around 8:30.

The Tsali Knobscorcher is one of, if not the biggest mtb race in the southeast and draws people from as far away as the midwest & northeast. When we arrived there were racers and support people and dogs everywhere and the party atmosphere was moving into full swing! The race is the first in this year's Cane Creek series and was my first race of the year. 

Mud was the flavor of the day. With all the rain, everyone who had pre-ridden the course the day before said that it was wet, and sloppy, and muddy. It was strongly recommended that racers not go through the center of puddles since it was impossible to see if there was, what I like to call, a broken-collarbone chasm at the bottom (i.e., one that grabs your front wheel, stops your momentum, and sends you superman-ing collarbone first into the nearest hard immobile object).

The women's Sport field was large enough so that they split us into age groups with awards by age group: 19-29, 30-39, and 40+. I was racing in 30-39 and my friend Kathleen was racing in 40+. In all there were probably 20-25 women who raced Sport...a HUGE turnout for a southeastern race. Prior to this race the largest mtb women's field I'd ever raced in was 7. 

They started us at 2 minute intervals: the juniors, the 19-29 women, the 30-39 women, and finally the 40+ women. I had told Kathleen the previous evening that I desperately wanted to win this race, so that was my goal. 

Our course was 16 miles and starts with a not terribly steep fireroad climb to a slightly steeper singletrack climb. Our route had us doing the "long right loop" (11 miles) and then the "short left loop" (5 miles). The feed zone was at the cross-over point/start area between the two loops. The course was as promised: smooth, non-technical, fast, and MUDDY.

While not very steep the first climb was steep enough to split the field. Off the start one girl shot out ahead, & I jumped on her wheel and stuck there up the fireroad (gotta love roadie techniques!) until she blew going into the singletrack climb and let me pass. Not too long later I caught 2 of the 19-29 girls. The girl in front was lagging and as we tried to pass her she bailed on a short steep incline creating a tangled mass of arms, legs, and bikes and a back up of racers
behind us. I finally climbed over and as I went to get back onto my bike I stepped on a wet log and slipped off the side of the trail into a huge pile of brush (maybe that's where the URI fairies hide?)! DOH! At which point at least 4 women passed me. Grrrrr! I jumped back up and pedaled off...

I passed at least 10 juniors and several women...and several people who I could not tell from behind whether they were juniors or women! Although people say that it is a relatively flat course I think those people must be smoking crack. There is a whole lotta climbing in that course. Happily, I like to climb. By about mile 6 or 7 I found myself alone with my thoughts. No one was around. Random things & classic rock (which I don't even really like!!) flashed through my head. \

My lungs hurt. 

Gee, it sure would be nice if I didn't have asthma.

Hmmm. My legs hurt too.

Ok, keep the cadence up. Good. Good. Now settle in. settle in. (ack! Coach Troy is haunting me!!)

...proud Mary keep on burning....rollin'....rollin'...

Where is everyone? Did I miss a turn?

wow. Look at the color of Lake Fontana. I wonder what kind of algae makes it that iridescent green. That would be a cool color for a bike.

Will this lap ever end?? 

Row. Row. Row you boat...

For my next component upgrade: the new XTR cranks or disk brakes? Hmmm...

Oh! Puddle! Ugh, wet foot.

I really need to work on my cornering techniques.

Cadence up!

Hmmmm...

Finally I started hearing the people in the feed zone. I passed several spectators along the trail. (whew! I didn't take a wrong turn anywhere!!) and one of the guys said that I was in 2nd or 3rd. Oh! But, I haven't seen anyone in ages?..... hmmmm, where are those other women? I climbed up a short incline and popped out onto the fireroad where we started. I passed through the feed zone, grabbed my bottle from the hand off, took a sip, Ugh! Gatorade, too sweet!! and threw it
down. Only 5 more miles!!! Pleeeeze let them all be down hill!!

No such luck. Grinding away I became aware of a horrible noise emanating from my bike. Queek, Queek, Queek.... What IS that?!?! Queek! Queek! It sounds like there is a nest of baby birds in my drivetrain....please make it stop! Queek. Queek. Queek. Ohmygod! The URI fairies switched out my bike with a Huffy that hasn't seen chain lube in a decade! Queek! Queek! Queek! Please don't let my chain explode....I don't want to have to cyclocross to the finish.....I did the entire 5 miles without seeing anyone but some random guy hiking with his kids....

I started hearing music & people. Getting close! Grinding up the last climb my chain decides to bail off the granny gear. ARRGHHH! stop, fix chain, get back on. Grind. Queek! Grind. Queek! I pass a woman who tells me that I only have 400 more yards. The noise & music get louder as I come out of the woods into the finish straight. Still with no one around I stand up and sprint across the line to the meager
cheers of my 2 feed zone groupies.

Final stats: 16 miles, 1 hr. 38 min, 1st place women's sport 30-39!!!