Racing
Bike Tactics at the Michigan Cup Marathon
(But make sure you know where the finish is...)
March 2, 2002 - By Mike Muha

Snow blessed the 30K Michigan Cup Marathon - lots of snow - more than making up for the snow drought that caused the race's postponement from it's original date in January. Dick Fultz from the Cross Country Ski Shop was out early grooming trails with the shop's equipment - Hanson's Hill's equipment had some mechanical issues. Dick did the job: the trail was in great condition. Uphills tended to be pretty soft because of the new snow, but flats and downhills were really in great shape. 

With temperatures around 25F and little wind, the race was a joy. (Of course, it could be that I've been on snow so little this year that any conditions would have been a joy...)

The Wax
The snow was fast. The wax test track everyone used was on a "hill" that was so shallow that I would have called it flat, and we still tended to glide into the parking lot. I waxed two pairs of skis. My stiffer Rossi's had Toko HF Red; my ancient and softer Moroto's had a 1:1 combination of Toko HF Red and HF Yellow. Both of my ski pairs worked well, but the warmer, softer pair - the Moroto's - had a more consistent glide, and I used them for the race. With the soft conditions, I figured the softer ski would be a bonus.

The Race - Lap 1: Let's See Who Hangs...
The race was delayed for 10 minutes while a trail issue was resolved. At the one minute to go mark, impatient racers started edging across the line, and within 30 seconds, the race was on, officially or not.

There was one crash (that I know about) in the first couple hundred yards. It happened right in front of me but I was able to negotiate around it (barely) without losing speed. The pack stayed together pretty well for the first two kilometers. It was so packed that any slight slowing of the front skiers up gentle uphills caused skiers in the back to bunch up and slow down or even stop, very similar to the yo-yo effect in a road bike pack.

In a short time, a lead pack of 15 or 20 started to slowly pull away. I had moved myself up to the second position in the following pack, right behind Bruce Barton. I passed to take a turn up front. A minute or so later I saw that I was pulling away. Up ahead, I say a skier in the lead pack starting to drop off the back. I charged ahead to try to catch that skier.

Curt Peterson caught up and we took turns chasing down the skier ahead of us and opening a bigger gap between us and the following pack.

We caught up with the skier ahead - it turned out to be Mike Weir. He jumped on the back and we were now a three-man break. Unfortunately, Mike was pretty hammered, so Curt and I did most of the work. 

After a couple more kilometers, the trailing pack looked like they were starting to pull us in, especially in the uphills. Bob Smith was pulling the pack. I saw Bob do this in the White Pine Stampede: When he gets the scent, he just won't stop. We slow down, catch our breath, recover, and let the pack catch us.

Bob's pulling quite nicely, and there's a slight gap behind him, so I jump in. We take turns leading for a bit. There's quite a pack behind us, maybe 20 skiers. After a few minutes of this, I look back and notice that the pack is getting stretched out a bit, and maybe even gapping in places. Feeling my Wheaties, I say, "Hey Bob, the pack looks like it's breaking up. Let's speed things up and see who hangs." Bob and I pick up the pace. It was fun! The two of us took short pulls, hoping someone else would pull through as well. Finally, Bob gets mad and yells at the few people hanging on: "Hey, it sure would be nice if one of you back there pulled through!" Eventually, a mystery skier did come through...and promptly dropped us! We couldn't hang on to him.

Our overall gambit to breakup the pack worked wonderfully: very few people were able to stay, and several of those where barely hanging on. Bob and I ease off the gas.

Coming into the start/finish area at the end of the first 15K lap, our little group broke up a little as various people got feeds or water. I put down a Power Gel, drank the rest of the water in my water bottle, and tossed the it next to the aid station as I skied by. Bob, Curt, Fred Mills, and a couple others were in the vicinity. On to the second lap...

Lap 2: "Where's the finish?!?"
I let myself fall back toward the end of our little pack. Big mistake. There were a couple of pushes that resulted in gaps that I then had to bridge. On the third gap, Bob broke away with another skier and I couldn't respond. 

I watched Bob for the next several kilometers. He was dropped by the other skier, but I couldn't seem to catch him. He would increase his lead slightly on steeper inclines. I pulled away from skiers behind me.

Suddenly, I was quickly catching Bob; for some reason, he'd backed off his pace. When I caught him, I tried to quickly ski by with no warning and drop him. Didn't work - as I said earlier, "when he gets the scent, he just won't stop". Bob was right there behind me and I wasn't going to shake him. I was out of breath, and Bob was jabbering away behind me asking if I'd been watching the Olympics...

Since there were only the two of us in sight, we were racing each other. I backed off a tiny bit to catch my breath and build a reserve. With two or three kilometers to go, I hear Bob trip and fall on an uphill. 

"You OK Bob?" 

"Ya, I just tripped myself. No problem."

Crack!

"OK, guess there's a problem. I just broke my pole..."

Although Bob had broken the basket off his pole, it didn't seem to slow him down any. I aggressively took final two downhills and pushed the pace way up on the final long flat stretch to the finish, but Bob caught up easily.

What to do? Keep the pace up high and hope Bob tires? Not likely. I back off the pace and hope Bob thinks I've burned out. I gather strength so that when Bob passes me with a half kilometer to go, I grab onto his tail.

Bob's setting a mean pace, but when we reach the start line, I V2 around him and we make a mad dash to the finish. We pass the place where I think the finish should have been, in the lead.

"WHERE'S THE FINISH?!?"

"Over THERE!" Bob yells as he takes advantage of my confusion and speeds ahead to pull victory from the jaws of defeat.

It was my own fault for not being better prepared. A lesson learned.

I ended up 20th overall (1:47:45), two seconds behind Bob.

Post Race Festivities
One of the reasons I've always liked the Michigan Cup Marathon and the Hanson Hills Classic weekend is the post-race lunch. Pasta and breadsticks today. After 30K, I was hungry. Thanks to all the folks at Hanson Hills for the great race and the lunch! Can't wait until next year... Bob, you're toast!