Brown County State Park DINO Race Report

Another weekend, another cross country mountain bike race defined by wet and often slick conditions. This time at the Brown County State Park DINO race.

Setting the stage, we'd had a week of decent weather, although there was a significant threat of severe storms on Saturday. Although away at a wedding in northern Indiana, I monitored the weather and saw that the storms were bypassing the park for most of the day. At the end of the day a few strong storms did blow through, but word on the social medias was that the race was a go.

Early Sunday morning was gray and damp, and a constant mist fell on the drive to the park. Once there, I also found that the temperature seemed to have dropped since my 6 am wake up and dog walking. I was wandering around in shorts, a t-shirt and sandals (feet got soaking wet) while others were nice and warm in long pants and sleeves.

I got situated and went out for a pre-ride which included climbing the beast of a paved climb at the start of the course. I found the trails themselves to be in good shape. The tread was solid, and while there was some mud in corners, and in a few low places, overall it had withstood the rain very well.

So we lined up. A decent sized Open field of 16 riders, and what looked like a smaller than usual Cat 2 over all field. This changed as the time to start ticked down, and people came running from the parking area (in the end, the 40-49 age group had 35 riders....which is huge for these parts).

The start was predictably fast and two loose packs formed as we all collectively burned half of our matches on the opening paved climb. The front pack included a few guys I knew, Jeff Burnett, Brian Walsh (who decided to ride a geared bike this week), and Rob Shrum, who made a comment that he hadn't ridden much so far this year, but who destroyed me.

I got up past Aaron (who was being paced by Zach Nalley from Evansville in what looked like a repeat of the SWW race from a few years ago), and had Michael Scott from Gray Goat in there as well.

The second pack began to reel the first one in slowly but surely, and as we came to the single track, I was within throw my spare CO2 cartridge at them distance of Rob abd Brian, with Michael on my wheel, and a rider on what looked like a Vassago dropping back along the line of riders. I looked over at Michael and said that we should get in front of this guy before the trail. Michael responded with something along the lines of "Take it." So I took it, passed the guy, and dropped into the singletrack behind Rob.

Michael didn't know it, but he was about to regret being on my wheel. Why? See the reference above re: wet roots, rocks, and mud. Yeah.....the only strong point on this course for me were the climbs.
 

I'm sure I crashed on these roots....because there wasn't a root that I didn't crash on.
Photo: Beth Bragg

Anyway, back to the action. I kept Brian and Rob in sight, and almost caught them for a good chunk of North Tower Loop. However, as we started our descent down to the valley and the connection with Aynes, I began to lose time to them thanks to the slick everything, and my general suckness with descending. Michael was still behind me, and I know he is faster, and I'm sure he was not having a very good time, so I rode to the side to let him get around.

I started the Aynes Climb in great style by doing a partial crash on the finl creek crossing before the climb. Damp rocks plus muddy tires equals me not able to ride worth a damn. I didn't bite it all the way, but the bike ended up on the ground while I stood there looking rather lame. I remounted the bike and made decent time on the climb and got close to Rob and Brian, and also got intertwined with a few Cat 1 riders.

Problem one, the awesome Aynes climb ended....which led to a downhill, which led to Brian and Rob dropping me like.....I dunno, its hot? (Ugh....jokes no firing today) Anyway, the remainder of the Aynes loop was spent trying to hold off a Cat 1 rider who I passed while climbing but who now was nipping at my heels on the descent.

Once the course reconnected with the North Tower Trail I pushed hard on the climb and hooked back up with another Cat 1 just in time for the run into the feed zone.

Where I crashed while trying to toss one of my water bottles to the side of the trail.

Apparently riding one handed and hitting a slick off camber root does not work for me. Anyway, one sore knee later and I was off again. North Tower was fairly uneventful....just going back and forth with the same few Cat 1 riders....and getting passed by one freakishly fast 20-29 age group rider. I attacked the Aynes climb like an animal (turned out to be a PR time) and tried to put some time on chasers (I had spotted Aaron and Zach not too far behind me) and gain on others.

On the descent I was passed by the same Cat 1 riders, and found that Zach had broken away from Aaron and caught me. He got away on the remainder of Aynes, but I pushed hard on the climb up North Tower, got past the Cat 1 riders and was Zach's wheel as we start the one way trail back to the start. Zach was damn fast, especially on the downhills, and he began to get a gap, although the distance was manageable. But, I screwed that up by nearly losing control (I think I hit a rock or root) which caused me to go off the trail on the downslope. For a terrifying few seconds I was having a "this is the end" feeling, as I sped towards several trees. Somehow, I managed to drag the bike back on the trail, and despite a triumphant "Fuck Yeah!" (namely because I realized I wasn't about to get wrapped around a tree). But, Zach was gone and I rolled across the finish line alone.

Done with the laps and heading down towards the finish. And looking and all fast  too.
Photo: Corri Lewis

I ended up 14th out of 78 overall, which I was pleased with even though I was aiming for a top 10 finish, and 10 out of 16 in the Cat 2 Open wave. Not so excited by that one. I was hoping to be in the top 50%, especially considering the favorable course, but I just couldn't manage it.

So, there's Brown County DINO in a nutshell. Next up is a new DINO venue at Potato Creek State Park near South Bend. I rode there a few years ago and it is a fun course, although I would liken it a Town Run on a half dose of steroids. Some elevation but not much tech. The locals are going to have a field day.