Race Report: The Flow 6 Hour

The third race of the young 2020 race season was The Flow 6 Hour at Tannehill Historic State Park in central Alabama. I was looking forward to this event because I’d been wanting to check out the trails at Tannehill for some time now. Oak Mountain State Park in Birmingham is one of my favorite places to ride and the same people responsible for building and it, also built and maintain Tannehill. So I knew I was in for a fun time.

Leading into race day was quite dramatic. A couple weeks before I’d had the fork rebuilt on the SS and hadn’t gotten a chance to test it out yet. There was also the problem of the epic amount of rain the Southeast has been getting lately and the chance of a cold, wet day. Jordan and I had also decided to make this race the first camping trip of 2020, which meant getting the RV ready. So yeah…lots of stress leading up to Saturday. We arrived Friday afternoon with little drama and setup right along the race course so I could pit at the RV after every lap. We then settled in and cooked some dinner.

Morning came and I started preparing the bike. 32x19 was the gear choice, boring but consistent. The weather for the day called for it to be 46 degrees at the start time and possibly reaching the low 60s later in the day, so I dressed on the light side so I could easily strip stuff off later. Once the bike was ready I worked on setting up the pit.

On Thursday before the race I snooped to see who was in my class and recognized a couple names that didn’t surprise me. Chad, Forrest, and Ray; my old buddies from Huntsville and Flynn, the guy who took first at The Gobbler. I was going to be in for a long day. I lined up towards the front comfortable in the fact that the start was long enough to spread everyone out, but the trail came fast enough that I wouldn’t have to fight through too many people on the first climb. I saw Chad go off on the front, no surprise there. Up the first climb I worked my way through some people, then settled into some pretty sweet single track leading to the second big climb, which is where Ryan passed me. Less then 4 miles in and I was already down to 3rd place. The rest of the first lap was uneventful as I mostly tried to familiarize myself with the course. First lap down in 53:55.

Lap 2 started after I dropped the arm warmers and vest. I didn’t think I’d have to drop the arms warmers, so I asked Jordan to find the sun block because…ginger. Heading up the first climb I spotted another Singlespeeder and gave a moderate chase, reeling him in at the second climb. We spent the rest of the lap chatting and it turned out he’s from Chatt as well. Small world and big world at the same time. I stopped for a banana and gel and watched Phillip keep on riding…4th place and a 57:51 minute lap.

I felt pretty strong starting Lap 3. I knew my time might be slower because the steepness of the bigger climbs were slowing me down. I need less time on the trainer and more in the woods, rain please go away. I set my best time of the day through the longer flow portions of the course. I was pushing on those sections to hopefully reel Phillip in to no avail. 59:53.

Heading into Lap 4 my legs were good, but my hands and back were starting to act up. Benefits of having not ridden much in the previous 4 years. Legs came back quick, but the rest is still catching up. I was having to be gentle in some of the tougher sections of the course. Everything is getting better little by little, but in the mean time I suffer. Still no sight of any other singlespeeders through Lap 4. My hopes of 6 Laps were dashed when I pitted…1:04.15.

Lap 5 was a calamity from start to finish. I started off slow, but steady. The first two climbs came quickly, but shortly thereafter I couldn’t focus on the trail because my hands and back were distracting me. I was pretty tired and in some pain so I wasn’t able to focus on the trail and made some mistakes along the way. Shortly thereafter I heard someone behind me and let them by…it was Forrest. I drug my sorry bones through the rest of the trail and onto towards the finish line. As I passed Jordan all I could mutter was “Beer, Wild Trails Cup, Please”; which being the angel she is was waiting for me when I came back to the pit. 1:08.42.

I thought I was in 5th place, but it turned out that when I left for Lap 5 I was in third, so Forrest passing me knocked me off the podium since Phillip had pulled himself after 4 laps. Well damn!!! Had I known I might’ve pushed a little harder on the last lap!!! My fault.

Overall it wasn’t a bad day. Sure getting knocked off the podium sucked, but there were many positives to the weekend in general. I can feel my body coming back around to race shape as I suffered a whole lot less this race. The weather was perfect for the race and for camping. Speaking of camping; our first camping trip together was a blast!!! Finally…Cal and Birdie continue to get along like gangbusters and loved camping with us. See their adventures below.

Next up is Big Frog 65.