Mud In Your Eye

A new addition to the official EFTA series.

Race Results

Race Commentary

Michelle Wilson

Typically this would have been a great course for me because it was mostly
technical but coming off the VT50 my legs still had too much lead in them
to get over even a pebble. Plus I got there late so I had no warm up which
left me in the dust from the start. Oh well, I'd love to try this again next
year. Also we had the pleasure of a strange siting of someone racing and
cheering during the race. Does anyone know who that was ;)?

Andy Sherman

Great course and conditions, especially considering the rain right
before the race! Unfortunately, my race was marred by mechanicals
(yet again). This time, it was Crank Bros. pedals. My right pedal
fell off the spindle while I was warming up. Fortunately, I was able
to borrow a Shimano pedal from the Back Bay Bike shop and a shoe with
the right cleat that actually fit my foot perfectly. So, I was off and
running at the start.

Like I said, great course, a lot of fun. I got jammed up in the
singletrack, which was fun but caused a bottleneck of riders. Just
cruising along through lap one. I started putting on some speed to
start lap two when my left pedal came off the spindle. Talk about
planned obselence, both pedals, with less than a season of use, broke
on the same day.! I wanted to finish the race rather than bail & DNF,
so I rode the last eight miles on the left spindle and Shimano pedal.
My main objective was to finish without impaling myself on the
spindle, which reminded me of a nail sticking out of the crank.
Didn't help my time or finish, but at least I had a nice long ride on
a great technical race course.

I'm going to repair the Crank Bros. but will probably not race on them
next year - I don't trust equipment that fails like this.

Mathew Juros

great course - loads of tight, technical single track, all ridable if you're
a freakin maniac - slick roots and rocks, bunch of 3+ foot drops !! real
fun race course - one of the best all season.

I came rocketing through the grassy area in the lap point - big crowd roar.
Went FLYING in to the (wet grassy) off camber turn hit a little hidden drop
on the inside of the corner - bike went bye bye and I slapped the ground so
hard people said they felt the impact.

I got up - dragged the bike off the course and cleared the cobwebs out of my
brains (woozy woozy) and got back on the bike (crowd cheer) onto the
pipeline and into the hilly section when I realized my shoulder wasn't
functioning (no pain yet). I literally couldn't pull on the handle bars b/c
my should kept giving out...weird sensation. Something was very wrong.
Thought about it for a moment and decided to cash it in. I'm not in the
points hunt and no sense in causing more damage...xrays were "negative."
it's a category two spain of the ac ligament (i.e. separated shoulder).

Dawn Kaczor

after taking a week off from riding and then pre-riding the course the day
before with anne, i felt really rested and ready to race. anne and i spent a
few hours on saturday going over the course with a fine toothed comb. we
examined every technical spot that might give us problems during the race
and looked for the best lines. so, at the start i not only felt fresh, but
had a set plan for tackling the course. because i knew the lines, i didnt
waste any time getting off the bike. i cleaned just about everything and
didnt feel tired at any point during the race. this was exactly the type of
course i like. a really technical course that requires finesse over speed.
it was really fun to ride. i ended up doing really well coming in second out
of seven vet women. it was a great way to end the series.

Chris Smith

The day started off very bad as I headed north on 93 and when I glanced at
the directions to recheck the exit number I realized I should have been on
95. I headed back south I arrived about twenty minutes befor my start.
Luckily I parked registered and got to the start in about ten minutes. The
course was wet from the previous days rain and technical. I did not have a
good ride. Before the race I spoke with Manny of Dartmouth Cycles and
mentioned that he took over second place from me in the standings. He
informed me we were actually tied because it was the best of seven. I had
missed two races during the season he had not, so he would loose points when
they dropped two races. I managed a forth place finish combined with my
paydirt points, Manny and I are still tied for the season. Considering all
the snafus with the results this year who knows how we actually finished.

Abbie Briscoe

This race rocked! what a way to end the season. It wasn't your typical up a
mountain down the back side. it was technical but all pretty much do-able. I
regret not pre riding the course since it would have been a huge advantage but
i know better for next year. At the start I got stuck behind a few riders who
also didn't really know the course and messed up alot of the lines. From there
on in, I was busting my chops trying to catch up with dawn and michelle. That
effort lasted the enitre race. I crossed the finish only to see them looking
fresh as daisies. they had been across the finish for i think 15 minutes. I
don't know what happened there :)
the awards were very cool. I'm getting myself a pair of free shoes from Reebok.
very excited about that.
Can't wait to do it all again next year!

Tom Varga

I occasionally ride at Exeter and know from experience that it can be quite a
slippery place after a rain. So, I was concerned. After seeing the very wet
starting area, I decided to try and stay near the front to stay out of trouble.
Even then I was almost taken down by a someone who went down in from of me 10
seconds into the race. Anyway, I managed to stay in something like 4th place
after the grassy area and was really surprised how far back the pack was. I
guess this gave me the confidence to try and keep the lead and to hopefully
extend it. My favorite type of race course is very technical. The more, the
merrier. I was really loving this course! As I started to pass most of the
sport racers who started earlier than us, I knew I was doing well. Man was I
psyched.

A quarter of the way into the 2nd lap, I caught up to another sport vet with
whom I ended up having a heck of a race. We took turns passing and pushing
each other to the limit resulting in a 2nd lap that was faster than my first.
I thought I had him near the end but he did a really classy tactical move when
he passed me at a spot where I wasn't expecting it. Unfortunately, I didn't
have it in me to pass him once more.

Overall, I absolutely loved this race. I really enjoy it when technical riding
skill is required to do well and not just the best conditioning.

I'm bummed that the season is over but I guess it's nice to be able to back off
on the training for a while before having to grind through endless spinning
sessions next year!

Dan Hurwitz

There is not much to say. The race was way too short at about 4.5
miles. On the other hand, since my bike was still misbehaving terribly,
that 4.5 miles seemed awfully long.

The week before, in the VT 50, my bike would not stay in gear, despite
(because of?) a just installed new chain, cassette, brake pads, bottom
bracket, and free wheel hub. I took it to my local shop again before
this race, and they tweaked it as best they could. It seemed ok,
although "sensitive". At this race, it reverted to the same bad
behavior, jumping out of gear whenever I put power to the pedal. Long
story short, the mechanic who had worked on my bike before the VT 50 at
my LBS, since fired for pissing off too many customers, had failed to
tighten the cassette, causing it to wobble, hence lose alignment, hence
skip cogs. A frustrating ending to my race season.

I did race the following week in the Foliage 400 on a spur of the
moment, so the Mud In Your Eye turned out to be my penultimate race. In
the Foliage 400, I lasted only 4:22 out of the 6:40, doing 6 laps for
about 22.3 miles. It was a great course, short but grueling. Sort of
like doing shots of tequila - seems easy at first, but it catches up to
you.

Amazingly enough, I raced & finished every single NECS points race this
season. My unintentional perseverance has won me 3rd place in the NECS
Novice Masters points race. Hard to believe, considering I only
finished as high as 3rd once all season.

It was a great race season, despite several injuries early and a
frustrating ending. I can't wait until next year.

Hank Kells

I decided to use my Slayer for this race because it has full suspension. This
helped on the technical sections but slowed me on the climbs because it is
heavy (35 lbs.). Reminder: get a lighter FS Bike to race with next season.
It was great to race with Doug Hoch again. Dawn Kaczor was right behind me
for most of the race, spurring me on.

It was a great mtn bike racing season. I did 13 races and capped it off with
a trip to Moab. Thanks to everyone who helped make it a successful season.
Thanks to Brian and everyone at JRA Cycles for keeping my bikes race ready all
season.

Anne Noga

I prerode the course the day before with Dawn. The course was muddy
and slick. We practiced the tough lines and scoped out the walking
sections.
I felt pretty good when race time rolled around at noon. I was
anticipating one 10 mile loop and therefore went out conservatively.
Not even halfway into the race I realized we were already heading
back towards the tunnel and the finish line. I panicked briefly
thinking I missed a turn. But how could that be. I was following
the person in front of me who was following the person in front of
her. I didn't recall seeing any W's on our path either. At that
point it was too late to take it up a notch and catch the two racers
ahead of me.
As it turned out, our loop was less than the EFTA 5 mile standard for
a Novice race.