Race Report from the Ryan Hawks Memorial Eastern Cup

By Shawn Patenaude

This report will be a bit less verbose than it would be, given that I’m typing one handed, more on that in a minute.

The Eastern Cup mtb race held at Catamount turned out to be a great event and hopefully it gains in popularity.  A beautiful day, dry course and reasonable temps made for a truly enjoyable experience. Given the accumulated fatigue in my legs, I opted for the Cat 1 race versus following Johnny into the foray of 6hr racing.  2 hrs is way better for tired legs than 6.

After a quick warm up I realized I had goods legs, so the plan was to punch it at the start and hang on to the front as long as possible then settle in to my rhythm and have fun. It worked for about 5 minutes at which point, after getting frustrated with a bobble from a rider in front of me, I lit the afterburners, trying to chase down none other than Jamie Driscoll.  That’s when fitness (and common sense) overcame skill and I overcooked a corner, slamming the ground at 20mph and losing about 10 places.

Once I got back on the bike I realized gripping the bar with my right hand was painful. With adrenalin and increased frustration I kept going, hooking on with some fast guys. The joy of riding my bike fast on the trails clouded the hand issue.

That joy lasted until mid lap 3 when the wheels finally came off the bus.  I bonked, my hand started to be distracting and the joy completely left the building when 9th place dropped me on a short punchy climb.  Survival mode to the finish!

When I got to the finish and took my gloves off my wife noted “…you should probably get that looked at.”  My right hand was a bit misshapen.

After 3 hrs in the ED there’s good news, the hand is not broken.  Bad news is the wrist “may be”.  Doc couldn’t really tell.  Looks like there’s some trainer time in my future.

Anyway…  It was a good day of racing, fun was had by all, and the training value was perfect.