Jesse Jakomait

Coming soon!

VT50 full
Tuesday, September 29, 2009

I raced the Vermont 50 over the weekend and was pumped to pull out another big W. The legs were good but my fate seemed anything but sealed half way in when my back brakes stopped working. Motivation was still going strong but the lack of stopping power had me dreading all the sweet Vermont single track that attracted me to this race in the first place. I was still pulling the lever as hard as I could when I wanted to slow down but my pads were completely gone and the friction of metal on metal is shockingly poor. I resorted to sticking my foot between the seat stays and tire once cause there wasn’t a whole lot in my front brakes either. I figure kids these days ride brakeless BMX all day long so maybe this will be a new cool thing. 29” wheels, singlespeeds, 1x9’s next is brakeless. Maybe not.

The race was full of excitement that started before it even started. Biking 50 miles is a good undertaking but running 50 miles is massively epic and the Vermont 50 embraces that sort of challenge. People on foot need to start as early as possible so they can finish before nightfall but bikers obviously have to go first otherwise we’d trample everyone down. That forces the mtb race to start before sunrise at first light. Past years has placed this magical time to be 6:15am but this year raining clouds filled the sky and blocked out the sun. We lined up in total darkness and followed a truck down pavement to start the event. While leading the first wave I totally missed the first turn onto the dirt road and made a U turn into the belly of the pack. From there everyone spent the next 45 minutes guessing down the trail! Just when you thought you could see better we’d bounce back into the dense woods fingers crossed we wouldn’t hit something and crash. We were all morons for riding out there without lights!

Once I could finally see where I was going the front of the race whittled down to 6 of us. Two of the guys were pretty seriously assessing the pack whispering back and forth then made a real roadie attack on a dirt climb. I haven’t experienced that before in mtb race but then again I’ve never raced the Vermont 50 before. Some time later I got caught out after some massive chain suck had me on the side of the trail with my bike upside down trying to figure out how the hell I was going the chain back where it is supposed to be.

Some strategic tugging and head scratching later I got myself rolling again with some time to make up. With the inspiration from seeing Christian Tanguy overcome some troubles in the 2 NUE races I was psyched to pull back to the front and keep at it. It was sloppy and a little cold but fun to ride fast with some other dudes on trails where you never know what’s around the next corner.

Shortly after my brakes went south around the mid way point I ended up a few seconds in front of the disconnecting group with a guy on a full rigid 29er blazing down the hills. We must have been 3 hours in but I hadn’t even drank my first bottle yet. He eventually pulled over at a feed zone for something but I was set and cruised on by. That was the last I saw anyone till my race was over many sloppy miles later. Fun times.

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