There's a small, punchy climb near the end of each lap at the Mayhem race in Medford, NJ. It doesn't have much elevation — we're talking Pine Barrens here, not the Alps — but it's steep enough, off-camber enough, and just technical enough at the top that it causes problems. Riders can bunch up on the approach as they shift gears, potentially spinning out on the slick post-rain surface as it gets chewed up. And if you hit it with the wrong momentum, or the wrong gear, you're walking.

I didn't walk it on lap one. And that changed everything. Almost.

The Setup

Mayhem was never supposed to be an A race. I've been riding my Canfield Nimble 9 as a singlespeed for two years, but this was the first time racing it — and that was mostly the point. The actual target is SingleSpeed World Championships in October at Port Jervis, NY: roughly 25 miles of real climbing, a completely different animal. Mayhem is about as far from that as you can get on two wheels — flat Pine Barrens singletrack, minimal elevation, a course that rewards sustained power over technical climbing fitness. Which made it a perfect low-stakes excuse to break up trainer sessions, nerd out on gearing, and see where things stood.

The fitness backdrop: I'd been grinding through sweet spot and threshold intervals on TrainerRoad since January, FTP trending upward, VO2 max quietly climbing. None of that was pointed at a flat XC race in the Pine Barrens in March.

The gear question alone had taken two weeks to answer. I'd started with a 32/19, tested a 32/18 on my local rail trail, then ordered a 32/17 when the data suggested I had enough cadence headroom on flat terrain to justify it. The course profile — minimal elevation, fast singletrack, one short punchy feature — pointed toward the harder gear. More snap on the flats. Accept whatever happens on the climb.

What I didn't fully account for was how the training and the gear would combine in a specific moment on lap one.

The Race

Eight riders in the singlespeed open category, two laps. Conditions were good — 61 degrees, mostly sunny, course a touch muddy in some corners from overnight rain but nothing that slowed things down meaningfully. I settled into the effort early, maybe a little conservative off the start, but found my rhythm in the first few miles of twisty Pine Barrens singletrack.

By the time we hit Blueberry Hill the first time, I was sitting in the mix, watching. One rider further ahead of me made the call to dismount and run the upper section — a perfectly reasonable choice on a slick, off-camber climb with a hard right turn at the top. I didn't.

Feeling good, I gassed it.

The 32/17 gave me enough snap to carry momentum through the technical section, up and over the crest, and past two riders in one move. What had been a problem for them was an opportunity for me, and the reason I could take it wasn't just fitness — it was having a gear that could actually deliver power at that speed on that gradient. The months of threshold work meant I had something in reserve when I needed it.

I crossed the lap one timing mat at 38:04. This is foreshadowing.

Lap Two

Heading into Blueberry Hill the second time, the race had reshuffled and I was in a group with Perry and Lenny. Perry was about 50 yards ahead, grinding his way up. Lenny was on my wheel on the flat leading to the hill. I told him what I was going to do — sprint the hill — and did it. Came up the inside as Perry was cresting, Lenny right behind me. From there it was me, then Lenny and Perry for the final stretch.

Earlier in lap two, Lenny had washed out right in front of me as we exited a single track section onto a sandy road. I backed off — not out of sportsmanship exactly, more because riding into someone else's crash in soft Pine Barrens sand isn't a great move for either of us. He was fine, we chatted for a second while getting up to speed again, and we moved on. What I didn't know until after the race was that Lenny had also taken a wrong turn somewhere on lap one, which explained his 38:24 split versus his 37:46 on lap two. On a clean lap, the guy was quick and maybe I never see him the whole race.

What followed Blueberry Hill was about 15 minutes of racing that I felt in my chest for a while after. It felt like Lenny never gave me more than a bike length. Every time I pushed the pace he matched it. My heart rate, which had been sitting in the 160s for most of the race, climbed into the 170s and hit 186 near the finish. That's not a number I see often. Maybe I should be dead, who knows.

That said, sprint finish. Of course. He got me at the line. My lap two: 38:07. His: 37:46. Final gap: half a second.

What the Training Actually Bought

Fourth place. One spot off the podium by a margin that's basically a bike throw. And honestly, a cleaner result than I expected from a race I treated as a test run.

But here's the thing about those winter trainer sessions that I keep coming back to: the benefit wasn't cardiovascular in some abstract sense. It wasn't "general fitness." It showed up as the specific ability to make a hard effort at a hard moment — a sprint up a technical climb in the middle of a race — and then stay in the fight for another 15 minutes at a heart rate most people would back off from.

Nearly even lap splits — 38:04 and 38:07 — while being pushed by a faster rider on lap two. That's not a fitness deficit showing up. That's the fitness holding. And non-existent race tactics by me. Yes I should've chased him. Probably.

The gear held up. The Nimble 9 did everything I asked of it. It turned some heads. And the structured winter base that had nothing to do with singlespeed racing kinda turned out to have everything to do with it.

What's Next

Mayhem was the opener. Truly. For lots of riders there, it's literally their first time on a bike since late fall. SingleSpeed World Championships is the "A" event way out there — Port Jervis, NY in October, significantly more climbing, a very different gear conversation and a good time will be had even on race day as we suffer the climbs. Some of the racers in our group will be there and it'll be good to see them again. The training block between now and then is where it gets built, one interval session at a time.

Half a second this time. We'll see what the summer looks like.

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