2nd/31
0:00:07 is the story of the day.
As I had hoped, the weather cooperated as best as it could. The sun and breeze the day before did a good job drying the course where it could. Nonetheless, I turned the wheelset into tubeless and ran mud tires which were a timely purchase with my Snow Bowl race winnings. Race day was sunny and fairly mild so there was no worry of under-hydrating. After some callups, I lined up on the 2nd row and set my mind to the task at hand. I hoped I would get out to a good start, hit the 1st singletrack top-5 or so, and settle in to a groove. I knew my strength was climbing so I would push the pace there and play the descent conservatively. I had no idea what the conditions were going to be like in the woods and I didn’t want to lose the race there. There were some fast cats in my group whom I knew from New England that I marked as challengers, but had no idea what the talent level was from guys from away.
The whistle blew and we were off. I didn’t have a very good start and was only top-10 heading into the woods. As I suspected, Troy Kimball leaped up the climb and had a gap already. However, in the first section of woods, it was mayhem. Seems like everyone ahead of me crashed, including Kimball. I quickly dismounted rather than try to ride through the carnage and ended up passing at least 5 guys. I emerged unscathed and set my sights on what ended up being only a couple of guys ahead as we began our ascent. I soon passed Stu Jensen asking if he knew who was up ahead. He said just 1 other. I had no idea Kimball had wiped out back in the woods and he was 1 of the one’s I got by. So I settled in and tried to match the pace of the rider ahead of me. He was a tad quicker than I so he built up somewhat of a gap. I wasn’t too concerned as this was only lap 1 of 3. I was worried about who was behind me and I focused on keeping them at bay. I hadn’t seen Mark Gunsalus or Sam Wilcox yet. I maintained a good pace straight to the top keeping the leader (even though I thought he was maybe 2nd) in sight. But, just as we reached the summit and were about to enter the downhill singletrack, Wilcox came around me and entered the trail ahead of me. I was expecting it, so I just vowed to take it easy, stay upright, and try to follow his wheel. Well, that worked for a minute as I quickly endoed in a deep mud hole that caught me by surprise. My hands saved me, but were caked in mud. I shook it off, and headed on at my own pace. As it turns out, I didn’t loose too much time and the 2 guys ahead were in sight. I pursued them at a steady pace and prepared mentally for lap 2. I was on Wilcox’s wheel the whole time up to the summit allowing me to execute my plan to enter the singletrack ahead of him, hoping to dictate the pace and not loose any time as he was a talented descender. The tactic was short lived as I came up on lapped traffic and was slowed at a run section and Wilcox got by me. Again, I didn’t panic. I made it through and came out of the woods even closer to him than the 1st lap. I guess it was at this point that I forgot about the 1st place guy as I was focused on Wilcox. We rode through the start/finish close, but not wheel to wheel, and embarked on our final lap. I felt like I was in a good position and was going to push the climbs as I felt like I still had gas in the tank. I hadn’t used the granny gear the whole day and the legs felt strong. But, Wilcox made the move of the day when he pushed the pace on the section of singetrack at the base of the mountain that was unrideable. He ran smoothly and quickly and I just didn’t realize it in time and he was soon out of sight. When we emerged on an open climb section, I saw he was pretty far away and it was going to be difficult for me to bridge the gap. I’m pretty sure I went as hard as I could, but never saw the gap close so he must have been pushing it as well. Mid-way up the climb I was surprised to come up on the other guy in our class whom I forgot about. He was maxed out so I just continued on thinking how lucky I was. I summited and began the descent focused on riding defensively and conservatively. The race could not be won in the woods, but easily lost. I emerged in good shape at the bottom and was set to cruise to the finish when what to me wondering eyes should appear, but Wilcox a little ways up! After shaking off my disbelief, I set out to try to reel him in. I had under 1K to go, so there wasn’t much time, but the course was wide open so I had a chance I thought. However, he too was emptying his tank whether he knew I was back there or not and I just ran out of time and space.
So, after 2 hours and 12 minutes of racing, I missed out on the championship jersey by 7 seconds. There was a time when I would have been pissed and broken something, but I was at relative peace the finish. I was competitive and had a good clean race. Of course there were ample opportunities to have made up 7 seconds somewhere earlier in the race, but I’m sure the winner could have made up more time too, so it’s all good. I was close, but no jersey. But, you can count on 0:00:07 written on my handlebars as I prepare for next year’s championship!
Thanks go obviously to Babs and the boys for feeding me, Kennebec Bike and Ski for tuning the bike perfectly, my coach Beau for taking me to this level, and Kona providing me with a bike that helps me exude confidence both climbing and descending.
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