First race of the year, so had no idea what class to ride in. Thought I'd try my age group to see how the fitness was progressing. Rolling the singlespeed El Mariachi, 32X17; new Schwalbe Racing Ralph 2.4's.
Norfolk is a lot further than I thought. The extra stop to buy McD's sausage bisquits for Ian nearly cost me. Signed in at the last possible second and headed straight for the start line. No warm up at all. Checked with Millhouse, who was actually disciplined enough to show up on time and preride. Thanks for the pointers, pal.
Typically these things are just anaerobic from the gun. Open class got about a minute head start then they sent the age groupers off. I just stood up and pedaled hard on the long gravel climb to the singletrack. Kept waiting to get passed by the guys with gears...nothing. Half-way up the climb I took a look around and saw I had a big gap. Huh, that's different. Kept hammering and got a clean shot into the singletrack.
The gravel road start
First technical section by the creek was pretty soft, but really fun. A few logs to hop, some nice ups and downs, and a rocky little stream crossing. Started catching open class riders in this section, many of whom were walking the stream crossing. Rang the little brass bell (I love that thing!) and squeezed by, riding all the way through.
Exiting the technical section
On the first open section I was catching a lot of riders. Found my good friend Millhouse looking good in his first race on that Red Salsa El Mar...felt a few pangs of jealousy as Ian tells me Justin's bike looks way better than mine. Dang.
Out in the open
Right before the trail re-enters the trees I caught the last of the open class racers. Passed the last four on the hill into the trees. I assumed I'd just swap the lead with them for a while, take a breather and gather myself. Again, looked back and found a gap. Decided to just press the advantage and see who followed. To my surprise, they just let me ride away.
Pushed the rest of lap one pretty hard hoping to get a nice solid lead going and discourage the chasers. Out of the technical section the second time, Ian was waiting with the camera. He must have run four miles to get all the great shots he captured. He told me I had a one minute lead on the second place rider. The open section with all the switchbacks lets you get a good view of those chasing you. By the end of the section I could see that my lead was holding steady. Decided to throttle back a ways in case I needed something at the end.
Ended up stretching the lead out and winning by about three minutes.
Photo credit: Tom Winfield
Conclusion #1: The last month of pain and suffering at the hands of sadistic spin instructors really paid off. I was so much stronger than in race one last year. Conclusion #2: I've got a long ways to go to be in position to succeed at Laramie. Conclusion #3: Great equipment set-up, mostly. I love that Salsa...only got to race the rigid fork once last year and got worked over pretty good. Much better this time. Singlespeed hurts...but it's a good hurt. Used an H2O bottle instead of pack...jury still out...much easier to grab the tube and gulp than to wait for a convenient place to hydrate. Tires: fabulous...trail condition were about perfect, but these are definitely the race tires for me this season.
Relaxing with Millhouse
Next up: Swanson, May 3. I love that place.
2 comments:
Great race Robb!
I watched you for some of the race and you were rippin it. Nice Race.
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