The start is on a pretty good climb. It's a service road used to spread the field out before dumping us into the first single track. Two weeks ago, I knew things were going wrong at this point. This week, I felt pretty good. Hell, I was even moving up... passing people! Sweet. (maybe it helped that I started at the back of the pack this time, I had to pass someone.. right) The first descent I wasn't killing it but I wasn't getting dropped by the guys in front of me. At that point, we started to come across the carnage of the leaders. Dudes off in the trees, crashed or flatted. My teammate Amir off the trail working with his bike, I know he had a good chance to win today but didn't finish.
Across the first long technical "flat" I was hanging "strong", getting passed but also passing folks. Then the yo-yo dropped. I tried to stay calm and just keep pedaling. Get in a short recovery. Food, drink... breath. Things started to turn around. Ok, I started to real back many of the racers that had passed me during my down point. I was right on their wheels during the next big climb. Once over the climb the group in front of me started to pull away. I had never been on this trail before and my courage wasn't supper high. At the next hill I again got within eye sight of my group but the yo-yo feel again, this time on a hill. I didn't see them again.
The last section of the race was on trials I used to ride way back in the day. About 7-8 years ago, we used to go camping up there and ride that area. It was fun, more importantly it was an up section for me. Even after 20 miles of the race, I was going faster over these trails than I used to. When I reach the race finish, I was so glad it was over. Unfortunately I had 6 miles to ride back to the base of winter park and my car. That was like adding insult to injury. I crawled back, passed by some lady on the bike path pulling two little girls in a trailer. I asked the kids if they could push over and let me ride, they looked at me like I was crazy.
Over all, this race was better than the last two. So, while not very good in the results department, I'm calling it a personal ..... better but Improvement Required.
Final stats: 24 miles raced in 2:20. 35 mile round trip back to the car (with warmup). 4948 ft gained, 2694 calories burned!, Avg speed 9.8 mph, max 32.9 mph. Mx HR 174. Oh and the pro that won the race did the exact same coarse in 1:32.. WOW!
If you ever get up to Winter Park for some riding. You have to hit these trails. Phenomenal!
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