Spring Break:
Sunday: Rouge Roubaix, Drive 2 hr to Kevin's house for food, Drive 3 hr to Starkville.
Monday: Clean road bike, load car, drive 5 hr to Little Rock
Tuesday: Spend time with Mom, Talk to local bike shops about group rides, find out about Nitro ride at 6:30. Do Nitro ride with 2 Ex-pros, 3 Cat 1 riders, 5 Cat 2 riders, 15 Cat 3 riders, one other Cat 5. (You know you're going to be in pain when your bike is the cheapest by $3k) Keep up and ride strong for first 30 min, push the pace up some shorter climbs, get dropped by second lap.
Wednesday: Spend time with grandparents, shop for new phone, spend time with 3 year old nephew.
Thursday: Ride road bike for 4 hr, including 30-45 min of riding the Allez on a MTB trail, receive Dads new smart phone to avoid new contract. (Should see many more pics on this blog now that I just have to carry a phone)
Friday: Drive back to Starkville, work on HW
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| HTC Tilt 2, 3.2 Mega Pixels |
Saturday: Wake up early to do leg openers, clean bike and get packed for Tuffburg, drive 3 hr down to Hattiesburg, search for motel, finally crash around midnight.
Sunday: Tuffburg!
Tuffburg:
As usual sleep did not come easy or steady the night before. This has become quit the problem for me. Despite not getting excited or nervous about a race till I'm at the start line I'm still having trouble sleeping. Once 7am rolled around it was time to get up, eat, repack the truck and drive 20 min to the race start.
Coming off of 2 big regional races its strange to come back to your local races. At the regional races you might have one or two people that know you, and know how strong you might be. Heck I was lucky if more than 5 people at these races knew my name. No sooner than I stepped out of the truck at Tuffburg there were people asking me how I was doing, how my training has gone, and a few congratulated me on my races this year.
Only a hour and a half to race start: Get registered, Get dressed, Start warming up! Watched the Beginner Class go off then test road the first 3 miles of the race course. I knew from last year that it was going to be flat, tight and full of turns. I also knew that the start would decide who did well and who would struggle. I was surprised at how fast I was able to dive into the sandy over hard pack turns of this section. A few practice starts and some tempo riding, then it was time to start.
Lining up at the start I knew that there where 5 people who might be in contention for the win (David A, Tyler, KC, Butler, Me). One thing I also noticed is that I was the only Cat 2 19-29 racer that was not in a team kit. The starting roll call was taken, then an announcement of 15 seconds. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1....
....Sprint! Yes half a bike length on David A, Cr@p cant clip in! Had to slow just a bit to get clipped in and was passed by David A and Tyler both. As the starting straight ended I was closing in on Tyler's wheel but then at the last moment KC cut me off. Hitting the single track 4th was not my plan.
After a few turns it was clear that KC was not on form this early in the year so I asked to pass on the next wide section. I followed him through a few more turns before finding a spot to pass. "Passing on Left." As I pulled up next to him he decided he wanted to sprint to the next turn. Time to grow sharp elbows and pass. I was already out of eye sight of David A and Tyler and was not happy about being behind KC. I dove to the inside of the next turn and powered out of it passing KC.
About a mile later the course opened up to a short double track climb. As I turned on to the double track I could see David A and Tyler just finishing the climb. Halfway up the climb Butler passed me. Going down the back side of the climb, across a road then up a short washed out pitch I managed to pass Butler as we hit single track. Butler stuck on my wheel for the next several miles till I took a small spill.
After a short rooty climb there was a rooty descent that ended with a hard right turn into a small drop, landing in a sand pit then a left turn. My front wheel washed out and Butler passed me as I tried to get going again. The spill jumped my chain off the chain rings, so it took me longer to get going then I was expecting.
Crossing the finish line I knew that I had 10 more miles to chase down the leaders. I saw Butler turn into the woods just as I turned onto the finishing straight. Double shot caffeine Gu, change out bottles, then chase! About 2 miles into the second lap (about the time the caffeine hit my system) I passed Butler on the side of the trail with a broken chain. Being back in 3rd and with caffeine surging through my system it was time to really push the pace!
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| Passing Butler, Lap 1 |
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| Running remount |
As I charged down the trail people would tell me that David A and Tyler were just up the trail. I continued to push until I saw David A. With these trails it's hard to tell exactly how far ahead someone is. With all the switch back running so close to each other David A could of been 30 sec ahead or 5 min depending on where we passed each other. The first time I passed him I figured we had 6 miles left and I was about a min and a half behind him. Next time we passed I was only 1 min behind with 5 miles left. Would I catch him, or would he see me chasing and turn it up a notch?
With less than 4 miles left I was finally on the same switch back as him. Then with 3 miles left I made the pass. Crushing the last 3 miles I finished 2nd. Less than 30 sec behind Tyler and nearly 1 min ahead of David A. Not too bad for the first XC race of the year!
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| Face of pure pain! |
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| Tuffburg HR and Altitude Data |
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| Tyler 1st, Me 2nd, David A 3rd |
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