Platteville MTB TT
Yesterday marked the first Mountain Bike Race of the year. I have been reading blogs of all the west coast kids racing and have been jealous for quite some time. The trails have been muddy and racing was a while off. But a sunny 70+ degree day and some sweet single track knocked out that urge.
The course was a combination of single track and uhh single track. This tight fast course offered up some great climbs and some wicked descents. I took off 30 seconds behind Neil and ripped it the hole way. I felt good and the legs where there about a mile into the race I could see my first pickoff.
Neil was just around the corner and I was push a good pace. I held this pace for most of the first lap and settled in a little for the second half of the first lap and first half of the second lap. I steadily picked off a rider here and there and got a good feel for the bike. About 3/4 of the way through the final lap I saw Carlos gaining on me and I decided to try to hang with his pace. It was slightly higher then mine but just enough to hurt pretty bad. I pogo ed off his blazing pace to the finish and then slammed a bunch of water. Neil was just ahead of me and congratulated me for beating him before I even got off my bike. What! your kidding right?
Well if Neil only would have known they screwed up the results and didn't mark me as finishing, I DNFed first time I ever DNFed after the race was over :)
Sexy Legs
Last night marked the first real cyclist accomplishment of the season. I shaved my legs! the first time you shave is such a pain in the ass. I had to attack it in 3 steps.
1. Electric razors also known as pain machine. Talk about razor burn. Results of this-
2. Straight razor - ouch
3. Finally Nair.
I am one hairy Bastard but now I am baby smooth. Bring on the road rash.
First Race weekend MBM and Great Dane Crits
So this weekend officially kicked off the season and I brought it in with style by punishing my body. Saturday was the
Madison Basco Madison Spring classic. Much thanks to the
Kitten factory for putting on this great event, that promised fun for the whole family.
Nine and I went out and scoped the course on Thursday which ended up playing largely in our favor. As we will soon see alley cats are half speed half strategy. We started out with
Jesse Lalonde pulling off the pack from the get go and in a panick nine yell grab the fast wheel, so we sprint up to Jesse and he now has us marked and we are at the back of the pack, clever I think to myself. But Jason and I have a plan of our own, we fall way off the back and let the group ride away. We know that the best way to go is by the capitol and down the southwest trail.
Nine and I trade hard pulls past the capitol and down the southwest trail at speeds of 23-30mph the weekend warriors whiz by and I hear to cyclist say those guys need to start racing, I chuckle to myself if he only knew. Flying through red lights and and traffic a sense of confidence falls over us I think we are way ahead.
We hit the dirt and I start to pull at a pretty steady rate. I feel strong and confident that I can keep this pace for a long time. Jason and I trade pulls down the dirt road and start talking about where everyone is but there is no one in site. We make it all the way to Basco and hit the turn around this marks the first time we see another racer. Our pace seemed to drop as we hit the turn around I was pretty cooked hoping Jason had a hard pull in him I ask him to the front but he says he doesn't have much we fall off the pace. The talking and riding starts and a little strategy starts to come out then out of nowhere here comes Jesse hauling ass by himself. Damn! My next thought is ok lets work together but Jesse is not having that we takes some pulls and he sits in. Then we hit a down tree where it was neccesary to unclip. Jesse see's his opening and takes a pull then jumps the tree and takes off. I quickly unclip and start to chase but I look back and Jason is struggling with his road cleats. A moment of indescision rush through my head wait for Jason or chase the one of the main WORS guy I have always wanted to be as fast as. "If I can hang with Jesse here I can have some confidence going into the first WORS race but if I lose Jason I could be in no mans land and lose the race". Well as you can tell I waited to long and Jesse rode off but none the less I chase,and chase and chase some more. He gets a sizable gap and settles in. I keep the pace high and steadily chip away at it but I don't have much left in the legs. We hit the road and Jason finds a new energy and catch up to me. My first thought is lets get him but the roady in Jason is smarter then the mountain biker in me so we steadily chip away at his lead. We close just enough to keep an eye on him and hope he doesn't take our route home. We hit the bridge exit from the trail and he goes to the arboretum we are home free. We jump out of our saddles and attack like two giddy school kids fight for a snickers bar. 23 24 25 miles an hour I feel like I could push as hard as I wanted. We ride back to the park in a mad frenzy giddy as could be that we where home free.
We cross the finish line together in true alley cat spirit and Jason nobaly suceeds first to me saying I did most of the work and takes a second him self. Jesse finishes third and ex-teammate Ben Anderson takes forth. Thanks again to everyone involved and to Jesse for a great race.
Sunday I decided to do the great dane crit. This may have been a bad idea since I felt completly cooked from MBM but what the heck right. The race went off well and like all mountain bikers in road races I got bored and attacked too early. I ended up somewhere in the top 15 in a somewhat uneventful cat. 5 crit. Oh well good weekend all in all and a good workout.
