Saturday, April 14, 2007

VIESHEA XC Race Time!!!

I headed up to Peterson Pits this morning for the Vieshea XC race. The weather was looking great for a day of racing. I met up with Jubil and we rode a lap to warm up. Each lap was only a little over 2 miles in length and real flat, making for a super fast race. I was racing expert which ment I had to ride 7 laps, let the suffering begin.

The gun went off at noon and I hit the singletrack in 8th place. I moved up a spot or two in the first few minutes and then worked on settling in. The lead group was staying together real nicely. We all rode in a tight line for the first 2 laps at a real fast pace. During the 3rd lap, the first two guys rode to a 30 second lead or so and I was stuck on second wheel in the chase group. I rode with this guy from Iowa City for the next 3 laps as we went back forth. The last 0.3 miles or so are on a flat gravel road...perfect for a sprint finish. Anyway, at the end of the 5th lap the guy from Iowa City popped out from behind me and sprinted at the start of the gravel. I hung onto his wheel thinking he was trying to break me. I just sucked his wheel, and then at the line he put his hand in the air and pulled off to the side....WTF?? The guy was only racing Sport!?!? I thought he was racing expert and was pacing him. Now I had 2 more laps and I was about 2 minutes down on the first place guy. So, I set out on a two lap time trial to try and catch the leaders. I kept closing in, and on the last lap I laid it all on the line. I caught the second place guy at the start of the finishing gravel section and put the hammer all the way down. I glanced back and he couldn't hold my wheel. I finished in 2nd place. I think I was about 40 seconds off of first, but I'm not 100% certain.

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Cranking along about 2 min into the race. The sport guy who I
would eventually follow is sitting on my wheel.

If I would have known that I was following the lead sport guy I would have made a bigger effort earlier on to catch the lead guys, but he was cranking along at a good pace. Rumor had it that the first and second place sport guys came down from expert to race sport for the day. I don't know if it's true, but the both were flying and had a huge lead on the 3rd place sport rider...Jubil. I was happy with my effort, even though I messed up a bit on my strategy. I finished in a little over an hour with a max heart rate of 201 at the finish, and an average of 187 for the whole effort. I'm trashed to say the least. Good race though...Peace



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The chase group is working togeter real well here and keeping a great pace. Too bad we wern't all in the same class because it would of been a real close race.

1 comment:

Carl Buchanan said...

Nice writeup and great finish!! Way to finish the race strong.