Bier en modder

Timber Park (Estacata)
November 11, 2007

Pre-Race

With my parents in town, my schedule has been a little off, plus the fact that we’re usually on the go from 7 am to 10 pm means that I’m getting a little worn down. I was able to sneak a quick hill sprint session in Friday but it was short and my mind was wandering a lot.
We got there in plenty of time and got set up. I took a quick look around at the course, particularly the bowl area, which is where any tricky sections or obstacles would likely be. The same loop around the big pine was there plus a nice sweeping off-camber downhill-uphill to the finish. The back sections near the power lines and the treatment plant would probably have some tight, slick turns through the trees but nothing too surprising. It looked like a fast course with little place to rest.
I got to the line late and ended up with a lousy position pretty far back. I tried to remember that it’s a 45 minute race. Keeping the leaders in sight for the first couple laps would be a reasonable goal. I didn’t want to repeat Rainier where I went out way too fast for the first couple laps and then spent the next 30 minutes recovering.

The Race

The gun goes off and it takes a few seconds for the lag to catch up to me. As I thought, the corners were a little slick. I weighted the front tire and took the outside on a number of them to keep momentum and gain a spot or two. It looked like people were using the pavement uphill as a little rest so I resisted sitting up and sprinted to move up a few more spots. The back stretch around the fields was far bumpier than it looked. It took a little more energy to get through there than I anticipated. I wasn’t able to find a good line to ride up the bowl so I resigned myself to running it. By the time I got up the hill, through the slop and over the barriers, my HR was in the low to mid 170’s. I felt cooked. I shouldn’t be able to sustain this pace for a whole race.
By the end of lap one, I figured I’d moved up into the top 15. I cut that in half by lap 2. Based on how my heart and lungs felt, I thought that this was about it. The leader, Geoff Standish, opened up a pretty sizeable gap with one chaser (Hugh Gapay maybe), and a group of 3 or 4 a little bit behind him. I was riding solo trying to bridge the gap up to the chasing group.
With 2 and a half laps to go, I was holding 5th and very slowly gaining on Bob Jacobs and another rider in the 3-4 spots. Bob and I gradually dropped the other rider and we swapped the 3-4 spot until the last lap.
I took the lead going by the start line and kept it until we went into the trees. I took one of the corners too hot and while I recovered, Bob moved ahead. I grabbed his wheel and we took off to chase 2nd place. Rounding the big pine in the bowl, we were maybe 10-15 seconds back. I decided to use the pavement to make up time by shifting up in the big ring. I didn’t look back but Bob must have stayed on. We caught 2nd place behind the now very ripe Honey Buckets. I stayed on his wheel by the parking lot and started to build speed when we made the turn back in along the fence.

The Finish

With maybe 1-2 minutes left in the race, I committed to the attack on 2nd place. I didn’t see him respond but I knew Bob would be on my rear wheel. Heading over the bridge, I was concentrating on keeping momentum up the hill. It wasn’t until I swung wide and dismounted that I remember seeing Bob take the inside corner up the hill and riding it each lap.
Remounting at the top, I probably had a bike length at most. I didn’t bother trying to clip in for the last 10 yards. I just put my head down and started pedaling fast.
For 10 yards at a conservative 10 mph, you cover it in 2 seconds. But it feels like slow motion, especially in the mud. First you see the wheel in the bottom corner of your eye for a fraction of a second, just long enough that you know it’s gaining. Then you look up at the finish line, comparing that wheel’s rate of speed to yours. Finally, your brain figures out it’s going to be close. Very close. But it’s too late. You stomp on the pedals as hard and fast as you can but you simply can’t change your rate of speed that fast. The other bike crosses the line first by 3 inches at most (ok, maybe it was a foot or two.  Candi said the camera timed it at -0.14 seconds).

Crap.

Post-Race

After swallowing my lungs, dropped my bike to head over to the Kiddie Cross race with Owen & Ingrid. Owen took off fast and nearly lost it on the final turn. He recovered nicely and finished.
Ingrid, on the other hand, was being pushed around by my dad. She started off happy but tipped over once. That was the end of that.
Got a PBR to re-hydrate and then stumbled on one of the kegs of Snow Cap. Much tastier.

The Summary

I can’t recall being quite so miserable for a long period of time. As I thought, there really wasn’t much room to rest and hide during the race. You were either moving up or you were moving down.
The corners were slick at first but I felt they dried out a bit during the race. I ran about 36-38 psi on both tubulars and was bottoming out a lot. Traction was probably as good as it was going to get. The glue jobs held, especially on the transition from the downhill to the pavement. I love the Challenge Grifo’s but felt the soft sidewall of the rear wheel give a lot there. I’m glad they stayed on.
No real damage to either myself or the bike.
Today’s post-race beer was brought to you by…Hair of the Dog 2007 Fred from the Wood. Smoky. Lots of oak character present with tobacco and dried fruit flavor and aroma. This beer needs many, many years to settle down. It’s a little too intense for me right now.