Bake Shop

Saturday's race was awesome. The weather cooperated (no rain!!) and the course was perfect. Jacob and I loaded up the car and were on the road south by 7 AM on Saturday. We made good time until we hit I 70 in KC. They were doing some road construction and they had it down to 1 lane.

The race itself was good. I was pumped and ready to go. It's been a long winter and I was anxious to ride on singletrack without 15 layers of clothing to stay warm. Since the field was large they used a Lemans style start....running on foot for a short while. This helped space everybody out. I didn't get as decent as position as I should have and got stuck in a slower pack. On several of the early climbs I was going was slow because the rider(s) in front of me were climbing real slow. It took a while but I finally got away from this group. The first lap was the toughest riding with so many people around. You were always riding at the pace at the person in front of you in technical areas. The course is lot rockier than what I'm used to riding in Iowa. I struggled in these areas and usually ended up getting passed. Once I hit the climbs I was able to gain some ground back. I played leap frog for quite a few spots on the first few laps.

Laps 1, 2 and most of 3 felt good. Towards the end of the lap 3 my legs started feeling funny. Right before the last climb my thighs started twitching and I knew something was up. I pulled off to the side and they cramped up something fierce. I rested for a few minutes and finally was able to start walking up the hill. Once at the top I got back on and finished the lap. Then I took a short break to hydrate and stretch my legs. After a 20 min pit stop I jumped back on and started going again. The next two laps felt alright but both times on that climb I ended up walking to offset the cramps. The funny part was that the other climbs on the course didn't bother me. Maybe it was just the timing on this one. Jacob and I rode the next lap together to help motivate each other. On the final lap I told him to ride his pace and I stuck with him most of the way until the final bit. He was able to make it back to the staging area before the 5:45 "no lights cut off time". I got in at 5:45:07 ( 7 secs over) and couldn't start another lap because I didn't bring my lights. So my final tally was 5 laps in 6 hours (35 miles) for the day. Jacob finished with 7. The overall winner in the Solo 6 group got in 9 laps.

What did I learn....
1. Always start hard. Getting stuck in the slow pack never leads to good things. (my wreck last year as proof).
2. Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate, in the days leading up to a race. Cramps really suck when otherwise you're feeling fine.
3. On a technical course you have to make up time in the sections you're good at.