I look forward to this race every year. It's a really fun course, great environment, and very nice park. Team Red Wheel knows how to put on a great race!
For those of you that were there, you know how great the weather was. It was fantastic! There were even times where it was a little 'chilly'. Yeah, I said 'chilly'!
My goal for this race was to just get a good 6-hours of riding in. With the DINO 24-hour just 7 days away, coach said to keep it under 90% effort. Last year I got in 9 laps and finished 11th so I was pretty happy with that and would have loved to improve on that, but not this year.
The race started with a neutral roll-out, gun-shot, and sprint into the singletrack - for most folks. I chose to sit back in the back and not push myself too much right out of the gate. I spent the first lap riding and chatting it up with Rob Ballou and Stephanie McCreary. But I think I was annoying them by talking so much so I went and did my own thing.
Like most races, with each lap I got to know the course better and better knowing where to push and where to let it coast to be as efficient as possible. I averaged about 41 minute laps with a 10-15 minute rest between laps. Jason Pryor and I kept leap-frogging each other. At one point, we both commented that we're often in this no-mans land during a race. Not fast enough to run with the leaders but not back-of-the-pack either. Just sitting in the middle of the race by ourselves.
As Jason and I started lap 8, we made a pack to ride a 2-lap pace to get us to 8 laps for the day and not stop before we had 8 laps. We hung together for those last two laps, had a good time, and ended the day with a good effort. I'm not going to lie, the race hurt and I'm still a little sore today. So, even at 90% there's quite a bit of pain involved!
(sorry, no cool pics for this post either!)
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