Bike Racing

Left Fun Junction on Friday to go shred some trails up in the boonies south of the Wyoming border. CSU MTB race weekend. Saturday was the short track where I was looking to limit my losses. Suprisingly, I ended up 7th overall as I did my normal skit and passed loads of people after starting near the back. Then I went to pre-ride the course, but I had no idea if I was on the right track. I was stopped and coughing my lungs up as a lady hiker came down. "Oh, it must be the elevation(in reference to me coughing). My cabin is right there, and it is 9400ft." Thats why I could taste my lungs the whole race. Tasty.

XC was Sunday morning. Luckily it wasn't 30F like the day before in the morning. First lap was good. Just a brutal climb to the top, a techy downhill, a deep creek crossing of freezing water, another climb, then a sweeeeeet rocky downhill to the bottom. I climbed to the top in a good position, then rode like a school-girl trying to descend the first downhill. Smacked my derailluer and bent the hanger so it would hit the spokes. I had to watch my shifting so I didn't go below my 3rd lowest cog. Lots of granny ringing was had after that. Just after lap 1, I feel my front tire all squirrelly. Hit it with CO2, but it only goes up to 20psi, and my Big Air was gone. Must of been a bad one. Stop a few times on the climb to try and get the gash in my tire to seal. After shredding the DH on lap 2, I felt my tire very low again after hearing multiple rocks smash my rim. Pump up the tire and head of for lap 3, which had us avoid the rocky downhill, and shorten the loop by taking a smooth fire-road back. Just as I hit the fire road and flew down at 30+mph, my tire goes flat and I try not to crash. Get off and run downhill and then a long flat section to the finish. Running 2 miles in crabon shoes worked, but is not the greatest thing. I guess it is good training for cross season.

So I ended up going from 5th overall to 9th in the XC as 4 guys passed me running. It was still fun, but it seemed like when I was racing, it was like another ride. I was never really pinned, and the HR was pretty low, but that could have been from the elevation and fatigue. Fun weekend though.

Next up, its off to Sol Vista for some XC action on Saturday. Then a few of us are of te Breckenridge for a CX race on Sunday. Should be another fun weekend.