Passed By The Old Guys...

This past weekend the Root 66 race series held its second mountain bike race of the season @ Winding Trails in Farmington. Pat and I headed out there to try our hands at this race thing. I got up, ate, packed up my gear and my bike, caffeinated and headed out to the race. Got there around 8AM, got my number, aired up the tires and went out to pre-ride the course. Now all I read and had heard from other people who did the race last year was that it's flat and super fast. Well apparently things changed this year because there was a definite steep section that took me by surprise on the pre-ride. I finished the route noting little elements that could cause me trouble during the race. I met up with Pat on the way back to the parking lot. Put my bike in the stand that John C had so graciously lent me (thanks again John!) and cleaned my ride off. Pat and I stretched and hung out for a bit before the line up for our race. As we were lined up I was checking out some of the other bikes. A pretty good mix of stuff. Everything from the brand new XT group to older 7 speed rigs. Race starts and I try to stay with the lead group. Watch a kid spin 90 on a sandy patch and almost case it, not even 100 yards into the race. Great. Now I'm worried that someone's gonna lose control into me somewhere. At the 1/2 mile mark the pack kinda thinned out.

I'm riding behind this kid with a full Cannondale kit and full suspension rig. Just as we get to the first single-track section we pass his teammate leaned up against a tree heaving his guts. I guess that the 3 packs of Gu right before the start weren't such a great idea. We get to the steeps section and the kid leaves me in his dust as he just flows down the sketchy single track. Once we get to the climb though I get right on his ass. We turn to go up the next section of single track and he just stops dead on the trail. Wrong gear? Who knows. He grabs a tree and leans over to let me pass. He catches up to me a bit further in the race. I keep a pretty steady pace and he starts losing ground. Once we get to the end of the first lap, I sprint up the hill past the finish line and pour it on where it flattens out. He's way behind me and I never see him again for the rest of the race. I checked the standings and found out the he never finished. Mechanical? Poor nutrition? Alien abduction? Who knows? I went out a bit too hard in the beginning of the race. When I got the last 8th mile I could hear riders coming up behind me. I tried to keep the heat on to stay in front of them but started to feel my arms tingling. The last time I felt that was when I was under-nourished for a road ride and wound up dry-heaving on the side of the road for 10 mins a couple of years ago. I kept my pace to a manageable level, got passed by four guys from the age group above me, hung with them in the uphill singletrack section no problem. But once it flattened out, they took off on me. I wound up placing 9th out of a field of something like 21 in my age group. 50:59 for 9 miles (4.5 mile course @ two laps). Not bad for never having raced anything before. Had a great time and looking forward to riding in the next race in May. I found a couple of photos of me on the promoter's web site. Sorry for the small size but couldn't figure out how to enlarge them.


-beginning of the race. this is the top of the steep section. i look so focused (trying not to run the stupid photographer over who's framing up with one foot in the trail...fucker!)

-really starting to suck wind here...

That's it. Everyone should come out and race the next one. We'll get our own team started. Call ourselves Team Cock or something. Get out and ride!