The past 11 days I made a trip out to the Rocky Mountains
for 2 rounds of national level competition. Way back on June 19th my
girlfriend Kelsey and I packed up the car for 11 days of racing and
vacationing. For me, mostly racing and training though.
The trip out was long and tough as always. The fastest way
out is through the great plains of South Dakoda. The unfortunate thing about that
drive, is the plains aren’t so great, until the turn into mountains in Wyoming
and Montana. But we stopped in Rapid City on day 1 so I could hit up the trails
from last year in Founders Park. Love the trails, but we got there as the sun
was going down so I only had about 30 minutes to ride. Worth it. We grabbed a
hotel and got some sleep after dinner and a few more hours of driving.
In the morning, we were greeted by the sight of mountains in
the distance, which we couldn’t see when we parked. There was also some strange
yellow crap stuck to my car. I’m pretty sure it was mustard, but I guess we’ll
never know. We finished the drive that evening, getting to our destination of
Missoula around 5pm with time to grab some food, check out the course, register
and of course, race the summer solstice short track. Most riders don’t like the
late race (9pm), but I think it’s kind of fun to celebrate the long days of
summer with racing as the sun goes down. It is tuff to get done racing at 9:30
and have to calm down and get to bed before midnight though. Anyways, the
racing could have gone a lot better for me. They only called up the first 2
rows. So I, expecting a third row call up was hanging out in the back and when
everyone rushed to the line, I stayed at the back. With a tough gravel climb,
it isn’t easy to get up on the start there as the first corner comes fast and
is accompanied by a narrowing of the course tape. Anyways, I was at the back
and after getting caught up in a crash going into the single track I was dead
last. They did a Miss n’ out format so the last few guys on course each lap
would be eliminated. I killed myself to stay in, and did so for 4 or 5 laps. I
was gassed completely after that but still charging. In fact, I almost plowed
over the official trying to pull me out. 9 minutes of racing, I want happy with
that. But tough luck happens in racing so I moved past it and got my head in
the zone for the next day’s XC.
We headed over to our host housing on the south side of the
downtown area. Missoula is a really awesome place to be, and thus trip made me
realize it. Last year I was in and out just for the race. This is was a little
more of a vacation. But I got right to bed, I was tired.
The XC race was on Saturday at 7pm, so I had a solid part of
the day to get ready and pre-ride the course. We headed to the course late
morning so I could get some riding in on the course. The big goal was obviously
to have a good race, but with my new bike I had to conquer the course. This is
the first national level race that I race on last year with the HT 26” bike so
I was anxious to see if the new bike was really that much better. I would say
it completely was! I could feel the extra weight on the climbs, but not as much
as I could really let it rip on the downhill. Even more exciting was the “A”
line. The A line in Missoula is a big jump about 4 feet down and 6 feet across.
It lands on the downslope and has a tight right hander at the bottom. It’s definitely
a high risk jump and last year I was just too afraid to hit it. But I made a promise
that I’d get better in the air, and nail it the next year. I spent some time at
Ray’s this winter, and have been practicing around town and I hit it all 6
laps. Super happy to do that. The race result however wasn’t as good as I was
hoping. 36th and just on the lead lap. It’s an improvement, but not
on last year’s result. I hoping to be inside the top 20 and really hoping to
get some points inside the top 15.
Despite the race not going as well as hoped, I made a point
of enjoying Sunday. I got up and headed out at 10 for a 3 hour ride in the
canyon trails. Such fun trails. I like the race courses, impossible up hills
and terrifying downhills, but the XC course layout is always short course. So
the ups are short and the downs are short. Riding out at rattlesnake canyon was
different, long climb, 40 minutes up to the top of Snowball overlook, then an
awesome descent down. Very steep, very technical and very fast. And it lasted
almost 10 minutes. Finally after a shower and some lunch Kelsey and I hiked up
to the big M on the mountain side above the university. The way up was lame
because we took the normal path, but it was beautiful up there. And on the way
down we took a much more fun path. Hiking is fun when it’s technical, just like
mountain biking. We finished the night off with a few beers and an excellent
dinner that we cooked for our hosts to say thank you. Their kids didn’t like my
chicken…
Next up was Colorado. We took the long way down from
Missoula on Monday. WE stopped in Yellowstone and say the paint pots and
against my normal “off-the-beaten-path” attitude we saw old faithful. It was
pretty sweet, but the paint pots were better. But it was fun to watch a few hundred
people wait for the geyser to go off and freaking out at every little spurt of
water. Although if I’m being honest, I was the same on the inside. We camped
out at a sight in the park and finished the drive off on Tuesday. While on the
drive on Tuesday I hit up some roads in Wyoming at Sink Canyon. The Pogo Agie
River has a really cool section in the canyon where it dives underground
through a porous section of limestone and then bubbles up like a natural spring
200 ft. further down the canyon. Riding the canyon road was pretty sweet, but
the hike and river time in the pogo agie was just as nice. We finally made it
to Colorado Springs later that night after weathering a pretty scary storm with
hail so bad the road was icy. It was a relief to get there.
I spent the week focused on getting ready for the race and
getting some good training and consistent recovery in. Wednesday I rode up near
Pikes Peak doing intervals on a mountain road. The 3 hour ride felt a lot more
like a 4 or 5 hour ride, probably due to the altitude. Thursday was similar. I
rode up a pretty cool road that was definitely on private property. 30%+ grades
on gravel on my road bike. I ended up walking a lot of it. But at the top you
could see the city in a way I’d never seen before. I then rode south of the
city on Gold Camp road. It’s a very cool road that turns to gravel before
hitting the top. Then I descended down to a nice park with a river and chilled
for a little. I then decided to finish the descent and then come back up the
back side and ride home from there. But about half way down the canyon road I
over-cooked a corner and slide out, over the bars, and into to gutter. I popped
up, feeling ok, and finished the descent, but I was banged up. Left leg was
covered in road rash and a small but really painful bit on my left hand. I also
had some pain in my left hand, which I was worried might be more than a bruise.
I limped home and got cleaned up and took Friday as easy as I could to make
sure I was ready for Saturday.
I was worried the injuries would keep me from having a good
race, but I pushed through and was happy that my race wasn’t effected too much
but the cuts. I had a little pain on my hand but the legs felt good and I paced
myself perfectly to a 27th finish. Not spectacular, but I’m happy
with it, and it’s my best finish on the national circuit thus far. And even
more, I felt aggressive the whole time and pushed it all out. But after the
race all the pain from my hand and leg that I didn’t feel during the race came
rushing in. Hand was sore all night and so was my leg. But after a good night’s
sleep I woke up feeling ready to race, once I got moving. The short track went
even better than the XC the next day. I again paced myself as best as I could
and was making up spots more towards the end of the race. I finished 16th
and I’ve never been so dehydrated that I can remember. The heat and the
altitude and the race the day before all added up to a dry raw throat and it
didn’t seem to matter how much I drank, I was dehydrated for the next few days.
I still kind of dried out. After an awesome dinner at Hell’s Kitchen Pizza in
Manitou we got in 5 hours of driving that night. Finally we made it home the
next day late around 8pm. The whole way through Iowa and Wisconsin we saw a lot
of storm damage. Lucky to miss out on all that.
Next up is a few weeks to recover and then back at it on the
national scene with the WORS Cup, Nationals, Catamount, and hopefully 2 world
cups in a 5 weekend streak. Going to be draining but I’m looking forward to it!
No comments:
Post a Comment