Close The Door!

First, to catch up on rides -

Ride 25 was Catamount.  Already b-logged that. 

Ride 26 was Thursday TT.  I used the cross TT bike.  Um.  Well.  Riding it some would help.  Its a 16 mile TT, flat with a decent hill in the middle, out and back.  By the back part, I was streched out enough to ride comfortably, but my legs were sort of wrecked.  Whatever, I beat my last years best by 40 seconds.  Sure felt ALOT faster than that.  But it wasn’t.  I averaged like 21mph.  So sad.  Normally, though, I am LAST, or 2nd from LAST.  This time I was 23 of 33.  Double girled.  But no little kids beat me.  Its a small victory.

Ride 27 was Pat’s Peak MTB race.  Never done it.  But I just won it.  Single Speed.  Yes, it was just me and one other dude, but he is the series leader, so cut me some slack here.  I wrote a race report for the team web, here it is:

You may begin heckling at any time, I dont care.  I won a damn bike race and I am going to be psyched about it!

Ok, there were only two of us STOOOPID enough to try to do Pat’s Peak on a single speed.  Me, during the race, to geared rider in front of me in single track (holding me up, FYI) “What is that clicking noise you are making?  Oooooh, right, that is your brain working”.

So yah, I lined up with one other brave soul, who happens to be the Root 66 Series leader, and beat me by 14 minutes at Coyote Hill.  We compared gearing, as we do in the SS category.  At the advice of Colin Reuter, I freaked right the hell out about trying to do it with 32×18 I had put on the night before, and so I tore apart my road cassette and busted out a 19 from my 10 speed cluster in an act of total desperation.  This was the morning of the race, and I had overslept, plus had to shlep Noah along with me.  I tossed it in the truck and off we went.

Got to the race, sent Noah off to do the kids race, which was not really scored, so he just rode around (on the cross bike).  I managed to get the 19 cog on without making the chain longer, but, I totally forgot to tighten the chain ring bolts that I had been unable to tighten the night before while changing the front ring.  Shoot, I knew I forgot something!  Damn.  I tried to do it later on the start line, when it dawned on my that I had not torqued them.  All that did was tear up my finger tip.  Double damn.  I rolled up to the line with the classic Chabot warm up.  None.  I just had time to get changed and get to staging.  Preriding is for people with fitness, and warming up is for people who care.

Having found how tough SS is on chainring bolts, I was not optimistic and made a note to self to check them occasionally.  Of course I did not.

Ian (Leader) was on the 29er with the same gearing, so basically a step harder than me.  Maybe 2 teeth actually.  We started, he shot off the line, me on his wheel.  I decided right away that as soon as we got out of the start chute bottleneck, I was going to ride chill and warm up.  The race goes straight up the damn ski slope, so that was not really possible, but I tried to hold back as much as possible.  Ian blew out a big lead right away.  The climb ducked in and out of single track that was rooty, wet, super technical, hard, sloppy, twisty, YAY!  Preriding would have been nice I guess, as the line was not at all clear.  Nor was the course super well marked.  We did the up, into woods, out, up, wash rinse repeat for 20 minutes and topped out at a long ski slope climb.  I could see Ian running the last pitch.  I made it up to the last bit and also had to run the last 50 yards or so.  But I walked.  Hell, I got three laps to do!

The course then does a series of nice downhills with climbing in between, then up a last ski slope wet grass 6″ deep goo climb, in the sun, which sucked.  That tops out at a 25 yard steep pitch into single track, also further uphill, and FINALLY into the big single track descent that made the whole course worthwhile.  That dumps you out at the parking lot, back up a dirt road climb (ouch) and finally, FINALLY, thru the start finish.  Glanced at my Mickey Mouse watch, shit, 40 minutes!  Yikes.  This is going to suuuuck.

Ian was sort of out of site, but the leader of the 40 plus who started behind me by 2 minutes had caught me at the very top. I did the descent with him and was able to hold his wheel on the climb starting lap 2.  Couple more geared masters caught us by the top, where I had to walk again.  Once we topped out, I was back up with the leader.  I hung in and around that group of 3 guys the whole time from then on.  I owned them on the downhill, but, of course, I was slowed by the gear in other areas.

I figured I was 2nd and that was that, but I felt like I was getting better, err….warmed up? as lap 2 went along, and I was hanging with the leaders of the 40′s, and I gave them the 2 minutes by going as slow as I could on lap 1, so I thought I was doing OK.  I was having fun, I can honestly say that.

Into lap 3 and up the huge climb I ran instead of walking, managing to stay on the wheel of the 40 plus leader, who was attacking his group.  That was cool.  It leveled out and I ran to get some speed and did a sweet cross remount and got her rolling.  I chased back onto his wheel on the down hill, and then we started the last climb before the big downhill.  

I looked up, and there was Ian!  I gave it some gas and got on top of the gear, but not hard enough to blow, and started to work.  I dropped the 40 plussers, and I reeled him in to within striking distance at the foot of the last 25yd pitch before you turn left into the woods and do a few more uphill switch backs.  He dismounted and had to walk the pitch, same as before, and I MASHED that mother, caught him, passed him, and hit the single track!  I had the line down now, and managed to ride it clean, first time, even the steep corners.  FINALLY hit the downhill and let it RIP.  I caught several pro cat 1 types warming up and flew past them.  Hit the bottom and into the road climb where Ian could claw back if he was still there, I could not tell, so I drilled it, right past Noah who was cheering.  Down the grassy downhill, across the line, and YES!  My first win in a damn bike race!  

Ok, only 2 of us, but Ian is good, and I felt like I paced and raced a really good race, and I rode the technical stuff really well, and hell it was a SKI AREA race!  I have been avoiding them since Mt Snow in like ’94 when I got heat stroke on the climb and toppled over.

My win and the 3rd from Coyote Hill puts me in 3rd overall at 110 points.  Ian has 220, but maybe 2nd is possible.  Anyway, good times were had by all, and Noah was really happy for his Dad (for once).