May 30th I had my first 'official' WORS mountain bike race out in Wausau, the "Trek Big Ring Classic." I say first official as it's the first one done on a mt. bike, and I'd prefer to forget my experiment on my cross bike at the Suamico race last year...
With a jammed packed schedule leading up to the race, I hadn't exactly ridden with any consistency, but race weekend shaped up with an easy 60 miler Friday to remind my legs how to ride, another CK time-trial on Saturday to really wake my legs up, and easy hour recovery ride afterwards. And so though I literally hadn't ridden the two previous weeks, my legs felt pretty good, and I was fairly confident going in. It was sort of like cramming like crazy for an exam the night before, haha.
Race underway, it was very hot, and very dry. All the bikes flying over the ultra-dry dirt kicked up dust clouds and we all ended up looking like combination miners/ chimney sweepers by the time we were done.
In the Sport class, I was set to do two, nine mile laps over a mostly flat, mostly wide open course, that had only the occasional very steep climb, or very technical single track. I had a very solid start, moving up quickly and as far as I could tell, hanging right in a group with fellow agegroup leaders. It wasn't until we got to an extremely rocky, technical section, where passing was basically impossible, that our group had caught up to a younger rider who had started a few waves in front of us. The rest of my group smartly got by him before we got in there, but I got pinched behind him, and had to sit in behind him, barely moving. I didn't want to be a dick and yell at him, as it was my first myself, and Lord knows, he woulda let me by, and I'd have probably crashed then. So I was patient, and waited for the course to open back up. It felt like it took FOREVER, and unfortunately, by the time I got by him, that lead group I had been with was long gone. So as simple as that was, that instance pretty much shot my chances for doing exceptionally well my first time out, but all in all, I was still very happy with my race and my result. I felt strong throughout the race, felt fast, didn't make too many dumb mistakes, didn't crash, didn't hurt myself, kept my bike in one piece, and had a hell of a good time! Results: I got 6th in my agegroup and 53rd overall out of around 200 Sport men riders.
June 6th, first triathlon of the season out in Green Bay, known as the Green Bay Triathlon. Again, leading up to this event, not a whole hell of a lot of preparation. I had the WIAA state track meet in La Crosse from Thursday to Saturday. So a lot of standing in the sun, eating too much, unhealthy food, and not a bike ride in sight. And this time I didn't have any last second cramming, as I pretty much got home from Lax, got my gear ready for the race, and went to sleep. Four in the morning, yes 4am is what time I had to wake up and hit the road shortly after to make it up to Green Bay for the 7am start. What should be an extremely easy swim, being in a man-made 3/4's shallow swimming hole, ended up not being that extremely easy. I made the decision to not wear my wet suit as the water is for the most part very shallow, and you only need to actually swim a short section, and because of the shallowness, I assumed the water'd be relatively warm too. It wasn't. As soon as I had to try and start swimming, all the air would get sucked out of my lungs and I just couldn't breathe. So I modified breast-stroked it until I could touch again... The whole time thinking, "God this sucks."The bike was pretty solid. Felt fast and felt strong, with only a couple hiccups along the way. Flying along up to an intersection, I saw no turn arrow (which there usually is if you're supposed to turn) and the police officer who was patrolling the road made no indication as to which way I should go, so I went straight. Too bad as I cruised by him, he quick put his arm out for me to turn. After scrubbing off all my speed, throwing out a few choice expletives, and turning around, I was back on my way, having to chase back down three riders I had just worked like hell to get by. The other hiccup being the fact that I had at least one slow leaking tubular. The front was indeed flat by the time I got back to transition. Only ever really noticed that it was feeling awful ornery going around turns. (new tubulars are being glued up as I speak). Furthermore, I won't complain that much about a 22.6mph avg. with a wrong turn and a flat tire... The run felt really good. Not completely sure why, but it just felt like I had a nice tail wind the entire time. In conclusion, I just had a couple more reminders of why I'm moving out of the triathlon business after this season. Waking up that stupid early to drive almost 2 hours to an event that only took a little over an hour. Freezing ass cold fricken water. Results: 5th in my agegroup and 15th overall out of 173 men.
Today, Sunburst! That's right, a WORS race not even 20 miles from my house. I woke up at 8:30am. I had a nice breakfast and watched TV. I liked that. With it's proximity to me, I was able to get out and pre-ride the course a couple days earlier. With mixed results. Lots of rain made the muddy single track climbing extremely difficult, had some tire problems, and plus the day I was out there, it was in the mid 80's with probably 90% humidity. It was brutal. Did not give me the best outlook for the race... But come race day, everything came together. I rode aggressively in the open sections knowing that slick hill climb would still be difficult, and passing would be tough back there. And yeah, out in the field areas, I absolutely put the hammer down. If somebody was in front of me, they weren't going to be for long. The turns were all extremely tacky, it was really easy to fully commit and rail through them at high speed. That is FUN. Yes it hurt and yes I was on the limit for over an hour, but no, I could not wipe the smile off my face after that race was over. It was just a blast. I like mountain biking thoroughly. And yes, I even had some pretty damn good results. I'd call it a great race for me. Results: 5th in agegroup and 25th overall out of around 200 again.
