Race Weekend

Friday, July 11, 2009
I was up late on Friday night (working till 10pm) and up early on Saturday morning to meet Ann and Drive to Mt. Hood. We left Maple Valley a little after 7am. We Pre-rode the course Friday afternoon. Ann and I rode the top about 4 times; which gave us shorter lift lines and additional time on the more difficult part of the course. The top of the course is crummy gravel road with ruts, big rocks and sketchy corners. I had my first crash on the new bike and had to ride down to the bottom of the hill to straighten out my handle bars. The crash was minor; but it cost me a couple of runs. I got one last run down the full course after catching the shuttle (full of stinky guys) over to the lift. After the riding we had a quick dinner and headed back to our adequate but sparse hotel room to clean and repair bikes. It took a while to get Ann's brakes to quit rubbing and to find the thorn that was causing a slow leak in one of Mitch's tires. By the time we finished it was 11:00pm (way past my bed time for the third night in a row!). I slept incredibly well which wasn't surprising since I've been pushing too hard. I got in a solid 7 hours.

Saturday, July 12, 2009
We had breakfast at the motel (I brought a cooler full of food - thankfully) and loaded the bikes. We arrived around 8:00am and had our one pre-ride on the course. It was drizzling which made the course much better but the fog and drizzle cut down visibility. None the less I had an excellent pre-ride; but only a few seconds off my race time 2 weeks ago.

I decided to race my tires at 22 psi (25 is listed as the lower limit). By the time we raced, it was raining. Those that didn't wear goggles wished they did; and many that wore goggles wished they didn't. I kept my goggles in my coat until moments before my race began. I placed both feet on my pedals and balanced leaning on the chute. I rode the rock garden well but wished I had an extra power at the top to get my speed up quicker. I rode the first corner very well. I barely used the brakes going into the corner, leaned the bike well and looked for the straight away. Probably the best corner I've ridden. I had plenty of speed coming out of the corner and managed to get a few pedal strokes in. I didn't have a hard enough gear (I was on 5 should have been one or two harder).

The red dusty corner was still loose; and I was on it quicker than I expected. I broke hard and then coasted around the corner on a crummy line which seemed to be the reality on all the upper corners. I pedaled hard coming out of the corner and came to the Cat II cut off: where the Cat II racers made a hard left leaving a difficult turn for us through the rocks and dirt they pushed up. Again this corner came up fast and by this time my goggles were covered with rain droplets making it difficult to see. Visibility was poor. I threw my weight back and broke hard using both brakes slowing down fast but not able to negotiate any turning until I my speed was scrubbed, I took the corner as best as I could which was slow and clunky at best.

Coming out of the corner I accelerated hard trying to sit for a few seconds to give my legs a rest. I didn't carry enough speed through the next section. I'm always expecting a corner instead of the easy slight shift to the left. By the time I realized I wasn't upon a corner it was too late to pick up speed. The next corner came fast and I had to force my weight back and down as I used both brakes to drop my speed. I negotiated this turn better than the previous turns and stood up to accelerate out of the corner. By this time, I got use to focusing beyond the rain droplets on my goggles. I didn't carry as much speed past the chair lift because this was one small section of the course that we didn't get to pre-ride. I started pedaling once I was back on the road. I slowed for the last road corner (big gravel and fairly tight corner). I accelerated well to the hard left onto Nar Nar.

I rode Nar Nar well. I maneuvered through the trail well. I cut my speed coming into the corners and accelerated well coming out of them. I caught up with TJ (the last of the young male beginners) and found myself looking for a place to pass. Finally we came to a hard left with a upper and lower burm. TJ took the upper track and I accelerated through the lower track. I lost some valuable time following him; but trying to ride around could have meant a crash. I was out of breath and my legs and triceps were hurting. I came out of Nar Nar with good speed and got a few pedal strokes in before I started the descent to the finish line. I'm not comfortable standing up on a descent and pedaling. I had great speed coming down the last hill and didn't need to use my brakes. The gravel road felt very stable. I was traveling pretty fast as I came up to the water bar just a few yards from the finish line. I jumped the water bar and flew through the finish line. My time was 9.02 minutes (1.03 minutes faster than my last race!) which put me into second place. Ann came in first at 8:34 minutes. A first place at Mt. Hood is definitely possible! I really like racing downhill. This was the most fun I've had at a race.

I need to work on: fast gravel corners, overall fitness, sprinting. I've qualified for nationals. I'm not going (they are next week in Colorado). I'm guessing this may be the last time I qualify (at least for a while) assuming I move up to Sport division (where there is more competition) next year.