Race Report: Fruita - Spectacular Riding

Colorado is just awesome. I get to Denver Friday evening, and Saturday morning Dad and I jump in the car and take off towards Fruita. About an hour down I-70 we get to the Eisenhower Tunnel and there is still a ton of snow! The lifts are still going strong...made me a little confused...am I going skiing or biking?? Haha! Vail pass had about 15-20 trucks parked off one of the exits with unloaded snowmobile trailers. Still plenty of snow for these guys to take off up the mountain right from the road.

On the way out there we stopped at a bike shop in Glenwood Springs to pick up some GU for the preride later and the race. I spied a decent selection of Maxxis tires on display and found one 29" Crossmark to match my front. However, I still planned to run the Crow on the rear. Adam Leiferman called after he pre rode the course and told me that the course was dry, kinda sandy but not bad...and fast. Lots of guys mounting up Kenda Small Blocks instead of the sand tires. I figured the Crows would be perfect ;)

We get to Fruita, passing the spectacular mesas and canyons, and then another 15 miles to Rabbit Valley - the site of the race. Never really paid much attention to this scenery here before. Pull out the bike, check in at registration, and head down the trail to preride. First I have to say that riding in Fruita had some of the most amzing canyons and terrain I've ever ridden or seen! I could spend lots of time riding around out here...a multi-day camping trip through here would be awesome. Feeling pretty good afterward, I felt ready for the race. However, the Crow was not going to cut it, too much loose over hard pack. I mounted up the Crossmark - which by chance I just happened to find on the way out there...weird!

The race: This course did not have the long climbs. CAT 2 racers had to do one 18 mile loop. It started with about 8 miles of very rough service road/double track. It was a sprint...power guys ruled this roost. The field of 33 riders quickly divided into two main groups of about 10 each with the rest following behind. I was at the front of the second group with the lead group about 60 seconds ahead. Just trying to stay smooth and pedal in perfect cicles, this was how it went for about 30 minutes - then my legs started to reveal the seven months of no riding after my little leg incident. I started to blow up bad and about 75% through the race I hit a wall. It felt like everyone was going by me...just need to build up my fitness again though, so results will come. Everything else worked great. Mounting up that Crossmark was exactly the right thing to do. I could really smoke through the sweeping turms with the perfect amount of grip and drift. I obviously would have liked to place better but I did pretty well overall - better than expected. And definitely enough to get me motivated to train train train. Racing along the cliffs of these canyons was so fun.

Interesting racing out in the open range...I'm focusing on the course and my breathing and just over the crest of a short power climb we see within about 5 feet of the course 15-20 cows. They weren't on the course...yet. Towards the end I came around a corner flat out around 30 mph and there's Ol'Bessie standing there in the middle of the course. Got on the binders pretty hard...to avoid hitting a cow!

This weekend is a race right here in Omaha at Swanson Park. I'm excited for that! New venue, new series, new competition - should be fun! Goin to preride the course tonight!