Last minute plans to race at 9-10,000 feet are always fun coming from about 800. All I really wanted was a good solid race again - and for the most part I got it. The course was absolutely awesome - long service road climbs, long technical rocky climbs to keep climbing balance skills in check, sweet fast and rough gnarly descents and switchbacks, and fast big ring flowing slingletrack! Awesome stuff! I knew I would have my work cut out for me though because Winter Park has its own summer series and more than half the riders at the line raced in those events, I didn't get to preride...that and I got SICK!
I woke up Saturday morning with nose completely plugged (started on Thursday). Always seems to happen this time of year to some extent! But I did what I could to make the best of it before race start at noon - I was not going to throw in the towel on this one.
Started on a nice steady sevice road climb for about 15 minutes and about halfway through the wave of 15 riders split in two groups- the chase group about a minute behind the lead already...and I was just off the back of the lead group about 15 seconds. With my breathing problems from my cold I knew the gap would grow wider from them...but I also noticed my gap on the chase group was growing also! That felt good and gave me some extra ambition to keep pedaling hard and steady and maybe some of the lead pack will start to drop.
Most of the race I could see some riders from the lead group but just couldn't close the gap that had grown to about 90 seconds. I did what I could and was able to muster one pass a few miles from the end in some soft singletrack and opened that gap on some downhill switchbacks (which are my favorite!).
One lap consisted of 14 miles and ~2,300 feet of climbing. And in the end, I finished right in the middle in 8th place. Was hoping for a top 5 at least, but all things considered, I'm happy with that. It was a solid run- the new Fox fork and Kenda Karma's made this race an absolutely awesome time riding.
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