Busy days leading up to this...I was in Miami Beach for the four days leading up to this...and it turns out that is NOT the best way to preapre for a full weekend of racing...weird huh?
Well started off on Saturday with a Time Trial at 1:34pm and short track later at 5:30. The TT course had lots of power climbs and tons of surprise switchbacks. Going all out for ~20mins was really tough- couldn't get any rhythm with the steep quick climbs and turns. I finished 8th out of about 23 in the CAT 2 Open class- but only 3 seconds out of 5th...meh...whatever...not the greatest but could've been worse.
The short track course was at a different venue and really flat and really fast- 50% singletrack. I was able to stay loose and felt my legs coming back a little...finally realizing what they're supposed to be doing.
At the start line they combined our class with three others which made it roughly 35 riders. Off the start I got the third spot and held it for the first four of 8 laps. About six of us broke away- the leader put 10 seconds on us. I slid to fourth on lap 4, fifth on lap 5, but then those that passed blew up and I got back up to 3rd again on lap 6. Off the last turn into the last sprint to the finish, I drag raced the 2nd place rider to the line but just couldn't get past him. We were still about 10 seconds back from the leader but there was at least a big gap behins us! I felt awesome during and after with this finish! Short track racing is awesome!
I finished 4th overall on the day...those 3 seconds in the TT would have put me in third (on the podium) and riding the TT course at least just once or twice to get the layout could have put me in 2nd or maybe 1st. But it was a great day of racing!
Sundays XC Race...I woke up SORE!!...the prior weeks lack of riding or training is really showing up now. After getting some warm-up riding in I knew I was way down on power.
I couldn't get a good start- I couldn't sprint my way to the top 5 off the line going into the singletrack like the day before and wound up around 15th going in...and there were several crashes involving riders around 7th through 12th within the first 100 yards of singletrack leaving the rest of us stopped and weaving off course four different times.
Overall, I could maintain a steady and decently quick pace throughout, but any time I got out of the saddle to make up some time I felt like my tires were full of lead. Finished 13th- 5 minutes behind the race winner. Each of my 3 laps were within one second of each other at 25mins each- and I felt like I could've held that pace for 2-3 hours...but just NO power.
Not what I was hoping for...but I'm still excited and moving on and looking forward to the training and preparing for the next race!
1 comment:
I am glad someone else thinks the short track racing is great - I loved it!
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