We had a good breakfast then went back to bed... then up to start area to drop off our aid station bags. Cindy and I shared them and planned together for what to have at aid 1 and 2. Mostly equipment, although some people doing food and such. Good plan, just seems odd to me for the distances to need it, makes you overpack a bit.
Nice singletrack for a few blocks to the start... and right past the finish which is two blocks from our house.
Did the big deadgoat team pic, then neutral roll out by the cops. Side note - you're in a cool town when most of the cop cars/suvs I've seen have 2 bike racks on the back.
Neutral roll out up some big paved climb split us up right away. You can tell who has altitude lungs and who doesn't. I didn't push much, just rolled along and tried to be perceptive of how I felt. Felt fine all day really, it's just that you don't have air to drive your legs very hard so they feel under worked.
It was warm enough right off the start, but never got hot. Perfect temps, sunny all day. After first climb and some single track, I couldn't see Shawn or Thomas anymore, but each climb would pull back one rider. Slowly. Didn't want to burn out too soon. Whole course was rideable, both up and down. People walked some parts that were loose pool ball sized rubble; I couldn't tell if that was judgement call on saving energy for them or just they can't/don't like riding that. For me it's easier to stay on than walk.
Did a bunch of traverse singletrack that's like riding a ribbon, probably most of the trail is 8" wide when it's like that. Saw Shawn at side of trail with a flat. At aid 1 also heard Tim and Mike Piker entering as I was just climbing the hill out.
Somehow I got confused on aid 2/3, which was one stop. We looped back to it. Anyway, I dried out between aid 2/3, then got weak for a while and like 8 people went by on the French Gulch dirt road climb. Funny - passing at altitude is a pretty slow process. It's like watching turtles race. Anyway got some fluid at aid 3, which was only 6.5 miles before end, with say 2 of climb and rest downhill on what we warmed up on yesterday. Tim and Mike were right behind on the final hill/finish.
Felt decent at finish. Ended up probably about 5 mins under 4h. Shawn was 3:45 (with a second flat). Thomas came in 5 mins after me after fixing his flat. For all of us, I think we were pretty irrelevant in placings.
I went back at coincidentally exactly the right time to see Cindy roll in. All smiles, her face was so fresh I couldn't tell if she rode 5 mins to the coffee shop and back! Had one slight spill early in the day. Found the terrain manageable and fun. Rode with Linda and Carthy to aid 1, then solo after that. Dropped a potato at one point, and got sad. It was so cute and now it's just lying out there all by itself... wait a second, that was the realization that it was time for a snack break when you feel that emotional. Smart. Bike worked fine - she's glad she had the snakeskin tires given all the flats she rode past. Then power napping - very good power napper skills she has. I think her time was 5.5h hours.
All in a really nice day of riding. Sunny. Warm not hot. People seem to know that the altitude and distance will determine outcome, so nobody has issues either up or down yielding trail. Overall I'd say it was a 99% fitness course, there wasn't anything really to differentiate mountain biking skills. Didn't redline, just sort of rode and paced to see how it would go... didn't want to go hard and dig a deep hole for the week.
Sounds like a solid start to the week - nice work Erik. Keep the updates coming! Really glad that Cindy rolled in with a smile on her face after almost 6 hours of riding at altitude. Hard core!
ReplyDelete