It's getting tougher to wake everyone up each morning. We're not that exciting of a bunch.
Start today was at the ski area - naturally ski area starts mean not much lead in before climbing. I rode just out of the start to see the trail go over a skinny bridge right away. Bottleneck.
We started in waves, with open men going first. I soft pedalled as I didn't care about making any attempt to hole shot the bridge given my place, Thomas did the same. Despite our soft pedal, couple were behind us. Long climb, started through east coast or top of Jumpingpound style rough rocks. I felt ok and slowly started moving up. Thomas wasn't feeling as good and slowed up in the rocks. Passed aid 1 only being passed by a couple singlespeeders who started either one or two minutes back - guy winning passed Shawn by aid 2 too... these guys can really put down the power. Started up the big climb, yelled up a switchback to Shawn. It was not too bad a grade, but not enough air for me to climb. I did a few short bits, Shawn did too. Felt like we climbed forever up to Wheeler pass, not sure how many minutes the hike was, but it wasn't short. In the saddle before the next pass I couldn't steer well, thought something was going on with my front end (talked to others post race and realized it's a combo of light headedness at altitude and how you push your bike for so long so your arms end up getting used to being in asymmetric position).
Fun trail across the saddle. Steep climb up next saddle, some rideable again. I crested on bike after riding the last few switchbacks, and was presented a piece of bacon for the descent. Yeah!
Long descent. I'd been climbing back and forth all morning with the Cannondale guy, then caught him on the descent. Went ahead, but not by a lot. We rode the bike path together and struggled to catch the single speeders, especially Mike who passed me on the first hike.
Got one bottle at aid 3, then my riding partner took off. I tried to keep pace alone in the woods - very nice trails... some I remember riding with Tori 6 or so years ago. Heard some noise behind me and it was singlespeed Mike again. Tried to hold his pace when he passed but he just crushed me in a couple minutes... and I was having a good day and felt full of power on the flat-ish rolly technical stuff at the end.
Finished in what I think was 2:49, Thomas was in 10 mins later. Nice finish up on ski hill, but a net up day as we didn't get to finish at elevation we started at. I don't know or care really how that stacks up, but today like two days ago is about as good as I can ride. Every time I'd get out of breath hiking or climbing, I'd count a couple seconds, say screw it, and bounce off the upper end of my rev limiter again. Energy just flowed. It's so much fun feeling that way.
Cindy came in happy and fast - I waited in the forest to take a blackberry pic but it spent so long trying to focus I failed. She liked today's stage, also took some bacon at the top, rode the whole descent. Was very happy overall, especially with a shorter stage.
My hypothesis is that there's a direct correlation between burrito consumption and riding performance for me - felt strong all day. Rolled home down ski hill road, had bike cleaned and lubed before noon!
Cindy and I went 2 blocks to the Amazing Grace cafe for lunch, very nice.
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