Chalk Creek Stampede - First Semi-slow race

Well, the first semi-pro race is in the bag. Again, everyone has already blogged about it, but I'm usually just too tired to think when I've actually got time to blog.

The race was near Buena Vista, Colorado. Nathrop to be exact. It has a post office. That's about it. My race wasn't until 2:15, so I slept at home as I usually do for this race. I got to the venue at about 12:30, and rode the 2 miles to register out in the middle of a field. It wasn't that bad, but I felt sorry for the people that had to walk that.

This venue is kind of unique in the fact that it's all on private land. The owners are nice enough to let us race on it every year. It's not the best singletrack in the world, but it's definitely a good race venue. Well, it's good for some. I usually flat out suck at this race.

We'll skip forward to the race. My group was delayed just a bit. We ended up starting 2 minutes after the pros who started at 2:30 instead of 2:15. The start was a flat dusty road. I spent my time hanging out in the back of a front pack of about 20 guys. Somehow I managed to get behind this guy that was extremely afraid of rocks and zig zagged back and forth across the road. I guess no one told him that sometimes there are rocks in mountain bike races. Not to worry though, my mediocrity allowed him to pull away after the first lap.

So anyway. We start up the first climb, and I'm still in the front group. In fact, I was behind a reigning Elite National Champion. HER name is Georgia Gould. After that first steep pitch, I never saw the stars and stripes jersey again.

There were a few of us riding together for the first lap, and let me tell you we were hammering it. It was me, Brian, and his teammate Derrick. There was orange everywhere! That's their team color.

After the only descent, there is a windy (not the stuff that blows, the stuff that goes around and back and forth, but they have the stuff that blows too) section. I managed to eat a little dirt. No harm. I just hopped back on the bike. Brian passed me, and I think I held Derrick up.

Like I mentioned, the first lap was blazing fast. I meant to set my Garmin to auto laps, but I forgot, so I don't know my lap times. My goal going in was for a finishing time of around 2:06, so 30-32 minute laps were in order.

Halfway through the 2nd lap, Brian and Derrick must have thought I stunk, so they rode off without me. Bastards! I decided to settle into my own groove. I had about 9 not so easy training hours going into this race, so I was expecting my legs to be wasted. Funny thing was, they really weren't. I felt pretty good. However, this is Chalk Creek. We both hate each other equally. Toward the end of the 2nd lap, I started to get my hunger thing. Not sure what causes this, but it happened a few times last year. On the last couple of laps, it wasn't my legs that were keeping me from pushing it, it was feeling like I would bonk if I took it up a notch.

Also, somewhere on the 2nd or 3rd lap, I could hear my front brake rotor dragging a touch on the brake pad. It didn't seem to be slowing me down, so I just had to keep on going. Besides, when I came through the start/finish area for the 4th and final lap, my time was at 1:32. Well on my goal pace. I was really surprised by that, until I was given a moment to catch my breath. Once the oxygen reached my brain, I realized that there was a lack of the normal gale force headwinds on the false flat at the very back of the course.

I ended up finishing with a 2:04:xx. Well past my goal, but without the typical race conditions. For instance, 2:06 won my expert group last year. This year it was around 1:55. Chalk Creek strikes again.

All and all, I wasn't surprised by the result. I kind of expected it because of my training going into the race and the fact that it's a raw power course. I'm definitely more of a climber and descender. Funny thing is, back in my early days of racing, the raw power courses were the courses where I excelled. Of course my race weight then was 170-175. Last year it was about 164-165. Now it's a solid 160. Less weight does not usually equal more power.

Sunday was a big snafu at the race. I'll keep it short and say that I originally thought I would be racing at 2:00 PM. I was driving back to Buena Vista and got to Fairplay when I was told that it would be closer to 5:00 or 6:00. The the prospect of driving 2+ hours home after that, I pulled a Uey in the middle of Highway 285 and headed home. I got a nice, hard 3 hour ride in instead of a 30 minute short track race.

Here is the Motion Based file of the race:
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/2715478