So my race:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/8639228
Wake up, breakfast, process all the same. No need to go into that. I felt ok, normal, ready to roll. The big issue of the day, my GPS picked up Rob's HR strap, and that sunk me for the day. I had uploaded new firmware Saturday night, and the result is that it reset the HR strap association. It linked up with Rob's, which rendered mine useless. Ilya has since set me straight as to how to fix this.
On the warmup, I think I went too slow. I had been using the HR numbers to gauge my warmup so instead I went by feel. We did the back side of the course, which was totally changed. So that was good to do. Then we did most of the rest of the lap and it was absolutely littered with beginners. I pushed a few times, but not much. Probably not enough.
I found out the start was in the field, which, with the SS bike, wasn't ideal for me. As usual I line up in the front and at this point I guess enough people know me not to bother to try and muscle me out. Before the 30-34 class goes, Utah Joe says to his whole class, "If you can keep Norm from passing you for a whole lap, you're doing well." No pressure there....
The gun sounds, and I'm off. I spin out and try to make sure I don't fall back too far. Incredibly, I am off the front to start. I dial it back a bit, because my HR is surely off the charts at this point. About halfway through the field some guy comes up next to me. I say, "Hi, how are you?" 10 seconds later, Leo passes me and I say. "Hey, that must be Leo," and I latch on to his wheel. I mean, like 6 inches. We push through the field like that, me, Leo, and the other guy.
I recognize the other guy but do not know him. I have seen him plenty of times before the races, but never during and after the races. I'm pretty sure he's not a contender. I also know going into this race that there are 2 races in this 35-39 class. Me versus Leo, and the rest of the pack. Yes, it may sound arrogant but we're just faster than the class right now. So I know this is a One on One, old school Larry Bird versus Doctor J video game action going on. And yes, he may have once been a pro roadie and I may have once weighed 4000 pounds, but he's not a pro roadie and I don't weight 4000 pounds. He's just a fast guy who lines up next to me. I need to try and beat him.
Anyway. We hit the hill to the finish area, I'm at red line so I need to now start just racing at race pace and not scorch all my matches trying to keep on his wheel. I get to the top of the climb and the other guy is trying to keep pace. As we get closer to the ST, he's a bit out of control already and I say, "hard left, hard left!" He cuts me off, and I back off and let him go.
I know he's not going to last. I decide I will get him when we dump out onto the fire road, when we take the right. As we dump out on the road I am on his wheel and I call out, "on your right" and pass. He tries to keep up but he is cooked. I hear his panting rapidly increase, and he then fades into the oblivion of the pack. I can still see Leo.
I keep him in sight for a while but we have already caught up to a ton of riders. I mean, an absolute ton of riders. Every remotely technical feature is carnage. I am passing people on ups, downs, flats, wormholes - you name it people can't handle it. People are pinch flatting already, and I am thinking, "Ok, this is what Ben was talking about when he said training pace and race pace are different when you litter the course with riders." Those steep little ups are burning the piss out of my legs as I try to pass people on off camber rocks taking bad lines just to get by people. Off the bike, run up hill, on bike, pass pass pass.
Leo is gone.
And that's that. He was stronger, could pick people off more efficiently than I could, and went out really hard. I just kept picking off people but it never seemed to end. At the end of lap 1 I was running a 25-26 minute lap time, but I forgot to hit the lap button so I don't know. I also suspect my HR was far too high for the first lap. I had burned myself a bit trying to keep him in sight.
I passed Joe maybe 1/3 of the way through the second lap. So that took care of the 30-34 class. I thought that was going to translate into an easier second lap but oh no, that wasn't the case. There were just as many people clogging up the course on lap 2 as lap 1. Now people were getting sloppy, and passing was more erratic. I was also less tight than I would normally be, and wanted to make sure I didn't screw up and crash or blow out my tires again. But I picked people off, one by one.
When I caught Joe he told me Leo was way up there, likely out of reach. I just kept pressing and tried to do my thing as best I could. You never know, you just never know. I just kept my pace on lap 3 and passed all but the winner in SS and the top 2 in 19-29. Not as tight of a race for me as LM but the course was rockier and harder to pass. Maybe 1:20 total time, roughly. I forgot to turn my GPS off.
In all, more lessons learned, and a good race. Leo was on, and was faster than me today. I'll need to up my game to catch him. I talked to him a bit after the race and he doesn't know if he's going to run the series out or not. He also doesn't know if he's going to upgrade to cat 1. Part of me hopes he does, but then part of me hopes he does not. Whatever happens, happens. It's out of my control.
