Posted: Sat May. 30, 2009 1:38 pm
Race Report:
Preface - I had a short but nice ride on the Pinnacle yesterday. I was pushing middle ring everywhere including the climbs for the first time in over a year. I finished my ride thinking, hey maybe my legs are finally coming into it this year, tomorrow could be a good day if I can climb the hills feeling like I do today.
Fast forward to race day - Having not got enough sleep last night I was moving slow as usual in the morning. I was already not having good feelings about the ride. I just can't get motivated to get my gear together and get going, why did I decide to do this in the morning I think, that was a bad idea.
Finally I out the door and riding over to Mike's. I arrive and Sandy is rearing to go. I take one look at her and think, "she is skinner and faster looking today, then the last time I saw her... and yet I just eat two egg mcmuffin's 30 minutes ago and I feel like a tub of lard".
Sandy is chomping at the bit to get off the line, so I let her go and a couple minutes later I'm off. I get about 100 yards and think, "is there an uphill here, funny I don't remember there being one, and yet I haven't even hit 20 mph yet, this sucks!" There is a pretty strong headwind on 103 but I think, "hey I'll take a little wind over 45 and rain any day". My general game plan was to go out hard and try to get my ave mph up before I hit dewey this wind was not helpful to that end.
I finally caught up to Sandy on 11 near the bog, unfortunately that partnership didn't last very long but probably better for both to just race our own races. We were well separated by the time we hit dewey and I never looked back after that.
Dewey, what's to say other than I don't like that hill. Despite a painfully slow climb I was able to crest it still maintaining 21 mph overall average. I thought that is either good or bad, either way we are going to find out. Thankfully I was able to recover a bit coming into Georges Mills and was able to push again on the hill before 103a, of course I was still only going 10 mph at the top and really having a hard time gettin moving again.
Spirits began to lift a bit on the first part of 103a as I was doing well over 30 mph for a ways through there, and then the climb up to the 4 way. I find this climb after the lake very daunting, it doesn't look like it should slow you down and yet quite a bit of effort later I was still not going very fast when I got to the stop sign.
Cranking over the roller leading into Cardiac, I was thinking "oh boy, here it comes". Somehow I was at the top before I even knew it and that didn't hurt my feelings at all.
After Cardiac I started getting a little more serious. By the time I hit the Fells my average speed was flirting with sub 20 mph and that just wasn't going to fly. After I finally got to the top of that hill, the race was on. I barely dropped below 30 through those rollers all the way to OutSpokin, and gained back .66 ave mph putting me back to 20.66 mph. Now if I can only maintain that.
Turning onto 103 again I was sort of dredding the hills to come but new they weren't too bad. Dropped below 20 on the first hill, kept it about 20 on the second hill, thought the next one was the last and went hard, only to realize there was one left, bit of a coast before the final effort, and I think I nipped Dan & PJ on that last hill to the finish, I was out of the saddle and real serious about getting up that hill, I crossed the finish line at over 23 mph. I think Mike got a good picture of me sporting a mean look just before the finish. My bike computer said 20.6 something when i crossed the line. My computer must have come up with a slightly longer distance because Local Loops says 20.4.
The thought of puking or passing out or both was strong for the next 1/4 mile while I cooled down.
No real desire to push that hard again on the loop. Not happy with my hill performances asside from the last couple but generally happy with overall time.
Ryan
p.s. No real surprise here, as I could just see it in her eyes before the race, but Sandy put forth another stellar performance.
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