C-wood Race

Saturday morning, I awoke early to prep for the race. I washed the bike, cleaned the chain, and lubed the night before. I knew that the warm up would be key for this race. Trails looked ok with the rain from the day before. I had considered riding Friday night, but decided it would require more bike maintence. my pre ride consisted of taking lone wolf up and down, and then the love. the condidtions were good. the gravel was soft, but still pretty fast. there was just a small amount of slop on the beginning of Love trail. the line up came quickly, and with a little bit of a delay, we were off. I started crossed up in the big ring. this makes a remarkable difference. I got out of the saddle for about 4-5 strokes, and took the lead right away. This was the primary goal for me: be first in the woods, as to avoid the riff-raff, which is indicative of a sport race. I was up the hill with no one in site. I wasnt looking back much, just fucosing on adding a gap, and making zero mistakes. I really slayed my self the first lap. I begun the second lap feeling a little winded, but made it up the hill. Matt Keeven blew by me as I topped out. I tried to roll with him down lone wolf, but couldnt hack it. as I climbed the love trail, I caught a glimps of a cycle-werks rider on a lower switch back, probably about 15-20 seconds back. I got onto the connector trail and into the rollercoaster. It was big ring time from there down to the start of lone wolf. No sign of him as I began climbing. D-wayne and Mike Barro passed me at the top of Lone wolf, and were immediatly out of sight. The third climb was much more painful than the others. I didnt even want to look at the HRM. I push hard, knowing that I could recover somwhat on the decent. As I rolled over the bridge, someone told me I had 25 Seconds. I saw the same rider at about the same spot on the Love trail, and started thinking about second place. FUCK THAT!! When I got to the connector, I dropped my head and laid it down. some serious power, and good speed. I was just hoping I could hold him off until the decent on the Grotepeter. I didnt see him at all on the rollercoaster. this was about the only other are where you could look back and see who is coming up on you. I got on the Grotepeter and bottomed out the casset. on the straight away toward the bottom I could see him in the distance, and again coming out of the woods. He finished 6 seconds behind me.

This was a great race. I learned the imporntatnce of a good start, and the value of being up front, setting the pace. I really like the format of multiple laps. It gives me a chance to settle into a good rythem. This is the same format for the WORS race coming up, so I think it was a good tune-up for the real deal in Wisconson. In a long single loop race, I never feel like I get a chance to know the trail. There is somthing to be said for that. I will have more pictures later.

After the race, there were beers and good times in general at the parking lot. This is what makes bike racing awsome.