Week 3 was at the golf course. Thick grass is hard, and it was cold out. 27f. Andrew and Ivan didn't race because they were going to Boulder, and at the start things seemed fairly civil. I didn't have to work very hard to put myself 5th wheel behind Shaun going into the first bottleneck, where you go up a narrow driveway off the street. Robert was in the lead with Dan and Charlie behind him. The start of the lap takes you on a narrow track around a pond, then in front of the clubhouse, around a few tight corners, over the barriers, and then down the driving range. Or rather up, because it's a slight climb. Did I mention it's also thick grass? This was the most miserable part of the course, and by the time we hit the end of the range, there was a gap from Shaun to Charlie, and a gap from Charlie to Rob and Dan. I was fairly comfortable when it started opening and probably should have tried getting to Charlie before it got too big. But at the same time I'm thinking "don't be stupid and blow up on lap 1" and I was happy with where I was. Dan and Rob rode away, Shaun and I stuck together, and Charlie stayed out there, just out of reach. Looking at the times, he got about 16-17s ahead and then we closed to like 9 at the finish. Parts of the course were fast enough where there was drafting, and it was also nice to be riding with another person. We kind of figured out where each of us were better and took the lead through those sections. Without being on Shaun's wheel through the sand and over this set of logs and down a bank, I would not have even realized I should have been going faster there. Going into the last lap he's ahead of me, and there's an uphill section on cart path, then some off camber tight corners, then the finish line. My plan was to attack up the path and get in front, but there were some other racers kind of in the way that we were lapping, so I didn't get by, and there wasn't really a good way to get around in a sprint. Plus Shaun is a better sprinter than me. So 5th, but also 4 guys who finished ahead of me last week weren't there. The other 4 were, and still did. But being with Shaun and almost Charlie definitely made me feel better.
Went 31/33 psi today because it was almost all grass and cart path. So less rolling resistance the better and it's all pretty smooth. Very few hard corners on course or places you needed to brake. There were some logs that I bottomed out on every lap, probably could have gone up another psi or two, but it was fine, and there were a few fast, hard corners where you wanted some grip.
Course was not quite what the manager out there was planning but he wasn't sure if there was going to be snow on the ground or what and kept things conservative. TBH that's better because there have been some questionable features out there and a few crashes because of them. I'm going out there next week to help set up and can hopefully provide a bit of a new take on the golf course.
After not feeling great last week I actually made myself recover and that helped. Thursday I only rode to coach the kids mtb program and back, Friday I kept it fairly chill and just rode up the path and part of my nearest trail, then Saturday I practiced cx with Ivan, then did our hill climb. I felt pretty good, got 3rd, and my prize is a pizza from a local place. Charlie won, Kevin, our road state champ the last two years, got me by 8 seconds (Charlie was another 10s faster, just under 15 min climb). I was about 40s off my PR, felt like I could have gone a bit faster after I finished, but I'm ok with that, especially after over a week of feeling like crap. Sunday was a quick mtb ride, monday recovery, yesterday more cx practice with Ivan and Andrew, plus a warm up riding there and cool down back. Chasing those guys up and down a giant, steep, grass hill worked ok for openers and getting ready to ride on the golf course.
Pictures
https://www.facebook.com/pg/jsieberphotos/photos/?tab=album&album_id=10157929457633570&__tn__=-U-R
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