Anyway, got the bike actually in raceable condition. After an hour in the wet/mud saturday I had an annoying saddle sore. didn't do a recovery spin sunday and turned around after about 20 seconds of trying to ride monday. But my road bike saddle and position are different enough that I was able to get out for a ride yesterday. Did a couple of efforts up a hill that weren't too terrible but I'm not sure what I was going for. All I have been doing the last month is basically racing and recovery and I feel like I need a solid week this week to get me through the last couple of races. So tuesday was 2 hours and sort of a work out and sort of openers.
After last week at the golf course I mentioned to the manager there that I was willing to help set up this week's course. I don't really like how we've been doing the start, where we're out on the street, then come up onto the curb through a narrow sidewalk driveway ramp thing, then onto a narrow path around a pond, and the start finish is after a corner, part cart path, part grass, plus a gravel path crossing like 50m before the line. Instead I suggested starting on the driving range and having the start finish right in front of the clubhouse on the grass, which we did, and it worked well. Nick is all about adding "features" out there though, so after the start/finish we had a 180 into a small ramp jump, into three tight 180s, into a short barrier. I was iffy about the jump at first because it had this weird landing onto a small platform but it was fine.
At the start, Rob and Dan are at the front, Toby is with them, and I wind up a few people back, but then get through the group and am alone in 4th wondering if I should try to close that gap. But I decided I should dial it back let the guys behind me catch up instead. Kory goes by me at the end of the 1st lap and I'm thinking, well, maybe I should follow him? But no I'm already breathing too hard. Kory got up to the leaders and then fell right back off, but stayed away from the rest of us for 4th. The rest of the chasers caught me- Brendan, Charlie, Shaun, Ian. Lap 2 was the 5 of us kind of figuring out our places. I think Charlie and Ian got out front, I remember being behind Brendan thinking he's going a little slow through some corners. I went by, I think got up to Ian, we caught Charlie and then were ahead of him about a lap later so it was just the two of us for the 2nd half of the race or so. Like I mentioned last week, it's nice to be with another person and Ian is a really good bike handler. We were cooperating, taking turns, he's go through the sand and rough off camber ahead of me, where he could somehow go faster and hold a higher line, then I'd go by and pull him up the driving range.
Toward the end the cooperation starts to dwindle and instead you start making little digs on each other. One thing about this course is that the grass is really tough and shows the fitness discrepancies between the leaders and the, shall we say, more casual racers. And children. So you are in lapped traffic pretty quickly. It's fine, it's part of the races, this is beer league with everyone out there at the same time and not *categorized racing* so we're all pretty courteous. But at the same time it's still racing. One sand trap toward the end of the lap got a little tricky, mostly because of traffic. It's uphill in the thick grass getting to it, and then you have to get over a big square lip to get out. Coming into it clean you had good speed and could roll right through and out by getting the front up and then giving the rear a little hop. But not everyone was going so fast and some were running it or getting hung up, and with the grass leading up to it there were some pretty big speed differences. One lap, I'm behind Ian there, and were coming up on some people and I want to get around them before the sand. I get through, but it's a little tight and crowded in there and I get a little space on Ian, but we still had a few laps left and I'm not trying to drop him or anything. But then he passes me back over the jump into the tight corners, and, well, I guess it's on now. 2 laps to go, and he started using the traffic against me. He'd wait, then sprint to make passes in tight spots where it was hard to follow. But I was able to close the couple of small gaps he got. Last lap, we're coming up to that same sand trap and there's someone we're going to catch again. I attack up the grass, get past and through clean, Ian has to put a foot down, and I have a gap. From there it's all out to the finish line and I make it with a couple second lead. We both basically have to lie down on the grass for awhile after. Puts me 5th like last week, but I finished ahead of Charlie and Shaun this time (Ian was 6th last week too). I think my edge over Charlie today was that I didn't get off my bike once the whole race. He was running the short barrier and the lip out of the sand, and that was where the gaps formed early on.
So another solid finish. Two weeks left of the season, next wed is back at the first place we raced at, then the last week is at the brewery for wed and saturday's big race. Then that's about it for me. There is another race in Bozeman in two weeks, and the Inland NW series, and nats, but I'm good with just doing the local races plus maybe an extra or two out of town. But I think another workout this weekend is about all I should try to do aside from the next three races. Fitness is where it is and probably isn't going to change much, for the better anyway. I'm sure I could drink a ton of beer and fuck myself over for the end of the season if I wanted though.
Pictures
https://www.facebook.com/pg/jsieberphotos/photos/?tab=album&album_id=10157950936773570
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