A stroke of luck hit St. Joe in the form of no rain Sunday morning. That stroke of luck missed KC, as I remember waking up to pounding rain in the wee hours of the morning. Luckily for us, the trails remained bone dry and ready to roll.
My race went well. Something like this...
Line up with 14 total experts. We had a nice little paved climbed to start, and I figured I'd punch it from the start to see if I could string everyone out. Look back and everyone is still bunched up not doing anything. So I let off the power and regrouped, only to come bombing down the grassy noll and hit some major air coming into the single track right where I wanted to be, behind Aaron. Trav slotted in right behind me, so overall we had a pretty good postition.
I rode Aaron's wheel, which had me about as pinned as I wanted to be, and just past the cedar section, he took a wide line and had to dismount, leaving me to the front. Pinned it from there, looking to gap him, he rejoins, and I make some comment on how I'm pretty sure I shouldn't be leading him.
Somewhere near the end of the lap I look back and he's not to be found, so I pinned it again down the last downhill and up the big grass finish hill. I was the only 19-29 Expert so I wasn't racing for the winnings, but there was a $50 gift card to Bike Source for the fastest lap. I was all over that...
I had about a 20 second gap after lap one. Lap 2 came together nicely and I was able to ride my own pace which happend to feel really good. I was covering the hills quickly, and pushing through the corners knowing Aarons tires weren't treating him the best. Lap two actually ended up being the fastest lap of the day.
Lap 3 was uneventful. I was still thinking Aaron was behind me, and every once in a while during lap two I would catch a glimpse of Travis also. I did make another rookie mistake and totally forgot to grab my second bottle for the last lap. So I ended up only having one bottle to drink during the entire race. I came in after lap 3 at 1:46 for the overall win.
Trav came in about 3 minutes behind me, and Justin Farmer took 3rd overall about 3 minutes back from Trav. All in all it was a great race. What made me feel even better was having a good race after training hard the day before. I'm doing things different this year, and training through all of the local races, and tapering for a select few like Subaru Cup and Nationals. This way I can still get my training in without wasting training time always trying to be fresh for every race.
Big thanks to the teamates up in St. Joe for pulling the big weight to get this race put on. Also got to give thanks to everyone else who went up and helped prep the course, set up, and tear down. I think Ethos put on a pretty sweet race. You can expect even bigger and better next time.
It's looking good for a trip to Tennessee this weekend. My man Steve is game. Travis got swamped at work. There's a US East Cup race, and from the description, it should be interesting. Three 11 mile laps. Six miles to the top, a couple flat, 3 or so down, and one on the road to the finish. Should be great training for the Nationals in which I'm sure they'll have us climb and then decend.
If not TN, then maybe Como. They have a race going on down there this weekend. You should go.
G
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