xc/super d race report

XC

THE Short:

It was hard. Short, only 4.2 mile laps. My body felt ok. I got lapped by Todd Wells who was absolutely CRUSHING everyone. I didn't get to race my last lap.

THE Long:

I got the very last call-up, so I was the last person out of 50+ to line up. This is because I registered really late (day before) and because I don't have any UCI points (you get these by racing other proxct races and worldcups) The race starts out with a pretty serious climb that you have to ride up. Racing at altitude is incredible, especially when coming from sea-level. You can't really go hard enough to make your muscles hurt. But the lungs and head, holy shit. If you dig too deep for too long you'll find yourself utterly useless for over a minute or two, or more. It's impressive how long it takes to recover from a hard effort.

So here I am, back of the pack and the gun goes off and we start up that hill. I take it easy, relatively, and loose the entire pack on the punchy climb. It's all good, I caught back on pretty quick. I think they were feeling that effort from the climb, and maybe cause the group just hit the first single track section and that pretty much makes for a standstill near the back of the field. Being in exactly last position has its benefits. You don't need to worry about joe racer elbowing his way by you to secure 50th place. One nice thing about racing DFL(dead fucking last) is that you have nowhere to go but up. It was nice, I settled in and started racing my own race. I was passing people every lap and after a couple laps I started to feel pretty good. I was riding pretty conservatively, with the intention of turning on the gas a bit more with 2 laps to go, and opening the throttle for the whole last lap and a half. Then disaster! With 2 laps to go, some spectators yelled at us that Todd Wells was coming up and we should punch it to try and finish our race. (if you get lapped by the leader, they 'pull' you from the race and you are given a prorated time) If this has ever happened to you, then you know what I mean when I say this feels like robbery. You put all the effort (monetary, mental, physical, sacrifice, etc) into showing up to a race and doing your very best. It's the accomplishment, 'always finish what you've started' blah blah blah. It just feels shitty. I guess I'll just have to get faster so this doesn't happen again.

So when Todd passed me I upped the pace and tried to hang with him for a while. It was fun, it didn't last too long, but much longer then I expected, and then after he dropped me I was able to keep it at a pretty serious pace for the rest of the climb. Should have tried that earlier I guess.

Super d

The short: chaos. Why can't mountain bikers have an individual timed event?

The long: A few years ago they started running super d's like they start 24hr mountain bike races. It's called a Lemans start. Everyone lays their bikes down, then the 'start' line is 50-100 yards away and everyone lines up there. When the gun goes off, you run. Great for a day long race when positioning will sort itself out naturally. Not so great for an 11 minute effort, that is mostly singletrack.

The whistle was blown and we all exploded off the line to our bikes and someone promptly pushed me into a tree. I didn't see the event called cutthroat super d, but apparently I had misread, and I was in it. I got to my bike in the middle of the field. I passed some dudes at the top section, before the single track, then busted into the singletrack and almost slammed into a really slow rider. I tried to pass him but I was going to crash so pulled the plug on that idea. I passed a bunch of riders on the uphill section and only one guy passed me on the downhill, he was super d national champ last year, so he gets a free pass. But the crazy start had sealed all our fates from the beginning. How rad would this event be if we were all separated by 30 sec or a minute? Super Rad.