Here's mine:
I'm pretty stoked with my performance. This may have been my best race performance to date, even better than Leadville. It feels even better because I was NOT confident going into this. I couldn't crash because of the collarbone break on Mar 1st. When I recon'd the first 15mi of the course on Thurs, it was much harder than expected. There was so much narrow single track, like 1ft wide in spots with tall weeds on the sides. Most corners in that section were blind. And since there's no chance at passing, people were going to go hard to get there first. Plus, I still think I suck at MTBing. My nerves were through the roof the morning of the race. Honestly, I haven't been that nervous since my first MA race in the rain many years ago.
The first bit of the race was a cluster-f* like normal. My wave was over 100 men but I lined up early and was 2nd row. The start was a sprint from T5 up to the corkscrew. I did 300w (4.5w/kg) for 3 minutes and dropped into the very narrow single track in what felt like 40th (in my wave). There was plenty of blocking, plenty of stop-starting due to riders screwing up, and a few hairy passes. But surprisingly, I wasn't the slowest there and got through it all. It helped that some para-athletes went first and pushed over the grass with their wider trikes, dramatically improving sight-lines. After a few miles of that, the field stretched out. Then I settled in and just did my thing.
I have two strengths in these races - climbing and endurance. So I used some other riders as a rabbit on descents, especially ones I hadn't seen before. And I passed them up the climbs. I let a few faster riders go around mile 20... and they all came back to me by mile 50. I surpassed my fueling targets and had a reasonably quick stop after the first lap to ditch my vest and get more fuel. I passed a few cycling acquaintances that I wasn't expecting to beat - one that used to be so much stronger than me and one that started 5min ahead in another wave. I beat the Vegan Cyclist, lol. I even think I learned a few things about MTBing skills around mile 40 that made the 2nd lap a lot smoother. The legs just kept going and going and going. My 2nd lap ended up being <3min slower than my 1st, all of which is due to not sprinting the start of the 2nd lap and my quick pit stop. The new buzzword in cycling is "durability" and I def got some
That was the most technically challenging race I've ever done and probably the most fun I've had on a MTB. I'm pretty sure I'll be back. And I should probably stop telling myself that I'm not good at MTBing.
Some more numbers:
- Drank 3L, estimated sweat loss 3L
- Consume 525g of sugar / 2100Cal, burned 3800Cal
- Finished 134% behind the winner, 10% closer than my prev best MTB race.
Oh, goal time was 5:30. Nailed it!
I did lose some weight recently and I need to stay on the wagon because I'm going to do the Crusher Cup races
