Texas Conference

I paid for this photo because I dropped my phone (phone-jack first) into biscuits and country gravy. Very messy.

John Muir Race

I have been waiting all year to both actually do a race I was planning on racing, and race duo rather than solo. At the WEMS John Muir race it finally came together. Maciej agreed to the duo but wanted to do the 75 mile instead of the 50. I figured it couldn't hurt.

I have been in the middle of doing base work for the coming cx season, but I wanted to do well at this race, so I did a little taper this week so my legs might be a bit fresher. We had two goals: first was to beat Ronsta (who was doing the solo 75 on a ss), and second was to win our race. The first goal might sound silly, unless you know Ronsta, and this goal got us off to a fast start.

Maciej started the race and stayed on Ron's wheel for the first lap until the end where he got a little gap for me. I had two choices: let Ron get in front and follow him, or ride like the wind on the flats and see if I could hold him off. I chose the latter. I wasn't riding smooth or smart for the first lap. I could hear his brakes in the distance--coming to get me like a banshee--but I held him off until about the 9.5 mile mark of the 10 mile lap. He caught me on the big climb at the end where I conceded and let him pass.

After that though, Ronsta settled in a little and Maciej kept his pace up, giving me a good gap on my second lap. Second place in our race was nowhere to be seen, so my lap was spent going through the lapped traffic and trying to keep the throttle up. The humidity was also really rising in the woods making recovery after climbs a little more difficult.

My last two laps I started to ride smarter, but I was wearing down and without any direct competition it was difficult for me to push it as hard as I should have. Maciej stayed consistent and in the end we won our race. I think we actually would have won the overall 75 mile (if there was one) beating the 3 and 4 man teams too.

It felt good to ride fast on a day without rain. I think we also had the most awesome tent area with a ton of fun people using it as home base. That was one of the best parts of doing the duo, I was able to hang out more. I could go for more of that, but for now it is back to the base training for while.

Sunny Afternoon

Nice weather is finally here!