Shock and Awe!! Thats the only thing I can say about today. It all sarterd about a week ago when I decided to actually race this round. For those of you who don't know, Estrella is the rockiest course in the whole valley. Which means tire choice is key. I have raced this race two times before, and still hadn't found a tire combination that I was happy with. Today that changed. The way it happened was an interesting story in its own right. I had an Intense System 4 2.25 on the front, and a Bontrager Jones ACX 2.0 on the back. They worked well in Brianhead 2 months ago in the silt there, and Estrella has a fair share of sand, so I thought the combo might work well here too. And sure enough it did! (trust your instincts!) While the 2.25 was alone over 700 grams, it was worth the extra weight to gain floatation to keep the tire from sinking in the sand. On the downhills, there was a lot of loose gravel and rocks and the larger tire displaced the rocks instead of being displaced by the rocks.
Now to the start of the race. Off the line I was second row, far right, which was not the place to be. My goal in the first mile was to get to second place, which I was able to do. I settled in behind the leader and let him do the work for the first climb. At the beginning of the second climb, I and the 3rd place rider passed the leader and set out on our own. I'll admit that I was hesitant to try and pull a gap over the Pro field (I'm Expert class). But you only live once and I chose to go for it. 2nd place held with me for the next couple of miles, but was unwilling to do some pulling, so I said "see ya", and left him behind (I could tell he was about stretched to his limit already- His desperate gasps for breath were a dead giveaway). Grabbing another gear, I hunkered down and set my own pace for the rest of that first loop. By the time I came through the feed zone, my lead had grown to about 3 min. I was able to hold that pace for the second loop, and extened the lead to 7 min.. At that point, I was feeling very positive about the race and followed coaches advice and put it in "cruise control" and just relaxed. When I came through for the final lap, My feed zone team was at the beach, which cost me a 2 min wait for water. Once I restarted and got over the cramps in my legs, I still could not see the second place rider. Thats when I knew I had it. In the end, I was around 9 min ahead of second place in expert class, and around 4 min ahead of the top pro. What an amazing ride (keep in mind, I'm only 18 yrs old).
I learned to race myself, and not necessarily the other riders today. I have been focusing on my form specifically the last couple of weeks, and it really has paid off. Just the form work, I feel, saved a tremendous amount of energy. Work on your form.
No comments:
Post a Comment