First Place, Vet Sport Men:
After being in Alaska
for two weeks and not having ridden a bike during that time,
I was hesitant to even make the trip to RI for the race. If
it had been raining and the weather hadn’t called for
clearing I probably would have bagged out. But I figured the
best training for races is a race so why not go and see the
guys on the team and meet the new members.
The start went off and on my left came a
blaze of yellow. Tom went for the hole shot and got it!! I
rode steady and surprisingly I found myself in the top two
after the opening section and by the end of the first mile
I was leading. I felt good so I decided to let it ride and
go with the flow. The first lap I followed my tried and true
strategy of “staying upright” and ran sections that
looked sketchy. The mud bogs sucked – literally and figuratively
– and a couple of times I nearly lost a shoe (not a chance
with those new orthotics in there!!). The river crossing was
cold and being my size, more of me got wet than most people.
My tires were hooking up well and I was able to climb just
about everything. By the end of the first lap I had passed
more than my share and was still running up front.
So, I decided to push it harder on lap two.
Bad choice. With the roots getting more exposed and the mud
tracks getting deeper it was a lot easier to have a tire jump
off line. My lines weren’t as smooth. I also figured
I try to ride through more of the deep mud bogs and that also
was a bad choice – a couple of times I buried my front
wheel in a sink hole or on a rock and went over the bars.
Hello, mud pie!! I decided to keep riding smooth since I was
passing people then losing ground to them later on by trying
to be too aggressive. I still felt good through the running
sections and no cramping or bonking symptoms. At the end of
lap two I still felt I was near the front.
Lap three I decided to ride harder on the
open sections and ride a cautious lap in the technical stuff
and make people chase me down. I still felt very good and
rode the best overall lap of the three. I was happy to finish
and even felt good enough to stand up going up the last final
hill.
 It
was fun to see a good contingent of Crank racers and see the
“Yellow and Black” flying around the course. Jeff
rode a great race and I kept seeing him right behind me and
Nathan unfortunately had the worst “bonk look” I’ve
seen in awhile. Too bad – everyone said he was downright
flying through the first couple laps. Zippy gave me a hearty
hello on the course and Mike seemed to being having fun also.
After all was said and done I was glad I
came since I finally won a race!! WAHOO (as in Watershed)!!!
Win #2 finally came after #1 was the first race I ever did
oh so many years ago. Unfortunately I still can’t say
this is one of my favorite courses – it’s always
wet and muddy and there is never a great “flow”
to the riding. However, based on the good start I look forward
to riding the Wahoo, Bradbury and the Pinnacle in the next
month plus with the team. It should be fun and we have a great
group of riders (Tom, Nathan, Mike, Tim, Zippy, Clint, Jeff,
Jason and of course Jean – hope I didn’t forget
anyone there) that it should be a great year for Crank Racing.
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