Race Day #1 - Lake Pueblo

Racing in April? Already? I'd like to think it was a warm-up race but I don't think such a thing exists since the effort never feels like a warm-up effort. If anything, it feels worse when it's early season! Knowing that that would be the case, Brant and I woke up bright and early on Sunday to head down to Pueblo for the Lake Pueblo Arkansas Point Challenge. Since we were making the two-hour drive it only made sense to race in the Sport category, which was 20 miles rather than 11 for the Beginner or 30 for the Expert. Rolling into the parking lot, it was evident it was a pretty relaxed vibe which was perfect. People were friendly and the typical chatter than masks pre-race nerves was abundant. Unfortunately, small races don't mean the nerves are any less. While roaming around the parking lot Brant came back and had asked if I saw the girl on the Stevens bike with quads bigger than my waist. I hadn't but was certainly curious and asked if it was Katie Compton, or KfC as she's otherwise referred to and the "f" isn't conveniently placed to tie her to Colonel Sanders. It's also not for her middle name unless her middle name is f'in (and that's being kid-friendly of course!). She's enough of a badass on a bike that she's definitely earned it. Arguably the best female cyclocross racer in the world right now and her palmares on a mountain bike and/or cyclocross bike are too long to list. My keen eye for attractive women on bikes (2 of my favorite things) had also spotted Kelli Emmett who's no slouch on a bike herself. She's an excellent mountain bike and cyclocross racer, and member of Team Giant. While she has her own remarkable palmares, one of my favorite things is her tattoo from winning the singlespeed championships in 2007. Have a look - I think you'll like it too! So here we are at an otherwise relaxed, early season race in the middle of nowhere with two of the best women that ride mountain bikes in the United States lining up with us. Pretty awesome!

Given the small overall field everyone lined up together. Expert/Pros first, then Sport, then Beginner, rightly assuming that the categories would get sorted out on the ride based on rider strength. The first 1-1.5 miles was on the road going uphill. The peloton pulled out hurriedly then slowed a touch. As it did the Expert field made it's way up the road. I was able to latch on to a guy and let him pull me up to that field and Brant followed my lead as we weaved through riders. Unfortunately for us, once we got to the back of that group they decided it was time to go and dropped the hammer. I was apparently part of the hammer since I, too, was dropped. Once at the top though, it switched to a sidewalk and the pace quickened since the hole shot to singletrack was quickly approaching and it's imperative to get in the right position. I was able to make my way by a handful of riders but got stuck trying to make my last move. This ended up costing me a little bit since I was faster than this guy early on but couldn't get by. There were little cacti on the outside the path making passing there an unattractive option. I had bumped tires with him a couple times to let him know I was there, and also verbally asked to be let by a few times. This lasted maybe 2 miles. At one point we were going uphill and he stalled. I bumped his tire again and lost all momentum so I got off my bike, pushed it uphill and hopped back on. I still didn't get by and the group I wanted to make contact with went farther up the trail. Finally he pulled over and I went off to the races pushing pretty hard trying to make contact. I figured that if I could bridge the gap, I'd be in good position to sit in and take advantage of the draft for a lot of the remaining miles. Part of the downside of early season racing is that I just didn't have the legs to fly up there on my own. A headwind didn't help. And that's not to take anything away from the guys in that group being strong riders. After all, that's why I wanted to be up there with them!

After pedaling in no-man's land I knew I had two options. Option 1 was to put out more energy than necessary working by myself and seeing if I could hold off the chase group. Option 2 was to ease up and get in that group and have people to work together. We still had more than half the race to go so I chose option 2. I led the group for a bit, then got passed by the same guy that wouldn't let me by earlier. He ended up being a strong rider at this point but we were out of tune with our abilities. I'd go up faster than him and stall, he'd descend faster than me. It made me expend more energy in/out of turns that necessary but that's part of racing. It's also solved by me having better descending abilities! Another few miles passed and one guy came through and went away, then the guy leading our pack pulled away just enough to make bridging difficult alone. We got to doubletrack and Brant pulled by me determined to get up to the other guys. Since he's 6'4", 195lbs, it's like drafting a bulldozer which worked well for me! Or so I thought it would. I went to take a drink and in the time I relaxed to do that, I fell out of his draft and didn't have the legs to get back on. No-man's land again.

I knew the race was getting close to the finish and another guy came by me. That was frustrating since I didn't want to give up any more positions. I don't know what his strategy was but since I knew we only had about 3-4 miles left, I wasn't letting him get away. I bridged the gap and hung on for 2 miles. Then it was back to the sidewalk and when I looked back there was another group working well together that was gaining ground. I told the guy I was with we needed to work together but he looked disinterested. I assumed he was playing games since he slowed down so much he was forcing me to take the lead while he would sit in for 1.5 miles and then outsprint me at the end. That kind of pissed me off so with 1.5 miles to go I did my own individual time trial. I started with a little surge and looked back to see if he was hanging in my draft. He was a little bit, but there was a bigger gap than I expected to see and that was all I needed. I shifted up to the big ring, put my head down and hammered the pedals. The effort was enough that every position caused me discomfort with each pedal stroke, but when I peaked back, my strateg was working and the gap was growing. I finally got to the bottom and knew I was safe. I was able to let up on the pedals a little bit but was still draped over the handlebars with my tongue hanging out. For 20 miles on a mountain bike, I covered it in 1hr 26min 20sec. That was good enough for 13th place out of 51 riders in the Sport category. Brant had a great race as well and finished 12th, exactly one minute ahead of me.

The normal post-race deconstruction/analyzing went on as normal, and that's part of the fun. As we were talking, I heard Brant yell and looked over my shoulder just in time to see Katie and Kelli duel it out in a sprint finish. After 30 miles (for the Pros), it came down to less than a second for these two. Goes to show that everything race counts no matter how big or small. Kelli had the inside line which propelled her to victory as she was able to keep Katie on the outside.

Since I've only been on my mountain bike about 7 times this year and have never really ridden a mountain bike seriously, I'm really happy with how this unfolded. My technical abilities need to be developed but that will come with more t.i.t.s. (time in the saddle). I said after the race that I felt like I had 45 minute legs for a race that was 1:30 and as my strength bumps up, I'll hope my results do too. Oh, and I won a sweet backpack from Specialized at the raffle which was worth about $100! Considering it only cost $25 to race, it added to the day being a success.