It's Love This Time!

Stony Creek.... Yep, revisiting this one again. Love, Hate, Love. Well, it was love this time - and perfect timing. This was the close of the Tailwind USAC Mountain Bike XC series, and the realization that cyclocross is just around the corner. I have not done well at this race for the 2-3 years, and the last time I got a podium was in sport class. But my training has been ramping up and I have been starting to feel really strong. So could this year be different?

As this is the last race of the series, and being at Stony Creek, I knew that most if not all the fast guys would be out. And they were. There were at least 14 on the line for Expert Men 30-39. This was good and bad for me. If I could nail a podium in this class today that would be awesome! And I had a good shot at securing 4th place overall in the series. But there were about 3 other guys that could also take 4th overall if they had good races. So here we go...

On the whistle, I could not get my right foot to clip in. So this pushed me back to around 9th place. As we approached the single track, I could see the lead group slip away. The main reason was that Simon Bailey was holding up about 6 of us, and we could not get by. (I don't normally call people out, but come on. When people call out to let them by, let them by! If you know your bike handling skills are not as good as others in the class, get the hell out of the way!) OK, sorry about that. So once I got past that issue, I opened it up a bit and started to catch the tail end of the lead group. I was able to do this by powering through the flats. I was able to close down all the gaps, and then all of a sudden found myself sitting in 4th-5th place, and making ground. The only person I could not shake was Todd Freidinger who had an awesome race! I would blow out Todd on the flats, and he would pick his way back up to me in the single track. It stayed this way for the entire race, which made the racing aspect more enjoyable. At the end of 2nd lap, Jeff Poirier caught me. I was a little concerned and thought "Here goes my race again". But by the start of the 3rd lap, I was climbing myself away from him again, and could no longer see him. I kept putting out the same effort and sticking to the same plan. Steady in the single track, and turning myself inside out on the flats!!! Next, I caught Brian Harris at the end of the 3rd lap, and he rode with me through about half of the lap, and I was able to drop him on a climb. Then it was Todd and myself for the final lap. Starting to feel some cramps forming in my quads, I just rode smart. In the middle of the roller coaster I had a little brain fart and washed out my front tire and went down hard. Todd just missed riding over me and pulled away. I tried to get on my bike as fast as I could to limit the loss, but I have a horrible cramp shoot up my left hamstring. It very painful, but I was able to ride it out. Todd, pulled farther and farther ahead. I made it to the last double track climb and spun up it as gingerly as possible to avoid any cramps. At the top I took a look back to see if I was starting to lose time and let Jeff claw his way back. SHIT! There he was at the bottom of the climb. I popped it up into my big ring one last time and TT'ed as hard as I could to the end. I sprinted to the top of the last sled hill with no full blown cramps and made one last push to the finish. Jeff came in 9 seconds later. I never made contact again with Todd, but I did get a hard earned 4th place, but I did not keep 4th overall in the series.

It has been a strange and slow season for me up until the last 3-4 races. But my fitness is starting to click, and my confidence is starting to soar. It really couldn't happen at a better time. I think I love Stony again....