yo freakadelics. here are the results for today-13th place! coincidentally, that's the same place i came in for the last xc race with my complicitor kenny (see "links that i frequent"). this was by far the best off-road experience i've had racing yet. it was a lovely 25.8 mile jaunt in some of the most gnarliest terrain ever-let alone in a xc race! whoever thought of putting a (tipperary) creek crossing where the top of the water exceeds the bottom bracket height is nutrageous. anyhoo, like always, i was running just a wee bit late and since it was a point to point, i had to ride a wee bit tempo, 5 miles away from the ski area past fraser, to get to our staging area. no biggy, it beats getting there two hours early to register and sit around wasting precious energy. this time i pre-reg'd on-line and saved ten bones. there was a three mile fireroad that began before the climb. all the roadies got up front and pushed this insane pace. there were already people peeling off the front due to this insane pace (don't they know it's a 25.8 mile race with a wicked sawtooth profile?). welcome to colorado racing folks. the people who popped early were true mountain bikers because of the high rpms they had when they exploded backwards, plus they couldn't draft to save their lives. damn roadies (just kidding, it was kind of cool actually). billy, preroad this course a while back and gave me the 411 where the crucial holeshot would be (at the singletrack hillclimb off the fireroad). so, with this in mind i kept my pack position top ten-like. sure enough, with no warning the corner marshall pointed left (her right), and we rocket up the singletrack. billy also said to keep it in the middle ring, which i did. all good information. i pretty much stayed in this position until the final climb with some six miles to go. it was so immensely difficult for me at this point i had to put it in my granny; furthermore, my chain was so dry it kept skipping off the upper two cogs (the ones closest to the spokes). so i had to climb in a gear a wee bit more difficult for me to spin. this is where i got passed by a whole slew of people.
the insane part of this race was the people who were in front of me who turned on the after-burners on the downhills. for the rocky stuff it was just too much for my hardtail (instead of pointing and shooting like the dual boingers, i had to thread the needle to find the path of least resistance) but on the quasi-loamy, hard dirt, i didn't believe how fast we were flying. the speeds were fataly surreal. i bet we were humming at least 40 mph through some unbelievable (singletrack) scenery. it was awesome! another reason why my endorphins are pegging is how excellent my bike (other than the dry chain) responded. it felt as if my bike were an extension of my filipino pistons. she was righteous the way she gave me feedback and application of watts baby! i love my yeti (that didn't sound right). for a dollar i'll let you touch my yeti, if you want.
well, when the dust settled my blown-self finito'd 13. it's ite, but the endorphin cascade was off the charts. no flats, no ruined components, just a big toofy grin with my funkified pheromones kickin' stereo-like in my pits (my pheromones were saying, "check me out, i be glowing and sheeyat, muh-fuh."). oh yeah! all hail winterpark!
i didn't stick around for the schwag. i've already been there for six hours. did i mention there was 4,100 feet of climbing today? did i mention also, that i finished a 25,8 mile course in 2 hours and 27 minutes? did i again mention that today was pretty durn righteous? well, i mean to. well, cyclocross season here i come....
