Race Behind Bars May
18th 2014
When I
arrived at the event and registered I found out that they were going to be
running the course in the opposite direction as in past years. I had never
ridden the course in this direction so my warm up consisted of a little recon
of the course. I went and did the gravel road climb that is usually a downhill
and realized that it was going to be a big factor in the race. Since there was
a descent at the top of the climb I figured I wouldn’t hold back on the climb
because I could recover going downhill. Once I finished my warm up I refilled
my bottles with some Skratch Labs and headed to the start line. There were some
pretty fast people that I was lining up with so I knew it was going to be a
fast start.
When
the race started I was toward the back of the group because I figured I would
save some energy and push the climb. This would have worked out if I wasn’t
held up on the very steep short climb to the top of levee. The two people ahead
of me went up this climb a lot slower than I anticipated so I was forced to
slow, unclip, and run up the rest of the way. This messed up the two people
behind me also, kind of a chain reaction. I had some distance to make up before
the climb so I pushed hard to the base of the climb and pushed hard up it and
gained back a few spots.
I
hammered on the rest of the course following close behind a few riders; I made
it a point to try and pass them before the forest and was successful. I got a
pretty clean run through the forest with no hold ups, I did go over the hump on
the last bridge way too fast a caught some unexpected major air. I was able to
land with my back wheel but the fork still bottom super hard. All was good with
the fork but there was a section of the course right before entering the
baseball field that wasn’t marked very well. I made a wrong turn and quickly
corrected but was passed by a few riders who were close behind. I held on their
draft through the fields and the levee and was able to make some passes on the
gravel climb again. These riders were able to hold my wheel though and sat
there through the remainder of lab 2 and 3. Each time I entered the forest
where I knew I could put some space on them I was held up by riders in other
classes so they were able to catch back on.
On the
fourth lap one of the riders behind me took a hard pull and was able to put
some distance on me. The other person who had been following close behind me
was Scott from Mike the Poolman. Scott and I made a plan to work together to
catch the rider that had passed us, he took the first pull and was able to
close the gap. Once we caught him I pulled hard and put some distance on him,
Scott was able to hold on for a few and then fell back. They were still right
on my tail so I went hard for the remainder of the lap and was able to get
through the first part of the forest but was again held up and they caught up.
Scott for some reason was held up for longer in the forest so It was just the
other rider we had worked together to catch. After making it through the forest
I had a little bit of distance but not much and he was closing fast. At the end
I didn’t have enough sprint and was passed right before the finish.
I felt
pretty good about my race; I raced hard and really did most the work. Had I
been able to catch a draft I am sure I would have had more legs at the finish.
My time was 1 hour 38 minutes and I was 7 minutes behind the first place rider.
I really need to work on my power for these flatter courses.
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| Kurtis mid race |
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| Kurtis mid race pt. 2 |
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