Draper Race

The Draper Icup Race was last night, it was fun and challenging. Racing at night is different than racing in the morning. You have worked all day, your eating schedule is a little off, and the sun and heat definitely play different on your body. With that said I noticed some of this, but it did not seem to affect my racing. As usual the Women 35+ started at the back of the pack. The beginning women were nice and let us go in front of them. That was nice of them. I started out strong, actually too strong. I immediately jumped to the front of the pack and led the way. I was going at a good clip when I got to the stream. Apparently there was a grate to cross on, but I did not see it and ended up washing out and off by bike. I said an expletive and unfortunately there were a lot of people sitting there watching. Ooops, sorry to those that were around. Luckily it did not affect my place, and I kept going. I did great up to the double track before the trail split to left or right (half or full loop), and realized at that point I had gone out too strong. I had to back off, and watched as Dot (mad dog), Tasha (racers), Rhonda (revolution) and Jolene (UMB), passed me. I let Jolene know I was going to be back, but would see her later (yea, the finish line). On the way to the long climb I felt the affects of pushing it too soon, and was not at my best. I was able to continue strong, but had to go around people which was fine expect for one guy who would not let me by. Eventually I ended up clipping his tire and losing my balance causing me to get off my bike. Another expletive was made. He stopped and let me by, but there were 2 people right on my tail, and they got past. None in my group, but still I could have stayed ahead of them. Instead I followed them up to the long climb and then passed. The climb was good I had to take it a little slow at the first for recovery, but after about a mile I was good to go. I could still see Jolene and that was the motivation I needed to keep going. I knew they were close by and hopefully I could keep it close. On the long climb I passed a beginning 13-15 UMB rider. He was putting in a lot of effort and standing up to climb. I let him know he still had 1.5 miles to go and he might want to reserve some of that energy. Not sure if he listened, but I saw him later when he finished and he seemed fine. Things went pretty well going down Clarks trail. I felt pretty good and the ride was going smooth until the last part when it started to get very rutted. At that point I had a difficult time riding fast and smooth (I am still not secure on fast DH). I ended up at the bridge going slower than I ever have, but continued on. The next part went well. I hit the gravel section and remembered what Dale Hutchings had said and kept spinning my pedals which got me through without any problems. Whew, what a relief because that is probably one of the most difficult parts for me. On the bottom portion of the Spring Hollow portion there are a lot of switchbacks. I hit the first tight switchback started to take it wide, when out of nowhere two riders cut on the inside of the switchback and clipped my front tire. Luckily one foot was unclipped, so I was able to retain my balance. I yelled an expletive at them and told them to let me know they needed to pass. They were the only goobers who didn't let me know they needed to pass. The rest of the switchbacks went without incident and all racers that needed to pass were able to do so without affecting my ride or theirs. I was able to use some skills I learned at our UMB skills clinic and MTB camp. During the race I let a racer pass, and we came to some planks we had to ride across. He did not make it, and had one tire on and one off, and kept trying to walk it and get on. I was able to track stand and wait while he loaded up and got on his bike. That was a cool feeling not losing my balance and being able to keep going. The rest of the race went without incident. I was able to go okay, on the downhill, but this is something I need to work on. Too much space gets between me and other riders on downhill.

I ended up taking 5th place which is good. Jolene (UMB) took 4th and Sally (UMB) took 5th. Tasha 1st, Dot 2nd and Rhonda 3rd. Next race is at Sundance at Saturday. Hoping to pre-ride today, but boy am I tired. Not from the race, but from staying up until 2 am....That's the downside to evening races, too wound up to go to sleep when you get home.

Mandy's race went well. She placed 19th overall and 2nd out of the girls (around 30 in her division). She is getting much better at riding her bike and it is way cool. I watched her ride up hills that at the first of the racing season she would have walked. It's fun to see her go, having fun and making new friends.