No excuses....
I got my ass handed to me at Winter Park on Saturday.
I knew it'd be a gnarly course.
I met a new friend on the internet that is just a big a geek as me (yes -Jeny - it *is* possible) and he had pre-ridden the course. He gave me a blow-by-blow on the terrain and what to expect. It's nice to be able to talk all the minutia of a race course(and power and HR and PE) with someone. Of course my new friend, Mark, also has the goods to pull it off(unlike me) as he's a pretty badass Expert rider.
So here's the course profile.
4077ft of elevation gain in ~23miles - a tad bit more climbing and a little bit shorter than the FC 50 course.
It was a great course - starts off with a 1350k ft in less than 5 mile climb on double-track that sucks you in and gets steadily steeper and rockier as you near the top. The first descent is a friggin' blast - fast and furious and twisty through the trees that turns into a faster jeep road with waterbars to launch off of and then an brand new super steep (ass on the rear tire) singletrack descent to an even faster doubletrack jaunt through more woods. woohooo!!!!
then climbing and more climbing and just with you thought you were done climbing - a slight climb on singletrack that has tiny climbs to power up that saps your legs and then a 3mile descent to the finish.
I was hoping for a sub-3 hour and did it in 3:03. But totally got crushed by the rest of the SS field. I was a whopping 15minutes behind the girl in front of me. I was bummed as first but then I checked out the results and even tho I was DFL in the SS class - at the pace I was running I would've been *very* competitive in the Sport women's class on my SS. The Sport women did a shorter course without the gnarly climb at the beginning. So doing the longer and harder course on the SS at a pace that would've made me competitive in my "normal" class makes me happy.
Plus I got lots of nice compliments from friend and strangers alike for riding my bike on that course. Several guys that passed me commented on my cool cateye argyle socks. Marty said a guy told her "she(meaning me) was railing the descent - I wasn't gonna even try to pass her" and one guy in particular came up to me after the finish and said "wow! I saw the socks when I passed you but didn't notice the rigid SS. Not only do you have fashion sense but athletic prowess too!" I said "i don't know about the athletic prowess - it took me 3 hours". the guy goes "It took me almost 3 hours and I have a full squishy!" that was super sweet of the guy and i hope I run into him at the next race to tell him that made my day!
however - i still wish i was faster. I guess there's next time. :)
I knew it'd be a gnarly course.
I met a new friend on the internet that is just a big a geek as me (yes -Jeny - it *is* possible) and he had pre-ridden the course. He gave me a blow-by-blow on the terrain and what to expect. It's nice to be able to talk all the minutia of a race course(and power and HR and PE) with someone. Of course my new friend, Mark, also has the goods to pull it off(unlike me) as he's a pretty badass Expert rider.
So here's the course profile.
4077ft of elevation gain in ~23miles - a tad bit more climbing and a little bit shorter than the FC 50 course.It was a great course - starts off with a 1350k ft in less than 5 mile climb on double-track that sucks you in and gets steadily steeper and rockier as you near the top. The first descent is a friggin' blast - fast and furious and twisty through the trees that turns into a faster jeep road with waterbars to launch off of and then an brand new super steep (ass on the rear tire) singletrack descent to an even faster doubletrack jaunt through more woods. woohooo!!!!
then climbing and more climbing and just with you thought you were done climbing - a slight climb on singletrack that has tiny climbs to power up that saps your legs and then a 3mile descent to the finish.
I was hoping for a sub-3 hour and did it in 3:03. But totally got crushed by the rest of the SS field. I was a whopping 15minutes behind the girl in front of me. I was bummed as first but then I checked out the results and even tho I was DFL in the SS class - at the pace I was running I would've been *very* competitive in the Sport women's class on my SS. The Sport women did a shorter course without the gnarly climb at the beginning. So doing the longer and harder course on the SS at a pace that would've made me competitive in my "normal" class makes me happy.
Plus I got lots of nice compliments from friend and strangers alike for riding my bike on that course. Several guys that passed me commented on my cool cateye argyle socks. Marty said a guy told her "she(meaning me) was railing the descent - I wasn't gonna even try to pass her" and one guy in particular came up to me after the finish and said "wow! I saw the socks when I passed you but didn't notice the rigid SS. Not only do you have fashion sense but athletic prowess too!" I said "i don't know about the athletic prowess - it took me 3 hours". the guy goes "It took me almost 3 hours and I have a full squishy!" that was super sweet of the guy and i hope I run into him at the next race to tell him that made my day!
however - i still wish i was faster. I guess there's next time. :)
Comments
whatever!
yes, riding bikes in the woods is fun.... .yesssserrrriieeeeeee.....
jj
And nice picture, is that a 29'er your riding ;-)
Ed