First off, as my previous post indicated, I wasn't so enthusiastic about this race. Mr. Miles and I pre-rode the course along with Kev on Thursday. I felt slow and out of it, mainly D 5-0 was still in my legs. On the second lap of pre-ride I was yawning...a sure sign of fatigue. So Mike convinced me...I need to race for the points, do my best and see what happens. Also, remember what Mark always says, its not important that your legs feel good in the middle week, what matters is Saturday. So with that, I convined myself to race.
On Saturday, Mike and I left early taking back roads through Venice, Yutan, and Wahoo to avoid the early Husker game (argh crazy drunk traffic). We arrived at 10am to area 7 of Branched Oak. by 1030 we were kitted up and rolling for a course pre-ride. Just several minutes into our warm-up I noticed today would be good, Mike wasn't dropping me and my legs had noticeably recovered since Thursday (thanks to lots of sleep).
At 1145 we rolled to the start area for staging, we also learned that Cat 2's would be doing 4 laps (glad I ate that big breakfast). This meant a slightly longer race for the cat 2's but also would be interesting to see who had the endurance. We watched the cat 1's launch and I began to get in the zone for the next 1.5 hours of suffering. The the SS's went off and I convinced myself I'd be passing them in no time (no offense guys its just a fact). Then it was go time.
3..2..1..we jump. I follow Mikes wheel as he finds clean air. Jesse B leads us up the hill with Mike, Paul Eichler, and myself in tow. A little reck on the left side allows us to open a gap. We hit the rough prairie start and Chris Hansen has caught up. I'm sitting 4th on Paul's wheel with Mike and Jesse mixing it up in front. Chris catches and moves around putting me in 5th. Jesse, Mike and Chris pull away opening a few second gap, leaving Paul and I to chase. I'm content to sit on Paul's wheel for as long as I can and recover from the start then chase for the next 4 laps.
As lap 1 progresses, I realize Paul is slowing little by little, there is a group of 10ish riders chasing us, but Mike, Chris, and Jesse are not really pulling away from us more. By the last 1/3 of lap 1, Paul offers to let me by. I jump and begin to pull away as we hit the field. Once in the prairie I see the lead 3 are still together and not far ahead. I try to bridge but go too hard and decide to back off. As we cross the finish line we have gone through the entire SS field and Paul is back in front I also decide to look and take stock of where the chasers are. I see 2 riders closing but not fast.
Back into the prairie descent I'm recovered again and begin to pull away from Paul. Now I'm on my own. I set my tempo and go to work to chase the lead 3. Half way through lap 2, something unexpected happens. A tricky short descent into a short loose off camber left hander approaches. As I round the corner I see Mike on the ground looking dazed and holding his shoulder. I ask if he's ok as I pass. No response, but I hear him talking to other riders asking the same thing. Ok, I tell myself his days likely done and decide continue on and then look for him at the start/finish area. My only concern its his collar bone and I need to get his keys just in case an ambulance shows.
I also now realize I'm sitting third. I settle back into my tempo and work hard to maintain my gap on the field and try to close down on the lead riders. For the next 1 and half laps I don't see anyone in front or behind. Then near the end of lap 3 I notice one of the other riders has closed the gap to me. as I enter the prairie before the s/f he jumps around but doesn't get more than 10 feet before he slows noticeably. I look and see 3 other riders are near too. Hmmmm, what to do. I test him out and sure enough I get right on his wheel. Just before the s/f line I jump around and settle back into my tempo. Thats the last time I saw him, and just as I thought he wasted his energy catching me and blew up.
As I cross through the s/f area I also see Mike, he tells me Jesse is not far ahead (turns out he said 30 seconds but it was really a minute, thanks Mike but I was in the zone and was focused). Again lap 4 maintain the tempo, don't blow and keep the podium and if luck prevails you catch Jesse. As I approach the final run through the prairie Mike is there, he's says is less than 10 second to Jesse and I can catch him if I work hard. Sure enough I hit the open field and jesse is just 50 feet in front. Wow what a I feeling to smell blood like that before the s/f line. I open it up and see him looking over his shoulder. I can see him giving it what he has left. I kindly yell to him, "I'm coming for you Jesse!" Unfortunately that's how it would end. Close, but not quite.
Turns out Mike popped his shoulder out but after I saw him remounted and got going again only to crash a second time (the culprit really low tire pressures, a gamble on the day for a loose course). I'm sure Mike could have won. But that is mountain bike racing, stuff happens we move on.
Regardless, here's the podium picture below. Chris Hansen got the W, Jesse 2nd, and me a close 3rd. I'm very happy with the race result. I road a solid tempo and didn't fade at all. I think more of the cat 2 races need to be 4 laps. Makes it a bit more interesting endurance wise. Now, its on to Swanson for the final race of the year. I'm still in the points running. Hopefully, I can pull out another good race result and wrap up the year with a good position in the series.
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| Cat 2 Men Open Podium (l-r): yours truly - 3rd place, Chris Hansen - 1st place, Jesse Bergman - 2nd place |
2 comments:
Good job Jeremy Moving up.
nice job jeremy. keep it up man.
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