I was in Madison for 4 days and did 5 or 6 rides, only 2 of those rides were outside. For once I couldn't have been more happy to ride the trainer. The course was super sloppy and icey which was actually my strong point as far as courses go, so I was stoked to get this race on!
The morning of the race I hopped on the trainer for a bit to open up the legs and get my mind focused. With warm muscles and coffee flowing in my veins, I was more than ready to few the hour of pain that is cyclocross. My call up was just behind mid pack start, but in a race like this, it did not matter all that much. What was the hardest thing was racing with only one bike in the worst of conditions. With this in mind, I knew I had to go as hard as I could for the first lap to get up front before my bike packed with mud and turned into a single speed eventually going from 16- 35+ lbs (this actually happened). The race when just as I planned and at the halfway point I had already moved up to the top 10 and was feeling great. In all honesty, I had never felt better in a race than I did here, but I did highly underestimate the bike gaining so much weight an all of a sudden it turned into me racing CX with a downhill bike.
I was able to hold onto 12th or 13th and for once after a bike race my arms hurt more than my legs. I couldn’t be more happier with my fitness and was able to learn few things... like ice can turn into mud which results into needing 2 bike. I blame this one on me being raised in Arizona!
After I got back home from nationals, I took a few days off before heading to Bootleg Canyon to remember how to ride a mountain bike again. By the end of the weekends I was feels super flowy and couldn’t wait to be coming back... maybe for the Bootleg Enduro in March? We will see, but for now I will be taking another week of before what is sure to be a killer mountain bike season... hopefully not literally.
No comments:
Post a Comment