Wow, I'm as tired right now as after 3 days in fernie a few weeks ago. But some good rest should help.
A little bit of a typical Kate start of the day. SRAM was set up and I was there on the dot 7am. And kudos for great service. The guy totally rebuilt my fork and even took me through each part and explained; ill still leave it to the expert for future fixes. They also put a SRAM rear rotor on as the filling of the calliper was not totally clearing the rub. So it's now almost 8 and I go to change by my truck, but no jersey...ops...drive to condo..and back...get to ride up the hill quickly, my kinda warmup anyway and at the start for 830.
The start was fairly moderate guided up a road climb by local police. No crazy riding to get good positions and doing silly things in the peloton. As we got a bit higher it felt like the pace was picking up; my every muscle in my body ached. Even my fingers! The pain I sometimes feel when back from up north and first ride out, but that's usually just legs. Had to let the group go, which included a few girls, probably 5. I was ok with that, when you don't have it you don't have it. After the first decent the pain on the next climb was a little less, got into my own groove and quickly was riding with Kristin who had a great start (and race). There was no punch to try to pass so happy just sitting, breathing so hard having a conversation was out of the question (and that is true for the entire race, quick "thanks" here and there was pretty much all I could get out).
Could see some pink jerseys (sue and amanda for NoTubes and karen on a Pivot) up front during a long fairly steep climb, and eventually I think we where all together again. My pre race drinking habit had me wanting to pee so bad I had to eventually pull over (still haven't mastered Jon's trick). Long race so shouldn't hurt. Seemed like every decent today was high speed gravel road and double track with a few awesome sections to make you smile. Followed by steep long climbs. I was so happy with my wheel setup and with the snake skins I hammered the rock hard, and the overhauled fork was fun. So a bit diss appointed when I finally had dropped both Sue and Amanda on a downhill to get a flat on a section with no rock at at. Little bit of sand and smooth flat pedal and wops. Spoke to a few others with similar experience today, maybe there was something in the sand. It was just before we dropped in on some pretty fun single track and as Stan's is spraying my legs I hoped it would seal, it did and did not a few times. The guys I was following was going pretty slow so I figured good time to pull off and get some air in. Quickly looked at the damage and it was a perfect plug job. Unfortunately, even though it didn't take many minutes the girls flew by, 3 of them. Part of racing. Added some extra air and cut the plug nice and tight hoping it wouldn't get pulled out, and started the catch up job. Still had about 10-15 miles left (I'm officially a disliker of miles, they are just so slow...) and I had run out of count on how many climbs. But they seemed to never stop. Some awesome switchback single track climb seemed to never end, I did catch Karen but wasn't flying by her as legs was pretty much hoping this was it for up today. I was wrong. When we hit the pavement after a fast decent I thought it was close to the finish, could see more pink up ahead and gave what I had left on the road, unfortunately this lead us to more climbing, and I knew I had nothing to put in. We got to enjoy a nice little single track with some nice berms in to the finish. Wow, 1 day and 5 to go and I'm empty :) 3rd behind Amanda and Sue. Hope they are tired as well; though their ability to chit chat tells me they were a bit more relaxed than I today :) and in the top five or six there is only 10 min...so some strong female riders in the field.
New this year is the Enduro class. No high tech setup but segments created at strata and riders can upload their day there. I'm not in the Enduro class hence often get bunched up with other riders but still a fun add on to the event. If I can track down a computer by 8pm ill load my day.
Now the rest of the day, massage, food, awards and some more food, and finally but not least bike cleaning after I pick it up with a brand new tire.
So far as an event; great times, relaxed and friendly!
Tomorrow, similar distance and climbing but apparently way more awesome :)
Happy Riding up high!
"punch" is something I felt devoid of on any climbs at that elevation! With all that out of the way early, let's hope you've got more good luck going forward.
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