Well, first the positives:

 

1)  The weather was great.  It stayed cool and overcast.

2)  The frequency of my crashes decreased by a factor of 5

3)  I finished 20 minutes faster than last year

4)  No DNF like last year

 

Now, the negatives

 

1)  The intesity of my crashes increased by a factor of 5

2)  Ty, the new guy kicked my ass by 6 minutes in his first race ever, then rubbed it in by showing me how he could do a no handed track stand

3)  Franck also beat me by ~ 10 minutes, this after having his pre-race cigarette

4)  5th out of 10 (I list this as a negative, just cause I've put higher expectiations on my races lately)

 

So my morning started out well.  Katie decided she would come and watch me race since it wasn't raining.  Its always nice to see someone cheering you on as you come around.  We showed up around 9 and ran in to Gin, Urbina and Scott.  After saying hello, headed up to registration and ran in to Ty and Isaias.  I got my trainer set up, fiddled with a couple of things and started warming up.  I've been feeling tired lately, I think all of this really slow, low intensity road riding is taking a toll on the strength of my legs.  Sure, I can go ride for 10 hours straight, but ask me to sprint up a hill and I just can't do it anymore. 

 

Anyway, after 20 minutes or so I get off my bike and everyone tells me I better get to the starting line.  Crap, I thought the race started at 10:30, nope, 10:00.  Damnit!  I raced over there, borrowed Bob's pump and put some air in my front tire.  The whistle goes off and Franck, Ty and I are off.  At the first little hill, they left me but I tried to keep them in my sites.  As soon as we hit the hill, everyone in front of me got off and started walking, so I was forced to join in.  I didn't see Franck and Ty again until the finish line.  I made my way through the crowd, passing maybe 10 people or so.  I wasn't feeling good, my rythme has just been off.  I haven't been getting enough sleep lately, and on top of just not pushing myself hard enough lately on my mountain bike, my reflexes are off.  Oh well, just had to keep going.  Oh, yeah, and about 1/4 of the way through the first lap, I realized I needed air in my rear tire.  DOH!  It wasn't enought to make me stop though.

 

So I hit the top of the hill where I got my flat last year, and was feeling alright.  I headed down the rocky stuff feeling okay.  After a little bit, there were some big rock stairs and my tire slips and I hear this loud, quick PPPPSSSSSTTTTTT.  My front tire rolled off the rim and lost a bunch of air.  In the process, it slid out from under me and all of a sudden, I became really friendly with a nice, big, flat rock.  I said hello, got up and put air in both my tires as all of the people I had worked so hard to pass went right on by me.  All in all, I probably lost 3 minutes collecting myself.  Damnit.

 

I continued on and passed a couple more people.  I started feeling good on the second half of the second lap, but there was just too much traffic.  I was in that train of bad riders/roadies that walked every obstacle.  I made my way by a couple, but it just enough to make me happy.  Especially since I was only 16 seconds out of 4th. 

 

When it was all over, I looked at my polar watch and realized, my tire wasn't spinninig for over 11 minutes of the race.  I think 1/3 of it was due to my 2 crashes, but the other 2/3 was just stopping to wait for people who just hit the brakes once the saw a little rock.  Oh well.  I would feel a lot better about yesterday if I would have had the one bad crash.  I don't mind crashing and hurting myself, thats part of the risk involved with the sport.  It just sucked to get stuck behind everyone all over again.  I didn't get to just let it all out and enjoy my ride.  I was constantly stuck behind people I started to get frustrated.  Oh well, as I told one of the pro or expert women who passed me right before the big hill, then got off 10 feet in to it, "It's not like I'm a pro or anything.  Hell, I'm not even good enough to brag to my friends"  We both laughed and pushed our bikes up the hill. 

 

Next year I will try to set aside more time to make sure my bike is ready for the race, and warm up better so I can try to stay out in front for the big climb.  All in all, hanging out at the end of the race made me forget I even suffered for 2 hours.  It was awesome just sitting around, icing my face with a cold Moose Drool and swapping stories about the afternoon. 

 

Matt Leonard

5th of 10

1:50:08