--- In teamwrongway@yahoogroups.com, mike gin <ginmtb@...> wrote:
> 3rd Place Solo - Peter Donohue
> Peter D. surprised a lot of people by finishing 3rd in the solo class.
> Didn't think he had ridden that much but he kept grinding away. And he
> was on his SS. Man, way to go Peter! 8 laps

I stayed slow and steady the entire time. Guess keeping my stomach
together was the key.

Started at the back, as I was using my first lap as my get used to the
course lap (I didn't preride). Then just slowly kept going. Very
tortoise like.

First lap rode most of the climbs, second a bit less of the climbs.
By about 3 pm, if it wasn't downhill, I was walking.

Didn't pay attention to what position I was in until after the half
way point. I checked in after about 6 laps and found I was in fourth,
and 22 minutes behind number 3. Figured I wasn't going to improve.

Did 2 more laps and came in at just before the 7 hour mark. I was
wondering if I could get away with just doing 1 more lap, or if I
would have to do 2 to hold whatever place I had. Did a quick check to
see where we were and found I had moved up to 3rd place. Also found
the the 2nd place guy, who also had finished 8 laps, and 4th place
guys had stopped. The second place guy was waiting to see if I was
going to go out again (forcing him to go out and beat me to the finish
to keep his 2nd place). But once I confirmed that the 4th place guy
(TWW's Michel - he didn't get bumped to 5th until after this time) had
stopped, I figured I had locked in 3rd and kept this and called it a
day. Plus figured that the 2nd place guy was well rested, so there
was no way I could beat him in a drag race (with all my walking - it
would see more like a snail race). So 8 laps in just under 7 hours.

Truthfully, I think the course is not a good solo course. It would be
a good course to just ride for fun, with lots of little technical
challenges. But after a few hours of riding, you start getting stupid
due to exhaustion and heat, so make lots of little mistake. So I was
walking a lot of areas that I would normally ride, just because I
didn't want to risk a crash.

Turns out I may have had a chance to get 2nd, but didn't have the
knowledge. In my race-induced stupidity, I never questioned why the
2nd place guy would risk his place by stopping so long on the hope I
would quit early. Seems 2nd place guy stopped because of stomach
problems. He seemed to have recovered by the time I got there, but
you never know...