Today's course started with a "neutral" rollout right up a nice 2 mile pavement climb. This shattered the field immediately before cutting onto a sweet single track decent, then a nice rolling singletrack trail before hitting a steep, loose double track climb. Most riders were walking, as it was rideable, but after one rider spun out, then everyone was hoofing it! After a short descent it was up a long fire road before heading into a high meadow and then up a long, tough double track climb. This did the final job of blowing the field into bits and it was here that I noticed that once I hit 11000' then about all I could muster was 160bpm for any length of time. This set my limiter for the day . . . at the top we descended a fast, loose, and rocky descent before blasting through a creek and heading up a winding climb.
At the top of this climb I took a nature break, had a snack and then hit a fast, long fire road descent. The only obstacle here were some pot holes that were a little tough to negotiate as the morning shadows played on the road. I blew through the first rest stop, as I had all that I needed in my Camelbak:
From here it was more climbing, of what was some of the best part of the course. Rolling, fun singletrack! We then hit a fireroad descent that was probably the least fun of the day. I started to fall apart a bit and had to stop and take in some more calories. After a bit of a gingerly ride down I started to feel better as we hit some pavement and I passed about a dozen riders as the sugar hit my system. We then had a roller coaster of a finish up a singletrack climb and then down through a flow park to the finish! 36 miles of fun and pain! Check out my ride here.
No comments:
Post a Comment