Vision-Cycling.com/News: Ramble

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Ramble

You might get an Ore to Shore report…you might not…look to the right column and I bet you can find a good one on the blog roll from 4 of the 5 other guys I rolled into the sprint with…

Did the Reforestation Ramble, WORS race #9, this weekend at the reforestation camp in Green Bay. This course is pretty flat with a ton of single-track, at least half, if not more of the 12 mile lap is single-track. Lots of tight turns and cut off stumps to avoid all over the place.

There was a 2-3 mile wide open lead out and my plan was to get to the front to share the work of pushing the pace. I made sure I got the hole shot with a little sprint into the first section of single track.

Darrin, Matter, Tristan, Seth Lenss, Mike Anderson, and I survived the lead group into lap 2.

For the first two laps I did most of the work, but I still have a lot to learn when it comes to racing. Sure, I can rip it in the tight stuff, but this race taught me a lot about controlling the race at the front and how to make breaks happen. I just kept the pace at tempo and no one really wanted to come around me in the open sections for the first 24 miles/2 laps. Matter did make one move at the beginning of the second lap. He did an awesome glide to the side move into me to cut off my line as I tried to pinch the lead into the first single-track on lap 2. This is where he showed me how to snap the elastic correctly, by putting down a really nice acceleration into the next double track section and keeping the pace high for a minute or two. It hurt a bit, but I figured we should keep it rolling too see if we could widdle down our numbers. I pushed the pace as soon as Brian let up and brought it down to Tristan, Darrin, and I for a sec, then Brian quickly grabbed back on. I tried a couple more moves in the single-track and got some good gaps, but I was always afraid of trying to ride away solo once I hit the wide open sections. The group of three that would have been chasing have a lot of horse power to chase me down.

Going into the last 12 miles I really began to feel all the work from the previous 24 miles, but mainly just in cramps….

CRAMPS-I really need to figure out why I am getting them. Plenty of electrolytes and water…I did stop stretching in the last month and I cut the dairy, have read that calcium/magnesium helps, which I am probably low on and I will get back on some yoga to see what happens…

Last lap Tristan went to the front and pushed the pace, cramps got me on a little uphill, rolled easy for a min and then gave chase. I caught back on and was feeling good again.

Being a marathon race Sport/Cat 2’s, Comp/Cat 2’s, Pro/Cat 1’s were all on the course at the same time. We started running into the back of the Sport race at the beginning of our last lap. With this much single-track it was a circus trying to get through all that traffic with 4 Pro’s all vying for the win. We were coming up on them so fast I don’t think they had much time to respond. Finding myself at the back of this 4 man stampede I was running into a lot of people who had pulled over, thought we had all gone by, and were entering the course without looking back. After a few unintentional elbows and hip checks, lap traffic finally took me out of the race when a Woman kindly moved off course, but unknowingly blocked my vision of a 3 foot high tree stump. I plowed into it at full-speed ahead. Over the bars I went, as I hear a voice riding away yelling reassurances that“I MOVED OVER, I MOVED OVER ….” Bars backwards and stuck on frame, fix it, get back on to feel pain near the groin from the oh so familiar handlebar to the lower stomach. My Mind wanted to chase, but the Body had enough and would not give into my Will.