Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Bear Paw Rock n Roll WORS #11

Gonna do the last month and a half in order over the next few days.Good lead into Iceman
First up was the WORS Bear Paw race, which usually rains like crazy, but this year the best was saved for last in the WORS series…more on that in the next post.
There are courses that are technical in terms of tight & twisty and knowing the angles and speed to take in the corners, maybe a few trees and rocks,what I would deem mid-west technical.  Very hard riding in its own way, especially when it comes to being FAST. Then there is mountain type riding which brings a whole other level of technical with many more rock obstacles and lines which have to do with carrying speed over and through things in the path of intent. Bear Paw is a tad bit more like Mountain riding than Mid-West “twisty speed” riding. I love this type of riding as both strength skill on the bike shine enormously.  If ya get bogged down from lack of skill a high price is paid.  It tends to give huge rewards for being good at everything mountain biking and not just one aspect of riding a bike.

From the word GO I went to the front wanting to be in the mix for the hole-shot but had a bad start due to a cold that had settled into my lungs.
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Chasing Cole house up the 3 tiered start climb.

Fell back to 6th at the start and probably a 1 minute or more back. Once the fireworks were over, all the base miles I had laid down the last 3 weeks took over and I had freight train speed through every line I intended.  2nd lap I chased very hard and found an amazing rhythm both in power through my cadence and creating lines through the forest.
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Testing my Bontrager 29.1’s edge on dusty switchbacks

By the last lap I had caught Tyler Gauthier and took over second position. I was moving really good and knew I was gaining time fast! Last half a lap people started giving me 10 second splits and I saw Cole House on the switch backs up the last climb., but knew it was too late. 10 seconds down. 
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2nd place and in good company

Hacked up massive amounts of green the next week or so, very good thing I raced and assisted in getting this all out.  If I would have rested it would have probably taken longer.  I was told by lapped traffic and spectators I was wheezing so hard through my lungs that you could hear me coming from a pretty long ways off!
Here is my post race interview with bad helmet hair Smile with tongue out
Next up, DOUBLE MUDDER weekend with Peak 2 Peak and Shevegas, oh and maybe a cross race thrown in the middle!
Stay tuned and thanks for reading!

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