1 race down and 9 months to go!

It is amazing, only the first week of March and already the first race of the season is done.  Many more months to go till November and I will have a schedule up on the home blog soon, www.nathanguerra.com. 

Pre-ride went pretty well, with how technical the course was I swapped out some skinny raceface bars for some wide next sl’s.  Also, Kenda hooked up some new tires which showed up at our cabin where we were staying in Texas the night before the race, so I got to rock Kenda karma’s and test out my skills this new sponsors rubber.  This course is nothing but broken and jagged rock with dirt mixed in here and there, with so many riders with flats on course I was really glad I went with something so super reliable!

 

So race day last Saturday and it was time to see how my a demo bike I just jumped on and my indoor trainer only fitness fared against the best in the nation, although the field consisted of many well beyond our borders just looking at the start list!  UCI C1’s attract so many International teams.

Start went well and I kept the effort in check knowing I would pay dearly for too much effort in the red zone since I have had no efforts there so far this year, although not being on the front leaves ya blind in a cloud of dust on a Texas course.

Conservative racing only lasted about 1/4 a lap.  If you know me on the bike or off, I am an “all or nothing” type of personality.  So after the first major  climb I was pretty blown up and needed to recover for a bit.  I started reeling people in the last 3 laps but a ton of damage was done in the first 2 with me going way too far into the red.  Plan was to use my strength in threshold power that I know I have right now but that plan suffered a bit, not sure it is really a practical way to race a UCI C1 mountain bike race anyways, since these mountain bike courses are full on bursty climbing followed with recovery by UCI regulation.

So 38th and a mid pack finish with a few kinks to work out for early season racing.  Came in with no expectations and was able to learn a ton about racing the 1st week of March and how to prepare for next years season opener. 

 

I want to thank  everyone who has made this great early start possible.  RaceFace, Kenda, Powerbar, Champion System, Concord General Store, SNR Remodeling, Dr Mcgillicuddy, and Kona.  You guys made this trip possible, so thank you! 

Next up on the Pro XCT circuit, Fontana and Sea Otter! 

Stay Tuned and remember for faster updates hit me up on Twitter, Facebook, or Google+

And so it begins…

Anyone who follows my twitter or facebook posts knows that “it” began about mid December last year with all the Cycle-ops uploads every day, but that first ride on the trainer in the basement back in December was looking forward to this weekend and the next couple of days of racing at the opening Pro XCT race at the Mellow Johnny’s Classic.

It has been a crazy past 24 hours, yesterday I got one last ride in on the trainer with pretty much my first VO2 max/2 min type efforts followed by a couple 15 min lap simulations just to prepare the body for what is about to come. Jumped off my bike, took a shower, finished packing and out the door at 5 pm from my home town in Oconomowoc WI to meet up with my buddy Scot Nyland from SNR Remodeling out in Madison, WI.  From there we headed  to Iowa City, IA. We crammed all our stuff in the RaceFace reps (Matt Knowles, also All Spoked Up & Norway) suburban and started the long trek to Dripping Springs, Texas.  With Nate Knowles tagging along to get some early season racing in, he passed out way before me on the back seat, and being the nice guy I went looking for somewhere to sleep and not bother the kiddo.  Looking for anyway I could to get some good recovery sleep in on the 24 hr drive down laid out some jackets over the bags and bike stuff in the back and dazed in and out, Nate was nice enough to swap mid morning though and I slept into the afternoon.

Around 8pm we arrived at our destination, got unpacked, and Matt went straight to work getting my bike dialed, a demo bike from Kona who was nice enough to borrow to us for the race till we get setup later in March.  This guy has been up for almost 48 hrs and first thing he does when we arrive is tells me to get  my shoes on and starts swapping out my Race Face Next SL bars and  fitting me etc…  Talk about dedication to the cause!

In the dark with headlights working on set up! 

I was all apprehensive on the way down about having a bike I was not familiar with at all.  Luckily the He He is a sweet ride and within a few minutes I was rippin around the yard feeling like I was ready to race this machine!

I don’t have any expectations for the race at this point in the year, I have literally been on a trainer all winter, but I have been doing big hours and my power numbers are better than ever at sub-threshold and race pace.  We’ll see how one can fare amongst the best in the nation straight off the basements of Wisconsin!   It is early season and like most the focus is further down the road, but best way to get ready is to open up with those you plan to be racing well with when peak time comes.

That is all for now, need some sleep, will update after pre-ride tomorrow. 

Thanks for reading and stay tuned!