I Finally Get It

I now understand what they mean. I used to think it was all nonsense and that people were making something out of nothing, but I was wrong. There is definitely strategy to bicycle racing. How fast should I go? How close do I get to the guy in front of me? Do I pass him now or later? What do I do after I pass?

Now keep in mind I'm not racing. I just pick guys on trails that are ahead of me and then race them to a certain point. What's worse is that I don't tell them we are racing and I don't tell them where the finish line is. This helps me win 90% of my races. Haha.

Yesterday I did a Whiting-Luge run with Corby, Matt and Andrew and had an interesting time trying to catch a guy on STT (Santiago Truck Trail).

I'll name the guy EL SPANDEXO so I can keep talking about him by name. About halfway up Modjeska Grade Road I heard shifting right behind me and figured it was Andrew. Negative. It was EL SPANDEXO. I was surprised some guy out of nowhere had caught up to us, but I figured he was just that good.

Anyways he passed the three of us at the gate to STT proper and off he went. He had really good form on the bike when he went to stand and pedal and of course he had spandex all over. This told me he was a serious rider and that it was best to just let him go.

After a few minutes at the gate I told Matt as a joke that he should go catch EL SPANDEXO. Matt chuckled and declined. Then a minute or two later when Corby caught up, Matt changed his mind.

EL SPANDEXO had maybe a 2-3 minute head start on all of us and Matt was going hard to catch him. I figured EL SPANDEXO was definitely out of my reach.

Long story short, Andrew and I caught EL SPANDEXO, but it was really hard work. I learned a lot about how to catch a guy that doesn't want to be caught. It was fascinating because there were times where I swore we were right behind EL SPANDEXO and then he'd inexplicably pick up the pace and put some distance between us.

Eventually I think Andrew and I (mostly Andrew since he was closer) wore him down. I think he got tired of fighting off Andrew's attacks and let us both pass before the downhill to the top of the Luge.

I went very hard to catch EL SPANDEXO and had a great feeling of accomplishment when I finally passed him. I even turned it up a notch after catching him to make sure he knew not to try and pass me again.

The total time for the ride was 7 minutes under my personal best (1:35 down to 1:28). I was happy about that, but it did take a lot out of me.

I have to admit I've become fascinated by the art of catching a rider on trails. It's not always as simple as just riding faster. Interesting ...