Went up to Big Bear yesterday (Sunday) to do the next race in the Socal State Series. I finished fourth out of seven riders in my class (Sport 25-29) and I have a ton of thoughts about why I finished fourth and what I need to do to finish higher.
I met Jason at the race and had some time to kill after finishing up registration. Jason and I went to look for the start of the race and ended up getting a little lost. It was confusing because they had registration in one area of the town, parking somewhere else, the start somewhere else and the finish SOMEWHERE ELSE.
We ended up riding two miles up hill on pavement before we found the start. We got there at 11AM. The start time for my group was 11:12AM.
I lined up with the other guys and noticed the group as a whole was pretty small. They put the 19-24 year old sport guys with my group, so we came to a total of 10 riders (3 in the younger class, 7 in my class).
I had talked to Chris Messina before the race and he said it was mostly fire road with a 2-3 mile climb to start the race. He also said the end was a 2 mile singletrack descent that was pretty technical. I needed all the information I could get because I had never been on the course.
Race started pretty slow. I was shocked that my group didn't rush up the hill. The pace was moderate and I struggled to understand what was happening around me. Was I that much stronger? Were the other guys pacing themselves? Did they know something I didn't?
My teammate Adam rushed to the front and stayed there for maybe half a mile before we swallowed him up.
I felt great on the climbs and tried to ride at my own pace. I just felt like our group in general was going too slow.
After about a mile or two I was actually leading my group. I think I was in first place with the rest of the field trailing behind. This is where I made my first big mistake. I was ahead of the other riders and I was also passing some Expert men and some Expert/Semi-pro/Pro women riders when I started to relax. I'm not sure how much I relaxed physically, but mentally I started to cruise.
Whenever I go out to a state park, or if I'm on a group ride, I always notice that passed riders stay passed. In other words, if I pass someone they don't catch me. They never hang around. In XC racing it's different. I was also easing up because I was cocky, thinking that I was just that good all of a sudden. I mean I was passing EXPERT men!
Somewhere around the two mile mark - after the initial climbing was over - I got caught. Probably 4-5 guys suddenly appeared behind me and passed me on a flat/downhill section.
Jason passed me around that time as well and I couldn't keep his pace.
About this time the course turned into an endless fire road experience. I don't remember specifics. Just a lot of loose fire road with sand and small gravel.
I spent a lot of time in my big ring during this race because so many sections were either flat, down or a very easy uphill grade.
I was flying down one section looking ahead to see how the road curved and kept going when I was flagged down after coming around a corner. The volunteer told me to go right onto a singletrack. I skidded really hard because I was going maybe 20mph in my big ring. It was tough to adjust and get going to the right when I had been turning left.
The singletrack turned out to suck. There were a lot of blind turns and some creek crossings. I hate blind turns because if I don't know the trail I have no idea how fast I can take them.
Then it was more fire road and more sand and more hammering to try and make good time.
Garmin turned off on some bumpy section so that sucked.
The last part of the course had some steep climbing that surprised me. The course last year was 17 miles and this year they said it was "roughly 20 miles." I kept trying to figure out how close I was to the finish and the last climbing section demoralized me because I thought I was done with climbing.
I don't remember a ton about the singletrack that finished the course. It was fairly long, had some tough steep climbs (again a surprise to me) and had some really technical sections. I would say the technical spots at the end were quite a bit harder than anything I had seen at Bonelli or Fontana.
I got passed at the very, very end (maybe 20 yards from the finish) by the first and second place finishers for the Sport class below me. Made me really mad because I thought I had put them away.
Ended up with fourth place even though I thought I was first or second during the race. I guess I just didn't realize the guys that passed me early were in my class. It's tough because after the first 15 minutes of these XC races everything gets really confusing. It's really hard to know who is where in your group. I find myself constantly thinking, "Who is behind me? Is that guy in my class? Nope. I think I'm ahead!"
I was pleased with my performance for a few reasons. Firstly, I rode the entire course in my middle ring at the minimum. Never hit the small ring. I was able to push with it as well. It wasn't like I was surviving and forcing myself to stay in it out of pride. I simply didn't need anything lower.
Secondly my legs hurt like crazy after the race. All afternoon and night they were sore and painful. That means I pushed hard and came close to reaching my full potential.
I'm going to write some racing lessons with the next post ...
