Race Summary
10th place in the men’s open category, 12th place overall with two very fast singlespeeders (Gordon Wadsworth and AJ Linnell) finishing ahead of me. It would have been three singlespeeders finishing ahead of me, except Bob Moss got a flat mid-race. I passed him while he was changing his flat, but then he passed me again a couple hours later. With just a couple miles left to race, I caught and passed him again to finish 12th overall and 10th in the men’s open category. Perhaps the biggest highlight of the race for me was the Bull Gap descent and singletrack. It really clicked with me how to ride the berms both big and small throughout the doubletrack and singletrack portions of the descent knocking nearly 5 minutes off a six mile section of trail.
My finishing time was also 5 minutes faster, but it came through a much steadier pacing of my effort. I did the opening climb almost 5 minutes slower than 2012 – which means that I shaved at least 10 minutes off the more technical portions of the course … with the last 60 miles stuck in my big chainring. I missed a shift and bent the front derailleur cage so that it wouldn’t shift back down into the little chainring. I thought about stopping and trying to bend it back, but I realized that I was pushing myself much harder when I was forced to stay in the big chainring. The only time I really missed it was the few super steep sections which I just got off and ran up.
Race Highlights
- One of the things that I love about mountain bike racing is the creek crossings. When you get caught up in a road season – a lot of times you forget about the fun of a legitimate creek crossing … i.e., enter the creek at full speed and the splash reaches above your head soaking you completely. Also, if you don’t make it all the way across, you are submerged at least up to your knee if not up to your hip or higher. Fool’s Gold didn’t disappoint – even with a really dry course this year. The creek crossings were DEEP.
- Really deep field – Jeremiah Bishop, Tinker Juarez, Gerry Pflugg, Gordon Wadsworth, Rob Spreng, and a LOT of other strong racers.
- Just seeing so many people I haven’t seen since Cohutta with my accident wiping out all the ultracx and mountain bike races I had wanted to do.
- Singletrack fun … first time riding singletrack since Cohutta.
Race Data
Zone summary … not much time spent in Zone 5, but a TON of time spent in Zone 4.
Annotated HR plot (click to enlarge)
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