Rained all night. Got to the venue this morning and it was absolutely saturated, still raining and about 45 degrees. I got out of the car and immediately bumped into someone I used to race against regularly in AZ: Dejay Birch. (He went on to semi-greatness and notoriety as a pro/sponsored rider for Niner. I continued along the path of mediocrity...and kept my day job.) According to my cross-centric training plan, I'm just there for a good workout. Way too early in the year to expect a good result. With Dejay there, though, it's ON. I can't ride like a total schmuck in front of my peeps from AZ!
My warm-up was the nearly 1 mile walk to and from the registration tent. 60+ pro/experts on the start line. I had a good start and was probably about 20th for the first several miles. The trail wasn't in too bad of shape...yet, as we were the first group out. (That would change as the 200 other riders followed us!) Still, about 5 miles in I lost the front wheel in a muddy turn and fell awkwardly into a heap on top of, then over my bike, eventually landing right on top of my head. It must of looked really cool. not. Lost a few spots and started riding more tentatively. Not good. Eventually, toward the end of the first lap (12.5 miles), where there is several miles of false-flat road, I started feeling my mojo again and passed several people. The big gear was paying huge dividends. I was killing it on the hammer sections.
Second lap, now the trail was like riding on peanut butter. The natural kind, that separates and has a watery part and thick nasty chucky part. Big chucks of mud flying everywhere, but it doesn't taste like peanut butter... By the end of the race, I was completely covered worse than any of last year's cross races. (Probably because it stopped raining!) The only significant climb was really tough now, almost making me regret my choice of gear. I reeled in a few more riders despite the conditions, but had a pesky rider in a IF kit behind me that wouldn't go away. I couldn't wait for the false-flat road section again! Finally, I'm there. I gap the IF guy, and bridge and pass 2 more riders. Within the last mile, I bridge to another rider just before entering the final single-track section, which is followed by a 75-100m flat sprint on a dirt road to the finish. I already had my plan: Stay on his wheel through the single-track then out sprint him. Good idea, eh? I've got the big gear, so why not. 1/2 mile of twisty, turns, muddy single-track and I'm stuck to him like...natural peanut butter. We come out onto the road and I'm literally a wheel-length behind him. If you've never seen a sprint on singlespeeds, you haven't lived. It looks completely ridiculous. Anyway, I unleash my sprint, quickly demoralized him and "won" by at least 3 bike lengths.
Prizes in pro/expert went 10 deep. Turns out, me and the guy I pimped at the end were sprinting for the first place amongst those who didn't receive anything...other than a muddy bike. I got 11th at 2:05, 15 minutes behind the winner. Dejay placed a disappointing (for him) 5th.
Three kegs of beer, hot dogs and a bunch of cold, tired and wet Singlespeeders at the finish. Too bad there was a 3 hour drive waiting for me, plus another hour of cleaning all my gear.
Thanks for reading.
