I Guess this Tapering Stuff Works

I raced at Loomis Park in Fort Dodge today. It was hot. Not “I think I need another lemonade” hot. It was more like, “My skin is melting” hot.

Dave rode to the race up with Christy and I. He had called the night before wondering if we had room a 4th bike, announcing that he had a surprise ride. Sunday morning he showed up with a Gary Fisher 29”er demo from Bike World. Dave and I were both excited to try it out, and Dave was going to race it. So we took off with my Fuel and 8500, and his Giant NRS and GF 29”er.

When we got to Loomis Park about 10:30, there was a sign-up table, and Nick and Aaron were there, but that was about it. Shortly after we got there, Cam arrived. OK, we must be in the right place.

There was a spot of bother regarding start times. The race organizers were considering starting the Sport Class at 1:30 after the Experts were finished (WTF? Why make us wait until the heat of the day?). In the end, we went off in the normal fashion (Experts with Sport trailing by seconds).

Having done a full taper for this race, I hoped to do well. I went off fast, in the back of the lead group. I fell early on an uphill switch back and got passed by a few riders while getting back up. I passed most of them back later in the race. I rode for much of the race with Taylor Webb of Irwin's / Toyota and Jacob Naumann of Rasmussen Bike Shop. At around lap three or four Thad dropped back from the front and paced me right up to Taylor, then lead me out past Taylor in the grassy section. It really helped me, but I didn’t have the stamina to make the pass stick. It was cool to ride up there with those guys for a while. Around lap five I starting getting the chills on the down hill sections. I knew that wasn’t good, so I slowed down a little, drank a little more water and held my position to the finish.

I finished 6th of 16 in the Sport class, and 2nd in my age group. For the IMBCS Series, I got 1st place points the +45 Sport class. I am doing everything I can to hang on the points lead on that class. Although it was a very hard effort (I had an average heart rate for the race of 165 - pretty good for an old guy), I was happy with the result, and that made it all worth while.