I warmed up with Bruce Reese and Aaron Bieker. We went out and reviewed the finish line area, and planned out a strategy (it went out the window later). Apparently we were a bit tardy returning from our warm-up, and we were rewarded with a spot in the back of a 60+ person field. Good thing there was a neutral rollout.
Amanda is at the starting line wondering where we are:
Neutral rollout to me means that you can't attack past the roll-out vehicle. It doesn’t you can’t move around in the pack. So, I moved up near the front as we moved out of town. By the time we got to the end of the rollout, I was fifth wheel – just where I wanted to be.
Out in the country the pace was reasonable, and the conversation was great. I chatted with Amanda about her lack of windbreak, and with Steve Reynolds about Rob’s new baby (Congratulations Rob!).
After that things turned ugly. We went down into the DM river valley and I was expecting it to be fast. I’ve descending into this valley before and have seen 52 MPH doing it. I’ve not done it in a group, but I didn’t expect any issues. I was wrong.
Somewhere on the way down I must have touched the wrong brake, or touching any brake was wrong, or it had nothing to do with brakes. All I know is that my front end started head-shaking like it was gonna fall off. Holy Crap! I thought I was going to go down at 50 MPH! I held on and tried to steady it (good thing I’m a mountain biker). Eventually the head shaking stopped, but I was shaken. I never recovered.
On the climb up the other side I had several people compliment my riding skills (as they went past) for holding it together. But they still went past.
I tried to get a group together after the climb, but it only succeeded until the next climb. Then they left me. Oh, well. I finished the race.
All of the cool kids from the 1 lap hanging out after the race (Steve Reynolds, Bruce Reese, me, Scott Sumpter, Amanda, and a couple of folks from DMOS that I didn't know):
You see all types of riders in the Iowa Games:
Oh, Chris Hansen didn't win a race this weekend. He won two! Last night, he won the Cat 4 Papillion night crit by lapping the field. Today he won the the Iowa Games two lap road race in convincing fashion.
Here he is in the breakout trying to push the other guy over the finish line:
Afterwards he waited for the rest of the field at he finish line:
That guy has something.
6 comments:
Haha nice write up Paul!! Good racing, that's a tough course. Good luck with the rest of the season!
Hey Amanda. It was good riding with you today for as long as it lasted. See you next time.
Paul, had a great time racing and hanging out with you this weekend. Thanks for pushing me at the mtb race. Not really used to being that far up in the pack. As for our plan for world domination, that will have to wait until next race.
Bruce Reese
Bruce,
I was just telling Christy that I considered Saturday's MTB race my best race of the season. We were faster together than we would have be alone, mostly becasue we pushed each other the whole race. I was also great hanging out with you at both races.
The results are up on the Iowa Games web site now. There are only 34 seconds separating 3rd through 8th place. No wonder we were going so damn fast. We always had someone to chase, and were always being chased.
World domination will have to wait for another day.
I hear you on the hills! I suck at climbing too! Kyle says I need to do more hill repeats at the Dam hill, I did 3 on Sunday and that was enough!
Tell Christy I'll see her at the Cy-man triathlon on Aug 26th...wink wink!! :)
Julie,
Any hill is a Dam(n) hill in my mind. Hill repeats are good. They hurt, but build the skills we need to be better climbers.
Christy and I were talking about the Cy-man tri today. We shall see . . .
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