WORS Race #2, Lake Geneva, WI. I had a little anxiety about this event as I definitely wasn’t feeling 100%, hell I wouldn’t even say that I was out of the 70′s for that matter. Much of this was left over from a break down on the South Kettles connector that happened last Monday. I threw a crank arm while about 1/10 of the way back on the connector and had to run and ‘skate” the bike back as best as I could. Needless to say I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone.
After pre riding yesterday I gave myself a couple of goals for this race. #1. Don’t blow my load and race at my own pace. #2. Finish in the top 50% for the Comp class. I know, they don’t exactly go hand in hand with each other but that’s the best that I could come up with. After all I was spent from the pre ride but it’s one of the funner courses around so I was happy to be there.
So Malibu and I load up his JEEP and venture down to the Grand Geneva. There’s a big crowd there and in short order the Sport Racers are lining up. Malibu pulls off a solid race in a field that drew 21 Sport single Speeders. If he ever starts busting up posts maybe he’ll share it witchya’s.
Soon after I’m in the start gate, 30-39 years olds plus single speeders. The Go signal is given and we’re off. Climb half way up the ski hill and roll back down, climb half way up the ski hill again and roll back down, then a long gradual climb this time up 3/4 of the ski hill at a long stretched out grade only to have to take a narrow sharp and sandy left hand to finish the climb to the summit of the ski hill which according to the Garmin is up 956 feet off of the ground. By this time I needed to stop anyways so I took a picture. The view looked sum’in like this.
So after the climb we shoot downhill into the single track. Which of course seemed to have some climbing mixed in there too. The bike handling felt good and the driving was solid. It didn’t seem to take to long to calm the heart rate down once we were cooking through the 1st third of the single track. This brought you to the infamous rock garden, which has a ton of loose rock bedded on the trail. I didn’t see it for myself but I hear that there were some gnarly crashes there to include what sounded like a broken collar bone on one racer. I hit the garden like I expected too and flowed over it with out much trouble. Photo cred to Nic.
The second third of the single track felt pretty good considering that it mostly consisted of steep punchy climbs that you had to maneuver around. It did however open up into some double track during this section, I remember having thought about how I can’t believe how light of a gear I was turning, even through the double track. 32×16 was not on the menu for any of the inclines in this section. The last section of single track was a special order reserved for comp-elite, just like the extra climbing on the ski hill. Lucky me right. This section had all tight off camber single track and two killer switch backs that were tighter and steeper than anything. There’s also a tight and narrow pass though some full size side by side trees and a good size log crossing. Good enough of one for me to fall face over ass on my first lap. A rookie mistake. I pick myself up and clip in and get back at it. In short time I was on the backside of the ski hill and coming around for the lapper.
I layed up some for lap two in hopes of reeling some racers in on three and four. Three came with some passes and before I knew it I was on my last lap. I think that I mostly made it through four at a good clip due to the breathers that I took in lap two. Legs got a little twitchy but nothing major. Over all I was happy with my running and the laps were again consistent.
The low down looks something like this. Posted race results put me at a snails pace of 1:57 and some change for an age placing of 10th but an over all of 40, which I’m way cool with. The Garmin noted it was 18.03 miles with 3, 124 feet of climbing with an average pace of 9.3 mph and cost 3 bottles of water, 3 Cliff Bloks, and 4 Orange flavored Hammer gels.
Shout outs to Nic for the hand ups and pics, and for Len for straightening out my steed on Saturday. Looks like I may be a no show for 9 Mile Forrest. This may be good as I could use the time to live a little ‘cleaner’. Wish me luck!
