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| Before the race |
Well, this last Saturday I raced in the Run to Sundance mountain bike race with my brother James. This is only my second race and the first time I have ridden at a ski resort. I really had no idea what to expect other than I knew that there was somewhere in the neighborhood of 1200 feet of climbing in 7ish miles. Armed with this small modicum of information, we headed out around 8:30 to get checked in and ready to go.
The previous week there was a lot of stormy weather so I was a little concerned that we were going to be riding in mud. Lucky for us, Saturday turned out to be perfect riding weather. No bad weather to speak of, other than a few drops of rain after we had already finished our category.
So James and I got to the Sundance ski resort and got our bikes unloaded and prepped for the race. As we were riding around the parking lot to warm up I noticed that my rear derailleur was not shifting very well. One of the benefits to racing with a team is the availability of mechanical help prior to racing. Unfortunately for me, I don’t really know anyone on the UtahMountainBiking.com team and so I didn’t have a chance to ask for help adjusting the derailleur. Looking back I wish I would have been a little more outgoing and just asked someone for help. A little more frustrating than that is that I have had another bike shop adjust it a couple of times and it keeps messing up.
Well, the time rolled around for us to start, roughly 10:00. James and I were both in the beginner men’s division and we were the first group to go out of about 10 different divisions. I think they stagger started the other divisions by a minute or two after us. From the start, this track headed up a paved single lane road. On the one hand it sucked because you are starting out going up but on the other hand it was nice because it spread us out which really made the single track portions less congested. Before we left the starting line I overheard another ride say something to the effect that around mile 3.1 of the track it goes through a meadow and then up a steep jeep trail. At the time I just kind of let that sit in the back of my mind.
As we started the race and headed up the road, I felt a bit dismayed by the other beginner men who seemed to go up the hill much faster than me. I doubt it was much more than about ¼ of a mile climb but by the time it got to a more level track, I was pretty well spent. In my mind I went from hoping for a good finish to hoping for a finish period.
The trail itself was really fun to ride with a ton of single track winding through the mountain side. There was definitely a lot of climbing but, I really only feel like there were three areas that are worth mentioning, as far as the climbing goes. The first is the start. It was quite a climb but not insurmountable. It was nice that it was wide enough for people to pass (or be passed) before the single track portion. The second notable climb is the afore mentioned climb at 3.1 miles. If my memory serves correctly, you come out of a more forested area in to a meadow and start following a jeep road. Looking forward you can see what appears to be a decent uphill section, but nothing that seem too difficult. This perception I can only attribute to fatigue because once you really start up the hill, it is quite tough. I was particularly glad that I overheard the person at the beginning so that I had some idea of where I was on the track. I don’t have any other means of knowing how far I have gone so it was nice to know I was almost half way done.
The last section of notable uphill is the finish. Yeah, that’s right, the finish. Turns out some sadistic planner decided it would be fun to make everyone ride up a very steep road for about half a mile to the finish. The only good thing is that it was a paved road and I knew that the finish wasn’t far away.
For the most part, the rest of the course was a good mix of up and down single track. I didn’t feel like any one part of it was too hard or beyond my skill level. I discovered that I need to practice a lot more on the downhill sections. I was pretty cautious going down a lot of sections of the single track. I ended up finishing 5th out of 12 racers and James finished 8th. I figure that if I would have been a little better on the downhill sections I could have finished 4th or better. The person that finished in front of me passed me on the downhill section probably about a mile from the end and then I almost caught him on the uphill at the end but I was pretty well spent. At least I know what I need to work on. Now I just need the time to do it.
My next race is going to be on Memorial Day in the Corner Canyon area. I need to get my bike fixed so that my shifting works when I need it to. There were a lot of times when I needed to shift smoothly and I ended up skipping gears and losing traction. Hopefully I will be able to get a couple of training rides in before the next race. My goal is to have one podium finish this year. We’ll see how close I come.
