After last year's P2P dreadful weather, I hesitated to even look at the weather forecast for this year's event/race. That cold to the bone feeling has seriously scarred me. I put my hand over my eyes, allowed for a small crack between my middle and ring fingers, squinted my eyes slightly (as if doing so would make things better) and checked the weather network in the middle of the week. Well it was looking to be about 10 degrees warmer than last year but a 60% chance of rain come race time. I packed my bike bag in preparation for any type of weather. This year Erin and I had an awesome addition to our riding gear.... we have the Pactimo clear, feather light, breathable, rain jackets. This would help us, should we need to deal with the downpours of past!
We (Jay, Erin and myself) arrived at Crystal Mountain around 3:30ish, brought our stuff up to our room (we stayed on site), put our layers on and went out for a pre-ride. It was cool and overcast out. It did start to rain while we were out but of course we were prepared.... thanks to our awesome rain jackets!! We managed to get lost and slightly off course for the 3rd year in a row. (Just a small section with no signage) Something that my teamie has taught me, is to see the landscape that surrounds the trail when you are out "just" riding! The fall colours were out in full force! It was beautiful, in fact we commented on how things almost looked fake.
The course had a slightly different route this year. A section of gravel road and sandy double track was added and a section of single-track was omitted. The final climb up the back side of Crystal Mountain was no longer going straight up, it went into the trees that paralleled the green monster. The climb was wide and had steep punchy sections followed by a short flat before hitting another steeper section. I liked this new way of climbing the mountain. To me, it was an improved climb and although it tested the legs, it was broken up. Being in the trees is better than being in the open!!
(The colour, the beauty!)
(LMAO.... I just put anti-fog on my glasses, and when we stopped to take pictures my glasses fogged up, except where my eyeballs were!! Unbeknownst to me that I looked that creepy, I kept taking pictures, until Erin burst out laughing. That is when I realized what I really looked like and took a couple more pictures sans-glasses!!)
(Bikes always get first class! Our room was cozy, and our view spectacular..... overlooking the front side of Crystal Mountain. The race course was in "our backyard")
It rained pretty heavy Friday night. Which was very reminiscent of a year ago! The forecast was now only 30% chance of rain come race time. Well Saturday morning came, the temps were fair and it was not raining. The ground looked soggy but the skies looked bright.
(Good morning racers!! This was the first wave(s) start, again the view from our room. Let's just say, hearing the loud speaker, and seeing racers make their way to the start area had my tummy flipping and I was "down to race weight" pretty quick!) ;)
After a good warm-up, we got to the staging area with about 2 minutes to spare. A very quick chat with the other girls and off we went with the elite men!
(Staging area!)
The race headed out in front of the ski hill and then narrowed onto a paved path as it turned to the right. Well with all the riders, of course there was a slight bottle neck. I was in a pretty big gear and coming to a stop made it a bit tough to get going again. Mackenzie Woodring had gotten through and grabbed on to the tail end of the elite men. She was gone and gone fast. My high end seems to take a bit longer to kick in! So now with the group split, I was pulling the rest of the elite women's field. I held a conservative pace out in the open. Once we hit the single-track, I picked up my pace and pushed a bit through the winding trails. I soon had a distance on the remainder of the women's field. With all the rain that had fallen on Friday night, the trail was slick and the thin layer of mud zapped some energy out of the legs but overall the trail conditions were pretty good!! In the sandier areas, it was bone dry. We had three 12.5 mile laps to do. I felt great and rode smooth and strong without any issues..... well that was until I came around on my last lap! It was the final descent, I went around the orange snow fence chicane, the ground was really loose.... as I made the turn my front wheel dug into the "sweet spot" and I bit it, yep in front of the cheering finish line crowd! Oh, it was pretty "saweet"! I took a mouth full of dirt, had to fix my dropped chain and then pedaled my way underneath the "finish" banner shaking my head!
(The final podium - Mackenzie Woodring 1st, Me 2nd, Lauri Brockmiller 3rd, Erin Vicary 4th)
A HUGE thanks to Endoman Promotions - Tad Peacock and his amazing crew/family/volunteers!! What an event, top notch, equal awesome payout, and great atmosphere!! Also thanks to mother nature for giving us perfect weather conditions to race in!! 2 weeks to Iceman.......
Cheers,
Sue
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