Oct 29, 2022

I LOVE IT, BUT I HATE THE TASTE

XC MTB RACES ALWAYS START OUT HARD, but the Filthy 50 is ridiculous. 500 yards after the start on a wide service road, there is a narrow gate leading to a narrower path...

... you must go 100% for the first 5 miles or be gapped out the back.

Then climb Raptor Ridge, all out.

Make it down the other side with a lead group and you're set up for the first 20 miles of racing...

... flying across long sections of double track and techytwisty stuff.

I love it.
The challenge is immense.

But, we must choose the wheels to follow carefully in the rotation or bad things can happen.

I had an early good spot until the guy two ahead missed a turn and cut hard jumping off a ledge, he was going to land on me, forcing me to a dead stop...

... took me 3 minutes of ripping to catch back up only to have him look back and say Pull through, I can't do all the work..

I could only laugh....
... oh, and blow by after I recovered.

Not a trustworthy wheel.

Next up was a 2' slab, edged by boulders, that would normally be easy to ride up, but not in a fast moving paceline...

... first guy makes it
second guy slows and makes it
third dude slower, makes it
fourth just slammed into the slab and unclipped
I was fifth in line and I hustled by...

... never seeing that lead 3 again, even after chasing hard for 5 minutes.

That fourth guy had no chance.

Took him 20ish minutes to catch me, he promptly apologized and introduced himself as Ty... I told him no big deal because in these long races allies are key.

Ty then sat on my wheel to recover, which was totally cool until we hit some very steep terrain and he came around and rode on by...

... I couldn't close the gap to him.

I was gapped out.

It was mile 26, nearly half way (it's actually 53 miles).

At this point I made a strategic decision, choosing to switch from Threshold on the climbs to Tempo the rest of the way back to the finish...

... and see if all those cats in front of me could sustain their pace.

I'd opted to race the Expert Open vs my age group, because my main objective for the day was a PR, it really wasn't a tough decision to switch to Tempo.

I was alone anyway.

Then, as often happens, I started to see jerseys ahead of me get closer.

Each rider I caught I encouraged to jump on and recover and help...

... but, they were done.

With 16 miles to go Ty comes back by me. He'd taken a wrong turn. This was a good thing. We could work together...

... see how allies can help?

We rotated along the flats 'till the Raptor Ridge return. I thought he'd drop me, but he was cooked, and allowed me to wiggle by...

... and snag a PR.

https://pedalindustries.com/products/chroma-cycling-raceday-bag™

Of course, I packed PR Lotion in the Lotions pocket of my RaceDay Bag.