Acme Bikes Shorty #1

[Dave Benjamin]

   So, back for another spring of local short track MTB racing put on by Jim Hewett at Acme Bikes, San Rafael.  Or as I named my Strava ride after this race, "Welcome Back to the Pain Cave".  I've been doing this race for a number of years in the 35+ B Class.  I had always been able to wind up the old ticker and let it rip for 30 minutes, many races having an average HR over 180!  But last year, age 51, trying to stay ahead of Acme team mates Mark Ingwersen, Greg Alsterlind and Mark Buell really wiped me out.  This year, I'm another year older and hopefully another year wiser when it comes to pushing the limits. 

   A new 35+ A division was created this year to give us old guys 6 laps of the McGinnis Park course.  It was great to see Greg, Mark and Mark ready to race.  I knew I needed to conserve a bit at first if I wanted to finish strong.  Mark I and Mark B shot off the start super fast with Greg, then me at the back.  Rounding onto the first flat single track I quickly realized I hadn't stayed close enough to Greg's wheel to get some relief from the strong headwind and had to work harder than I wanted to catch up.  My mantra of conserve whenever possible didn't play out as well as I hoped, mainly because the other three were flying and there were no other racers to hitch onto.  In years past, I could always find a B Class high school racer to pull me for a while, but not this race.  Greg and I rode together for about 4 plus laps.  I had planned to attempt a gap on the last lap, but I was afraid of Greg's power on the last climb, a la the Lake Sonoma race where he dropped me on its last climb.  Somewhere on the fifth lap I gave it a go and managed to get a slight gap on Greg.  On the last lap I noticed Mark Buell up ahead.  I imagined he was slowing a bit, but was he messing with me?  I cranked it up a bit more to see what was possible, but by the last climb I realized I had no chance of catching him.  I was happy with the race, keeping the heart rate mostly in check, until the last lap.