Napa Valley Dirt/Mud Classic

[Ryan Gibson]

Wow, what a fun race! Jim's write-up captured a lot my experience too, but I have to say that this is a really well managed event. Having showers after the race, especially one as muddy as yesterday, was great.

My race was another "what could have been," similar to my last race at Cool (where I had a flat that cost me 8 mins due to forgetting my tube and air...appeared I could have won that race without the flat).

 

I knew that this course could reward my climbing strength, and that I should get out as fast as possible to avoid traffic in the single track. From the gate I felt a little slow, but not bad. I think I might have taken a little too much work off my schedule this past week, and just wasnt dancing on the pedals like I hoped to be-that, and I ended my warmup too early and sat waiting for the start for nearly 15 mins...so I had cooled down. Nevertheless, I was in fourth at the hike-a-bike and held that position until the singletrack...which is where my day challenging for a top spot disappeared.

 

As I came to what seemed like the first righthand downhill swithback in the wooded singletrack directly behind "Adrian" who I believe was in third...I followed him straight, neither of us, nor the 20+ others behind us, noticing the right arrow. I have now named this segment on Strava as "wrong turn sally", and it cost me 4:51 and a good amount of energy. It happens, and while I am bummed it is two races in a row with a "thats racing" storyline, I had a blast.

 

So the rest of the race was working through a crowd of racers that had passed by while I was on the detour. Adrian dropped me on the front side and I figured I was pretty far back in my class, but I pushed on. Three other events lost me time, but not too much....1) chain suck due to known worn granny chainring that I thought I could get one more ride out of (duh!), and 2) a crash on a downhill slopfest that had me sliding 25'+ on my stomach in pure mud...unsure when/if I would come to a stop (thankfully unscathed bike and rider pushed on), and 3) my gel flask leaked out 1/2 of its contents leaving me feeling a little underfueled. I was able to catch and drop Adrian, who I had followed down the wrong way earlier and who then dropped me on the frontside, along with several others in my class on the big climb out of Pope Valley, probably moving me up 5 spots.

 

I figure that without the wrong turn costing me 4:51, the chainsuck forcing hikes, the crash, and a little low fuel I probably lost seven or so minutes. I finished in 5th right at 1:47...just under 8 minutes behind the winner :( What does this tell me? That with a clean race I am towards the top of my class...which I am staying in for now considering my wife is due with our second child any day now and am anticipating less riding/training time. It also tells me that I have made a HUGE leap forward from this time last year...which is when I did my first Norcal MTB race at Napa after moving from Indianapolis in Dec 2010. Last year I raced Cat 3 19-34 and finished in 6th at 2:18:08!!! Last year had better/drier conditions, but was a very slightly longer course...I think the two might even each other out, which means I cut around 30 minutes off my time.

 

Cant wait to see the before-race team pictures, and the after-the-race shot of me covered in mud. Great times!