The Call Up

Northern California Bicycle Racing Community

I've missed the Skyline Park mountain bike race for a couple of years, so I was pretty excited to be able to make it this year. It's a real deal mountain bike race, with lots of chunky descending and techy climbing. A race that favors the all-arounder, for sure. I pre-rode the course on Thursday and decided to go with some slightly stiffer wheels (Crest/Supercomp/DT240s w/thru bolts vs. ZTR Race wheelset) and aggressive race tires front and rear (Schwalbe Nobby Nic). Temps were expected to reach 90+ degrees, so I wanted to stay well hydrated. I opted for the Camelbak Racebak, which is like a sports bra for men that holds a Camelback bladder under your jersey. I started the race with the water mostly frozen, which actually worked allright to cool me.

Registration and Racebak setup took longer than expected, so I made it to the start line with very little warmup. Last year's winner, Brian Astell, was there. Kevin Smallman and Chris Brown promised to be competition in my class. There were quite a few juniors that I knew would be fit right now: Tony Smith, Joe Yoham, and Cody Kaiser were some that I recognized.

The usual cluster at the start broke up on the long and sometimes steep fireroad climb on the first lap, but there were still 7 or so together. Brian and Garret went off the front pretty hard, while Kevin, Tony, Chris Brown, Kyle Ashton, Riley Predum and I traded places occasionally on the sustained climbs.

I could tell within the first 20 minutes that I did not have the punch to win the race. This time of the season usually finds me after my early peak and not yet to my second peak. It pretty much sucks to not be able to race like you are used to, but there wasn't much I could do about it. There were many other guys that were there to take up my slack and hammer!

I dropped the chain about 25 minutes in and lost contact with the first group of 4 or so. I kind of fell in with Joe, Cody, Kyle and some others for the next lap and a half. Super fun descending where I felt pretty good, but when you are weak the climbs seem never ending! Joe and Cody left me on the start of the last lap, and I kind of slowed down to just bring it home safely.

I was passed on that lap by my friend Ryan Booth, who had a great race.

Kind of humbling to be beaten by so many people that have never beaten me. A good night's sleep and ample training time have been hard to come by lately, but ultimately I was not the hammer Sunday. Still a fun course and a good day racing.

5th place in pro class, probably 12th place overall (I wouldn't have been on the podium in my Cat 1 age group!)

22.4 miles, 4400 ft of climbing, 164 Average HR, 183 Max HR, 9.9 mph average speed, 26.9 mph max speed.

Views: 28

Comment

You need to be a member of The Call Up to add comments!

Join The Call Up

© 2024   Created by Jim Hewett.   Powered by

Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service