Summit Shorty #2

[Mark Gibson]

Just as I did last week, I rode out to the venue from Novato with some of the Novato/San Marin High School team, providing a nice warm up.  This weekend sees the final NorCal league HS race, so the race would be a great opportunity to add some intensity before a couple days rest going into that race.

No middle school race this week (every other week for the middle schoolers), and so we did not see the crowds of last week.  Some of the High School racers from last week were not in attendance, but there were other racers who showed up to make what looked like a bigger "A" category field than the week before.  In particular, Varsity racer Dylan Fryer, and JV Otis Lyons, both from Drake.  San Marin JV racer Sebastian Dow back again.  These kids are blazing fast.

Sebastian, Otis, and Dylan, got the hole shot, and from the 2nd row I was able to come around a few others and get into 4th place going into the singletrack.  Fellow Acme racer Phil Mooney was right behind me.   As we hit the pavement climb, our group of 5 got out ahead of everyone else, and stayed away.  The first two laps were hard, but not an uncomfortable pace.  I made a slight error on the singletrack on lap 3 and got slightly gapped by the beginning of the climb back out.  There was a strong headwind going up that climb so not being in the group put me at a disadvantage, and I had to dig a little deeper to get back to them.  I was able to re-hitch myself onto the group on lap 4, and remained with the group on lap 5, albeit hanging on when the pace picked up on the climb.  Heading in to the final lap, the group got a little strung out.  Dylan and Sebastian were out in front, followed by Phil, then Otis, then me.  Just before the singletrack, Otis made a move and got around Phil.  Dylan attacked the final climb and got away to take the win, Sebastian 2nd, Otis 3rd, Phil 4th, and me 5th.  My time of 23:02, was exactly the same as last week. Looking at my lap times, they were very consistent, which I'm happy with.

These races are a great barometer of how well the training is going, and exposing areas that need some work. What I've learned so far is that while I can sustain a fairly good pace for the duration, I just don't have that extra gear to up the pace when the attacks are happening.  Feels like I have a diesel engine with no turbo!

Looking forward to the next one.

[Philip Mooney]

Nice race report and fun racing!