Summit Shorty #3

[Mark Gibson]

With temps today getting up into the 90s, the pain cave that is the shorty race was about to get even deeper.  In addition to dealing with the heat, there were a number of very good Varsity and JV racers showing up for the first time, as well as the regulars, to ensure that the pace would be even more frenetic than usual.  With the last NorCal race of the season done the past weekend, and State Champs coming up in less than two weeks, a lot of these kids, who are already very fast to begin with, are now well rested and peaking going in to the final stretch of the High School season.

Despite the heat, there was a big turn out.  The middle school racers were back again this week, and again it was great to see so many young kids out there racing and having fun.  The "A" field was bigger than ever with close to 20 racers.  JV crushers Otis Lyons from Drake, and Sebastian Dow from San Marin, both fresh off winning the NorCal HS Champs in D1/D2, were back again; JV Kaveh Pourmeh and Varsity racer Pearson Ames from Tam; and my Acme team mate Phil Mooney would likely be vying for the win. Redwood Varsity rider Teddy Hayden, who just finished 8th in a huge stacked pro field at TDS Enduro would also be in the mix.  

I got a good start, and went in 2nd wheel behind Otis at the hole shot and down the singletrack.  In the two prior weeks, as the main lead group hit the pavement climb at the end of the singletrack, the pace was quick but not flat out, and I was able to stay with the group pretty comfortably.  This time, perhaps because the lead group was bigger; and with the jostling for a good position before hittig the singletrack again, the pace was immediately ratcheted up.  Teddy had time to give me a quick fist bump before flying past me, as did 4 others including Phil, Sebastian, Pearson and Kaveh.  I got gapped straight away by a couple seconds, but kept at a sustainable pace thinking I would hitch back on to the group at some point when the pace backed off a bit as I had been able to do at the previous race.  That didn't happen.  The group kept the fast pace up pretty much the entire 6 laps.  On the 3rd lap I caught back up to and passed Teddy who was suffering from a cold and not able to keep up the pace either.  I could see that Sebastian and Otis were having a battle royale up front.  On the final climb of the last lap, Sebastian managed to pull ahead, and crossed the finish just 1 second ahead of Otis in what was a great race between them. Pearson a few seconds back, Phil a few more behind him, Kaveh another few seconds back, and then me probably a good 45 seconds behind.

The finishing times were significantly faster than the last two weeks.  Sebastian and Otis about a full minute quicker than their previous times.  Despite getting dropped and riding solo almost the whole way, I came in close to 40 seconds quicker than previously, and still reeled off pretty consistent lap times which is good.  This may have been due to the lack of the headwind that is usually present on the climb.  As always, these races are great at exposing weaknesses.  I've got some work to do!

Thanks to Jim and everyone who helps in organizing these local races taking place in our back yard!  The short track racing is new to me, and there's nothing like it.

Looking forward to the next one.