Summit Shorty #4

[Mark Gibson]

The number of racers attending this week was down a little from previous weeks.  This was due to there being no middle school race this week (every other week for the middle schoolers); and the fact that the High School racers who have been coming out to race were either up in Petaluma pre-riding the course where the High School League State Champs will be taking place this Sunday; or maybe just resting ahead of that race.

Last week's shorty race had seen temperatures in the 90s, with not a hint of a breeze to help cool off.  The only upside to that was the absence of the headwind that always seems to be blowing hard on the climbing portion of the loop.  This week we were thankfully back down to the 60s, but the wind had returned to make sure the climbing portion of the course was even more painful.

I was between weekend races, just having done the Nevada City Dirt Classic on Sunday; and with the Old Cabin Classic in Santa Cruz coming up on Saturday.  I was feeling a little tired from the Dirt Classic, and thinking it would be a good idea to only put in a moderate effort today to be as fresh as possible for Saturday's race which I'm anticipating is going to be brutally hard.  But, I'm not a very disciplined person so I started racing hard as soon as we began.  

Justin Schwartz got a really strong start, and took the lead going into the downhill singletrack.  Phil Mooney was right behind him, and I was able to squeeze in ahead of another rider into 3rd wheel.  As we hit the pavement climb at the end of the singletrack, I think there were 5 of us with Greg Alsterlind, a couple seconds back, and Marc Peterson right there too.  In the absence of all the high school racers, I was expecting the pace to be a little calmer for the first few laps, and the real race to happen on the final 2 laps.  Nope.  Phil took off on the first climb, and hit the front, getting a few seconds lead over Justin, who reacted and gained a couple seconds on me.  I slowly clawed my way back to Justin by the top of the climb, and descended back to the start/finish line right behind him.  At that point Phil had opened up a gap of at least 5 seconds, a big gap in this type of racing.  Knowing how strong he is, I didn't think I'd be able to get back to him.  On lap 2 I began the climb behind Justin, but about halfway up went past him, and saw that I was gaining on Phil.  At the end of the lap, I was only a couple seconds back, and would see if I could get back up to him on the third lap climb.  Phil had, however, seen me getting back up to him, and decided he didn't want to let that happen, and steadily pulled away from me over the remaining laps, coming in 18 seconds ahead of me.  I extended my lead over Justin, finishing 37 seconds ahead of him and in 2nd place.

This race is a great guage of fitness and while I Know I've got some room to improve, I was pretty happy with my overall time.  It was 9 seconds slower than last week, but taking into account the headwind, it actually seemed like a slightly stronger race.  Now that I've got my midweek intensity in, I plan on riding easy the next couple days and hopefully go into Saturday's race well rested.

Thanks to Jim and everyone who helps in organizing these local races taking place in our back yard!  

Looking forward to the next one.