My First Race Win

I've been racing my bike since 2001.  I have never won a bike race.  Back in 2012, I did the Sportif Cup 3/4 Masters series and I was first 45 year old a couple of times but never first out of the whole field.  Once in 2005 or so I "won" a beginner mtb race by being the only one silly enough to finish after two hours of pouring rains.  But I never lined up with 50 guys and came across the line before anyone else.

Until Saturday.  (and now you're going to hear all about it)

The Howard County Biketoberfest CX race was on Saturday.  It is a second year race.  I had it down as a "maybe" on the schedule.  My coach wanted me to race and I needed to meet Jon Hicks to pick up the course tape for next Sunday's Tacchino (go register here, now, I'll wait).  So, I registered on Thursday.  I signed up for the Cat 3/4 35+ rather than my usual 45+ 123 because it was earlier and I wanted to get home earlier in the day.  I'm a racing age 50 cat 3 who has been getting his butt kicked in the 45+ races, so, I qualify.   But CrossResults.com predicted me 1st, which was a surprise, but a bunch of other guys had basically the same ranking points.  I would go in with no expectations, but felt like I could do well.

Friday night at dinner, I was messaging with Jon about meeting to get the course tape and told him I was racing at 10am.  His response was "If you didn't race there last year, be sure to bring your climbing legs.  This one hurts bad." Climbing you say?  I responded that I weigh 130 pounds so climbing is good.

I drove up there with just enough time to pre-ride the course before the 9am race.  It was frosty and the ground was definitely a bit slippery in places.  It was a super course.  Lots of climbing followed by twisting, technical turns.  There were a series of punchy climbs and 2 steep longer climbs of maybe 30 seconds, one about 1/3 into the lap and another 2/3 into the lap back through the woods.  Otherwise the course had some technical challenges that were also good for me.  About mid lap there was a sharp off camber into a steep little rise.  It begged to be ridden but the ground was very greasy from the frost, so in warm up I ran it and also on the first lap I ran it.  Immediately thereafter was a drop in U turn with a log across the climb and then another 15-20 seconds of climbing after that.  I thought I could probably remount immediately after the log on a little flat area, but it was a gamble.  On the whole, it was a great course for me.

I was able to slide into a spot on the first row on the far left of the grid.  There was a surprise whistle, but I got a clean clip in and slotted easily into 2^nd behind a guy from CXHairs (who I think was predicted 2^nd).  I basically followed him the entire first lap.  It was a good pace but I felt good.  As I said, we ran the entire hill after the log.  And he actually put in a little gap but I easily brought it back on the long climb through the woods.  (added a couple of photos courtesy of Mike Neary his collection is HERE)
 

I tried to remount on lap 1 but it didn't work

Photos by Mike Neary https://www.flickr.com/photos/mikeneary/

 I could see about 5-8 guys just behind us.  So at the finish line going into the 2^nd lap, I upped the pace a bit, just to keep it high and get rid of some people.  Mr. CXHairs came back around, which was fine. 

Well on the first hard climb, about 1/3 of the way through the second lap, I hit it hard.  I was not purposefully attacking, just pushing the pace and standing up the climb.  At the top, I suddenly had a gap.  I don’t know, maybe 3-5 seconds, maybe 50 feet or 30 yards, I wasn’t looking back.  I thought to myself, "Ok, well this is WAY too early to just ride away solo."  There were 4 laps to go.   So I figured I’m just going to keep my pace and figure they’ll ride back to me.  Immediately thereafter were the 2 big technical challenges.  And I was able to ride the exit of the tricky off camber, then I was able to clip in immediately after the log and ride up the hill. 
 

Pretty sure this was Lap 2 at end of climb through woods (photo Mike Neary)

Ok, now there was a good gap.  I wasn’t about to sit up, so I continued to ride hard on the hills and try to be smooth on the turns. 

Well, that continued, and it became a head game.  Am I going fast enough? When is someone going to charge back to me. I thought I had a pretty big gap, but Bill Schieken on the PA was saying 6 seconds, which couldn’t be right.   My favorite quote from him was “Scott Thompson, showing the baby masters how it’s done”

Now it was purely a head game.  "Oh my god, don't screw this up."  And sure enough, with 2 laps to go, I botched the ride out of the off camber and crashed.  OH SHIT OH SHIT.  I got it back together and tried to hit the climbs hard.  Then on the barriers I clipped my foot on the first plank and almost crashed into the second plank but caught myself.  Again, OH SHIT.  I needed to keep it together.  But I could see I still had a big gap.  On the last lap I kept to the plan of hitting the climbs hard.  I still had gas left in the tank but I could feel my legs were tiring.  I was conservative and ran the off camber exit, but tried to push some turns.  I passed some lapped traffic toward the end but wasn't going to let up too early.

I had time to zip up my skinsuit going into the barriers, which were maybe 30 seconds from the finish (and carefully fully clear them).  And was able to come across the finish solo, arms held high. (there was a photographer, I need to get that picture)
and here it is

 

I won by 45 seconds over the guys in 2nd.  Wow.  Just wow.

I have been overwhelmed by the kind words from teammates and friends Thank you all. 

Today at NCVC's Sander Memorial CX I was able to ride smoothly in the mud and brought home a solid 10th in a stacked 45+ Elite race, a solid improvement over the first races of the season.  Hope to carry this momentum.