Alma MTB TT
For the last few years I have been training solely to
compete in endurance mountain bike events: 100 miles, 8 hours, 12 hours etc. As
you can guess this tends to mean I do not spend much time training for short
time trials, but when one of the few trails located less than an hour’s drive
away decided to put on a race that fit into my calendar I had to jump at the
opportunity.
The sad part of this story is before race day I had never actually
ridden the trail (Sally’s Trail in Alma, MI). The trail is pretty short, only a
little over 3 miles per lap but it is quite possible the best maintained trail
I have ever seen. On race day, a beautiful sunny Thursday afternoon with temps
in the mid 80’s, my wife and I made the drive to Alma arriving a bit later than
I had hoped but with enough time to get in a sighting lap which doubled as my
warmup. Going out for that lap was a very good decision as the trail is a
twisty, turny, labyrinth of flowing curves and having half an idea what to expect
around the next bend can be the difference between riding straight into a tree,
going half speed onto one of the few straight sections or hitting it spot on
and maintaining some speed.
I rolled in from my lap sufficiently warmed up
about with 10 minutes before the start so I had some Hammer Gel and water, made
sure my bike was ready to go and got lined up for my first TT race in probably
five years. I was the last guy in the “A” group to start since I had not
register to do all three races of the series but that meant I was able to see
the competition along the way.
For the first few minutes of the race I was just
trying to remember the trail and get in to a flow but as I got into a section
where the trail continuously doubled back on itself I could see many of the
other racers who were set off in 30 second intervals before me and started
aiming to catch them. A few more minutes and I caught the guy who left one
minute before me but not the person who started right before me (Jeff) and I had
a good idea at that point we would be in for a bit of a duel. During the first
lap I passed a couple more people, rode straight through a turn (only a few
feet) and got a better feel for the course but did not managed to put any time
into the Jeff; I could see him numerous times near the end and would count from
where I saw him until I got to the same spot. Final timing confirmed we both
ran 16 minute 57 second first laps.
During lap two I was able to ride a little
more smoothly as I now had twice as much experience on the trail and I could
tell I was starting to reel Jeff in through my counting. I managed to make the
turn I missed on the first lap and had the gap down to about 12 seconds with less
than a mile to go when I went into a turn way too fast and had to lock up the
brakes and came to a dead stop about 3 feet off the side of the trail. I got
back on the trail as quickly as I could while in the wrong gear and with only
one foot clipped in but still determined and put the hammer back down. As I
neared the finish I could hear the small crowd cheer for Jeff as he crossed the
line and I was fairly certain I had maintained my time advantage; 19 seconds
later I crossed the line for the win.
I did a short cooldown with Jeff chatting
about the race and some training, neither of us certain about times as we did
not stop at the finish line. As we rolled back to the finish Brian (the race
director) told us our times and congratulations were given all around. My time
was 33:56 with Jeff at 34:15; a very close well ridden race for both of us.
It
was a great race and such a different experience than I have become accustom to
over the past few years; there is something about having an average heart rate
of 179 bmp for an entire race that really keeps the adrenaline flowing. Unfortunately,
I will not be able to make it back for the third race in the series but I am
glad I stepped out of the norm and proved to myself I can still put in a solid
TT effort when called for.
Comments
Post a Comment