Often times when I am preparing to race I will have non cyclist friends that wish me luck and ask me something to the effect if I am really pumped up for the race. What they picture is the athletes with Beats headphones on listening to music and getting amped to explode into action. Although that would be great if it was part of the program the facts are that for racing bikes it is counter productive to be on the start line seeing red and psyched to sprint off in a daze of adrenalin. In roughly 1 minute and 40 seconds the adrenalin would no longer matter and all that you are left with is the flood of lactic acid and the fitness that you have earned over the months and years leading uop to that race to deal with the remaining hour plus of racing ahead.

Instead with bike racing you need the type of steely determination that knows what you are capable of and is willing to dig onto the threshold time and time again.

I felt strong rolling away from work on my bike last night. It is about a 40 minute commute over to the race course and that is a great warmup before hitting the trail to preride the course. I hit the bike path and just randomly started sprinting as hard as I could. I quickly realized what I was doing and laughed at myself as I sat back in the saddle and laughed at myself. It is gonna be a good night of bike racing.

Again this week the turnout was great for the races. The 4 and 5 O'clock classes were packed with riders and I heard reports of new riders finishing the Cat 3 race and wanting to jump right in and do the Cat 2 race. I love it! When you get bit by the MTB race bug the symptoms appear quick. The Pro/Cat 1 class was small this week unfortunatley. Many of the top area racers like Fernanado Paez, Russell Finsterwald, Kalan Biesel, and Kyle Bloesser are already in route to Missoula, Montana and the weekends round of Pro XCT races. So we had to all be content for the battle of the desk jockeys to go down.

For our 2nd race in a row we had a nice cloud cover and strong breeze blow over right as we were getting underway. That felt great on the first climb up the regional trail through the park. That climb hurts super bad, and although it is short it always spreads the race out quickly. I went into the singletrack in the lead with the ever present JJ Clark right behind me. We can travel halfway across the state to race but usually it is the exact same scenario regardless of where we are racing. Two weeks ago in Vail it was JJ and I off the front battling up the climb, that seems pretty typical.
The trail was challenging to ride. I was staying focused but also being a bit conservative because I did not want to wrteck in any of the myriad of gravely ruts that formed from the recent hail storms. The second time up the start climb and my gap was growing a wee bit. I saw the race behind me was a great between Shad, Jason, and Graham. I know they would fight eachother hard enough that my lead would not grow all that fast. Stay upright and climb hard, that is usually a pretty decent strategy.

The race started getting a bit confusing as we got into lapped traffic. The laps to go cards were a bit misleading if you hasd not been paying close attention. I know that with two to go I had the race won if I didn't do anything stupid. I like when we hit the lapped traffic. Seeing everyone working hard and giving it what they got inspries me to keep pushing. I caught Tracy Thelen is was just two days off of winning her 24 hour Solo National Championship, talk about steely determination! She was out for a victory cruise in the Wed races - I gave her a slap on the butt as I passed - because it seemed like the right thing to do, and was still having fun and flogging the pedals when I came in for the Win.

Another Ascent Cycling Series race in the books. Props to allk the racers and staff that make it happen. Like Patrick Cross for instance. I was gathering up a crew to go ride more up in the canyon after the race, he was running around tearing down course marking and packing up the venue. It doesn't happen without these boys making it happen! Thank you Clay and Patrick and Ascent Cycling bike shop. If you don't go there and shop with them, start doing it now.