Weekend/ Plus Update
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One lap/ 22 miles. *T 01:40:44
It has “classic” in the name for a reason. The climb out of Pope Valley, towards the end of the race, is very steep(up to 20%) and unrelenting. I did this race last year, got 3rd and I did a 1:45 time. I struggled on the big climb and was so worked I got cramps–walking. This year was a different story.
There were 12 of us in Expert and 25 in Sport/ Open Single Speed which started as one wave. This was a huge group and the bottleneck to the trail was going to be a challenge. I got the hole shot, was first onto the trail and drilled it till past the airport. Fantastic! I ended up drawing two guys out of the group. Then, on the rolling open section before the single track a few of the geared women who I had passed earlier on the climb came rolling by (with what ended up as the 1st plc SS) tagging along. I was recovering from the start effort and it took me a second to realize the SS guy was in tow. Right before the technical single track he got in front of the now 4 person group of pro/ expert women and I never saw him again. It was so tight, I got by where I could w/o taking any of the other riders out.
I had a good race, never cramped and was able to run the steepest parts of the climb. I had so much traffic in the single track, I’m pretty sure it lost me about a minute. There was a guy on my wheel for a while and I managed to distance myself from him right after I almost took a detour in the wrong direction. So from there I rode my own race and picked guys off til the end. After the finish I noticed that my rear tire was almost flat! (turned out the sealant was all dried up). LUCKY! I shaved 5 minutes from last year and had no cramps even with the 80+ degree temps. If I had been in pro SS– my time would have been 3rd. Shit Barry Wicks (Kona) showed up and schooled the field with a time of 1:23!!(new record) Hey… I only gave up 21 minutes w/ 1 gear LOL…
More on the blog….. http://sfcyclist.blogspot.com/
Good luck to all @ Sea Otter!
