Is there such a thing as an 'easy' ride?

What was supposed to be an easy ride turned into a TT effort yesterday.  Problem was I had a hard feeling the trail yesterday.  I mean Maybury should be a no brainer for me as it's my home trail but I was riding it like it was my first time on the trail.  Bike was all over the place.  Four pedal strikes in 13 miles speaks for how bad I was riding.  Plus I ran off the trail twice.....it wasn't pretty.

Anyway, Diesel and I planned to take the first lap easy and then maybe dial it up for lap 2 and 3.  Fast pace but not race pace as neither one of us were in that mood.  Diesel led out Lap 1 and we were tooling along talking about his wedding reception this past weekend.  For two miles all was calm and fun.  But then I noticed our pace was picking up and was going to say something when I saw what was going on.  Diesel had quietly reeled some one in.  Problem was, the guy wasn't about to let us pass.  No worries, I was in 'easy rider' mode.  But then the guy lit a match and took off.  Of course Diesel went after him.

Damn it!

I had started my day by driving my 35 minute route to work only to get there at 6:30am and realize I had left my bottles, dry mix and bars on the kitchen counter.  Ugh.  Oh well, looks like I will be going to the bike shop over lunch for supplies.  Sue was even nice enough to call me around 7:30am to tell me my cooler was on the counter.  She didn't have time in her day to bring it out to me and I would never ask her to as it's an hour round trip...although she would do it if she had time.  Good excuse to have lunch with me.  So at 11:30 I head out to the bike shop that is about 10 minutes down the road.  30 minutes later I finally get there......WTF, traffic sucked because of the construction.  Seth wasn't there but I ended up shooting the breeze with Ben for a bit before hoping back in the car with my new Sweet Bikes bottles, NUUN and Shot Blocks.  Drive back was fast but still the trip took an hour.  Could have made it home and back in that time.  The fuel I got from the shop would work but it wasn't my norm so I was a little upset at myself again for leaving it at home.

As I watched Diesel tear down the trail after this 'not passing me' guy (We'll call him Charlie), I did a mental coin flip in my head on whether to chase or not.  I wasn't really in the mood for this buuuuut Diesel had engaged and needed a Wingman.  So I opened up the throttle and went into the red to reel them in.  It took a good half mile or so to get a visual and I was surprised to see that Diesel was only in missel range of Charlie....to far for guns.  Interesting.  Is he matching Diesel's pace?  I yo yo-ed off Diesel's back wheel for a bit as he tried to keep this guy in sight.  I'll admit I was struggling to keep pace as my lines were messy and I was relying more on power than grace to stay in the dog fight.  Something felt different in my riding and it was a bad different.  I had a couple close calls with trees that I shouldn't have been anywhere near and one boulder that nearly ended my day.  I was brake checking waaay more that I should have been in corners and again had to rely on pure power to get back on Diesel's wing.

But the end was near and the three of us bolted up toward the end of the trail full tilt.  I was happy we were coming to the end as 99% of the riders we chase like this always stop after an effort like that instead of making the turn to start another lap.  We were supposed to be there for fun and I wanted to do continuous laps without stopping but as hard as this guy was pushing the pace I was eager to stop and talk to him a bit and find out who he was.  I was third in line as we crested to the trail head.  And then it happened, he made the right turn to start another lap.  "You've got to be kidding me" I said out loud.  Just then Diesel pulled left to let me by and said, "Your turn!"

Damn it!

On the way to the trail from work I got a call from my 6 year old daughter Abigail.  She wanted to inform me that I put Ashton's yogurt in her lunch instead of hers.  In a normal family this isn't a big deal but like me, Abi can't have dairy.  Luckily she knew she wasn't supposed to eat it and wanted to let me know she knew better. "Daddy, it wasn't my soy yogurt.  I was Ashton's cow milk yogurt."  I was proud of her but at the same time upset with myself as I don't mix up her foods with Ashton and Ciara's......ever.  With all my dietary issues I am in tune with what she needs to stay away from.  I have been making Ashton's lunches for 6 years now and Abi's for 2 and this was my first big mistake.  Ashton is hypoglycemic so he can't have to much sugar.  So I have had a good stretch but to make two mistakes in one morning is unlike me.

Because we were expecting to stop at the trail head, another rider had jumped in front of us but quickly realized we were on his six and let us by.  I didn't want to just yet as I wanted to wait another couple turns when the trail opened up a bit.  But he insisted.  So off we went in search of Charlie.  I am not sure if he backed off the throttle because he may have thought we stopped but it only took a minute or two until I had a visual again.  It was on a switchback that put me 150 meters behind him.  As the switchback met up I looked over at him and he looked at me (kind of felt slow motion like a movie) and there was a 2 second stare through each other's sun glasses.  The shared feeling was obvious.  He didn't want to be caught and we didn't want to be dropped.  Diesel was hanging off my back wheel, I couldn't see him but I could hear his bike and knew he would bridge back up once he recovered.  I knew better than to wait for him.  He would be upset if I did.

I was still riding 'dirty' as my lines were not crisp and I was still relying on power to catch Charlie.  I thought by now I would be in race mode but was having a hard time flipping the switch.  I even misjudged a rock garden and rode out the side of it and had to plow my way back to the trail.....very uncharacteristic of my at Maybury but Charlie was pushing a hard pace.  I had been in these situations before and have been able to respond.  I had the legs but where was my head?  And for crying out loud I was on my full suspension and not my hardtail.  I should be flowing like water down the trail.

I could now see why Diesel was having a hard time with this guy.  Not only was he fast, he was fast because he was smooth.  He was hitting all the right lines and his cadence was spot on.  He was very efficient.  Reminded me a lot of me, except I was doing a horrible job of being me even though I had me in front of me to follow.  Charlie could have been dragging a chalk like behind him and I still would have misread the trail.

As expected Diesel had bridged back up to us and we were back in formation right before the midway point of the trail, approaching the turn around by the damn.  Although I was a mess I was optimistic that I could hold this pace for the second half of the trail.  But if Charlie were to make that right turn again and go for round three I was not sure if I could keep this pace up.  I had skipped a few 'drink spots' and I was coming up on my feeding time.  I would need to find a way to get some shot blocks in me and more fluids before a possible lap 3 at this pace.  It didn't help that this was my first experience with NUUN and I likened it to drinking alka seltzer.

Then the unexpected.  As we leaned into the turn around at the damn Charlie slowed down and eventually came to a stop.  I was surprised and we slowed down and rolled by him slowly to say awesome ride and great pace. He said the same to us and you could feel the mutual respect.  Looking back we should have stopped to chat with him but we were on the trail and I wanted to keep going.  It appeared Charlie parked at the other entrance and came onto the trail at the midway point so that was his full lap.  I was gassed but tried to keep a decent pace for the rest of the lap.  I did tell Diesel that I was stopping after that lap for a break to collect my head.  It was weird now to not be chasing anyone.

After a brief stop to change bottles from the jersey to the bike we took off down the trail for lap 3 with Diesel at point.  It was a pretty uneventful lap but we still pulled a low 29.  I felt more crisp, alert and one with the trail but don't know why.  Maybe I wasn't warmed up enough when we started chasing Charlie and my body needed a second to catch up and at the break it did.  Either way I was much happier with how I rode lap 3.

We decided a 4th lap wasn't needed as the sun was getting low and we would be running out of light.  Total trail time was close to 1:27:00 for the three laps.  Made me wonder if any of those were in the 28's.  Normally I will do 4-6 laps non stop and average just a hair under 30 minutes a lap so to see we averaged close to 29 minutes a laps was nice.  Maybe that had something to do with my sloppy riding, I was out of my comfort zone.  Hats off to Charlie for pushing us so hard out there.  Driving home I regretted not stopping to talk to him.  Diesel said we should have stopped to try and recruit him.

Hopefully we'll run into Charlie again soon.  However, I think I need to come up with a better nickname for him for our next meeting.

From the cheap seats

That's about sums up the past 3 races for me since my 3rd place at Bloomer.  To reacp:

July 28th - Tree Farm Relay - Team was sitting in podium position after 3 laps and I had a major tangle passing another rider which caused a crash and valuable mins doing trail repair to my bike to get it rolling again.  I lost close to 4 mins on that crash and we lost the race by 5 mins.  It's been a week and a half and it still bothers me.  I had a lot riding on that race and since last year have been bent on winning that race after coming in second in 2011.  We still finished 4th out of 17 teams but that's the first time since 2006 we have walked away from that race without a top 2 finish.

Aug 4th - Brighton XC - As always I am not a good starter and get bad field position in the hole shot.  Went into the woods in 11th place and spent my first lap of a 2:18:03 race looking for passing room where there wasn't much.  I had my first taste of racing against Simon Bailey as him and I spent the majority of the race switching at the point fighting for the last podium spot in our class.  With 6 miles to go I was able to tighten the screws and build a small gap between us but 3 miles later it backfired as I stated to cramp and could not hold my pace any longer.  He was able to pass me and build a lead I couldn't close after I recovered and I ended up finishing 4 seconds behind him.  Looking back I should have waited another couple miles to attack him.  Live, learn and move on to the next race with knowledge in your back jersey pocket.

Aug 5th - Ruby XC - This was an A race for me until I found out that Dub9, Lako-moto and Chunk all weren't going to be there in the geared class.  Still a fun course though and figured if nothing else it would be loads of fun to race there again.  Well, race day came and so did the rain and only one other person in my class.  By the time I got to the starting line I had lost a lot of motivation to be fast.  Less than 10 minutes into the race another rider from a different class crashed in front of me on a wet wooden bridge and even though I got past him okay I wasn't set up properly for the next bridge and since I wasn't fully upright with my weight centered I went down to mother earth with a large thud, shoulder first.  Ouch.  That one hurt but I was okay and so was the bike.  But I sat there on the ground for a second wondering what I was racing for that day.  I had a hard time taking glory in possibly winning a race against only one other person even though that person was a well know fast Jeff Cerget.  I kept thinking about my upcoming 'A' race at Maybury and how if I wrecked my bike or injured myself and had to miss that race I would be very upset.  I pedaled on for another mile trying to refocus but could not get a radar lock so I called it quits because low focus and slippery trail conditions could lead to a much worse crash.

But . . .

Through these three races didn't pan out for me like I wanted them to, I got to be part of some good results for some closer friends of mine.

First, my one and only teammate Brian killed it at all three of these races.  He redeemed himself from last years Relay and threw down some sick fast lap splits for the team.  Then at Brighton, even though he blew up toward the end he was still able to salvage a 3rd place in his class for a great podium finish.  At Ruby less then 24 hours later he not only won his class, he laid waste to the entire Sport Category and set the fastest time of the day...and he came through the finish chute like he could have went another 15 rounds.  It's been so fun to be there for "The Year of the Diesel."

Another person is my boy Brad Lako.  After a disappointing finish at Bloomer he bounced back 2 weeks later to finish 2nd place at Brighton and remind us all what he is really capable of.  Just when I thought I was making progress on catching him.....lol.  My money will be on him come the Stony XC in three weeks.  I now I can't match his power but I just hope that I will be able to do enough to stand up there on the podium with him that day.

And last, my dog John Osgood.  What a freight train this guy is.  After chasing his butt around Bloomer 2 weeks ago and coming up 8 seconds short, he put the hurtin' on me at Brighton and finished a solid 4th place  more than 2 mins ahead of Simon and I.  Then, like Brian, 24 hours later mounted his Single Speed and rode what may have been his most complete race of the year so far.  Starting his 3rd lap of a 3 lap race I had him clocked at being 4 MINUTES ahead of closest rival but didn't want to tell him then as I wanted to double check that I was correct.  So I waited for the next rider and sure enough, damn near 4 mins!  So I raced to the next road crossing and informed him of the gap he created.  Then was able to be there to see him finish.  Killer race.

So, even though I had a rough 2 weeks it was great to still be out there to see the people you went through the ranks with over the years have their days.  Very proud of them all as they earned their stripes without short cuts.  Anyone who stands on the podium at the end of the race, no matter what class, will tell you it wasn't an easy ride to get there.

And also big ups to JTP and David Moore as well on their accomplishments in the past two weeks.  Two guys who I have gotten to know a little better this year that have been pulling down some hardware as well.