WORS stop #5 in Eau Claire. This is close as the racing gets to us in La Crosse so it feels like a home course. Jane and I still opted to go up Saturday and pre-ride. She was going to race in the sport category and needed to check out the loop.
The course is flat, fast and flowing. The rain earlier in the week made it nice and not dusty or too dry. Only 300 feet of climbing or so per lap.
After last week taking 1st overall I knew I could repeat again. Although with not much climbing it would be tougher. The flatness of the course evens the playing field, also the less technical nature makes it harder to break things up (although there were some tricky sections). I sort of fell asleep during the call ups. I still don't have a call up which sucks, but I got swarmed from my 1st/2nd row and was starting from 4th row when they yelled GO.
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| Erik P leading out |
Fortunately there was a longer than average lead out of double track and gravel. After a few turns the pace slowed and I was able to work my way up to the front. I took the lead and put my head down. Just before we hit the whoops, singlespeed teammate Erik P came around. It was us going 1 & 2 into the woods. We had a small gap and settled down a bit. We hit a passing section and a Bikes LTD rider came around and took the lead. I was still behind Erik but he soon let me around to give chase. Neil from Bikes LTD was riding good. I was sticking his wheel but he was quick and I was a bit concerned he would gap me. The last 2 WORS races I've been off the front or by myself and haven't really had someone to follow. It stayed like this for 2/3 through the first lap. He started to get a bit sloppy in the singletrack and I figured I would take over. I pulled though in a passing section and he held my wheel for awhile. By this point we were off the front together with one other guy chasing. I told him we should work together in the flats and open to keep our gap. Well that lasted all of a few minutes because I heard a crash like noise and he was 10 seconds off the back next time I saw him. We came though for the 2nd lap and he was still 10 seconds. I kept looking back to see if he was closing in the open parts but he was still back there. We popped out for another long open gravel section and the gap was slowly getting bigger. I wanted to get out of sight so the carrot could stop hanging in front of him. After awhile I saw no one and settled down but apparently too much. End of the 2nd lap I saw Neil and another rider closing in. I upped the pace again, sprinting out of corners and putting more power down on the climbs.
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| navigating a tech descent - steeper than it looks |
Came through for the 3rd and final lap and didn't see anyone behind. If I kept it upright and didn't flat I'd probably take the win. Entered the woods and a friend told me to keep the pace up. He was riding all around the course and appeared at the halfway point and told me what I translated as I had dropped them for good. Was passing the straggling elites at this point which is always a good feeling.
Rolled through for win in my age group and my wave. There was some waiting to see if I took the overall win again as the 40+ wave had started 3 minutes behind. At 3:04 the first place 40+ crossed the line. Took the overall by a small margin - he basically did what I did last week - worked his way through a ton of traffic for a good placing overall.
So 3 races and 1 4th overall and 2 first overall's. I'm pretty happy to say the least. People have been asking when I'm going to upgrade. I've decided to wait until after the Subaru Cup (pro XCT race). This also serves as the Midwest Regional Championship. Not sure if it's worth doing it that way or what that really means, but I'll try to be fast for that one. I've got a good plan and it starts with more miles and hours than I've done recently and ramping up to the middle of August. It's such mental sport - and I'm in a good place. I'm only getting faster and I'm confident that trend will continue both from a fitness standpoint and ninja singletrack standpoint.
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