Going to the home turf for this weekends race hosted by APP State in Wilkesboro, NC. The race is twice as close to my house as it is to APP’s campus so I think some of my family might make it out to watch me race for the first time in road season.
But before we get to the race preview I did have spring break and had a great week of riding planned. Coming of racing at duke the prior weekend I took the chance on Monday for a short recovery ride but with hills on all sides of me at home that was easier said than done.
Tuesday was scheduled as my first day back on the mountain bike since before Christmas. Marshall made the trip up and we decided to hit up Warrior Creek as a little prep for 6HWC coming up in two weeks. One guy left out from the vehicle as I was pulling into the parking lot and after a little prep we headed for the trails as well. Less than a 200 yards down the trail however marshall laid the power to his trek on a slight hill and snapped his chain. He didn’t have a tool or a link so I after I rode back to the truck to get both we continued. A little further along we met the guy who had left out earlier coming back and he informed us that the trail was under water. He wasn’t from here and I told him maybe we could intercept it a little further up if he wanted to follow us. IT had poured Saturday and Sunday and being right beside the dam the water level had overtaken the trail. We ended up hiking over the ridge and hit the trail a little further up. The rider stayed with us the rest of the day as we had to make detours several more times for the same reason. He was fun to ride with as later we found out he was from Germany.
It was fun to be back on the trails and even though I didn’t feel that much faster I was dropping marshall and the other rider before I even realized it time after time. Though what little tech skills I had have suffered from not being on the trails I do think im much faster overall.
We ended up only making one of the two scheduled loops around Warrior creek and instead rode up the road to Dark Mountain to finish off the day. We ended up riding over 25 miles in a 3-4 hour span because of all the hiking and looking for the trail.
Wednesday I took the day off to recover and get ready for the epic ride I had planned for Thursday. I have had this route planned for two or three months now but it seems every time I have a chance to ride it something stops me. The route is a little over 40 miles and has a Cat 2 and a Cat 5 climb in over 2500 feet of elevation gain. The Cat 2 climb is the real monster with the average grade over 5%. I was hoping this would be the shock to my system I need to get in climbing mode before this weekends race. However as I posted last week the rain came down all day Wednesday and Thursday causing me to forgo the road ride for a trainer ride. Looking back I wish I would have just rode in the rain because now Iv missed out on this ride so many times I want it bad now.
On to this week and the App race. This race wasn’t announced until a couple weeks back and therefore was not on our teams scheduled raced. Thus no one had planned for it financially of otherwise and so once again it will be only Marshall and Myself representing the Campbell Camels. Saturday we will get our latest start of the year and about 12:30PM going off last in the D race. The course is about a 10 mile loop and we will be doing two laps. About two miles in we hit a 5 mile Cat 4 climb that will separate the field. This race will be distinctly different from any others we have had so far this year. I expect that we will all roll to the base of this hill together and then the real race will begin. Obviously this is a climbers course with the hill taking up over half the lap and the rest of the lap being a fast decent to the finish line before starting the flat two miles to the base of the hill to do it all over again. With this set up it is imperative that you stay with the leaders over the top. I don’t expect a big peloton rolling along however instead I expect the weaker climbers to be dropped immediately and then a break of better climbers to go off about halfway up the hill. Then I expect groups of similarly skilled climbers to ride the rest together. I expect that I can make up a bit of time on the decent so as long as I go over the top within sight of the leaders I should be ok. Whoever is off the front over the top the second time should be able to bomb down the hill to the finish with no risk of being pulled back in by the peloton. This is a course where a climber should really consider just going off the front at the start and and never looking back.
It should be fun but at the same time painful. Im not one of the stringer climbers on the road so I don’t have high hopes although id really like to do well at home so ill give her all of it to the top.
Sundays crit is once again different than any weve done so far. It is going to be held on the Wilkesboro Speedway which is a 1k loop. It really sets up to be fast and fun. I expect there will be more of a peloton than weve seen in any crit so far this year and it may come down to a bunch sprint. With no hills this may set up nice for us. If both marshall and myself and hold in the group till the end Marshall may have a shot in the sprint. Im excited to see how it goes as long as it doesn’t involve hitting the track at 30 mph.
Look for the report next week..
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