*5 races in 5 days* (Warning -T.M.I.)

(photos courtesy of Skinnyski.com)

During the past week I raced my bike on 5 separate occasions. I think that might be my record for # of races within one week. It started with the Murphy Hanrehan time trial, sponsored by Freewheel, on Wednesday night. Up until that point, I hadn't ridden since the previous weekend as I was battling the last bit of a cold from the week before. I wasn't sure how the legs or lungs would feel. I did a pretty fast warmup and it seemed like all systems were "go." Typically I take off way too hard in time trials and blow myself up early on, then spend the remainder of the race trying to recover. Not this time. I started SLOW, easing my way into a sustainable effort. Everything was clicking. They started us in 1 minute intervals and I caught my 1 minute man within the first 5 minutes of the race. I attacked on all of the wide open sections then focused on riding the singletrack a smoothly as possible in order to recover from the attacks. Towards the end of the lap I caught Lonny Mahoney, who had started 2 minutes in front of me. I ended up winning the race with a time of 39:42, which is supposedly the first official course record. Lonny took second, about 2:25 back and Sandberg and Scotty Ralson were both just a few seconds behind Lonny. After the race I went out for beers with the owner of Freewheel, Kevin, his buddy Chris, Eric Guse and Biener.

Next up was the "Hillside Throwdown" on Thursday night. Sam O and I took off hard, but not that hard. We didn't have the heavy competition that can usually be expected at a Buck Race (no Fisher, Brendan, Paul, Luke, etc.). Before the race, Sam told me that we would just be going out for a nice hard training ride. After the first 15 minutes of racing we had handily dropped all chasers to the point where they were no longer visible at any point in the trail. I knew Sam was full of $h!+ when he said we were on a training ride. He started to turn the screws on me and I felt it. I was actually feeling awesome that night; very powerfull on the short steep climbs and riding the singletrack smoothly. I just couldn't quite match Sam's intensity on the short steep climbs. He slowly pulled away from me and took the W with a gap of 2 minutes and 1 second. Sam is undoubtedly one of the strongest riders in the state right now so I was happy to hang on, even just for a little while.

I took Friday off (the bike and work) so Laura and I could head up to the cabin for a little R&R before Maplelag. On Saturday morning we headed over to DL to check in at Maplelag and get signed up for the stage race. The weekend started with a TT at 10 in the AM. Once again, I tried to ease into the effort so I could sustain a quick pace for the duration of the race. For one reason or another I decided not to listen to the voice of reason. I put my bike in a large gear and ramped up my cadence. I was carrying so much speed that I was actually worried about washing out on the wide open ski trail turns. I carried this effort to the top of the suicide hill climb, at which point I completely exploded. The lactic acid had invaded my legs and lungs. I had to shift my bike down to a really small gear and limp in to the finish line. I still ended up finishing 10th out of 20, due completely to my effort during the first half of the race. I lost a full minute to Brendan. I wouln't have expected to win, but had I not exploded and paced myself better, I bet I could have come within 15 seconds or so. I'm an idiot sometimes!

Saturday night we lined up again for the STXC. I had no expectations, as I completely suck at short track for some reason. I don't like that kind of intensity. I've never been good at it. Maybe I'll try to get better at it next year, but I doubt it. I ended up finishing in the middle towards the back after I basically gave up chasing the lead pack. I wanted to vomit while I was hanging on to the back of that group so I let go. I just wanted to minimize my loss for the overall stage race.


I woke up on Sunday feeling a little fatigued from the previous 4 races that week. After warming up a bit, my legs felt pretty good. My plan going into the XC was to just ease into the race and ramp up the intensity going into the second half of the race...so that is what I did. I did not go ballistic off the start. I just rode my own comfortable pace until I found a rythm that worked. As such, I let the lead pack go, figuring I would catch a few of them later in the race if I felt good. This turned out to be a mistake. I felt good throughout the entire race. I had several mishaps, such as crashing on the large rock/wooden grip tape bridge, going over the bars and burping almost all of the air out of my front tire. I was able to get a pump on the tire and get the pressure back up to 28 or so and continued on...no big deal. I think I had 3 other OTB crashes over the course of the race, one of which almost sent me into a tree. Going into the last lap I ramped up my pace big time in an effort to catch Eric Oftedahl and any others that fell off the main group. The effort was too little too late. I never caught anyone. I wish I would have gone out harder. I bet I could have hung on. It's hard to know how you will feel. The "start slow" strategy has worked for me many times in the past. With the current state of the MNSCS competition, you can no longer do that. The top 10-12 racers in this state are almost all pros and semi-pros. This is definately the most competitive the state series has been since I have been racing as an expert (1998). I ended up finishing the race in 7th overall. Eric O and the rest of the lead group rode very strong. I wish I could have been up with them, I think I felt good enough, I was just too big of a pussy to go hard in the beginning of the race. I finsihed 6th overall in the stage race, one place out of the money.

The weekend was an absolute blast! Jay Richards and his family put together top notch events. The accomodations, food, comeraderie and racing are as good as it gets. Thanks again Jay, for hosting such a fun race weekend! I looked at the results after the race and it looks like Jake Richards was absolutely flying. If he would have sustained his effort for one more lap, he would have handily won the comp class; if he could have kept it up for 2 more, he would have been in the top 10 OA in the experts. I expect Jake will be giving us all a run for our money in a few years (including his dad).