Monday, April 19, 2010

Fat Tire Classic

Fun day at Winding Trails in Farmington, CT. Brian came up and did his first mtb race ever. After his race, we had about 2 hours to kill before mine, so we did a 30 min run previewing some of the terrain...

The Trails were great for racing: fast and flowy and not too hilly, not too wet. I wanted to avoid getting caught up in the start nonsense, so I started slow and at the back. My goal was just to get a sense of where I'm at fitness-wise, and to get my mtb (which has been plagued with mechanical issues all winter/spring) dialed-in for next weekend. The race was 3 loops, 16 miles total. About 5 miles in I felt great, and my bike was working perfectly, so I turned it up and raced the hell out of the next 11 miles... I started steadily picking off riders and moving from about 25th place up to where I ended up finishing in 9th place. Was fun to race like that. I normally go out a little too quick and struggle to hold, but this is way more enjoyable.

This photo is with about 2 miles to go. The beginning of a fun drag race to the finish with the guy in red behind me. He ended up popping on a short muddy climb right before the finish.
Coming across the finish line in 1hr 22mins. Good for 9th Place Cat 2 M 30-39
Yep that hurt... Quads burning!
Results HERE

Glad to have a good race under my belt... Now looking forward to Duathlon Nationals next weekend. Doing both the Off Road event on Saturday, and the On Road event on Sunday... It's gonna be rough!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

damn,
great photography....not a bad Tweed racer too!