after a great week of some riding and watching the pros at the Tour de Georgia and Athen's Twilight Criterium, it was my turn to race on Sunday morning. we went to Athens for Twilight and found couches to crash on so that we would be fairly close to Winder for Sunday's race. we wake up at 6:30AM (only a few hours after going to sleep) and have a quick bite and rush over to Ft Yargo. our previous GSC races have started at 9:30 so we were surprised to find out that #3 would be starting at 11:30. we were super early which gave the Faster Mustache crew plenty of time to set up their new headquarters... although i'm racing and super proud to be a member of APB, i'm also an FM elder and will be racing some team events with them. this allows me access to their headquarters and provides all of us access to a great thing... carpools, rides, high fives, etc...
so, we're all there super early in the rain and i go over to the registration table where they have posted the race information. we will be doing 2 laps of ~5.2 miles each. a 10.? mile race is half of what we would typically do and would definitely be a hammer-fest! since we had so much time to kill and the trail conditions were questionable and since the lap was only 5ish miles - we decide to do a quick lap. we are riding for a while and i'm wondering why this 5 miles was taking so long! turns out that the posting was wrong and we were to race 2 laps at 11 miles each. we had just killed it for 11 miles just before a 22 mile race which will come back to haunt me later. another note about this race which would haunt me from the very beginning - this was a combination race with the SERC series. there were a lot of new faces and a really deep field of 26. SERC apparently brings out the big trailers, RVs, and teams.
we finally line up for the start and i'm all the way to the left. i look ahead and realize that there are two huge trees between me and the hole. i was alone until Chip Whitworth comes and joins me. we decide to stay wide left and try to cut the field off... the whistle blows and we're racing. i get a pretty good start and i'm the sixth going into the single track. i make a couple passes on the first climb and now i'm in fourth. i was trying to keep the leaders in sight but they were flying and i was potentially going to blow up. the top two guys (including Chip) are gone and i'm following the third rider through the woods. we are keeping a really fast pace but after a few more miles i start to get my lungs back and settle in a bit. so at about 8 miles into the 22 mile race, my inexperience really came shining through... we were on a climb and i'm wondering when i would be able to grab a drink from my bottle (i usually ride with a camelbak, but i've been trying to race with a bottle. i've found that the tight twisty stuff is nearly impossible to drink in, the decents are nearly impossible to drink in and the open flats are where i tend to stand up and try to hammer it making it nearly impossible to drink. i need to reconsider my hydration plan for these races). i reach down for my bottle and decide to take a peak over my should to see what kind of gap we've created to determine the number of sips. before i even turn back to the trail, i'm in the trees and over the bars. i pull my bike back to the trail and my chain is off! while fixing it i get passed by a few guys. i get back on and try to clip in (on a climb which is difficult), and my chain pops off again. this happened 3 times and i get passed by 7 or 8 guys. i'm really frustrated and consider quiting for a second... this whole sequence only lasted a few seconds, but it changed the entire day (and probably week) for me. i take a breath, get back on the bike and start trying to reel in anyone i could. i catch a couple guys and make passes before the 1st lap was completed. Faster Mustache handed me a bottle in the feed zone and i chugged and tossed it.
now into second lap and my new goal is to finish in the top 10. i'm used to getting a small second wind, but no luck in this race. i was blasted could not help but to question our 11 mile warm up lap earlier in the morning, our lack of sleep and my dumb decisions. it starts to rain again and it gets slippery. i'm plugging away and mixing it up with some riders from the earlier waves. my next amature move came when i was working on setting up a pass around a slower rider. we were on a narrow climb and i was standing up trying to look over their shoulder. my front tire goes off the left lip of the trail and i'm over the bars again. this time was even more embarassing even though there was no one behind me to see it. and... now my hand and wrist were in throb mode. i keep riding and pass team Faster Mustache who throw out a "Brobot!" shout out and make me laugh. at this point i'm battling with another rider in my category and we are going back and forth a bit. i'm nailing it on a couple flat sections to create some space and then i'd be wasted and he would quickly pass me in the trees. i tried to hold on to him but he powered through a couple more passes of other cat riders and i didn't have the muscle to power through the quick passes with him. at this point i can see what looks like my entire group just ~50' in front of me. i make up a little more ground and realize that it is probably too little too late. there is only a short section of single track left and no open section for passing before the finish. i catch my breath and push through the finish and hope for a top 10.
results are posted and i get 9th. i'll link up the results and any photos when they become available. from what i remember, the top two guys finished 7 minutes ahead of the rest of the riders with the rest of the top 9 coming in within a minute of each other. a dip in the lake, a few sports beverages and some HQ shenanigans and i was happy to be at home and in bed.
this next month will be the hardest for me yet and i'm fearing full on melt down or burn out by June. we are racing every weekend:
May 3-4: Dirt Sweat and Gears
May 10: Festival Of Speed
May 17-18: 24 Hours of Conyers
May 25: GSC#4
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