2009 Blogs
Vid vid:http://www.cyclingdirt.org/
With the Webcor season all wrapped up, with the energy to keep plugging away, with the fact that it's blueberry season in VT, and missing my dad, I decided to fly home to VT for the week. It just so happened that the same week there was a Pro XCT Mountain bike race going on just 4 hours away, in Windham, NY. So I booked a ticket on the darned United airlines who charge $175 to bring a bike. But I tactfully packed my itty-bitty mountain bike into an inconspicuous cardboard box, and wrote "Fragile: Artwork" on the sides. I was able to get in a few awesome rides around home base before trekking to NY.
The course at Windham will host a World Cup next season, so lotsa riders came out to get an idea of the course. The laps were fairly short - about 20 minutes each. It starts with a somewhat gradual gravel climb of 1k or so before turning right into the woods for a brief stint. Shoots you back onto a steeper but shorter climb, titled Alpe D'huez (...creative). Then it levels out for 500m before dropping you into dark and rooty woods, where you can't even see your front tire. A little scary to come mach-schnell into pitch black! Once your eyes finally adjust, you're straining up a bi*ch of a pitch and back into the open, over a long bridge, before another gut-wrenching gravel climb that leads to more climbing - this time on single track leading back into the woods. And so it goes like this, in and out of the woods. It was brutally hot and humid, so it was a relief to duck into the woods, but everytime I exited into the scorching sun I thought I was going to melt.
5 laps were on tap, and we began with a little start lap to prevent the riders from getting too bottle-necked into the single track. I got off to a great start, on the wheel of Katerina Nash. Hanging in the top 5 for that first time up "Alpe D'huez", I was pretty happy with my positioning, considering the feeling of my legs. I had this feeling once or twice before, and it feels like there is helium in my legs. I feel as though my legs are dislocated from the rest of my body...I could push them to infinite levels without them hurting, but it's as if I have no control over how hard I push. Very strange. So with this feeling I rode the first lap attached to Lea Davison's (who I grew up within VT) wheel. But the second time up the start hill everything fell apart, and my legs transformed from helium into lead. Talk about fighting the elements...
By the third lap I was begging for a coke, which I had meant to save for the final lap. I knew I had to drink, but it just wasn't happening...I kept forgetting and suffering more and more. Soon Pua came passed me and that deflated me even more. I tried to hold her wheel on the climb so I could follow her line through the technical stuff, but my legs seemed to have one pace. Eventually on the 4th lap, another girl came passed and, while I couldn't hold her wheel either, she became a pacing carrot for the final bit of the race. Otherwise I would have kept rocketing backwards! I picked up my pace on the 4th lap, really hoping to real the girl back in, but it wasn't in the cards. I was utterly exhausted when I finally crossed the finish line in 10th place and very very very thirsty. The heat and humidity had zapped me.
With the Webcor season all wrapped up, with the energy to keep plugging away, with the fact that it's blueberry season in VT, and missing my dad, I decided to fly home to VT for the week. It just so happened that the same week there was a Pro XCT Mountain bike race going on just 4 hours away, in Windham, NY. So I booked a ticket on the darned United airlines who charge $175 to bring a bike. But I tactfully packed my itty-bitty mountain bike into an inconspicuous cardboard box, and wrote "Fragile: Artwork" on the sides. I was able to get in a few awesome rides around home base before trekking to NY.
The course at Windham will host a World Cup next season, so lotsa riders came out to get an idea of the course. The laps were fairly short - about 20 minutes each. It starts with a somewhat gradual gravel climb of 1k or so before turning right into the woods for a brief stint. Shoots you back onto a steeper but shorter climb, titled Alpe D'huez (...creative). Then it levels out for 500m before dropping you into dark and rooty woods, where you can't even see your front tire. A little scary to come mach-schnell into pitch black! Once your eyes finally adjust, you're straining up a bi*ch of a pitch and back into the open, over a long bridge, before another gut-wrenching gravel climb that leads to more climbing - this time on single track leading back into the woods. And so it goes like this, in and out of the woods. It was brutally hot and humid, so it was a relief to duck into the woods, but everytime I exited into the scorching sun I thought I was going to melt.
5 laps were on tap, and we began with a little start lap to prevent the riders from getting too bottle-necked into the single track. I got off to a great start, on the wheel of Katerina Nash. Hanging in the top 5 for that first time up "Alpe D'huez", I was pretty happy with my positioning, considering the feeling of my legs. I had this feeling once or twice before, and it feels like there is helium in my legs. I feel as though my legs are dislocated from the rest of my body...I could push them to infinite levels without them hurting, but it's as if I have no control over how hard I push. Very strange. So with this feeling I rode the first lap attached to Lea Davison's (who I grew up within VT) wheel. But the second time up the start hill everything fell apart, and my legs transformed from helium into lead. Talk about fighting the elements...
By the third lap I was begging for a coke, which I had meant to save for the final lap. I knew I had to drink, but it just wasn't happening...I kept forgetting and suffering more and more. Soon Pua came passed me and that deflated me even more. I tried to hold her wheel on the climb so I could follow her line through the technical stuff, but my legs seemed to have one pace. Eventually on the 4th lap, another girl came passed and, while I couldn't hold her wheel either, she became a pacing carrot for the final bit of the race. Otherwise I would have kept rocketing backwards! I picked up my pace on the 4th lap, really hoping to real the girl back in, but it wasn't in the cards. I was utterly exhausted when I finally crossed the finish line in 10th place and very very very thirsty. The heat and humidity had zapped me.