Monday, May 23, 2011

WORS #2 Race Report

The first race of my WORS season started this past weekend, and the weather was all over the place. Saturday we arrived and me, Cameron, and the Dales began our pre ride. It started pouring towards the end of the lap, and the sand was grinding in our gears and brakes. The course was O.K., just extremely bumpy, but it was sandy enough to hold out the rain. Race day it was all blue sky and sunny. Our cat 2 sport racers Matt P. and Todd started off the day. Matt P. had an improved race from Iola, finishing 14th in age. Todd finished 18th in the 30-34 age group.
Matt P. lapping through
Cameron passing a much needed bottle to todd
The afternoon races were on and the weather was holding up. The dales, chris, cameron, and myself suited up and began to warm up. Unfortunately I can't snap any pics of these guys because they start right after me. Dakota took 1st in the Cat 2 Comp 19-23 age group, outedging the competition by 5 minutes. Matt Dale took 3rd in his very competitive age group of 13, and 19th overall in comp (he beat his son, dakota). Cameron took 7th in the Junior elite category, and had an overall good race, and I'm sure it wasn't easy on his rigid 29er. Chris took 4th in the 19-23 cat 2 age group. Overall an O.K. weekend for the team, but still room for improvement. Shout-out to the Dales for two very solid results, and Cameron for sticking it out in a very difficult category.
My first elite race went well. I tipped the line, not really knowing what to except, and just thinking how weird it was that I am racing with all these fast guys that I had once looked up upon like gods! The race started off pretty slow because the ability to draft was there. I went out a bit hard the first lap, which got me in a bit of trouble later. I missed my bottle hand off on lap 2, and the race being an 8 mile loop I knew I'd be feeling it. The third loop was miserable as I had very little energy. I used it to recover so I could push it on the fourth and final lap. I took one of my Honey Stinger gels and started to charge. The last lap it started to pour, lightning, and thunder. The last mile I caught four elite guys and stuck it to the finish. I ended up being 26th overall of about 60 starters. I'm happy with the result but did make a lot of "noob" mistakes during the race, like the bottle hand off and some crashes. Afterwards my arms were done, I couldn't move my back do to the extreme bumpiness of the course, and lets just say I didn't use enough chamois butter. Next race Cameron and I duo it out 12 hour style at Greenbush!
So many Eriksens!



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