I arrived a little early, which gave me time to get some tasty grub at a local burrito joint. Headed over to the park to get acquainted with the course a bit, it was approx. 1 mile with a little bit of everything, short climbs,leg burning flats,swooping downhill single track and technical rocky sections.......yes, all in 1 mile.
Racing with the "A" group is always a grind, so I didn't quite know what to expect. All the guys "looked" fit and fast, so I was anxious to get started. It was going t be 30 minutes of all out racing.
We took off up the longest hill of the course which was about 100 yds long, so it stretched out the 20 or so guys right off the bat. I ended up in 5th after the climb and proceeded to close up to 3rd and 4th place riders every lap. They would gap me about 5 seconds on every downhill section and I would catch them on the climbs.......every lap.
That's basically how it ended too, because the finish line is at the end of the downhill section. I was happy with the placing and my effort. It's always good to go to different places and do good to gauge my fitness, so at least I know I'm doing things right.
The guys putting on the race were great, the one name I caught was Chris. He talked to me a bit afterwards about the single speed world championships coming to Napa. If you go to www.sswc08.com , he's the one ice fishing on the opening page......he was a nice guy. For those of you Texas boys checking this out, the single speed class was huge. In fact if it wasn't for the fast flat section, there may have been a few of those guys up towards the front.
In all, it was a great experience. I'm glad I made it.
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