I've been trying to get some big miles in since my first couple of races in preparation for the UltimateXC - and laying off high intensity efforts. Since I need more long rides, I had been debating racing the Rumpus at all, but had the dubiously brilliant idea of doing both, a long ride and racing. Wednesday I went over to FOMBA with Andy Gould, who put on a pro display as first Expert overall in 1:26 Sunday. We did some LT laps around the course and I was surprised to have some good sensations, despite being almost overtrained ( riding 12 hours the week before and 90 hilly miles Monday.) I held off on making the decision until the day before the race- to ride from Concord to FOMBA and back. Stupid? Maybe if all I was thinking of was the Rumpus, but I've become pre-occupied with the painful vision of last year's UXC-walking up Mt Tremblant in the heat in hour 8 of a 100K race with something teen thousand feet of vertical. More miles is almost always the answer and so I rode my trusty hardtail the 25 miles to the race and arrived a hour or so in advance.
The first person I see is Tom Barton, who happily tells me how bad it is for me to have ridden to the race. Alrighty then. Game on, Tom.
It wasn't until the 15 second warning from the starter that I let a wave of adrenaline come over me. GO! and Dennis Flanagan absolutely flew off, head down, churning down the railroad bed with 12 of us in his wake- right up until he went straight and we all took the right turn. Oh the humanity! I felt bad for him knowing he'd have to sprint to try to get back on while we'd all be thinking- "How could he have possibly done that?!" Sometime during the first half lap, the selection was made with Bob Bisson, Tyler Munroe, Mike Good and I taking pulls for three laps, Tyler's turns a little soft after racing at Auburn the day before. My god it was fast.
On lap four Bob dropped his chain and fell off the bunch. I yelled "Let's take the hope away!" I know Bob is strong and I hoped to rally the troops to dispense of him when we had the chance. Fat chance. I was alone and off the front, eventually putting them all out of sight... Lap 5 and I could see the three of them coming back to me on the RR bed and so I backed off to recover, accepting that they would work together against me, or that they just didn't have anything to give.
Early in lap 6, Mike Rowell came by. I went straight onto his wheel with only Bob able to get on mine. Just before the chicane and start of lap 7, Bob and Rowell opened a little gap on me and I spent the next half lap a mere five yards behind and desperately trying to get back on Bob's wheel. Shite! I just could not keep that up and rode in solo for 2nd, nearly a minute down. 1:32:25. After changing into fresh cycling clothes and eating a bit, I rode home, ate a horse, and fell fast asleep. Thanks to Geoff McIntosh for toting my clothes and extra water to the race. 2 weeks 'til Ca Na Daaa.
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