This is gonna be fun.


Long time no blog, well after the visit from the family, I went straight back into flog thy self on the bike mode.
AKA super top secret training. With some back to back big weeks and at the height of my training block came the Colorado Cycling Festival Road Race. This is a road race that should have been well suited for me, however there were other plans apparently. The race was a 56 mi with some descent climbing. The race started at Hughs Statium in Fort Collins, went up Rist Canyon, around Horsetooth Res, and back to the stadium. Rist Canyon is a nice little 12 mile jaunt up mountain with the last mile pegged well over 12%. Horsetooth had some "Rollers", which were shorter leg breakers than Rist, but hurt just as bad.
I hit the line just straight up tired. My goal, stay with the climbers as long as possible, and finish. I'd never raced with the 3's in a mountain RR so there was the potential to come away from the race with some good indications of where my fitness is, and needs to be. Well, it was made very clear from the start of the climb, that this was going to be a struggle. I managed to hang with the lead group for about 2/3's of the climb, then the bod said enough. I dropped back and just missed the chase group over the top. Its amazing how a 50 gap can grow on a descent when you are solo, and are trying to catch a group. A small group of about 8 of su formed and we the second chase group, dangling about a minute behind the "real chasers". At this point it was just set cruise and head on back. Our little group shrank until there were only 3, but we managed to keep a strong tempo going. Two miles from home, my legs said " all stop!", wow that hurt, I endured spasms I had never seen or felt before. At this point I was in "just get back" mode. A teammate caught, and towed my sorry butt back to the line. Thanks Lance, I owe you a lead out BRO!. And to my surprise I only finished 8 min off the winner. No complaints here, you see last year at this point in the season I was 20 mins off the leaders in the 4's. I think there's been a little improvement with a year of training and racing. A little rest, and lets see what happens.