This past weekend I made the 1 hour trek down to Farmington, NM with friend and pro racer Sage Wilderman to try my hand at a cross country race. This would be the first XC I’ve done since the painful experience at Rocky Hill back in June (my return to racing following the dislocated shoulder), and only the 3rd XC I’ve done all year. The Road Apple Rally is the longest continuously run mountain bike race in the country, turning 31 years old this go round.
XC used to be my bread and butter, but I don’t eat bread anymore, and consequently, it would seem I don’t enjoy XC all too much anymore either. At least, on this course, with the level of competition in this part of the country. The course sits at about 6000′, has rolling hills, lots of road portions, lots of sand, and hundreds or berms or g-outs that really beat you down after a while. The course description said “minimal climbing”, maybe by Colorado standards, but still probably twice as much as most Texas courses. The only sustained climbs were on the road portions, but the course was full of short kickers, some very steep. There were hardly any technical sections at all. This would really be a great course for a roadie, which is probably why I didn’t fare so well…The most difficult task at hand was learning how to roll over all the berms at high speed while maintaining control. It’s much harder than you think and requires a little bit of BMX skills. I almost wish I had ridden with at rigid fork because the suspension rebound over these undulations was hard to predict and resulted in a few washouts, one that sent me flying off the bike.
Anyhow, there was a mass start for Pro, Cat 1, Cat 2, and singlespeed since we were all doing the 30 mile loop. There was a lot of road riding and doubletrack at the start that allowed everyone to get seeded properly before the singletrack. I don’t have a Pro license yet and didn’t think they would let Cat 1’s race the Pro cat, so I entered the Cat 1, racing my new age group for the very first time, 30-34. Good thing I didn’t overestimate my abilities…The Pros and Cat 1 studs started with a blistering pace out of the start line onto the road. I found myself quickly winded, and having to slow down to something a little more sustainable. I’ve been training a lot the past few weeks, but nothing close to this intensity.
Several racers passed me before entering the singletrack, but I had no choice but to let them go and just do the best I could. Besides, 30 miles was a pretty good loop and I usually get faster as I go.
I was pinned for the entire race. 95-100% max heart rate. There weren’t many places to recover, and the places that did offer a little relief from pedaling did not offer much relief for the rest of the body. I can’t emphasize how much those berms sucked after about 20 miles.
Eventually, my 24 hour stamina kicked in and I was able to push it hard for the last third of the course. I picked up about 10 more spots, but still got schooled by 30 or so other racers, a lot of whom were older Cat 1’s and singlespeeders. It was really humbling having spent so much time training and have finished this far back. The winner, Travis Brown, finished a whole 21 minutes ahead of me. Talk about smoking fast!
Whatever. I wasn’t training for this race, but rather using it for training for the real race, the Republic of Texas 24 hour Championship, Rocky Hill. I’m still obviously playing catch up with my fitness, but I should be in decent shape come Oct 15. I couldn’t track down any race photos, but here is one I snagged from last year’s race.
