Rist Canyon Race Report

Will be brief (or I'll try anyway):

Backstory first: I've been training pretty hard since November of last year. Didn't really take much time off, as I was hoping to come blasting into this season and get a few good results early. out here, the season starts in March, and if we have a cold winter that means it's really hard to be in shape when you first take the line. I trained, got into reasonable shape, then crashed badly while in a training ride up on the Peak-to-Peak hwy on March 1. Mental recovery from that kind of crash is the worst - you just lose the edge to take corners fast, go downhill quickly, etc.

So despite my preparations, the start of the season was a wash. Didn't really get my edge back until mid-May, and started to get some results. Raced 6 times in 9 days at the beginning of June, did a couple hard training rides, and mentally I was boiling over.

Went to Eagle, Co to do the 85 mile "Rock the River Road Race" June 14. I'd been dreading it all week, but couldn't figure out why. I was pretty active in the first half of the race, keeping the pack fast and covering attacks that went off on the early rollers. Got to the one substantial hill before the turnaround and just cracked. The hill started with about a half-mile 10% wall, then leveled out to about 6% for another mile and change. Made it up the wall with he lead group, and just didn't want to ride anymore. Dropped off and limped home with a chase group fighting for 16th place.

A mostly off-week later (with one TT thrown in) landed me with several teammates at the Rist Canyon RR in Ft. Collins. 65 miles with some very painful climbs. We started out with a trip up to the Horsetooth Reservoir Dam, and rode along the dam road before dropping into Rist Canyon for the "real" climb at mile 11. The dam road has a series of very steep rollers, each about 3/4 to 1.5 miles long, that you have to ride over. They hurt, but I was hanging in there just fine, sag-climbing in the pack. We descended into Rist (55mph+) and started our climb up the valley. It's pretty moderate for the first few miles, but the 2nd to the last is at 9-11% and the last mile is steady 11-12%. I got about 2 miles into the climb and just realized that I didn't want to race. It was hot, it hurt, my drinks were already hot, and I just wanted to go home and drink beer.

Since I'd paid (and since my ride home was racing with me), I decided I couldn't just quit, but instead I just sat up and let the lead group ride away. Thought about riding up to a teammate to tell him I was out, but decided that just riding up through the group would hurt more than I was interested in. Did the middle of the ride mostly solo, and picked up a couple guys for the last 20 miles. Dropped all but one on the climbs back up to the res (we had to go all the way over the dam road again), and waited for the last guy every time I dropped him going up a hill. We rode the flat 5 miles back into town together, and rolled through the finish in 39th out of (65?).

Not the best showing, but believe me I was just glad it was over. I'm unofficially taking this and the next 2 weeks off of racing. Just riding and getting my head back in the game.

The after-party was good - free Fat Tire beer! My teammate Dave and I just stood at the beer tent pounding pints until our ride decided to leave.