everybody else has one: Cholla v.2.0

This course is fast. I said it a bunch of times: this course is made for a "rouleur"; a person that can put down some power on the flats forever. I was intimitated by that little fact because I seldom see myself as that type of a racer so I turned it into a personal challenge.

2 years ago I enjoyed this race as a learning experience. This year it's part of my hunt for the Intermountain cup series points.

The warmup

I am feeling good about my warmup technique. 1 hour at zone 2 with 2 really hard efforts thrown in to shake up the legs. Nothing revolutionary; it's pretty well documented. It worked well for Red Rock Rampage and Cholla so far.

This time the added bonus of meeting Oil can racer and getting racing tips from him helped me relax and have someone to stay in zone 2 with. Cool guy.

The start

The race started nearly 30 minutes late. My perfect warmup was in jeopardy. I was getting cold.

Lining up has been frustrating to me so far. I try to place myself near the front but others seem to find ways to make their way futher forward by encroaching on other groups or probably just being more aggressive and bumping elbows in the start area. This time a nice guy (turns out to be Michael Funk from Krank Munkeyz) told me he didn't want to be up front and let me in front of him, which put me on the front line.

Maybe I was kind of annoyed at the whole starting line up situation. I took off full speed and noticed one of the big guys from Racers Cycle next to me going just a little faster. This guy is always in the start corral saying how he's never in contention and he always gets dropped. And he's racing for the hole shot? Not today my friend. By the first turn it was all mine. I owned that start. Mine.

The race

Since I got the hole shot, which during the effort I decided I wanted so I wouldn't lose touch of the frong guys by getting stuck behind slow guys, I stayed up front until someone passed me. I rode hard but within my limits. As a matter of fact my heart rate was right at threshold until the slickrock climb. Perfect.

When I made the first 90 degree right turn I looked back to see the impact I was making. I expected a big bunch right behind me but found that I stretched out and even split the group within the first mile; there are really only a dozen racers close to me. That may have given me a shot of adrenaline so I kept going at my pace. Someone's bound to pass me soon.

It was about 3 miles before someone passed me. If I remember right I took two more climbs and a few more descents before someone finally went by on the rocky river bed. After the second climb I looked back and found there were only 3 of us.

Mini retrospective

The good, the bad, and the ugly of this starting strategy:

Good: My pace. I was dictating the pace and staying within my abilities. I wasn't trying to hold on to someone else's pace which can be a psychological game.

Really good: I got the impression I demoralized some of the group early. Like they have done to me in the past. Maybe that's not true but at least I felt I was stronger than most and used it to my advantage rather than wait and see. Nice display of aggressive racing.

Bad: I worked. Did I work harder than if I were trying to keep up with the fastest guy from the start? Probably not. If the fastest guy got the hole shot the pace would have been harder. Maybe.

Really bad: I didn't handle accelerations when I got passed.

The rest of the race

Interestingly I got passed and managed to not keep up again. I can't remember enough details but I am thinking the attackers purposefully wait for their moment to pass in traffic where they can get through but I can't. It's like they wait for the very last moment, pounce, and leave me waiting behind a slower person. By the time I get through, I have a bunch of room to make up and I haven't been able to yet.

I totally ate up the flat sections. I stayed low and reeled in and passed some people. Rather than get passed I did the passing. THAT was a good thing. As I said at the beginning I challenged myself to get rid of this stigma that I'm not good at TTs. I'm getting there. And it felt awesome. Damn hard, but awesome.

As always the bottle handoff was perfect. I was feeling good before the second lap, had a drink, tossed the bottle, got the second all while doing about 14mph, and moved through the technical section at the start. I had some food on the flat straight stretch before the slickrock.

On the wider rocky ascent after the slickrock came a pass from a UMB racer (Dave Benson is the name). He was on a mission. I kept up for a few feet and blew up. It was a sad, sad moment where it appears my heart rate reached 198 bpm and I had to say goodbye. I really thought I could keep him within reach and recovered for awhile before trying to get back to him. He wasn't too far for most of the single track but once I reached the rocky riverbed I lost sight of him. I hunted for him for the rest of the race but he was gone.

Last lap, fast flat section, I see a group of 5-7 riders. UMB guy must be in that group. I must catch that group. I caught those guys just before the single track section that climbs back to the finish which is a nice strong effort, but didn't see UMB guy. I may have startled 4th place guy without knowing though. I was looking for a UMB jersey and didn't know I got close to the Red Rock guy (Steve Larson) that passed me early in the race with the eventual winner. I later found out I missed 4th place by 16 seconds.