Putney XC Race and Caroline's Visit

It was a busy weekend, my girl friend Caroline was heading out and the Putney XC Race was on Sunday. In order to get ready for the big race on Sunday, Caroline and I decided that it would be best if I was properly feed and race ready. So it order to prepare we went out to a great restaurant on Friday night, had a great breakfast, lunch, and pasta dinner on Saturday. We also went for a bike ride, up one of my favorite climbs, Gulf Rd. It is a tough little climb with an awesome river running down the side of it, but I figured it would be a good spin out for me and a nice challenge for Caroline. Below you can see a video I took as we rode up the climb, I must say that Caroline has a much better pedaling technique than I have video skills (or commentating skills for that matter).



The race on Sunday was at one of the classic courses in New England, and it happens to be one of the only races that I have done the past two summers. We took a team picture before the race, and with everything going on I only got in a small warm up. When we rolled up the pro/open line there were 35 racers, a very large field. The sky was a big overcast, and judging by some of the riders who had ridden a bit of the course, it was going to be pretty muddy in the woods.

My start was pretty good, I started about mid pack and worked my way through the field into the top 5 or 6 as we hit the first bit of singletrack. The first lap was pretty good, but there were a few pileups as he went from single track to double track and back, and everybody seemed to have to dismount a few times, not my cup of tea, but you have to do what you have to do. Eventually I settled in to a pack with Matt White, Matt Green, and Chris Hamlin, so three guys from the Pioneer Valley and a good friend from my collegiate racing. With two laps to go or so our train started to fall aprt, I worked hard and with one lap to go had shed my companions and was looking forward to the final lap. The course dried out a bit on the last lap and the sun came out, so things were looking good on that end, but my body was wearing down fast. I started to get the first signs of cramping in my legs, and just tried my best to stay fast but smooth, becasue it seems that when I surge in these situations sometimes I end up in a full on cramp, which whould have really hurt my race. I ended up finishing without cramping, and came accross the line in 10th place, 5:30 back on the leader.

Overall it was a pretty good race for me, I was climbing strong, but I could have ridden the descents and some sections of single track better. I found myself having to ride the climbs hard to catch the other riders after a descent, not a good use of energy. Riding with Caroline on Monady after the race was pretty tough, dont tell her, but she was going a little too fast for me! The bigger races in the season are coming up and I seem to be on track to be in pretty good shape. I just want to be careful, I have been feeling a little fatigued doing the Wednesday night timetrials, which have resulted in 4 races in only 11 days. Next weekend we have Holiday Farms just down the road from here, if all goes well I will be there and feeling good.