snowcross

Evidently it was pretty warm in SLC (50s-60s) while i was in Costa Rica, but it's been pretty chilly since i got home. That finally turned into snow this week when we got a storm on tuesday. A little rain melted most of that off yesterday, but i woke up this morning to a fresh four inches and counting of snow. The dogs loved the new snow.




Ah, perfect for a cross race.

I knew i was in trouble, however, when my hr jumped almost immediately to 160+ on my easy warm-up ride from my house to wheeler. This week was one of my heavy grading weeks, so i was up late most nights reading sixty 12-14 page freshman college papers. On account of the grading i didn't get any riding in all week either. On top of that add a minor heartbreak and you have a bad combination for bike racing.

But i was hoping that the week off would be a benefit coming off of the La Ruta experience. I got to Wheeler in time to check in and pre-ride the course once before they called us up. The four inches of new snow wasn't much of a problem. The base of ice underneath the new snow was. Tuesday's snow had melted off during the weeks' freeze/thaw cycles, but lots of people had been riding wheeler all week, so under the new snow was a good solid layer of ice on much of the course. The biggest problem was that you couldn't see where the ice was under the new snow.



The race started and i stayed with the lead group for the first half of the first lap, then around a wide turn i hit some ice and went down. I jumped back on my bike and realized my chain had also come off. By the time i got that fixed and got back on my bike again half the field had passed me. This was just the beginning of what would become a 45-minute exercise in keeping both wheels on the ground. I was largely unsuccesful. As the race continued, and i continued to pull myself out of the bushes and pick myself up off the ground, i got passed by just about everyone. i didn't necessarily feel tired, but it was obvious that i didn't have anything in me. It didn't help that i went down a good two dozen times (sometimes even in the same spot-you think i'd learn).




I got lapped on the last lap and came in 19th. Easily my worst race of the season. Lesson learned: no sleep, no riding, and and even minor heartbreak equal bad (real bad) race results. At least this didn't happen to me though. Bummer for this guy.