Brrrrrrr.....
I was up bright and early headed off to Roman Nose State Park in Watonga for race #3 in the Oklahoma Mountain Bike Championship series. The weather upon arrival there was pretty chilly for May....43F. Registration took a little bit of time to get through and meant I had to hurry my warm up, which consisted of a 30 min ride on the roads at the park.
Getting ready for the race
Away we go...
9am came...and went and the race still hadn't started so my body was starting to cool down a bit. Eventually they got stuff sorted and we lined up. The start of this race is unique in the MTB world as it's a flat out drag race on the road for a little bit, then onto some jeep trail before finally hitting single track.
Getting instructions at the start line
I came into this race with an actual strategy and put some notes to my Coach in our training software that I was going to blow myself up trying to win this race.
I didn't get a great start and was sitting in 4th as we rounded the 1st bend in the road. My strategy was to be in the lead when we hit the single track or I wouldn't stand a chance. So I kicked it into high gear and motored to the front and led the race up the 1st hill. Next we crossed the little spillway over the dam and a guy attempted to pass me here, but again I was determined to be in the lead at all costs when we entered single track so I gunned it to get back out in front. This proved to be a very shrewd moved as I was 1st to the very steep hill into the single track. I got up the hill and behind me people were stopping as they couldn't make it up it, so I put some precious time on the pack.
I held a steady lead heading up the climbs and hoped everyone was suffering as much as I was.
Once at the top of the mesa's I used some training learned earlier in the week and was sprinting out of the corners to get up to speed fast.
As we flowed through the forest area, it was myself and 2 others and I decided that it was time to put some distance in, so again I hammered it on the steep switchback climb, followed by another steep loose rocky climb. Once at the top my strategy was no recovery, so I really pushed my limits.
All or nothing
The last major hill was coming up with the guy in 2nd about 20 secs behind me. I knew he was hurting bad as he wasn't making up any time on me. I also knew after this climb it was all downhill on some rocks to the finish and I could really pull away in those technical sections.
I gave it everything I had left on that last hill and blew up the 2nd place guy at that point. I absolutely flew down the last section, with the Niner's suspension and 29" wheels just floating over the rocks. I was in the big gear and there was no way I was going to be caught.
For good measure I sprinted to the finish.....where there was no one there to record the result or time!!! I rode around frantically trying to find the officials, who came running over stating "we didn't expect you to turn such a fast lap"!!!
Things got sorted out and I beat second by just over 1 min 30 secs, but the official recorded it as a 1 sec victory...cause he had no idea of the time. Turns out the 35 min lap I put in was the fastest in all of the Cat3's...including the young guns in the 19-29 age group.
Standing atop the podium!!!
All in all I was very pleased with my strategy actually paying off, and I was completely spent when it was all said and done. The win has given me a decent lead in the overall series now as we reach the halfway point more or less.
After the awards ceremony I hopped in the car and hauled to make it back to OKC to watch the Thunder beat the Grizzlies. I managed to yell myself horse and am completely exhausted....but an amazing day overall.
Next race is at Turkey Mountain in 2 weeks in Tulsa, but I'm still undecided if I'm going to race that one.
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