I wanted to win this race for a million different reasons. I have had a great season, and finishing it up with a win would make it even better. It was also going to be my last sport race for a while, so who knows if I will ever have a chance to win another race. Lastly, I needed to make up for a pretty poor showing last week and convince myself that all the races I won this year weren’t just flukes.
You can never count on anything in mountain bike racing, however, especially in in our group. At this point in the season there is very little difference in overall fitness, and any of the fast guys have a chance to win on any given day. I knew Stan, Keith and Jason would all be trying to win.
After a mild panic at the start when half of us lined up in the wrong row, we were off and running. Like most days, I went as hard as I could to make it to the singletrack first. Once on the singletrack, I spent a couple of minutes recovering before the long service road climb. I could tell Stan was right on my wheel, but it sounded like we had a little bit of a gap on the rest of the group. Once we got to the service road, Stan pulled ahead and I followed him. Stan and I pre-rode the course on Wednesday and, living nearby, he knows the course better than any of us, so I figured following him was a pretty good idea. As we neared the top of the service road climb, however, Stan started to fade slightly and I got by legs back. I saw about three or four riders between us and the turn onto Ambush. I started pedaling and tried to pass as many of them as I could.
So I found myself in first at the top of the first lap, but I knew Stan, Jason and Keith couldn’t be too far back. I tried to ride the long descent as fast as I could, but let’s face it, I am not Steve Pete and I already had one high speed crash this year. I must have been going 20 mph or so when I heard a rider ask to pass on the left. I could tell he wasn’t in our group, so I let him by. He was flying–I could tell he was out of control. About 20 seconds later, he locked up his front brake, launched himself off the trail and disappeared into the trees below. The sight of this shook me up just a little. I eased up just a bit, and it was enough to let Jason and Keith catch up. As we neared the end of the first lap, I could see them closing on me. Keith even started to talk a little trash, which was great.
After the turn, I found some energy again and rode the second lap without incident. I was able to cross the finish line about 40 seconds ahead of Keith. Jason followed in third, and Stan ended up fifth. It was a good solid race–my sixth win of the year.
I also completed my three year goal of winning the points race and the Sport Men 40+ overall championship. I had come close in years past, but Jay, Kevin and Brad were faster than I was. This year I worked a little harder, and I just tried to make sure I was in the hunt every week.
I am going to miss the gang next year (assuming I can’t talk them into moving up with me), but I look forward to watching Keith, Jason, Jonas, Stan, Vern and Geno battle it out for the title. Any of them can take it, and I wouldn’t even want to guess who has the best shot. Of course there will be new people moving into the group too, so who knows. I am also going to look forward to racing with Kevin, John and Daren next year. I don’t expect to beat them, but at least I will finally know how much faster they really are. At least some portion of the faster lap times has got to be due to fewer people to pass, right?

