Topham Racing

After staying healthy all year, I finally got to find out what it is like to race with a sore throat and a head cold. Everyone says it doesn’t affect your performance all that much–and it probably doesn’t, but let’s just say it doesn’t make the race very pleasant.

I missed a pedal off the start and Keith (19) jumped out in front. I was sort of shocked, confused and impressed all at the same time. Last week at Snowbird, Keith beat Jay to take first place, but he said it was sort of due to a mechanical Jay had with some netting getting caught in his cassette. I think the fact that I was in Hawaii and Jay had a mechanical made it a little bit of a hollow win for Keith. So, as I watched him jump out in front that way, it made me think that he was out to prove that he could win one without any question marks.

I followed him to the first road climb and took the lead there. Jay passed me at some point. Stan passed me too. I remember thinking, “did Stan get t new bike while I was in Hawaii?” Evidently, he did not, but he did ride in the Perfect 10, which must have given him a fitness boost, because he was racing hard with the rest of us. Eventually, I passed both of them again and I was in front for a minute.

When we came to the first steep climb, everyone in front of us was hiking. Like an idiot, I got off my bike and started to hike too. All of a sudden I hear, “I’m up!” It was Jay, announcing to everyone that he was pedaling and they had better get out of the way. That’s what I should have done. It is times like that that I realize that Jay is a veteran and I am still kind of a rookie.

I got back on my bike and started to ride. I had no idea how much time I had lost. All of a sudden I was behind a fairly slow female rider. I looked for a place to pass and tried on the left. I ran straight into a rock. Boom, Keith went right by. I was now in third. I kept trying to pass her. That is one of the challenging parts of the Jackson course. You can pass on the road sections, but hardly anywhere else.

I finally passed the female rider and tried to make up time on the descent. Speaking of road sections, this course has one really hard road section. It is a little ring climb that you can’t wait to be done. It is rocky and slippery and one false move and you are dead. I passed Keith at the bottom of this hill and started to look for Jay.

After a while, I noticed there was someone in front of me that looked like Jay, but the tag was the wrong color blue and he was riding a Kona instead of a Motobecane. After about a mile, I realized it actually was Jay. Our tags were a different color blue after all, and apparently Jay had broken his Motobecane and reverted back to his Kona. Wow, I thought, I was still in the race!

As we finished the first lap, Jay, Keith and I were all close together. we kept changing position, but we were all pretty even. About half way through the second lap, Keith took charge and jumped out in front. I messed up again at the first steep climb and had to hike again. I think that did me in. I never caught up to Jay and Keith again. I finished about a minute behind Jay, and Jay finished about a half a minute behind Keith. So Keith proved to everyone, once and for all, that he can beat us without any question marks.

I actually thought I was probably going to take third in this race. After a week at sea level with very little riding, plus the sore throat, I felt pretty good to stay in contention as long as I did. It was also nice to watch Keith have such a good ride.

I think Stan scares me the most, however. Stan finished fourth, right behind me. What is this guy going to do next year with a lighter bike and a little more focus on biking? I can deal with Jay and Keith. They are known quantities. They can beat me–and I can beat them on a good day. Stan might be able to beat all of us every single time. That just isn’t fun to think about. We can only hope for a good snow year so Stan spends all winter riding chair lifts and skiing down hill.

One final note: Thanks to Tanner Cottle for the 12 hours of conversation up and back. Tanner took third in his group and is pretty much assured to win the Cup now as the points leader. Great job Tanner!

Between Tuesday and Saturday, I have climbed this mountain a total of six times, not including warm up. It is beautiful, peaceful, technical, fast and perfect–and I hate it. Maybe it is how steep it is, maybe it is the altitude, maybe it is just that I didn’t ride hard enough during the break. I don’t know what it is, but I had no confidence going into this race and I ended up fourth.

I was first to the top of the first climb up the road. I expected to be. Then, all of a sudden I messed up at the hike-a-bike. I wasn’t coherent, I couldn’t get started, and I told Jay to go ahead. I managed to stay close, but near the top of the second climb, someone had problems and we all had to dismount. The whole incident spiked my heart rate, and I found myself in fourth place on the second descent.

By the end of the third climb, I could see Keith ahead of me. He looked like he was having some trouble. He said he cramped up, which is pretty understandable. I caught up to him and asked him how far ahead Jay and Rich were. He said we could catch them, so I turned a big gear as hard as I could to the lower loop turn off. We flew down the descent, passing several riders. The descent is really rough, but I had made it down the last five or six times without any incident. This time, however, at the bottom, I looked down and my chain had bounced off the big ring and was hanging around my pedals. As we hit the patch of road before the last stretch of single track, I looked back to see if Keith was right behind me. He was. I knew I couldn’t do anything. If I tried to stop and fix my chain I would never catch him, so I pretended nothing was wrong and I tried to take the singletrack as fast as I could. About half way down Keith realized I was going too slow. He passed me easily. All I could do was watch him go by. I had to jump off and run my bike over the finish line.

It took me 24 hours or so to stop feeling bad about this race. After getting over the disappointment, I started to think about the good stuff from this race. First, Jay, Rich, Keith and I all finished within a minute of each other. That says a lot about our group, and it makes all of those first and second place finishes I have had this year mean even more. Second, Michelle won her race and is State Open Champion. Now, if they would only start listing her age correctly, people would respect her even more. Third (and appropriately third), Keith deserved to take third place away from me. He ran a better race, and after the mechanical problems he has had this year, it was about time he benefited from someone else’s. Finally, Stan Kanarowksi showed up again and took sixth on this 29 pound bike. I never did better than 11th on my 29 pound bike last year. It makes me wonder what Stan could do if he could focus a little less on skiing and a little more on mountain biking next winter. I am afraid to think about it too much.

This coming Saturday’s ICup race is at Solitude Ski Resort, which also hosts a mid-week race series on Tuesdays. It sounded like a good opportunity to pre-ride the course and get in a good workout.

I went up a little early and rode the big loop that I will need to do twice on Saturday. Then my friend Daren Cottle showed up and we rode about 2/3 of the lower loop, which I will need to do once on Saturday, and which I would need to do three times for the mid-week race. I was a little tired at this point, but it was time for the race to begin.

Daren and Michelle put a little pressure on me to race in the Expert B category rather than the Sport Category, where I normally race. I figured it didn’t matter that much given that my focus this summer is really the ICup races and I don’t plan to race the mid-week series very often.

When I registered and they gave me number “99″ I knew that I was having a Maxwell Smart moment, and trying to race Expert B was probably a bad idea, especially after pre-riding the big loop and 2/3 of the lower loop. But, it was kind of cool to start with Daren, Tanner and Michelle for once, and I figured the extra lap would do me some good.

I started out fine, I actually pulled in front for a millisecond and I was leading the race. It didn’t last, but I was fourth or fifth going into the singletrack. I was able to hold that position most of the way up the hill, but my legs finally gave out near the top and I had to watch a bunch of guys (and one woman) pass me.

I ended up finishing 16th or so out of 21. I can’t complain, I accomplished what I wanted to in this race, which was to prepare for Saturday.

Finally, Michelle recently introduced me to Justin Toth. Justin is an accomplished road racer and lawyer. Justin suggested that I should add links to the blogs of other cyclists on this blog. It is a good suggestion. I have added links to the Cottle blog and Keith Payne’s blog. More will follow.