The Battle In Soldier Hollow

I guess after 5 mile, Mother Nature felt sorry for us, because as with last week, yesterday's racers at Soldier Hollow enjoyed great course conditions and perfect weather. The pros did 3 full laps plus a 12 and under lap that I'll just call a half lap. The profile of the course is basically a short climb, shorter descent, short climb, shorter descent, long climb, long descent, then some rollers at the bottom with a steep grunter right before the finish. When riding the course, it pretty much feels like a long climb, long descent followed by the rolling bottom section.

Scott, Ian and I drove over and did the race while Kim did a triathlon.

We wanted to pick up some sodas for the team to drink after the race, so we rushed through Harmons and made it just in time for the kids to race. Scott and Ian both had fine races, Scott pushing himself hard enough to feel sick afterwards.

There was not much time to get ready and warm up after the kids' race, but it worked out fine. I felt good in the warmup and was excited to get started.

I think I started better this week than last week. BZ, Chad and I had a good race for the first lap. Holly was also right in there on his fully rigid singlespeed, but he was going faster than us and we all steadily lost time on him.

At the top of the first lap I was close behind BZ with a small gap on Chad, but then I crashed on the descent. Chad caught up and BZ pulled on ahead. We caught BZ back and then passed him early in the climb of the second lap, and then Chad and I pushed each other all the way up the second lap climb. At the top Chad was gracious enough to let me by so I could lead the descent. This time I didn't crash, and again had a gap on Chad by the end of the second lap. His pushing on the climb brought us a second lap time that was as fast as our first lap.

On the third and then the last 1/2 lap I was quite tired and riding alone, and my fading lap time was a little disappointing. At the bottom of the DH, I realized I had been day dreaming down the entire descent. I think my energy was a bit low. Anyhow, I rode the final half lap without a clear indication of where all the other pro riders were because the half lap dropped us back into the expert groups and it was hard to tell who was expert and who was pro if the riders were more than a few seconds away. So this meant I just had to keep pushing and hope for the best. As I hit the steep grunt before the finish I was behind someone that turned out to have not done his half lap yet, but I didn't know that yet, so I tried to race him over it and OUCH that hurt, but then it was over and I'd had a great race, finishing in 7th and really tired.

Same placing as last week, but I felt like I rode better most of the race. Alex won again, followed by Burke, then Bart. David Welsh finished 4th, ahead of Mitchell P, then Chris, with Chad next behind me.

After the race I called Kim and got the scoop on her Tri. Unfortunately, she flatted during the bike. She did get it changed and finished the race, but I think she lost over 10 minutes doing the change, and that is a lot of time in a sprint. In fact, a lot of people just drop out if they flat in a sprint, but Kim finished it out and had a great time.

After our races, we treated about 12 little girls to a birthday party for Heidi at the GymCats gymnastics gym.

Really a fun day.