BC Bike Race

Just booked all travel plans for my one big trip of 2011.

I made the decision to jump on the stage racing bandwagon after day 2 of the TSEpic last summer.  I wasn't even there, but thats exactly want made me want to do it.  I was so jealous watching the race interviews of everyone being toasted from riding awesome trails for days.  I totally wanted in on it.  My first choice of racing TSE was squashed because of scheduling conflicts with a summer course that I need to take so I can graduate in the winter.  That leaves me with my second, but equally awesome choice of BC Bike Race instead.  TSE was enticing because it was close, cheap, wasn't at 7,000+ feet of elevation, and involved rocks, roots, and other proper mountain biking features.

BC fits all but two of those criteria, which are covered by my credit card and relatively high credit limit.

I'm expecting nothing less than an epic week.  The day to day endurance/recovery part I'm not too worried about.  I'm good at recovery.  I'm more concerned with being able to hang towards the front of the race each day.  But whatever, we'll see what happens. I feel somewhat fit, and I've got some decent motivation, so it's looking good.  There's a lot of hype around this event.  Naming yourself the 'Ultimate' stage race takes some balls, so I hope it doesn't disappoint.  Come to think of it though, I've never heard anyone say anything about BC that didn't make it sound like the 'Ultimate'.

Jen and I are having a little role reversal going down this weekend where I get to pull support crew duty for her half marathon.  She says she just wants to finish, but I think she's just playing it cool and gunning for the win.

I have been unbelievably tired for the past week.  Maybe more.  I think its a combo of allergies and maybe getting sick.  I hear a lot of people coughing like crazy around me in the library right now.  I probably shouldn't be here, but I think its too late.

Yesterday was a pleasant surprise.  It's exciting to have some gas in the tank when you your expecting it to be empty.  The last couple weeks have been stressful (me, stressed?!?!), lost a lot of sleep and subsequently felt like a piece of garbage all week.  I got dropped on the local race ride and had to bail halfway on two other rides this week.  Oh, and I cut a brand new tire with about 15 miles on it.  Do I have to race this weekend?

I haven't had a 5am wake up call for a race for at least 6 years (probably false), so I almost bailed on that too.  With all that stuff going on, I had a little bit of luck on my side, in the sense that the MASS season opener at Fair Hill wasn't a total sufferfest for me.  The Fair Hill course has been the same for the last few years.  Its crazy fast, with not that much climbing which means that there's always a lot of pack racing and small gaps which makes for an exciting race.  Racing is so much more fun when you have some control over whats going on.  Or at least when it feels like you do.  Maybe the white wheels helped me out??  Or my new X9 group??  That stuff's race ready isn't it?

Here's go the detailed race report-

We started really hard and went pretty fast for a while.  A few position swaps in the lead group of 5 and we kept riding trails pretty fast.  Kept going pretty fast until the end of the last lap, where we stopped going fast.  I was the 4th person to stop going fast.  Lots of heavy hitters were present.

Tried to be all pro and stuff, by trying to dial in the bike this week.  I tried to get a 1x10 setup going on but the spacing for the new SRAM cranks and big chainring wasn't jiving with the MRP guide, so I put that on hold and worked on the suspension setup.  I've had my X-Fusion Velvet RL setup pretty well dialed in over the last few seasons, but it seems like every time I play around with it, it just keeps getting better and better.  It's crazy how a click or two of rebound and some air pressure adjustment can make your bike feel like a rockstar. Without trying to sound overwhelmingly cliche, I love this fork.  I would buy it over any other fork on the market.  Its way less expensive and works way better.  I can't wait to get the 120mm version on the race bike soon!

Thinking about a double header this weekend...thinking about the big show.

Out.