Wake up, coffee, Pop Tart (breakfast of former champions), gather my belongings, try and stretch the old man body parts I made angry by slinging dirt the day before... and notice a strange sense of nervousness? It’s been a long time since I’ve done a “mass start” event. Even the Shenandoah Mountain 100 with its waves of ten riders didn't have a lot of hurried and worried feels. It was more like tiny little group rides going out every few seconds. I'm having a few "why do I do this?" thoughts.
Because I usually have a good time, that's why.
Scoop two time vaccine world champion Dr Mike from his abode and off we go into the new world of racing in 2021. Get to the venue, QR codes at registration, masked humans, a podium assembled but only for use if you want a personal picture of you on it minus pomp and circumstance and probably other riders... a lot of people but a ginormous venue to spread out the crowd. So far, so good.
Dr Mike and I "warm up" on a nearby gravel road... as in we freeze coasting down it, and then overly exert ourselves getting up the loose grade that's steeper than anything we're about to race. Five miles and then we were like... ummmm... ready?
Roll over to the start, take to the front of the SS line, and next to me are two geared looking bikes. The guy directly on my right has taken the battery off his AXS shifty bits. The other is multi-time/multi-discipline National Champ Robert Marion aboard a semi-properly derailleur tensioned SS'ed rig. He's beaten my dick off before. His legs are still as huge as ever although his red beard is speckled with gray. I expect yet another dick beating once again. Absent are some of the regulars, although podium-frequenter Chase P was registered for the series but not present? Still, normally we have about twenty single speeders or so, so fifteen taking the line this morning with a lot of "who dat?" feelings as I look around.
At "GO," I'm already pushing myself towards the front up the garvel road. Dammit. I know Robert is a smarter (and stronger) racer than I, so mebbe he's willing to let me do some work on what's about to be a very fast course where drafting is totally gonna matter. I back off my 32X16 and drop into third wheel going in the woods behind the two shifty looking but not shifty at all characters.
They're chatting. I'm just holding on... and also watching all the "pro lines" which are forming and getting burned in "trail adjacent." Fast people know how to ride fast.
We pop out of the woods, and it's just us three. Hmmm...
A quick look over my shoulder and we have a gap. Robert leads up the garvel climb, and I jump on his wheel... kinda. I know I should stay in his draft, but I keep thinking about Steve Prefontaine. I want to go all in... because... ?
I'm no Steve Prefontaine...
I go back to tryna stick on Robert's wheel. I don't. About halfway around my second lap, I feel the heat coming from behind. Poop. Obvs it's the de-batteried one. Quick look back... mebbe? I can't tell one stretchy underwear person from the other at these speeds. I call out my line, scoot over, and zoom... it's Mike King. Yeth, the former World Champ Mike King, racing fifty plus... and he's erased my one minute (I assume) head start in a lap and a half. He musta doubled up on his Pop Tarts this morning. Directly after that (as I'd find out later), Robert panicked the same as I did, and gassed it when he felt the King Heat bearing down... only to see that it was Mike King. Regardless, that kick opened up a gap so huge that I wouldn't see Robert again until after the race while he was getting ready for the e-bike class to go out.
What world did I wake up in today?
The final three laps are spent looking over my shoulder and bracing myself for the occasional flyby of an athletic fifty plusser. I chose the correct category this year, for sure.
I end up finishing a distant second, outta Robert's sight, and outta sight of third place... although Bruce S did just finish fourth in the forty five plus race immediately before hopping into the SS class.
I mentioned last week that mebbe Dr Mike and I were gonna do a little more trail riding after the race to make the trip worthwhile, but drinking one beer in the sunshine and watching the start of the e-bike class seemed like a worthwhile thing to do as well...
I mean, I was one of the few people who helped sponsor the illegitimate e-bike class four years ago.
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