Slit my Rist!

This past Saturday was the Rist Canyon Road Race. It was held up in Fort Collins and traversed up some steep windy roads. I believe the average grade was between 6-8% with pitches above 10%. The last 500m was like 900%, or at least it felt like it! Anyway, the race was at 7:15 ,and, with the course over an hour away, I had to get up at 3:30 to make pancakes, load the car, and head up to Lousiville Cyclery to meet my fellow teammates to carpool.

Now, I know that in previous posts, I have expressed my discontent with climbing races, so, you're probably wondering what the hell I was thinking. Before the race, I figured, yeah, I'll be ok and at least try to hang up the climb for as long as possible, then, make up some time on the descent, hoping to catch on with some folks and make a group effort out of it. Boy was I in for a surprise. The race started, and I have to say my position was sub-par going into the first little bit of the race. From where I was I couldn't tell if it was HART or some other team drilling it, but man I coulda swore we were flying...couple that with me being towards the back and I had to work THAT much harder. We approached a short climb...absolutely nothing to be even worried about...a zit I tell ya, and bye bye. An acceleration took place and I was off the back. I blame my position in the group, not my fitness. I see the group ride away, and realized that this could go 1 of 2 ways...1. I could be a downer and drop out, or, 2. I could continue to ride and just ride, hoping to MAYBE pick up some folks on the climb and work together to chase back on, since the descent was like 15 miles. Well, I entered the climb on my own, and prettttty much rode the remaining 50 miles that way :-(. I didn't see a single fellow racer the whole freakin way, which confirmed that I was REALLY REALLY REALLY off the back. Once I approached the final few meters of the climb, I was excited...I did it! Sure I was gone, but hell, I just finished a tough ass climb. The first few pitches of the descent were 15% or greater and I absolutely FLEW down them. The pucker factor was high, but I consider myself a strong descender and really like to fly! I hit 50+ mph and eventually came down to the flat section of the course, which lasted about 4 miles. Then, we were blasted with 4 short (~5-10 minute) leg busting pitches around Horsetooth Reservoir that were pretty brutal, and, it was getting way hotter on the pavement. Eventually, I finished the race 51st out of 53, but who cares. I finished! I come to find that my teammates did a great job in both the 3's & 4's, so I wasn't a factor anyway.

On Sunday, I woke up feeling like I got shot out of a hippo's ass! Amy rode Ward the day before, and she felt whacked too. I decided to pass on the crit as I slithered to the bathroom on my stomach cuz I couldn't walk. I went for a 2.5 hour easy ride out to the Rocky Mtn Omnium TT course to Recon it. It's twisty & turny, but it'll be fun!

In the end, I've absolutely 100% fully undoubtedly confirmed that I cannot climb. I'll stick to the flatter-ish stuff!

Out