Raccoon Rally

This is the Garmin file from the road race. Lots of climbing (4-10k climbs) and lots of time spent with heart rate above 170.

OK.... so the Raccoon Rally was dope. I have ranked the road race the best race I have ever done. It was an amazing course and the the cat 1/2 competition provided the perfect challenge. I went into this race with my only goal being to get some excellent training, and I did just that. I pulled a whole bunch, I bridged gaps, I shut down almost every attack, and I attacked too.

The climbs were not steep, just looooooong with grades 3-10%. I was able to use my big ring for almost the whole race because we were climbing fast. The course was not technical at all with only sweeping turns that could be taken very fast. I think I enjoyed the race so much because I felt that we were all evenly matched. No superstars were around that could go clear easily, and the the teams were not large enough to put the independents at a big disadvantage.

The winning move was made early on the last climb, and the guy built a nice gap by the top that he held on to till the end. I worked hard to help reel him in, putting in so good digs, but when I pulled aside nobody would come by to take over. Near the top a bunch got clear and I bridged, but lost the 3 who went clear when the wheel I was on gaped and I could not close it. We caught those 3 after the decent by sharing the work, and then sprinted for second. It was an uphill finish, and I had no jump left, but managed to muscle my way in for 6th. I was was very pleased with how things went.


So I don't have much to say about the XC race. The course was disappointing, but epic at the same time. The disappointment was the lack of singletrack (less than 1km out of 50), but similarly to the Road Race, the climbs were loooooong. I took the lead at the start and hammered up the first parts of the climb. We climbed up gravel, then, dirt, then more dirt, then grass, then descended a bit, then climbed more grass and that was when I kind of blew up. About 6 guys got by and slowly pulled away and I could not respond. After 30mins plus of straight climbing we finally got to go down. Two guys on CX bikes were with me and I worked with them till the end of the first lap, gaining a couple spots. The second lap was shorter, with only the dirt climb, and I upped my pace shedding the CXers and catching one other guy to roll in for fourth. A solid result for the second day in a row, but the fitness gains are the most important result to me. The XC race was amazing for suffering, but if I do it next year (very likely) I will use a Cross bike to make it more fun, and help with the grass climbs.

Congrats to Chown for the win, and Henri for some solid races; you are starting to get the results you deserve and I'm sure will not be S3 for long.

So Chin is Thursday, can't wait. Going to rest as much as possible till then and do some short intervals tomorrow to keep the engine fired up.

Later