Results Are In

So Saturday I did the Winter Park Series Valley Point-to-Point race.

I rode the race once again on Saturday. I raced in the Beginner Men's 45-49 class. I didn't get to the podium, but I made great improvements from last year and had a great time. I took 15 minutes off my time from last year's race which is dramatic improvement so the winter spin classes were well worth it.

At the beginning of our heat of the race, all the beginners from ages 40 - 49 were started at the same time. The first mile is a climb up the service road. There were guys that jumped out on that first section with everything they had, but I held back a bit to pace myself up this section. It paid off because guys started slowing down and grabbing higher gears while I kept on the middle chain ring and worked the upper gears on the back cog, all the while picking off a competitor here and another there until hitting the single track at Four Point and onto Upper Cherokee down to Lower Cherokee, picking off a couple more along the way.
Lower Cherokee is a steep, fast, rocky ride and a quick glance at my bike computer showed me I was running around 30 mph. My dual suspension Rocky Mountain ETSX-70 carried me down smoothly and swiftly (and it was worth the investment).
After Lower Cherokee comes a climbing section on a trail called Ice Hill. Last year it was hard for me, this year I was able to set a pace and stay with it, again passing other racers as they struggled like I did last year over the steeper and rootier sections. I lost pace on some of the racers ahead of me on the next section, but was able to catch back up on a forest road down to the next climb. The next climb is up a jeep road called D4. I now kept up the pace with the four racers ahead of me and went on to a cool descent on WTB, which after last year I call Watch The Bumps, which dumps out onto another forest road which is a wicked fast downhill ride with ruts and erosion prevention bumps. Again having the ETSX was awesome as I flew down the road at 30-34 mph. I caught another couple racers as that section ended and dumped back into some single track and had to bide time waiting and looking for places to pass, got by and kept peddling.
With about 5 miles to go, I was still feeling pretty good so I cranked on. I was remembering about that point that last year in the same spot I was wondering what I had gotten myself into and why I was even out there. This year was way better. I paced myself along the gradual 3.5 mile climb up Flume, was grabbing gears as I hit the top and hit it hard down Creekside until I caught up to a woman from the sport class and a rider from one of the younger beginner classes that started earlier and had to wait for passing lanes. At the double track near the end, I grabbed all the gears I had left and sprinted for the finish.

What a great feeling to finish strong and improve dramatically over my previous year's time.
Half a week later I'm still pumped!