Racing

Racing bikes is hard . . . but the Rist Canyon Road Race went much better than I thought it would. I wasn't feeling so confident in my climbing after getting out last Wednesday and struggling up Deer Creek Canyon. With the added news that we'd be going over the dam out of the gate, I was pretty sure I would lose contact with the main group in the first five minutes of the race.

First we had to make it to the race on time. We cut down on the amount of morning travel required by taking Kevin up on his offer to spend the night at his place. We tricked Brian into coming over to build up Kevin's bike and hang out with us. We met up after work, got in a quick ride, ate some pasta, and watched Brian work his magic. The build went quickly because we just had to switch parts from the old bike to the new. All said and done, the bike weighed in at a whopping 14 lbs.

Even though we had a head start on driving up there, we still had to hit the road around 5:30 to leave ourselves enough time to get up there, get registered, and ready to race. Ah, nothing like sunrise viewed through a dirty window . . .


We were racing with most of the usual suspects. There were a few people out of town for Tour de Nez, but VC had three, Rio and Legacy had full squads since it was their "home" race, and there were a few guys from the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory team. I made it over the dam, but it was a rude awakening since there really was no warm up to speak of prior. Shortly after the first of the climbs, Corey Carlson rolled of the front with nobody really giving chase. I figured it was a decent opportunity to go since there were so many Rio riders in the bunch. I knew they wouldn't be working so I might as well take any pressure off of Kevin. I bridged up and Dan Workman from Legacy Energy came with me, so now I was with riders from the two largest teams out there. We kept it pretty steady moving towards Rist Canyon, eventually building a gap of just over 1:30. I let Dan do most of the work knowing he is a stronger climber, I just tried to follow as long as possible in the hopes of getting over the climb before getting caught. He had a brief pause for mechanical issues so I kept riding, but eased up so he could get back to towing me up the hill.

He dropped me towards the top in the steeper sections and by that time, Kevin and the lead group had separated themselves. I hung on as long as possible but at the next switchbacks, our group split again and I found myself at the back of the second group going over the summit. Knowing the descent from last year's race, I knew not to touch the brakes even though you can't see all the way through the curves as you approach them. I hit 63.6 MPH on the way down, trading pulls with Saperstein despite our fierce competition in each race for "first Jew". By the time we got out of the canyon, there were about ten of us with a healthy contingent of Rio riders. Since they didn't have anybody in the first group, working was up to them meaning I had a free ride through the flats. As soon as we got back to Horsetooth and those guys had drifted back to the back of the group, the attack starting coming. I knew I wasn't likely to survive those and just kept my effort as steady as possible. Some got away from me and some came back. I reeled a couple guys back in on the approach to the finish for a solid 12th place finish.

Kevin took second on the day, finishing behind Lachlan Morton, but beating out Blake Caldwell from Slipstream-Garmin-Chipotle-H3O. He and Blake would duke it out again on Sunday in the hill climb. The two separated themselves from the bunch towards the top of the climb and Blake edged out Kevin at the line.