The Grinder

I had this great idea last week to race the Sonic Boom Crit on Saturday and then the Gowdy Grinder on Sunday. It would get me ready for Morgul and it'll be fun. Besides, during cross we do back to back races all the time. No porblem right? Not so much.

I hopped in Ward Baker's Suburban with Pete Webber and Jorge Espinoza and we rolled up past Cheyenne, WY to Curt Gowdy State Park. The trail system at the park is among the best on the front range. For a small gate charge, you get access to the whole system. The rumor is you can ride these trail for days, including getting down almost to Fort Collins.

We rolled in right around 11 and quickly were ready for some warmup. Immediately I saw the folly of my ways. There were no legs. I followed Pete and Jorge up the initial climb while we were warming up and already my legs were screaming. No problem I thought, just gotta work yesterday out of the legs. So I kept warming up.

While sitting on the start line I remembered back to last year's race and the misearable feeling of the last lap as I cracked wide open. I committed to going out smarter...and I did. I let the guys ride away on the start and hit the single track in about 30th. I was good with that and worked my way by some guys as the route got techy. I was really feeling good on the descent when I got a bit to comfy. My hand bounced off the bars and they swung to the right and I followed into the soft dirt. No harm, no foul and I was up and at it again. As I started the second lap (the first of two big ones) I was pretty content.

I moved by a couple people on the climb and actually handled the technical descent well, but then came the backside climb. I started it well, but it was as if I lost a gear every 3-4 minutes and by the top 4 or 5 guys had gone by. Uh oh. No more power. I mean none. The race was pretty much over for me and at this point I was just trying to better my time from last year.

The only saving grace was that later Jorge told me his races went almost the same way after the Boom. He got out great and just faded. He was descibing the guy who passed him with a broken rear derailer cable and was stuck in the 12. THE 12!!!!!! The worst part was I NEVER SAW THAT GUY. The last lap was survival and I came across the line in 32nd, 10 minutes slower than the year before. Webber took second, Ward was solid in the top ten and Jorge was back towards me in the 20's.

I'm ok with that. Sonic Boom was hard and I left a lot on that course. Furthermore, I had a blast riding the Grinder. I enjoyed every moment of that singletrack. That was an improvement over last year's effort. Then the worst thing happened. I spun the front wheel at the finish and in two revolutions, it stopped. My front brake was rubbing. The problem is this, when did it start rubbing? Was it the whole day, after the first crach, 5 minuted from the end? In the end you can go nutsy trying to figure it out or you can ask yourself if you went your hardest. I did. That is all that matters. A million things can go wrong in a race, but you can control two things...your effort and your attitude. If both of those are the best they can be, then you were the best you could be.

Done and done.