The UW Cycling Team hosted a largely collegiate race on the windy and cold weekend of September 25th and 26th. Not being collegiate in anything but spirit I did not partake of the Saturday race and I'm glad I didn't. It was seriously windy -- reportedly knocking more than one rider down when the wind came from the side. One person told me of grunting along into a headwind using the granny gear when the course was perfectly flat. Instead, I ran a 5k foot race, the first mile with my daughter, and then when she peeled off to finish the 1-mile course, I continued on pushing my son in the Burley Trailer. Pushing that thing into the wind was like running up a steep hill. On the other hand, I had to work to rein it in when I had a tail wind.

Sunday dawned a bit less windy but quite a bit colder. I drove up to Happy Jack, registered, and then huddled in my car until about 10 minutes before the start. I wore a long sleeve polypro shirt with a jersey over it. I debated about long tights and finally struggled into them as most folks were going that way. I didn't regret having them on, but I probably could have gone without. I did but a couple of sprints up the road leading out of the parking lot, and then toed the line, not quite sure that I would make it to the finish -- 24 miles on a day like this with the attitude I had seemed none too likely. I moaned and whined with Eric and Rich, two guys I've rolled up to the line with at most local races. First, about 20 A's went off, then about 20 in our group (Sport and Collegiate B), the A women, and then the C men and women. The A's were to do 5 laps of a six-mile course, the B's and A women 4 laps and the C men and women 2 laps. The race starts with a gradual climb, then some steep pitches, then some rollers with various short steep up and downs, and finally a longish downhill -- all of it singletrack, but with passing room. It was a legitimate 6 miles around, it was fun, and it was demanding -- a reputed 600 feet of climbing per lap.

Right off the bat I settled into the middle of the field and pretty much stayed there. I don't believe any riders passed me from my group after things settled down a mile or so into the race. A few A riders flatted and came blasting by at various portions of the race, and I was lapped by the first three A riders on my last lap. I was pleased that I pushed it pretty hard, but I didn't quite have the gumption to really lay it on the line. I got a bit shaky in the middle of the race and when I realized it, I drained the better part of a bottle of sports drink and felt better quite a bit faster. Nat Dyck was patrolling the course on his bike and tucked in behind me at one point. He spent the next couple of miles egging me to go faster on the downhills -- I think it actually worked. I'm sure that was the fastest I road that particular section of the loop. However, it was just a bit exasperating to be constantly told to "let go of the brakes", even if it was good advice. Towards the end of the race I started picking off some slower C's that I was lapping and a couple of tiring B's. As I was passing one tiring CSU rider (I imagine him to have been a "C" based on his beer gut and sweat pants spilling out from under his oh-so-trendy baggies), he pulled over to the side of the trail and started retching. I caught a Fort Lewis College rider just before the steepest downhill section of the course. I noted that he was on a pretty tough looking downhill rig -- wide riser bars and a complex looking linkage system on the rear -- it didn't really seem appropriate for the course with all of the climbing and "relatively" smooth trails. I gapped him before the descent and as I crept around a sharp hairpin I could hear him bouncing down behind me. I was preparing to be passed when an even louder noise erupted and then silence -- he had stacked it right before getting to me. He wasn't hurt as he caught up to me about 5 minutes later at the bottom of the hill, but he fell off the pace going back up. As I was local, a number of the workers and spectators cheered me on by name. At one point, Andrea (Eric's wife) was yelling "Yea! Go Peter!" and the guy just behind me said "My name's Brian", so Andrea and her friend started to yell "Yea! Go Brian!". I've done a couple of these mixed collegiate/NORBA races before and I must say that they're a lot of fun -- there seems to be real collegiality between the racers that cross school lines. Beats the hell out of football.

In the last couple of miles of the race I passed two riders going down hill, something I don't really ever remember doing before. One of them actually came up to me after the race, congratulated me on a strong ride and noted that I really smoked the downhills. I looked over my shoulder to see who he was talking to before realizing that it was me. "Fast" and "downhill" are two words that don't usually show up in the same sentence when speaking about my riding. Maybe Nat's badgering during his stint behind me did some good...

I think I finished in the middle of the B field and in the middle of the sport riders (only a handful of us) -- everyone in the race but Rich had to be younger than me. If you don't think age is a handicap, I'll trade you 10 years and my titanium bike for your bike. I managed to keep the winning women's rider, UW Geology grad student Sarah Konrad, from catching me. I was glad I did the ride and pleased with my effort, particularly considering my attitude at the starting line.