The Steamboat Classic

The racing on Saturday consisted of a looping single track on about a 10 acre field. It doubled back on itself enough to get about 1.5 miles in per lap. It was predictably fast and furious for the 5 laps my group (Sport Vets) road. We we're lumped in with the Expert and Vet Masters -- a number of those "old" guys dusted me but good. There were some Junior Sports in with us and some of them were fast as well. I managed to beat a junior from Laramie -- I almost crashed him too. I hooked his front wheel as I passed him (he made no room what-so-ever, and he was holding up a lot of people, so I only felt a little guilty). My heart rate monitor spent much of the race reading 185 bpm -- a rate I never attain in training. I ended up a very tired 8th out of 13 in my group.

Sunday was a 22 mile cross-country race up the ski mountain. Basically, we rode up to where the gondola unloads and then headed back down. Each lap was 11 miles and the first 4 miles included the 2000 ft. climb to the top. The first mile was pretty much a mud bog reminiscent of the Ironhorse race. I predicatably went out too fast and ended up pretty much blowing-up halfway up the first climb. I recovered some by the start of the second lap and did better all the way around. The descent was great -- lots of single track snaking along the hillsides through the trees. I'm not a great descender, but I pretty much held my own. When only a half-dozen riders pass me on a 10 mile descent (with hundreds on the course), I figure I've done okay. I ended up sixth for the stage and sixth overall (out of 12).