Little did I know that I would be riding in the tracks of greatness. Not my greatness mind you, but rather that of Lance Armstrong’s. It turns out he went to Winter Park for this race, and I didn’t realize it until I was looking at the posted results for the Pro’s and there he was, in 2^nd place. Unfortunately, he didn’t stick around for the awards so I never got to see him. I talked to a guy who saw him at registration and he was clearly in awe (as I would have been).

So I saddled up at the start line without knowing I was chasing a legend (and also starting 30 minutes behind). There were 45 racers in the Sport Vet, 30-39 age group. Of course I was the oldest – it’s funny how I want to be 40 so I can move up a category. In this case, it would have helped! Well, it had rained hard for a couple of hours the night before so we were looking at muddy and slippery conditions and were warned of such by the race officials. I managed to be on the front line, not that it matters much in this race because of the 3 mile stretch of gravel road at the beginning. We blasted up the road at a good clip and I tried to stay out of the wind. I could tell that my legs weren’t at their best as this wasn’t as easy as it should have been. I hit the single track in about 15^th position and then we immediately started the big climb of the day. I stayed in touch with the lead group for awhile but then I had to shift down and that was all she wrote. I worked pretty hard the rest of the way up the hill and managed not to blow-up. At the start of the downhill I was a bit nervous as I’ve never been a great descender. However, this time I managed to hold my own and I even caught some riders! I just got a SID-X/C fork and it is amazing. It’s really lightened up the front end of the bike and it works wonders going downhill – holds a line and soaks up hits big and small. I was even trying to catch air off from the water bars.

After the descent we hit some twisty single track which was pretty slick. My downfall, literally, were the slick roots lacing the track. I went down four times in this section, twice whacking trees pretty good. I have this tendency to get too far forward and when the front wheel goes, so do I… Well, that was probably my slowest section and a number of people went by me as I lay on the ground or was tangled up in a tree.

Once we started climbing again I got my wits about me and started feeling better – I kept it in a big gear and ground up the hills at a good pace. I’ve always enjoyed climbing, but for once I started to look forward to the downhills. I’m not the fastest, but I’m no longer the slowest and I feel I can get faster. It probably won’t mean much to my overall placings but it sure makes it more fun overall.

I finished strong and felt pretty good. Only a little bit of blood from the falls, but both my bike and I were very muddy. I ended up 18^th out of 45, finishing 2:20:53.8 (194^th male finisher). The winner of my race came in at 2:07:11.6 (90^th male finisher). Ah, if I were but a year older I would have finished 3^rd with my time in the Sport Masters. I was only about 36 minutes behind Lance who came in at 1:44:42.3 (2^nd male finisher). I was happy enough with my ride – or should I say my effort, but I have this feeling something is not quite right – part of it is my expectations and part of it is a bit of scientific data. My "peak flow" measurements (a measure of lung capacity) are about 20% low. If I could find that 20%, I think it would make me very happy…

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