This past weekend was the WORS race in Rhinelander. This course is one of my favorites and despite my complaining about the changes after preride, it raced well and kept me entertained the entire time.
So after the warm up with the team we toed the line. Since I missed Iola, I ended up getting called up in 13th and lined up next to Brian. After some chatting with him and Andrea it was time to go and we went. The initial lead out down the road was chill but as soon as we hit the singletrack I felt as if the race exploded. Think it was mainly due to some tired legs from all the riding this past week, but I had one speed! Luckily it was just over my 100 mile pace and was good enough to keep bringing people back. I think I settled into 9th spot at the start and just picked one or 2 off as they blew from the front group. Then coming around on the 2nd lap I saw Big D up ahead. He hopped on then pulled me down the road section before letting me go again.
Later I found out that he fell back and ended up crashing pretty good on a bridge falling on some already injured ribs. Guess the doc is saying one broken rib! Ouch! I have been there and it is not a fun injury. I heard Ryan stopped with him as well as Mike Anderson and Brian Eppen! Thanks to all of you that helped and forfeited your race. Lets hope for a speedy recovery from him, he makes our trips entertaining!!
Now onto the 3rd lap I rolled upto Tyler and we rode together for about a lap talking about how good a concrete mixer from Culvers sounded! He was riding well and I kept tyring to get him to hang on, but in the singletrack I lost him due to the efficiency of the Specialized Epic! That bike is like cheating and this years bike is one of the most stable and most confidence boosting bikes I have ever ridden!
Onto the 4th lap I came upto Ben Koeneg and we rode together the entire 4th lap. He was also riding very well but I use the dual suspension coming off the last bridge to open a 5 second gap and hung on to take 4th overall.
After crossing the line I learned that I was actually bringing the leaders back each lap, minus the 4th lap where I chilled a bit thinking it was just down to Ben and I. Either way, don't think I had much more than I was putting to the pedals and without any highend training I was happy with the result. Looking at the data I pretty much flat lined the HR at 171 for the entire race. To put it in perspective I will do a 100 and average 165 to 168.
As fro the rest of the team, Myles came in for 3rd in the Juniors, Ryan still came back for 16th after helping Big D, Scott was 33rd, and Mark 43rd.
The girls had another good showing and keep improving. It is good to hear them having so much fun and getting in some tight racing action! I will let one of them tell their side of teh story but Lisa was 4th, Michelle 5th, and Sarah 7th.
My next big race will be the Mohican 100 as long as mother nature cooperates and it does not look like a mud bath is going to happen down there!
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