Mutual of Enumclaw Day 2

Well...That did not go quite as expected.

Upon early arrival, I immediately noticed the darkening skies.  Within about 15 minutes there was a light drizzle, 10 minutes later it was a light rain, and by race start it was just raining.  Since I am not a boyscout, I did not follow their motto of always being prepared.  By race finish, I was soaked to the bone and shivering pretty good.

As I said in my last post (Mutual of Enumclaw Day 1), I had plans of a top 10 GC finish.  I was pretty nervous about the climb going into the race, but I was determined to perform well.  Turns out I did great on 85% of the climb, but in the last section I lost all power.

Quite the selection...Still had not been dropped!

If you have ever raced, then you know that when you lose power on a climb gaps open quite quickly.  Once you are riding solo there is practically no hope for catching the lead group, which is exactly what happened to me.  I went on a long solo chase, caught and passed a few guys along the way, and worked with another to try an close a gap on three other guys.  Had there been one more mile, I think we would have caught them.

For the most part the race was pretty uneventful, which is directly due to me losing contact on the climb.  However there were to moments worthy of extreme heart rate jumps.

The first occurred on the last few miles of the race.  At the bottom of the descent from Mud Mt Dam there is a 90 degree right hand turn.  It was my turn to pull, and I went into the turn hot...too hot evidently!  I guess the other rider saw this and lucky for both of us, he let a gap form.  As I took the turn, my rear wheel started to hop and slide out from under me.  I think this was a result of the slick cross walk paint.  Once it happens, there is not much you can do other than work to stay up.  If you want to go down, it is as easy as hitting the brakes...I did not.

The second moment was in the last 200 m of the race.  My legs were pretty much shot from the long solo effort and then working hard with the other rider to close the gap that was never closed.  As we rounded the corner I took a small draft, accelerated and was able to out sprint him for 12th place.  This is another good result to put on the boards, but also somewhat disappointing.

That would be me taking the sprint

I knew there was going to be a big time gap, and I knew it would result in me not getting my top 10 GC.  Turns out I was right, and I missed 10th overall by 2 seconds...TWO STUPID, MEASLY SECONDS!!!

I was pretty disappointed when I arrived home, but my two #1 fans greeted me and told me that there was nothing to worry about.  Bella and Buster were both stoked and keep reminding me that I did a great job over the weekend.

I know the disappointment will wear off, I know I will be proud of the work and effort I did leading up to the race and during the race, and I know I will be more motivated to work harder for any other races I choose to enter.