Sylvan Island Stampede

First mountain bike race of the season is in the books. The weather was awesome for today's race. The course was in great shape, even after the rain/snow we had last week. I was a little nervous about what I was getting myself into when I opted out of the Finchford Roubaix to go to Sylvan Island. I hate racing in mud. Fortunantly, I didn't have to do that today. There was a great turnout. 14 women started the race 2 minutes behind the 66 sport men riders. So imagine, 80 riders over a 3 mile trail. Pretty crazy stuff. I was happy at the amount of women that showed up. Probably the largest women's mountain bike field that I've been in so far.

About the course: It's flat. Ok, I take that back. There's possibly 3 short "mounds" that are less than 10 feet tall. The course is crazy technical. Trees, rocks, ruts, roots, concrete, walls, you name it - it was probably out there. I don't know how many times my pedal clipped something on the inside of a corner. All in all though, it was fun! I only "wrecked" once. I didn't fall on the ground though. My bike kind of went out from under me. It was a strange thing.

They made us wear timing chips around out ankles. Kind of neat I suppose. At least it told us our lap times, etc. at the end of the race. So after the offical remembered that the women were starting 2 minutes back, the race was off. If I would have been thinking correctly (which I wasn't and will explain why eventually) I would have locked out my fork and put it in the big ring. But anyway, we had a long open stretch before reaching single track. I hammered as fast as I could to be the first one in. Not sure what my speeds were...maybe 23-25mph. I got a gap and held it. Soon enough I was catching the sport men's field. For the most part the moved out of the way when I asked. A few didn't, but might not of heard me since I had no voice. Yes, I'm sick still. I have a cold and was up half the night coughing. That's why I had no voice, because of the coughing. Anyway, not sure how many people I passed. I just tried to keep a rhythm. The laps went by fast. At the end of the race my arms could feel the 15 miles I had just done. They were a bit sore. Otherwise, I ended up first in the Women's race with a time of 1:11:16. My average was 12.6mph. Lap times go as follow: Lap 1 - 14:11 Lap 2 - 14:19 Lap 3 - 14:10 Lap 4 -14:21 Lap 5 - 14:13. Overall this would have put me in 25th place. I'm not sure about that though because of the 2 minute wait and what not. I don't know how they started the timing chips. Anyway, fun race. It was very well promoted, lots of racers, lots of spectators, and I even saw some clips on tonights 10:00 news. Next up: Eagle Point Crit. Now it's off to get rid of this cold! Pictures to come later on in the week hopefully. Have a good one!
-A