Rist Canyon Road Race

This past Saturday I participated in the Rist Canyon Road Race. I would have preferred to go to Crested Butte for the Mountain States Cup race, but I had too much studying to do and didn't want to drive another 14hours in one weekend. The reason I didn't want to race the Rist Canyon Road Race is because the entry fee was $70. LAME! Sure there was a lot of stuff going on at the race, we got a free t-shirt, there was pizza, etc. But I still don't think it was worth the $70. In order to make your money back in both the Men and Women's Pro/1/2 races, you had to place in the top 2. First place was $125 and 2nd was $75. Third dropped down to $50. Still not sure about the reasoning for the steep entry fee and lame prize list, but whatever.

The race was relatively early (9:20), but since I'm used to getting up at 6:00 every morning now, it wasn't an issue. I hadn't rode my road bike since the Stillwater Criterium at Nature Valley. I barely touched a bike period last week. I spent maybe a total of 2.5hours on my mountain bike. Needless to say, I was recovered...maybe. Going from 600feet to 9000feet within a matter of a day (to live there for 4 weeks) makes things interesting.

Anyway, the course started going over the dams around Horsetooth Reservoir. Ouch. Then we headed up Rist Canyon, the infamous climb in the Fort Collins area. From there, we headed down stove Prairie Road to Masonville, where we did a loop and headed back over the dams. The race was 64miles long. Around 20 women lined up in the Pro/1/2 field. Things started out pretty mellow. There were a few attacks, but nothing stuck. Once we hit the climb, Colorado Bike Law set tempo. The pack started to shatter. I made it with two other girls to the top. We screamed down the decent. My maximum speed was 59.5mph. I don't think I've ever gone that fast before. Fortunately, I knew the downhill and it was a pretty straight shot with plenty of time at the bottom to slow down before the left hand turn. The course back towards Masonville is almost all downhill. I was flying. Sharron Allpress came up to me and asked if I wanted to take it easy or rotate through. The Colo Bike Law girl with us wasn't pulling through because she wanted to wait for her teammates. I asked Sharron for advice and she said we should just sit up. Soon enough, 2 other Colo Bike Law girls came up to us with another rider. The 6 of us rode together the rest of the race. I say rode, because we never got organized. Colo Bike Law had 3 riders of the 6 (all of who had no teammates in the race). No reason to rotate through. Things worked out anyway, even though I was worried about getting caught. One of the Colo Bike Law girls attacked entering the dams and stuck it. Sharron went with her for a little while. The rest of us started to rotate and caught up to her. We played cat and mouse the last few miles of the race. I stayed in good position and ended up taking the field sprint for 2nd (I guess it wasn't really a field, since there was only 3 other girls). Here's a map of the course. Also, I finally beat my P.R. of 51:35 up Rist. I set an interval on my power tap at the base of the climb and stopped it at the top. According to the file, we climbed it in just under 47 minutes. No wonder it hurt...

I enjoyed the course. I really appreciate all the help Sharron was to me. She's an awesome racer and very knowledgeable (and she used to mountain bike too). Fortunately, I made my stupidly high entry fee back, plus $5. Ok I'll stop ranting.

Sunday I went for a mountain bike ride at Bobcat Ridge. That's a technical ride. Spent the rest of the day studying. Then I came back up to Pingree Park for another week of torture. This weekend is the Dead Dog Classic in Laramie, WY (I hate that place). Hopefully it's a fun time. Supposed to be some hard racing, so we will see how my legs do. Have a good night!
-A