Wednesday Sundance Race

The weather held so Jolene and I decided to try the weekday (Wednesday) race at Sundance. Got there a little early, got registered and had time for a little pre-ride of the course. It was also fun to see so many riders we know and chat with many of them.

They started 3 waves, roughly: Experts, Sport, Beginner. The Sport group was large. And the start is up the paved road only 150 yards or so before the single-track started so if you wanted good position you had to go all out up the road. Except I'm not a sprinter. I tried to push it, but my heart rate shot up and I entered the single-track in the last 1/3 of the pack. At first it was OK as I was able to pass a few riders, but it's tough to pass on Archies so I lost a few minutes there. The downhill was fun, but there are lots of riders who go down faster than me.

The half lap was good. I was chasing another rider ahead of me. I got close to him once, but I ran out of steam and the gap opened. On the downhill we were about the same and I was even able to push my comfort zone, let loose a bit more and gain on him a bit. I was 50 feet back at the bottom and I tried to sprint for the finish, but it wasn't long enough and I didn't catch him. Still, the chase was kind of fun.

Jolene had a pretty good ride and enjoyed herself.



I had an OK time, but in my opinion Sundance is a great place to ride, terrible place to race. Just too hard to pass. Except for the biathlons, I think I'm done with mountain bike racing for the year. The mountain trails are opening up and I'd rather spend my time riding all the sweet single-track we have around here.

Update: I got 11th out of 18, Jolene got 2nd out of 3.