Lewis & Clark: Crusher of Souls

Apparently the others didn't get the "podium beer" memo!

Ugh, the race at Lewis and Clark kicked my ass last Saturday. Much like Tyler, this race was a much different beast than the race at Platte River State Park. However, unlike Tyler, my experience moved in the wrong direction.

L&C is filled with shorter steep, punchy climbs as well as lots of short, steep descents. I'm not very good at short punchy climbing, especially not repeated ones. Give me longer, more gradual climbs that I can find a rhythm on, and I do a lot better.

L&C also features a fun ripping descent at the start of the trail. It really is fun, but when you're on a 'cross bike like I am and you're racing people on mountain bikes, you're at quite the disadvantage. You just can't point a cross bike and let it go down the trail if you want to have any hope of maintaining control. And there's no easy one-fingered modulation of the brakes either. Like I wrote in my Platte race report, you have to simultaneously hold on to the hoods and modulate the brakes. Even though you're not pedaling, you're still expending energy as is proved by my sore triceps the next day!

My arms! My arms!

Needless to say, the nature of L&C doesn't really suit either my natural skill set nor my bike choice.

I started the race pretty well, if I do say so myself. I was lacking in motivation a bit, but my legs seemed to be going well. I may have overdone the starting climb on monument road a tad, but in the grand scheme of L&C, I think that was more a drop in the super-threshold bucket than an extra burnt match. I was some where in the top 5ish people heading into the trail, where my descending prowess immediately caused a nice line of mountain bikers to back up behind me. Had this not been a race, I would have felt bad for slowing them down. However, this WAS a race, so #sorrynotsorry.

You can probably guess how most of the rest of the race went after reading the preceding paragraphs. Tyler, who was a few riders behind me going into the trail, caught up to me within the first half of the first lap and we rode mostly together for the rest of that lap and the next. There was another rider who was with us for much of that time as well. I recognized him, but don't know his name. He was wearing a Midwest Cycling team kit and showed extreme patience with my sometimes less than graceful skills.

Every time the trail pointed up, I would start to edge away from these two and as soon as we headed downhill or something kind of techy got in the way, they'd be right back on my wheel. The course ends with some uphill switchbacks and "Neverest," a steep-as-hell seemingly never-ending climb back up to the L&C parking lot. I'm pretty sure I had a few seconds gap on Tyler when we hit the parking lot after our second lap. We both stopped for a second in the pits. He swapped bottles and I used the stopping point to eat part of a Clif Bar. By the time I got my bar back in my pocket, Tyler was already hopping the curb to head back down the trail. Aside from a few times where the trail curves back on itself, that would be the last time I saw Tyler until the finish line.

This was one of a few tree that had to be removed the week before the race.

I knew my only hope of pulling Tyler back would be if he totally imploded (does it make me a bad brother if I was kind of hoping he would bonk?). He seemed to be riding within himself though, so I knew that finding him crying in exhaustion at the bottom of a climb wasn't likely to happen. So, the rest of the race became a practice in character building. I worked on maintaining focus even though I was tired and keeping as steady a pace as I could.

I find that as I tire, I am less willing to put out the power necessary to clear certain features like roots and short steep hills. I have the power available, I just don't wanna do it. So, I end up either totally botching the obstacle or simply dismounting and walking it. This definitely makes me slower and is something I need to work on. HTFU!!!!

As I came through the pits for the last time, Emily Houtchens told me something to the effect of, "Your brother is only two minutes ahead of you!" To which I replied with a sort of "give me a break" summed up with a simple exasperated F-bomb, followed by informing her that Tyler would be beating me then.

Seriously though, the pit area mocking and cheering was a highlight of my race. It's kind of like cruising through I really short section of a 'cross race every lap. If only there had been beer or dollar bill hand-ups!

I ended up finishing 7th overall and 4th in the under-40 age group. I'll take it. After 4 laps in, I certainly did not expect to finish in the top 50% of the overall group. Plus, 4th in my age group meant I finished in the money. It's always nice to get back your entry fee.

So after two 4th place finishes in three available races (I didn't get to race Tranquility), I have a total of 32 points in the Psycowpath series standings which puts me in fourth place in my age group. Unfortunately, I don't see myself being able to move up in the points this season. I won't be able to race at Swanson which limits the number of points available to me now. It's all good though. I really don't mind. The races are good enough that I would race them even if I never had a chance at coming anywhere near placing.

Next race is Odin's Revenge on June 27th. I am really looking forward to that one. I had a hoot and a half out in Gothenburg last year and I don't anticipate it being any different this year. Plus, the beer Tyler and I brewed a few weeks ago has turned out quite nicely. I just kegged it two days ago and it's in the process of getting carbonated. The extra hops we added (plus the extra time we "totally intentionally" let them sit in the kettle after flame-out) added enough extra bitterness and flavor, that you could almost call this beer a sort of session wheat IPA, though it's missing the kind of hop aroma you would need to really try to classify it that way. In my opinion, it will be a very refreshing session beer, and I wouldn't be surprised if I come home with empty kegs. Though, Kinkaider Brewing
 will have beer there as well, so maybe I have a chance of keeping some of my beer to bring back home.