This weekend (4/30 -5/1) was the Idyllwild Spring Challenge - three races over two days on excellent trails. First up was the cross country race on Saturday, then a time trail and super D on Sunday. Each race was scored individually, but you could compete in all three as a stage race.
First, the cross country race. I raced in the Open category, which was basically for people who wanted to race Cat 1 but didn't have a license.
The course was billed as 27 miles, 4300 feet of climbing. Those of you who know the area will appreciate the route (and that the pros did it in <2:30): start with the Keen Camp climb out of Hurkey Creek, cross Johnston Meadow, climb May Valley fireroad, then Mirkwood (singletrack) to the Lower Southridge (hike a bike) climb. Back on May Valley fireroad, take Sunset trail, back on May Valley, then cut through town to the Southridge fireroad climb (last of the major climbs). Head back down hitting pretty much every piece of single track on the east side of May Valley Fireroad: Middle Southridge, Snakeskin, Tres Hombres (uno, dos, tres), Grindstone, Coffepot, Exfoilator, Rage Thru the Sage, and Tunnel of Love. Makes me tired just typing it. Then a bit of Apple Canyon Road and over Demoralizer to the finish.
Those of you who don't know the area really ought to go up there. Just the best twisty, flowing, singletrack through a beautiful forest setting and only 2hrs from SD.
Ok, so that's the course. On paper it is uphill to about 10 miles, then gradually downhill. So I went pretty hard on the climbs. I had dialed back the training volume and recovered from doing Vision Quest and Julian Death March on back to back weekends (which had left me wrecked, as Eric, my coach, had predicted). Despite going hard, I felt good and cleaned a lot of Lower Southridge. I had last ridden that trail a couple years ago and remember it being a slog. This time it took about 20 min. I continued to feel good climbing through town to the top of Southridge fireroad, reaching the high point of the course in about 1:40.
From here it went downhill, literally and - somewhat - figuratively. The start of the descent was steep with some loose sections, and I was tired and somewhat sloppy. Mentally, it is tough for me to switch gears from hard climbing to technical descending. After a couple dabs, I put my seat down some, which helped. But I gave up a few places to guys I'd outpaced on the climbs, and that got in my head a bit.
I was able to regroup and was probably riding pretty well, but every time I hit the brakes or dabbed in a rock garden, it was felt like a setback. Plus, the early hard pace was getting to me - I was tired. At one point, after it seemed like I'd been riding forever, the trail straightened out long enough for me to check my gps and I saw I still had 8 miles left. Ugh. Racing must be crazy, because what could be better than endless singletrack? I started telling myself that if I just kept pushing today I could bail on the TT and SD . Still, I kept taking in calories and didn't bonk, so though I was tired my pace was good through the lower, more open sections of the course.
I finished in 3:08:45, good for 7th in my age group in the open class. I would have liked to run faster on the descents and tech sections, but put in a good effort with no major mistakes and no mechanicals.
Rodder Racing was well represented at Idyllwild. Scott had a great race and was about 5 minutes ahead, placing well in Cat 1. Milin also raced the long course and Mike from NBB did the Cat 2 course.
Next post: time trial!
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