Ashland Spring Thaw

Once again, the race that many people have negative comments about, but then show up in droves for. This year it was the designated "State Championship Race", so you get extra points, and bragging points - this helped drive the record attendance. Last year in my report, I pooh-pooh'd those who said the race is won or lost on the extended flat fire-road middle section, which you're on for 40-45 minutes. This is after a gruelling 3000 ft climb. This year they ran the course in reverse direction, so the climbing grade was a little easier. The bonus was the awesome 3000 ft descent on rolling switch-backing singletrack - the same course used for the downhill race (which you could probably win on a hard-tail btw). Anyways, I now officially eat my words about the flat section, as I was a victim of the 'all-alone' factor. More on that later.

Due to the gas price crisis, I was forced to be sociable and share a ride down to the race. Hooked up with TimJ, another WebCyclery rider, who had a Google map of a new shortcut to Ashland, and an address of a floor of somebody's house to stay in. We didn't read the map until too late, and missed the first half of the shortcut, but found the other half, descending down this crazy steep switchbacking road into Ashland, which might be fun to ride up on a bike...or not. Found the house easily - a 1 bedroom microplot - and saw the living room had been staked out already by several sleeping bags and piles of gear. So we're not the only ones crashing here... Yep, 5 in total - but hey, more convenient than a campsite.

The rest of the crew returns, and everybody is involved in getting ready for the next day - wolfing down carb-meals, tinkering on equipment, etc. Some are stretching, munching on granola. I crack open a beer and get dirty looks - "What, you're drinking beer the night before the race?". Oh shit, now I'll get kicked off the team for drinking and showing up at the race all hungover. That Marc, no he's not serious - he's making us look bad - tear up his contract. Maybe he can join the Guinness team.

I grab a sleeping area outside the kitchen where the washer and dryer would be, and try to get to sleep - difficult due to the bedspins from that one beer.

The first of is up at 5:30 am, and we get to the race early enough to grab some of the few all-day parking spots. I do my warmup, and am feeling rather crappy - not unexpected, as have spent 3 of the last 5 days between races doing hard intervals. So cut short the warmup. The race starts promptly at 9am, and spend the next 45 minutes or so chugging up fire roads and single track. Am feeling not too bad, and passing more than I am passed. Arrive at the top with another rider, and start pairing up for the long flat traverse. Another rider catches up, and the 3 of us move along for a few minutes. Then the pace is upped, and I"m having trouble hanging off the back. Feeling like it's a bit fast for me, I let them go, and decide to wait for the next paceline to come by. Well guess what, 40 minutes go by and not a single group has come up from behind. I'm getting quite shagged, and finally, a few minutes before the downhill starts, a couple guys go by - they are actually in my class, and people I normally finish well in front of. I latch onto the back, and amazed how it seems with only 50% of my previous effort, I can float along behind them. The singletrack starts - one lets me by, and follow the other guy for a while. He's slowing me down, but not by much. We get onto the final road for the finish, and he's puts down the hammer and goes for it. I draft behind, and I swear I barely have to pedal to keep up. I decide I'll tag along for the ride, and then just before the finish, kick down and scoot by hime. But I've actually never tried that before - I start my sprint a bit late, and am gaining on him, but not quick enough for the finish line, which appears sooner than I expect. I end up placing 8th out of 12. So yeah I should have killed myself trying to stay in the paceline with those guys at the top - looks like I would have finished around 5th - 5 minutes faster. Oh well, next time.

The ride home is again a bit adventurous, as try to find the mysterious missing link in the short cut. But with the gas guage reading low, and heading down a dirt road that seems to be going nowhere, we turn around and take the sure way out.