Vail Pass Hill Climb TT: where are those 24 seconds?

It snowed near the finish of the Vail Pass Hill Climb on Sunday, just like last year.

Just like last year, I found myself just a hair short of landing in the money. I'm not really sure where I could have come up with 24 seconds worth of extra speed it would have taken to be in 4th place. As it was, I was 6th: one spot better than last year, but 20 seconds slower.

This hill climb is a bit deceptive. The first half is flat-to-rolling, but there are really only a couple of steepish sections on the climbing second half. Did I push too hard on the flat first half so that I didn't have enough left for the climb? Maybe it was a mistake not to put the easy gears on the bike, even though I never necessarily felt like I didn't have enough gears. Maybe I just can't wrap my head around how very short the whole race is. Maybe I was more tired from the XC this year.

Racing, racing. It's such a puzzle. Now I think I have to come back to Vail, again, for the Teva Games, just one more time...

Post-Race at the Teva Mountain Games

Part of the fun of going to the Teva Mountain Games is checking out all the other stuff going on. It's a great event that brings together all kinds of sports: cycling, mountain biking, running, kayaking, rock climbing, fly-fishing, and even distance-water-jumping for dogs. It's become a fixture on Vail's summer calendar and is very popular with athletes and spectators alike.

We didn't have a lot of time to hang out after the cross country race, but did take a quick lap through Vail Village to check out the haps.

Unfortunately this little reluctant guy was the only dog at the dog jump when we passed by.

Sonya heads into the Teva Village.

Bike shenanigans.

Sonya is incredulous. Can it possibly be as fun as pegging your heart rate for 2 hours?

Dog models. Everyone likes looking at them, but they're kind of a pain on dates.

Cookin' trout.

Waiting to watch some kayakers go under the bridge.

Sonya and I stopped in at this gelateria with an amazing array of gelato and an even more amazing 3-group Elektra Belle Epoque. It gives me heart palpitations just to look at that machine.

Dark chocolate sorbetto with vanilla gelato. I swear I didn't have any this good in Italy.
Heaven for $6 in a paper cup.


Dirty bikes have to wait outside while we go back to sample the espresso.

Meh. With a machine like that, they need to get some good beans.
Heartless to treat it that way.

Sonya had to head out for an event in Castle Rock, so I went back to Eagle and spent some hours getting the mountain bike clean and the road bike ready to go for the Vail Pass TT. They were having a block party down the road, complete with a band which entertained me with party tunes as I worked. Blondie the kitten helped by attacking the brushes and playing under the bike stand.

Teva Mountain Games: XC

Noon starts are the best. There's nothing like getting up 2 hours later than I usually have to and having time to enjoy coffee and a delicious breakfast before the race jitters set in.

Sonya and I stayed with a fabulous host family in their beautiful house in Eagle, whose kitchen we put to good use. Sonya made some amazing blueberry pancakes while I made coffee and distracted myself with the various kitties and Kaibab, the stick-obsessed cattle dog.

Best outdoor breakfast spot in the area.

Throw it one more time!

We arrived at the venue with enough time to get the bikes perfectly dialed for the race.

Sonya rocks the white lycra euro-pro look.

And then... the race. There was a great turnout of 25 or so pro women from around the country, including a few of the best racers in the world. I started out fairly conservatively and raced a pretty solid first lap without blowing myself up. I probably started out too conservatively, again. On the second lap my intestines siezed up a bit and I briefly considered stopping to go to the bathroom.

I started to feel better on the downhill and upped the pace a lot for the third lap. It was enough to catch a few girls who had dangled in front of me on the second lap, but not enough to get to the five who finished the race within a minute in front of me. I finished the race feeling fresher than I should have. While my finishing place of 11th was good, it just isn't satisfying feeling like you didn't leave it all out there.

It was great to race on such a fun course! The climbs were not ridiculously long and the descents were more than ridiculously fun.

Sonya Looney finished a respectable 18th... not bad when you train for 5+ hour races!

Teva Mountain Games, Vail, CO: Pre-ride

After a very long week involving too much work, errands, and general busy-ness, I made it to Vail to meet up with Sonya Looney for a ride on the mountain bike course for the Teva Mountain Games.

It's one of those race courses where to ride it is to feel like it's all downhill, but to race it is to climb, climb, climb, climb. Thank goodness for Friday pre-rides... the best part of the weekend after Friday morning coffee.

Here's some very shoddy helmet-cam footage of the main downhill on the course. Please don't watch unless you are related to me.

Cyclists.

Memorial day

Questa, NM

Angel Fire

After being on my calendar all winter as my first big mountain bike race of the year, I was looking forward to the Mountain States Cup race in Angel Fire, NM. And it really delivered. I made every amateur mistake possible, had all sorts of bad luck (or, could one say, poor preparation), and generally had an all around learning experience / crap-fest of a weekend.

First up was on-line registration. I went to the race website on Wednesday and found that registration closed Tuesday. Ah well, I'd have to make it to Angel Fire by 1 pm Saturday to register for the Short Track. And pay an extra $20. The schedule on the race website pinned the Short Track time down to "All Short Track races: May 23 from 3 to 9 pm."


So on Saturday, in spite of getting stuck behind approximately 10,000 motorcycles in Red River, we made it from HMES to AF just in time. For $120 I was granted entry to the Pro Short Track and Cross Country races, AND given a beautiful hand-caligraphed number plate to grace the front of my handlebars. Smelled like permanent marker, as a bonus.

Found out that my start time that day would be 5:55 pm. So with about 4 hours to kill we stopped in for some delicious sandwiches at the Pizza stop and then wandered around Angel Fire in the rain for a while.

Pastrami envy. I am definitely going to ride at Angel Fire a lot this summer,
if only to get one of those sandwiches. My turkey sandwich
was awesome too, but J liked the pastrami so much
he went back for another one for breakfast the next day.
He's not often one to get so excited for sandwiches.

First photo of the red-red-red hair.

J naps in the car with the dogs while waiting for the 3-9 pm short track to begin.

The dogs are good at sharing.

I checked out the course, which contained a nice steep hill followed by a very quick downhill. 80% of the time racing would be spent climbing that leg-burner of a hill. Great thing to do the night before an important cross country race: climb a hill at 8,600' multiple times with the heart rate pegged. Just a few consequences in the recovery department.

Warming up. It's ALL hill up there.

The race started and I went ahead and led out the opening lap. I wanted to choose the pace around the switchback on the downhill and not get stuck behind anyone, since I didn't know most of the women racing. I did know Katie Compton (silver medalist at Worlds in Cyclocross) and Kelli Emmit (super fast pro on the Giant team), and figured they'd have no trouble getting around me.

There goes Katie C. in front of me. Is she the national Short Track champ too?

It was a fun course that I normally would have thoroughly enjoyed, but I was worried about the cost for the next day. Heather Holmes (Kenda-Tomac-Hayes) passed me for third at some point and I didn't fight her very hard for it. I grannied up the hill after the first lap to save my legs a bit. At the end of the last lap I realized I was closer to Heather than I'd thought, and was coming up on 4 riders I was about to lap, but was pleased to have nailed 4th place and to feel like I'd left something in the tank for the XC. Unfortunately the officials had me down as 9th, and in my haste to get home, eat, get the bike ready, and get some rest I left before results were posted and missed the protest period. Darn.

It was great to have Mom (and Dad and Mor-Mor) there cheering me on.
It helped that Scott, Tony, Ian, Cubby, Lynn, and a few others were
screaming at me around the course. I should have listened and rode faster!!
Wish we could have a re-do.

Packing up the car. Yes, it is awfully late to be finishing a race.

It rained at home all night and I had trouble choking down my breakfast the next morning.

On Sunday we arrived at the venue in the pouring rain. I was dreading the course conditions and was really nervous about the race since I hadn't had a good test on the mountain bike yet this year. I had a very short warm-up and lined up, opting to leave my armwarmers and kneewarmers on. The race started and the sun came out, leaving me way overdressed.

Qimmiq sometimes takes his sister Mogli for walks.

Waiting for these girls to rip my legs off.

Qimmiq likes races.

Dad and Sherlock looking for a good spectating spot.

I felt nauseated up the first part of the climb. I wasn't sure how hard to go since the climb is ridiculously long and my legs didn't feel great.

Start of a long day.

I bungled around on the slippery rocks in the woods and was wondering why my bike was bouncing all over the place... forgot to re-adjust after adding a bunch of air to my suspension for the short track. D'oh. Passed by two.

On the downhill I felt like I was going excruciatingly slowly. Indeed I was. Just not enough practice on the new bike yet. D'oh. 2 more.

I started to feel a bit better going up the hill for the second lap, maybe since now I was warmed up. Unfortunately I had lost a bunch of gears hitting a rock on the downhill, but I tried to use them anyway. Off the bike, passed again. I was glad to see it was Becca-- she wasn't feeling great but was riding strong anyway. We cheered for each other off and on as we went.

Find a happy place... find a happy place...

Not my best race. To add insult to injury my shoddy performance was in front of my parents, my grandmother, my husband, my dogs, and a lot of local racers who were up for the race. I regretted not just going for it in the ST, when I felt good and held back. That regret was made more intense when I learned of the mis-scoring. Darn.

Sorry, Mom.

I went to see the boys at the Shimano tent after the race, since they'd made my bike work like butter for the ST. Turns out my cassette was mangled and my derailleur was a little bent. They fixed everything, which made the whole weekend worthwhile. Well, of course a weekend on the bike is always a good weekend and I probably got a pretty good workout to get stronger for next time too.