by mark scheetz

Dehydration and endless sneezing (hay fever) made for a miserable recovery. As I sat there engulfed in the cool stream of air from my truck’s AC the temperature gauge caught my eye; 101 degrees outside, 6:00 PM. I had only finished the pre-ride. Crap, I was spent! I could only hope my competitors made the same mistake and pre-rode this inferno. Back at my camp I spent the evening drinking fluids, eating melon and a bit of sushi with plenty of salty soy.

Thankfully it was only 85 degrees the next morning during my warm-up. No complaints about my 8:00 AM start. The pro women would be going at 11 followed by the pro men at 2. Boy was I happy not to be part of that elite group.

Lined up at the start were most of the usual suspects with the exception of my competitor buddy, Coley King. I was a little disappointed since racing Coley would have been a good benchmark to test my recent changes in training. Another close competitor, Craig Sisino, who beat Coley at the last round, would fulfill that role just as well.

I had a great start right off the line; however, it wasn’t long before everyone went flying by. At one point I looked back to see who was left, there was nothing but a dust cloud. Dead freaking last! As we approached the first and steepest climb, I began loosing ground to the entire field. My heart rate was already high so I “held my ground”. Come on ... I dare anyone to challenge me for last place.

The climb out of the valley isn’t too long but it’s steep and has two tricky switchbacks followed by ball busting inclines. One down, two down, three down … I began picking off riders one by one. Yeah baby ... it was my turn to GET SOME.

My confidence was regained as I worked my way back towards the front. I did have to stop for a moment after a rider just ahead of me took a treacherous fall. He got on his feet and said he was ok, so I was off to the races again.

After awhile I thought I counted 3 competitors ahead of me. I caught Craig near the bottom of the first descent and followed him for most of the first lap. We were very closely matched but it didn’t take too long to discover his soft spot, his one weakness ... descending. This enabled me to hold back just a little bit on the climbs and let him go. On each descent I was right back on his wheel. Each climb wore him down more and more.

On the second lap I tested him a few times by passing to see if he could answer it. He did by pushing hard to get around me. I had fun backing way down and letting him put distance on me. I knew I would have no problem catching him on the descents. At some point I had to make a final move and close the deal.

There is one long gradual accent before the final two climbs. Leading into that is a high speed downhill with a sharp right hander. As we raced towards the corner in our high speed tucks, I took the outside line and cut to the apex. He took an inside line in an attempt to pull off a motocross style power-slide cutoff. He was too late. By the time he slid into the corner I was already several peddle strokes into the single track. I was having fun now. There was no way he could pass me on the gradual singe track accent. On the final two climbs and descents, I put nearly a full two minutes on him. Yeah, he finally blew up.

The endless drills Jon Tanklage (my coach) has me doing has really paid off. On those final two hills I was running way beyond my anaerobic threshold in 100 degree heat at the end of the race. This is where I usually blow up. It was really fun to throw the hammer down in the end.

It turns out I ended up in forth place. There was another rider in class just 25 seconds ahead of me. I think I spent a little too much time toying around with Craig. Oh well, live and learn.