After Whiskey 50 and all the travel, I took a few days of R&R before Daniel cracked the whip on me. Friday and Saturday were pretty big training days, so I decided to unwind a grab a beer at a new brewery in Boulder – Fate Brewing.
I liked that they had a wide selection of beer. I did a sampler of the Fate beers with Matt since I had had a lot of the others on tap.
They had some interesting brews. My favorites were surprisingly NOT what my traditional favorites are (IPAs and stout). Of the mix, I really liked the Watermelon Kolsch which is completely out of character for me. It just tasted fresh, sweet, and crisp! I think it’d be the perfect post ride beer. The pint I ordered from the sampler was the Roggenbier. It was a rye beer and almost reminded me a rich, mild sour ale.
I had been throwing around the idea of racing the Front Range 60 the next morning in Lakewood, CO (outside Denver, about 45 min from my house). With some liquid courage, I decided it was a go and would be the perfect third day into my training block. I knew I’d be tired, especially because I was still tired from Whiskey!! I thought it’d be “fun” and set my alarm for 4:30 AM the next morning.
Fast forward about 8 hours when my alarm went off. I was regretting my decision to race but I forced myself out of bed and once the coffee was flowing, I felt better.
The field was surprisingly small given the caliber of pros and battles I’ve been in the race with previous years. The morning was cold and windy.
I only had about one lap of fight in me before I regretted my decision to put a number plate on my bike that morning. My first lap was decent, but still below my normal race performance. My motivation was the top 2 singlespeed men dangling right around me at the end of the lap. After that, my motivation and will to push dwindled. I mostly rode alone in the wind. The trail is fast and wide open. I made myself change my attitude. The positive was that it would be very similar to Mongolia Bike Challenge – wide open, fast, windy, and I was tired. I achieved my training goal for the race and was definitely sore and tired by the end of the 3 day block! By the last lap, I was just riding. It’ s also mentally very hard for me to ride around in circles these days. It’s great to have a spectator friendly local event and it’s perfect for a training race! I really enjoyed the fact that I could sleep in my own bed the night before with little preparation needed!
Photo: Yann Ropars
Photo: Mountain Moon Photography
It was happy to see my CO race buddies! This was my first race in CO of the year. It also helped motivate me knowing Yuki was also out there suffering! At the finish, a small group of Whiskey 50 racers were all talking about how tired we still were! That race ended up being harder than we perceived, probably from the heat.
Yuki and I. He won Ergon grips. haha, irony!
Stoked to take the win given my performance!
My next set of racing will be the Pisgah 111K and the Transylvania Epic Stage Race on the East coast. I head out that way at the end of next week! I’ll also be doing 3 clinics/rides in North Carolina. More info HERE.
