Last Friday I drove down to College Station (sheets of ice the entire way) and met up with Peter, Austin, and Shawn to do some mountain biking before we took off for Warda and the Dirty Dozen. It blows my mind that my first-ever experience with snowy single track was in College Station, Texas, known for its jungle-like clime. The ride went really well, and it was awesome to be able to notice how much faster I am now than I was when I left CS. The snow typically provided good traction as the ground was still frozen, but I had a sideways encounter with a slick ladder bridge that introduced the inside of my right shin with the end of my eggbeater...
Saturday morning Pete, Shawn, and I, rose ante-dawn to head over to Warda. Earlier in the week Ben got down with the sickness and was unable to go with us, so we were unsure of where we stood. I had done some considerable research of the other teams and previous lap times, and I was confident we could pull off a podium spot. The two teams that I suspected would give us trouble were PACC p/b Cannondale (Dromgoole, Wilder, Bohn) and Terra Firma/UNT (De Boisblanc, Duryea, and two ringers), and I was right.
Our "strategy" was to kick off with two laps per person, thinking that the first lap would give us time to warm up so we could blaze the second lap. We quickly realized that we were losing some time on the second lap and immediately switched to one apiece. After only 2 or 3 hours I could tell that the separation had occured and PACC & UNT would continue to put time on us the rest of the day. All we had to do was continue to throw down 35 minute-or-faster laps and we'd seal up 3rd place. I was personally riding really well, turning in consistent 35-36 minute laps. Peter and Shawn, on the other hand, were bringing the heat, turning in laps that were 30-40 seconds faster EVERY LAP. Peter's fastest lap was 31 someting and Shawn almost met his goal of breaking 30 minutes with a 30:20 or something ridiculous like that. I couldn't have asked for a better team.
I'll spare all of the details (which I don't recall anyway) and skip to the end. We were allowed to start laps until 8 pm. At 7:20ish Shawn completed his lap as the 4th place team(Phoenix) was starting their lap which would tie us. We foolishly assumed that they would tie us in laps, but our time would still be faster than theirs and we would retain our podium position. At 7:55, though, I looked to the staging area and saw their 4th rider lined up to start his last lap. SHEER PANIC. The three of us convened and decided Pete would throw our Hail Mary. He strapped on his shoes and jumped on his bike in his street clothes as I quickly put my light on his helmet. Just then Phoenix came through the transition and they took over the third place position as Peter chased after 42 seconds in arrears.
The next 35 minutes were pretty nerve wracking as Shawn, Angela, and I waited for the one of the riders to come across the line. Luckily the first of the two riders to do so was Peter. We had narrowly held on to third place. Apparently Peter had caught the guy early on and put 6 minutes on him. 6 minutes in one lap! Still, it's crazy that a 12-hour race came down to 6 minutes... Moral of the story: FIGHT TO THE END.
The following day was spent in the car driving back to Amarillo.
I was going to write about SBCU in this post, but it's already gotten long so I'll save it for later...
-Ian
