In Boris’ E100 series everyone seems to be recovering from or dealing with some or another malady. Cancer, gall stones, muscle strains, diabetes…you name it, these races are all about the comeback trail. It’s a different sort of series where strange things occur…for instance, since the inception of the 50 mile solo race, the first across the finish line has not been declared the winner…
3 years back this guy was tearing up the semi-pro fields at nationals. I watched him lap the field on a solo attack in the short track event at the Durango finals, garnering the stars and stripes. Then he sort of dissappeared…apparently health problems hit him hard and he’s been fighting his way back ever since. He’s getting damn close. We rode together for nearly all of the first stage at the 50 mile event this weekend, and he really rides with some attitude. We stopped riding together when he missed a turn, bypassed the first checkpoint and missed a few miles and lots of climbing at the beginning of stage 2. You’ll really want to read his story though – entertaining. As a bonus you can learn all about bile.
My race went pretty well. Considering the previous weekend’s 100 miler in Crested Butte, it was a big success to have decent legs in PC this weekend, and a success I attribute in part to Coggan’s training manager. It’s tricky to do well the weekend following a hundy as I learned last year, but using the TM as a guide helped. I simply rode easy each day after the CB event, waiting for TSB to reach +20 before I started opening up for PC. Race TSB was +32 with 3 days of short openers and it worked pretty well. The only glitch was getting the first flat tire with a stans’d wheel since ’03. That was a bummer, and especially so since the race was tight – the top 3 riders were all within 30 seconds of each other at this point, about 3 hours into the race. It took me 7 minutes to get rolling again – doh! Those 2 guys left me for the buzzards (which were looking hungry – there were about 50 in this aspen grove!).
I got a little carried away on a decent right after getting going and about ate an aspen while doing a nose wheelie – who says old dogs can’t learn new tricks? In the end, the race was too close to lose 7 min, and although I had a strong finish, I came across third.
I just got a Garmin Edge 305 and used it for the race. All the gory details are up at Motionbased.com, just click the image below. GPS file, HR data, elevation, the works. One oddity though: Using GPS the course comes out at under 46 miles, but since I’m using the speed sensor with the unit, the average speed (as displayed in cyclingpeaks) x the duration = 50 miles spot on. Go figure…
Highlights: meeting more riders out there as a result of this blog. Really cool…the awards ceremony was a hoot as well. There is a strange mix of event sponsors, Pharmanex and Budweiser. So Boris is raffling off a Budweiser tshirt and a bottle of Pharmanex “overdrive” and in his thick Russian accent tells us he wants us to have a good time tonight…OK, maybe ya had to be there…
Another highlight was hanging out with Adam all weekend. He had a great race too. Might have something to do with his consult with Lynda???
Park City continues to be one of my favorite areas to ride. I thought 3 trips to PC this summer might be over the top, but I’m already looking forward to the 100 miler. The riding is just that good…and it’s a great place to rehab what ails ya ;)
