The Taming of Razorback

My dress rehearsal for race speed was a success last week, so I decided that Reddick is the beast I need to get over. I have never raced well at this place, but I have slowing been getting better. Last year at the FL State Series I showed a bunch of improvement, but my laps times fell off too much. Another reason this trip was easy to pull off was Fabienne’s favorite (Yamato’s) Japanese restaurant was only 40 miles away in Gainesville. So we decided to put the new Honda Hybrid to the test to see if it 45mph on the road would stand up on the highway. It is awesome in the city, and I’m saving a bunch of money. It’s not as powerful when I want to make a move to beat a yellow light, but I don’t race cars. A cool thing about it is when you come to a stop, the engine turns off. It feels like the car is off, and when I take my foot off the pedal the engine pops back on. OK, back to the story

Fast Forward and we are in Orlando, and Fabienne and I are convinced that this is the last time that we take the hybrid on a road trip. We are getting around 30mph on the highway, and our Jetta gets 34mph. OK, this is an “In City” car.

We get to Razorback, pay the fee to get in, and take the car under the shade. I start setting up and I start to see some of the racers riding around and chatting with each other. I see a group of riders from the South (Tim W, Henry D, Joe.V,) along with Robert Bounds. We go in to do a pre-ride lap. I heard they had added an addition to the front part of the course, and I hadn’t seen that part since 2000 when I was a beginner. I forgot just how big it was, and it was definitely going to zap the legs. The first part of the course was ok, one lung burner, but it can be managed. Robert gets a nice flow going and Tim, myself, Henry, and Joe are in tow. After about 2 miles Joe V has dropped off, but we keep it going. I’m spending all my time studying the course at where I can make my hard efforts and where I must take it easy. This place is jagged for sure and the one section they reopen (I don’t know the names of these sections, I just ride them) is very rooted and gutted out, and I ain’t exactly a small dude at 188lbs. We finish the lap without incident, and I decide to go out on another one. I love riding by myself now, and I get a flow going and mark all the sections of interest for the next day. I get back to the car, and I still feel energized and would love to do another lap, but I know that is a bad idea. So we pack up the car, and head back to the Laquinta. Fabienne loves to have me explain the course and what I expect from myself. What she likes to ask is, “ How are you gonna look after the first lap”? I told her I’m gonna let go of the lead group way before I blow up, set my own pace for the first lap, then crank it up once I have found my zone.

I’m back in the hotel and I really don’t feel like driving to Gainesville, but she is gonna hand off my water bottles tomorrow, so I better be her support crew tonight. The drive was quick, the katsu chicken was the best I have had so far, and the drive back to was even faster. Watched some boxing on HBO, then I tinkered with my bike to work out the anxiety of taming this beast tomorrow.

We wake up and go to Panera Bread as our normal ritual. I have the egg and cheese something or other with OJ, which is my ritual. I love having the 11:30 wave because I don’t have to stress about getting there early and get situated. We get there, and the dirt road seems bumpier than usually, but the excitement of getting in gets the better of me. I pay my fee and I’m lucky enough to get the same place that I parked yesterday, SWEET. Just when I pull up I see some people looking at the car. Now, either they think the hybrid is the bomb, or I’m dragging a monkey under the car. I get out, and there it is, a F#*KING flat tire. Damn, it’s bad on the highway and now I got a flat. I gotta race, so I’m gonna have to worry about this when the race is over.

Lap 1
Dave fires the horn, and the hounds are off. I don’t get my foot clipped in and cost me 5 spots as we line up. I knew that was gonna cost me because the first big climb is technical and I know that someone is going to make a mistake. It happens, and Mark Gerard, Greg Derosa, Nixon, Harvey and some others have to dismount and run up the climb. In the meantime Bounds and Mad Maddox are already up the singletrack. We catch them and we kind of group together, but are spread out. Then we get to the normal part of the course where the singletrack is fast and tight. It’s Bounds, Trent, Mark G, Greg D, Harvey, me and Nixon and then there is a gap. Bounds is riding the escalator and he is putting the pace down. I can manage it but I know I got about 20 mins until I back off, so I just keep it steady. We go down one of the gutted out sections and to the very big open climb. I can see Bound slightly dropping Trent, and I’m in the next group. They don’t seem that far ahead, but once we get up and over the climb, the switch backs let you know they have about 15sec. I’m in a flow, but starting to feel the effects of hitting all the climbs really hard. The different between me from one year ago, is I couldn’t keep this pace from a technical standpoint. Now, I can, so I have to be sure not to blow up. Once we go into the next gutted out section I look behind me and let Nixon pass me, because I’m not going to let this course rip me a new one, AGAIN. So I spend the rest of the first lap trying to find my own zone, making sure I have enough for the next 20 miles. Once I finished the first lap I can hear riders in the rear of me, but haven’t looked back yet. Once I pass the start/finish I see Matt Hammond charging.

Lap 2

SH!T, I have been riding too slow. If Matt can catch me, then I have been camping out. I have been so concerned with not blowing up that I backed off way too much. I’ll have to see if I can pick it back up, because I know he is going to “ Hard Charge It” once he gets up to me. I keep riding the same pace and as he gets up to me I pull out of the trail to let him past. But I have a problem unclipping, so I fall right over as he pass me. Now he has gapped me by 5 seconds. I don’t panic, I know Matt. I also know I’m riding good and it’s going to have to take a really hard effort for him to drop me. We are back in the tight swooping singletrack, and I’m pulling him back in. A couple of mins later I’m back on his wheel and feeling totally inspired. He is leading the 40+ Experts by a huge margin, but he is drilling it and riding like we are in the same race. Every chance he can get he is out of the saddle engaging those deep tissue muscles trying to drop me. I’m burning a match or two, but I don’t feel like I need to back off, so I stay on his wheel. I see Trent and Nixon a little bit ahead, and I’m thinking, “ We’ll catch them by the end of the lap”, and it’ll be really exciting to have 4 riders regroup for the last lap. The lap is 10 miles so it’s a lot to give that kind of effort. Then at mile 8, he waves for me to take over. He gives me the helm on of the slight downhill sections and I gun it. I’m thinking that I will get another jolt of inspiration if I’m able to get up to Trent and Nixon. I put my head down, finish the lap, and I’m above my limit and starting to feel it. At the end of the lap, I tell Matt I have no interest in catching them, and I now just want to finish in my position. My main goal is to not blow to pieces and drop off time like I did in the past.

Lap 3

Matt takes back over, he is riding fast but he no longer has the urgency to drop me because he was feeling cramps coming on in the 2nd lap effort. I’m pleased to just sit on, we trade leading sections. At the halfway point I can see Trent and Nixon, and they seem closer. At this point, Matt says he is finished taking pulls at the front. So I bring in the last half of the lap. I make several attacks to see if I can pull the guys back in that are ahead of me. I started feeling like my legs were losing power in the last 2 miles, but I’m gonna give a hard dig since the race has gone way above my expectations. I finished the race in 7th place. Only to find out it Nixon was 18 seconds ahead of me, Trent was 15 seconds ahead of him, and Greg was 10 second a head of him. So there was real battle going on up there. After the race I talked to Trent and Nixon and they both stated that seeing me coming back to them gave them extra motivation. Bound smoked everyone with Harvey coming in 2nd. Mark G lost the most time in the last lap, but still hung on for 3rd. I was happy with my performance because I’m notorious for dropping off from lap to lap. This race was my best effort to date

Last year at FL State Series my lap times on a 6.2 mile course (4laps)
Lap 1: 29.86
Lap 2: 31.81 (2mins drop off in time)
Lap 3: 33.37 (1min, 20sec drop off in time)
Lap 4: 34.49 (1min drop off in time)
Lap times this year on a longer, bigger 10mile course (3 laps):
Lap 1: 49.44
Lap 2: 50.27 (45sec drop in time)
Lap 3: 51.18 (50 sec drop of in time)

Now that is some GANGSTA A$$ “Speed Racing”

Speed Pacer Out