Curse of the Park City Point 2 Point

The Stats:

• ~75 Miles
• ~14,000' of climbing
• 2nd-Place Singlespeed, 13th Overall
• 7:04:49 to the finish.

I'm not really sure what to think about this year's Park City Point2Point--still shocked by the outcome.  But let's get to that later...

I loved the racing at this year's P2P--I felt strong throughout and REALLY enjoyed the riding; Jay and Shannon have built a truly amazing course--they nailed it this year!

When the potato gun went off and we charged onto the bike path, I stayed focused on just riding with the pack and staying upright; the 2 miles of pavement was the most chaotic "peloton" that I've ever been in.  Riders weaving in and out, cutting eachother off, slamming on the brakes and skidding to avoid hitting somebody ahead--it was nuts.  Big relief to get on dirt and focus on riding my race rather than avoiding everybody else's race.

After the Round Valley warm-up, the P2P is defined by long climbs and LONG descents, and lots and lots of singletrack.  Rare opportunities to relax the brain or body as you're either hammering uphill or hammering downhill, focused on staying on the trail and working the terrain.

Rolling into the Deer Valley aide station.

Without a doubt the highlight of the day was soaring down Corvair after exiting the Flagstaff Loop.   That trail should be named Carve-Air; it's a romping downhill full of fast, banked turns and air-inducing rollers through dense forest.  Some of the biggest fun I've had on a bike.

The Camelbak hand-off.  Erica has this maneuver dialed.

Photo: Sarah Hamilton

I had left Round Valley in the lead for the singlespeeders, with no other SS riders in sight, so I decided to temper my pace through the Deer Valley aide station and over to Park City, wanting to save some legs for racing at the Fool's Gold next weekend--that was my tactical error.  Every race is a race, and if I want to win I have to compete like I want to win.  Should have stayed on the throttle throughout.  I mean, I was certainly racing out there--it's just that now I'm kicking myself for not pushing harder early-on.

Leaving the Park City aide with a fresh Camelbak and a nylon stocking of ice on my neck.

Photo: Sarah Hamilton

In any case, when Corey Larrabee caught me on the descent into Park City I was caught completely off-guard; where the hell did he come from?!  So when we left the PC aide and started up the bastard climb to the Armstrong Trail I knew I was going to have to pin it up Armstrong and try to open a gap before the final descent.  Corey was spinning well but I managed to pull ahead just a bit and maintain a tiny gap.  I dug SUPER deep to stay out ahead--one of the harder racing efforts I've put out in one of these events--and at every switchback Corey would still be there, 30 seconds back, 45 seconds back.

It was infuriating.

When the trail turned down I opened the throttle as wide as I could, staying off the brakes and riding the margin of control to stay out front.  The final climb up Ambush was the kick-in-the-nuts that it always is, and then back on the edge of control down to the finish.  Corey rolled in about a minute later with a bloody knee and mangled front wheel.  (He rode beyond the edge of control.)  Damn close finish!

Almost done! Nearing the end of the final descent, with Corey in the background.

Done.

I guess she takes after me...

I was way stoked to have held my lead and stayed in contention for the NUE Series SS championship, so it was crushing to check the results board an hour later and discover that because Corey started in a wave 2 minutes behind me he had completed the course a minute faster and thus was the actual winner.  Brutal.  Seemed like everybody was a little surprised by that outcome--an unexpected side-effect of chip-timing, and a hard one to accommodate for.  How do you race head-to-head if you're not sure when you started relative to eachother?

As it turns out, Corey technically started in the correct wave; the way it's broken down, the Pro/Open Men start first, followed by the Pro/Open Women, then a self-estimated 7-hour finish time wave (where Corey started), 8-hour wave, 9-hour wave...  I'm accustomed to the singlespeeds being grouped with the Pro/Open division, so when I saw a handful of other singlespeeders in with the Pro/Open field I made an assumption...  Turns out that Jay wanted us mixed in with the finish-time groups. 

Disappointed, but stoked to watch for friends finishing up a hard race.

So there it is--the Point2Point gets me again.  Disappointed?  Yes.  It's hard to see a season's effort at competing for the NUE Series go south by one minute in the weirdness of chip-timing.

But fuck it.  I'm going to the Fools' Gold anyway to see how I can compete against the singlespeed field at the championship event.

Here's to riding fast and racing hard...