Just when I'm feeling good and getting confident, Corey reels me in and dusts me.
But I'm getting ahead of myself...
I have a somewhat interesting and sordid history with the Park City Point2Point. For the last 3 years I've come out to give this event my all and been plagued by flat tires, course errors, and an unexpected chip-timing bite-in-the-ass (that was my own fault, in the end.) Every year Corey Larrabee has ridden strong, avoided my blunders, and stood higher on the podium. This year I was determined to have a clean race and give Corey some legitimate competition for the singlespeed win.
I managed to start in the correct wave this year, a few minutes behind the Open/Pro Men and Women, which had a significant effect on how the first 25 miles of the race played-out. The opening couple of miles roll on a paved bike path, so by the time we turned onto singletrack most of our wave had shifted up (click, click, clank) and passed us by, and was riding in one long, snaking line through the sagebrush of Round Valley.
There were 5 singlespeeders riding together at this point--myself, Corey, Tom Flynn, Quinn Bingham, and Dan Nelson. Stuck in a writhing mass of cycling humanity, we had little choice but to settle in and match the pace, seeking out those few opportunities to make a pass here and there but mostly just chugging along through an exercise in patience.
Things got a little worse once we left Round Valley and headed over towards Deer Valley--numerous tight switchbacks resulted in the slinky effect, where geared riders would shift all the way down and virtually cease forward motion while navigating around the corner in granny-gear. On a singlespeed, we really want to carry momentum into a corner and embrace the G-forces to get sling-shotted out of it. Instead, this was more of a track-stand, crank hard on the pedals to power through the turn and up to the next switchback, track-stand, crank hard...
With the exception of one particularly impressive switchback where Tom cyclo-crossed off of his bike, ran around the inside of the corner and past a couple of geared riders, and vaulted back into the saddle. Sick.
With the exception of one particularly impressive switchback where Tom cyclo-crossed off of his bike, ran around the inside of the corner and past a couple of geared riders, and vaulted back into the saddle. Sick.
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| Rolling into Aide 1 with Tom. Yes, this is an awfully rocky course for that rigid fork he's riding. |
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| Thanks, baby! |
Things improved the further we worked up Deer Valley, and we rolled out of the first Aide Station with clear trail ahead. Tom blew through the Aide without taking anything and led us up sweet, forested Deer Valley singletrack. Probably my favorite riding of the day was around here, rollicking through the woods with Tom and Corey on lovely dirt. Mmm, good.
Somewhere in there I got out front and opened up a little gap, and spent the next couple of hours hoping to expand it. Crank hard on the ups, and let 'er rip on the downs. Eventually I caught up to fellow Fitzy teammates Gabe and the Flynns, who inexplicably had gears on their bikes and were sitting down and spinning up the climbs! That stuff is just slowing you down, fellas!
Erica wasn't able to give me much information about my gap back to Corey and Tom at Aide 2, other than that Corey wasn't far behind, so I cranked hard up the bastard hill to Armstrong, unable to see Corey on the descent into the Aide but not confident that I had much of a lead. The Armstrong climb was great, as usual (I love that stretch of trail,) but Corey has a habit of appearing out of nowhere when I least expect it, so I was pushing hard and cranking, cranking, cranking, and despite the effort all of a sudden there he was again, dammit, sneaking right up on me just when I was gaining some confidence about this race!
Crap!
We rode together for a couple of miles, through the forest across the Mid-Mountain Trail, and then Corey's finishing legs had more juice in them than mine did and he rode away. I tried to really give 'er on the descent towards The Canyons, and cranked the final kick-in-the-nuts climb, but never saw him again. Somehow Corey had it in him to open up 4 minutes in the last 10 miles. Brutal.
On another day it could have gone another way, but on this day Corey had a little extra fire and uncorked a hell of a finish. Taking 2nd-place definitely isn't my cup o' tea, so I'm trying to focus on the fun I had racing and the fact that I finally had a clean P2P this year--no mechanicals, stayed on-course, started with the right wave.
And there's no shame for me in being beat by the Legs of Larrabee; that dude is riding damn fast, and it's always a pleasure racing with him. What can I do but look forward to continuing the battle in another race at another place?
Maybe one of these years I'll get to offer him a ride up to Pierre's Hole...
Park City Point2Point Gearlist on AXLPATH
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| Wow, this Park City riding is fun! |
Somewhere in there I got out front and opened up a little gap, and spent the next couple of hours hoping to expand it. Crank hard on the ups, and let 'er rip on the downs. Eventually I caught up to fellow Fitzy teammates Gabe and the Flynns, who inexplicably had gears on their bikes and were sitting down and spinning up the climbs! That stuff is just slowing you down, fellas!
 |
| The climb out of Aide 2 to the Armstrong Trail is a real puker. |
Erica wasn't able to give me much information about my gap back to Corey and Tom at Aide 2, other than that Corey wasn't far behind, so I cranked hard up the bastard hill to Armstrong, unable to see Corey on the descent into the Aide but not confident that I had much of a lead. The Armstrong climb was great, as usual (I love that stretch of trail,) but Corey has a habit of appearing out of nowhere when I least expect it, so I was pushing hard and cranking, cranking, cranking, and despite the effort all of a sudden there he was again, dammit, sneaking right up on me just when I was gaining some confidence about this race!
Crap!
We rode together for a couple of miles, through the forest across the Mid-Mountain Trail, and then Corey's finishing legs had more juice in them than mine did and he rode away. I tried to really give 'er on the descent towards The Canyons, and cranked the final kick-in-the-nuts climb, but never saw him again. Somehow Corey had it in him to open up 4 minutes in the last 10 miles. Brutal.
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| And that's that. |
On another day it could have gone another way, but on this day Corey had a little extra fire and uncorked a hell of a finish. Taking 2nd-place definitely isn't my cup o' tea, so I'm trying to focus on the fun I had racing and the fact that I finally had a clean P2P this year--no mechanicals, stayed on-course, started with the right wave.
And there's no shame for me in being beat by the Legs of Larrabee; that dude is riding damn fast, and it's always a pleasure racing with him. What can I do but look forward to continuing the battle in another race at another place?
Maybe one of these years I'll get to offer him a ride up to Pierre's Hole...
Park City Point2Point Gearlist on AXLPATH
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