Lake Pueblo turned out to be the perfect first race of the year. The temperature was in the 60’s and the trails were dry, despite lots of rain lately. The course featured a mass start on paved road. The group rode about a mile on pavement before moving to single track. Jockeying for position on the road was really fun and spread the group out so that the single track wasn’t crowded. Once we hit dirt, there were a couple of short steep sections that further separated people. Eventually, there were four of us together from the Sport Category for most of the ride.
The trail was actually really cool. Very twisty and “flowy”, with a few short climbs. In several places, the trail gets very close to cliffs above the lake, providing for a good view and a little adrenalin. I wish I had pics, but the official YOA.com race photographer, Mindy, was somewhere over the Pacific on her way back from business in Hong Kong.
I placed 12th out of 50 riders in my class. I rode with the two guys above me for most of the race but they dropped me on the last climb and I was unable to catch them on the downhill into the finish. Amazing how insurmountable 20 seconds can be in a race like this. My goal was mid-pack, so I think this race was a success.
The treat of the day was witnessing the finish of the women’s Expert Category, which featured a sprint between Kelli Emmett and Katie Compton. Kelli is a former singlespeed mountain biking world champion and Katie is the reigning U.S. National Cyclocross champion. Kelli had the inside line and won in a near photo finish. Pretty awesome to see two world-class cyclists battle it out in a tiny little race in Southern Colorado.
Next week is the dreaded Lookout Hill Climb. My goal is to have a time between 26 and 27 minutes. My current personal best is 27:30, so the goal is a stretch, but doable on a good day. If I were in the low 26 minute range last year, I would have finished around 79th out of 86 riders in Category 4 (the lowest Category). This is a big boy race.