CamRock recap

Welcome back! Or if this is your first time, just welcome! Since I have a race coming up this weekend I thought I had better recap my last effort.

The weekend of August 6 & 7 was the Battle of CamRock, in Rockdale, WI. Tammy and I went down on Saturday and did our pre-ride in the afternoon. We weren't too sure about the venue when we parked and unloaded the bikes, but after a lap around the course we both really liked the layout.

We woke up at 6 a.m. Sunday morning to a heavy down pour! We haven't had a really muddy race yet this year so I was crossing my fingers that it would let up before the racing began. By the time we were ready to walk to the diner and have breakfast the rain had stopped. Hopefully it was just enough to dampen the course and knock the dust down.

My race started at it's usual time of 11:30 a.m. After my last race I was hoping for a little better race. My main goal was to race hard and not mail in the last lap, which is kind of what I did at Eau Claire. No matter what, I wanted to give it all I had and finish strong.

The race started with a short but fairly steep climb. I had a good start and was 3rd or 4th in my wave at the top. I saw one racer in my age group (50-54) pass me part of the way up, but I let him go. I didn't want to blow up in the first couple hundred yards.

The course featured a lot of single track. Some was wide enough to pass, otherwise it was a waiting game until the course emptied in to the open field areas. I felt good in the single track and tried to push hard when the course opened up. Going up the climb at the start of the second lap one of the racers in my age group caught, and passed me. I pretty much knew this was going to happen because it was his home course and he knew where to push, where to catch his breath and where to take it easy. Home course advantage does help!

I finally caught the age grouper who had flown up the opening climb in one of the field sections on lap two. I could see him ahead of me for quite a while and just bided my time. I didn't keep lap splits but I felt I was riding steady and consistent.

Halfway through lap three another age grouper caught and passed me. I figured this put me in third, but it's hard to tell with the mad, land rush starts. I felt good and tried to stay on his wheel but we got some slower racers in between us and I just never found a passing opportunity. I can't see running somebody off the course for the sake of moving up a spot. Maybe it's a lack of killer instinct or just trying to be polite. I guess I hope for the same consideration when I'm the slower rider.

As I came out of the last section of single track at the end of the final lap, I heard some fans yelling at a rider behind me. I was sure it was someone in my age class so I picked up the pace and headed for that damn climb, one more time! I pushed as hard as I could, not daring to look over my shoulder. I was sure he was right on my wheel. The course leveled out a little for the last hundred yards to the line. I pushed, sure he was there. When I dared to look back there wasn't anyone there. And when I finished I found out it wasn't who I thought it was. But it did give me added incentive to finish strong.

I am mostly satisfied with my race. I had a little bit of an issue with breakfast, mainly keeping it in, but once that was resolved I felt great. My only other concern while I was racing was riding a new bike. I had put maybe 5 miles on a new Trek X-Caliber and was a little nervous about the little fine tuning a bike usually needs after a ride or two. No worries though, as it worked great.

I ended up 68/156 finishers in Sport overall and 3/13 in my age group, just a little under 2 minutes from first and 26 seconds from third. I still feel like I need to work on my fueling and hydration but it's coming around. Fitness wise I felt good. Definitely much stronger and more endurance than Eau Claire.

This weekend, August 20 & 21 is the Border Battle in River Falls. My goal here is of course, to finish and do well, but more important, to represent Wisconsin well, as this is also a competition between Minnesota and Wisconsin. All of us Cheeseheads want to keep the trophy in Wisconsin. Hopefully being on vacation will have me rested and ready for a strong race. I'll post that race a little quicker.

Thanks for checking this out.

Gotta go...........