I had planned to start my season in the middle of December. Might have had a lot of miles on by now too. However, the same sinus infection that took me out of Jinglecross took me out all the way into early January. I did have a mediocre day at the Solstice Chase but went totally back in the hole after that. Since getting on antibiotics early in January I've felt much better. Thankfully, too, because I had a great trip to Colorado last week skiing!
Anyways, that meant I pulled the plug on the Triple D and was free to race the Snow Crush on what little training I have in my legs. More or less that consisted of the ride where I took this picture two weeks ago!
The
Snow Crush was a lot of fun. The course was firm and fast and the River Bend Nature Center is always scenic. It was also a great place for Riley to hang out and check out the animals etc.. pre and post race.
The paper always gets things just a bit wrong... but yeah, I was really hot at the end! The Almanzo is a lot of fun (although, the
Dickie is my event). The PWC appears to be dead moving forward (disappointing to me because I love that type of racing... riding a tight rope!). Oh, and I did win.
It was very windy and with such cold/firm temperatures it was not very technical. Riding skill wasn't going to be what separated the fastest people on the front in those conditions. In the end it came down to 'road' type tactics. I knew I didn't have too much in my legs fairly early on, but was also able to get into the ideal position in second wheel. On the first lap I was worried Dustin Gaffke was going to just ride me off his wheel and take off, but with each hill it was easier to hang on. I'm sure the wind was wearing him out some. He certainly had an opportunity to drop me early. By the last lap I had an idea of how the race would go down. It was a challenge not to attack too early. In fact, I did try to attack too early on the one technical descent but my gap was short lived. That served to put me on the front of a group of three though heading to the finish. Not the worst place to be considering how I expected things to shake out. Patience would be the key.
There was a relatively long hill with about 600 meters to go with a false flat. I knew things would go off on the way up. Both riders came off my wheel and opened up decent gaps on me on the main pitch. I was able to stay patient though, do my own thing and then run them down on the false flats before the final descent/sprint to the finish.
Results are here.
After the Solstice Chase I was sort of excited about fatbike racing this year. The combination of the sinus infection and my second daughter being due in about 2 weeks now will mean that I may be done after just these two races. Maybe next year!
Yeah, I wore a ski helmet and goggles. GOGGLES.
