Ontario Cup, Round 2: Mansfield Outdoor Centre
Well that was one of the worst days I've experienced on a mountain bike. That's all I could think throughout the race and even after I had finished and looking back now a few days later I'm having to really dig deep into the memory bank to remember anything worse. They say the body forgets pain quite quickly hence why people run marathons again, why woman give birth a second time and why I continue to enter these races, and so with that in mind maybe I have had worse, in fact I am sure I have and I've simply forgotten about it, a mechanism of the brain that allowed me to enter on Sunday.
It didn't help that I arrived a little later than I'd have liked. My wife and baby daughter had come along for the day out and as is apt to happen when you bring a baby anywhere, things come up you don't expect and you never arrive anywhere on time. As a result I got time for a five minute warm-up at best ... just a chance to run the old ticker up to about 150 beats per minute and back down again before taking to the cattle grid of my category ready to be shuffled forward to the start line and out into the misery.
And I knew what was coming. I'd done this course last year and it was starting in the exact same place: At the bottom of a steep climb. Probably only about 600 meters in length but one that got gradually steeper the longer it went and with an average gradient of 8 percent. When you're faced with something like that then you had better well of warmed up or you're going to get a nasty kick in the lungs when it comes time to start racing.
Because of the lack of warm up and knowing the climb that faced me I should have went off steady, even easy. Had I warmed up I would have planned to start within myself, let the fastest men ride off if need be and get over the climb with my heart-rate still somewhat normal so I could ride myself into the race. Without the warm-up I really should have crawled my way up the climb, but as is always the way with me I started out a little too fast and despite sitting up a little I was still going way to quick for my body ... a body that had been relaxing a moment before only to be jolted awake by this sudden madness.
With the wife and baby about one hundred yards up the track I of course didn't want to be out the back and so I had tried to keep pace. It didn't help that my points from round one when I finish eighth resulted in a 'call up' to the start line making me think I was better than I obviously was.
Once the climb ramped up I knew I was in trouble and when I swung right upon reaching the top I could feel my lungs biting back. It was as though someone had reached in through my chest with a pair of forceps and prized those lungs wide open. The cool air of the late morning blew right in and the energy gel I'd consumed half an hour before was working its way back out of my stomach.
The first lap was a disaster.
Not to mention the fact that they had thrown in this savage single track climb that wasn't a part of last years route and with me unable to get a practice ride in this weekend it caught me unawares. Nobody that I seen was able to ride the climb from the bottom to the top. One nasty little jolt up over the routes of a tree proved too steep for everyone and a line up of walkers was formed. I wouldn't mind climbing off for a walk but with people behind me I felt obliged to run / walk fast and to me that's even worse than riding hard.
I contemplated getting off the bike at the end of the lap and calling it quits and if it hadn't been for my wife and kid who I'd dragged all the way up to this, I might have. But seeing them waiting for me at the end of the lap urged me to push on and see if I felt any better.
Bringing the baby for a day out resulted in me arriving later than I'd have preferred but if it weren't for her I probably wouldn't have finished so I was delighted to have them there. Suffering aside, the Ontario Cup series is a fantastic day out for both riders and their families. Lots going on and lots of fun.
The second lap I began to fair better as the second half of the first lap was generally flat with a nice downhill and I was able to regroup. Of course the climb at the start of the lap and that single track horror didn't make things easy but the first lap had essentially been the warm up I should have had before the race and so I started to feel a little better, though not better enough to claim I didn't ask why I was doing this while ambling up the climbs.
That second lap was quicker than the first though I tailed off again on the third and while it might have been slower than the first lap it didn't feel quite as bad either.
I ended up 13th of 20. Highly disappointing because looking at the results from the race a few weeks before there were some that beat me by a lot more today and some I had beaten in round one who were much closer this time. A bad day and in cycling we all have them, I suppose. Time to go home and get out for a few more rides to try and fair a little better next time.
My claims that I might have to consider retirement were rebuffed once I had recovered ... the brain once again forgetting just how badly it had been and was now convincing me that next time it would be much easier. I don't believe my brain but I'll go with it.
