EFTA's Battle at Burlingame: 6 laps on a Roller Coaster of a Race Track

photo by John Robertson

SWOOPY.  

I know it's not a real word, but to swoop means to move with a sweeping motion so swoopy works to sum up this race.  Don't worry though, I won't leave it all to swoopy for the recap; I'll elaborate a bit (per usual).

Elite Ladies Start - by John Robertson

Coming into the race, it didn't look like Karen and I were going to have any competition besides each other.  However, Sue Lynch and Kate Lysakowski were at the starting line to round out a pleasantly competitive field.  With Karen as last year's reigning champ, my goal was to keep her in sight for as long as possible and finish within ten minutes of her.  I was assuming Sue would do her usual seek and destroy mission on me; by that I mean that she starts behind me and then slowly reels me in by chatting with me until she blows by me on the slightest of climbs, steadily pulling away from me never to be seen again.  As for Kate, she is an insanely strong rider who is on a pro road team this season and completely kills it a cyclocross.  With the swoopiness of this course, I figured it should be perfect for her.

Elite Ladies Start - by John Robertson

We started out pretty tame because there's a couple of feature within the first half mile that can ruin the entire race if you aren't careful: (1) a water trench with jagged rocks and only a tiny smooth spot to accommodate one bike at a time and (2) a gigantic log that you can't really go over at speed unless you are a superhero.  We hung together for the most part until we reached "the bridges."  These are a series of bridges interspersed with rocks and roots.  It's one of the two-ish technical sections on the course, and this is where the field started to break up.  I saw Karen gain some ground, and then at the next straight away, she took off, and I never saw her again.  Behind me, the sounds of Sue and Kate were getting more quiet by the second.  I had a couple scares when I looked back and saw a Union Velo jersey behind me, but the first was just Shawn as he lead the men's singlespeed group and the second fellow-garden newbie, Dave Fagnant.

Swooping along - by Mike Flynn

The race went by insanely fast.  We had agreed at the starting line to do 6 laps after being given the option to do 5 or 6.  At the end of lap 4, there was some confusion as to how many more laps I would be doing...  in that confusion, I went out on lap 5 as though it might be my last.  You can imagine my surprise as I came through the finish area to learn that I did in fact have another lap to go.  I laughed, rebooted my mindset for another lap, and pushed into it.  I was shocked that I felt so fantastic on that last lap, and it may have been my fastest.  30+ miles later (or more if you count the lap I did before the race to pre-ride it), I was feeling pretty good and excited to know that I finished in second,,, but where the heck did Sue and Kate go?  Unfortunately, I found out that they had both crashed.  Kate first - to the point where her handlebars were so twisted up that Sue stopped to help her unscrew some things and set her straight, and the Sue on a fast straightaway where a stick in the spokes caused an ejector seat-styled endo.  I didn't see her until it was podium time where she looked like a hot ball of pain with an ice pack on her face and blood peaking out from the bottoms of her capris.

Chatting w/ Mr. Watson - by John Robertson

The course itself was fast and dry.  I fell down hard on one of my last laps in the other technical section when my tire washed out on a loose area.  Fortunately, my bike and I were just fine, and I got right back into the race.  I saw a lot of people crash though.  There were a couple of sections where you had a slightly steep little downhill swoop with a rock or two or ten in the middle.  There were awkward options around them, or there was the straight line over the boulder route.  I learned a while back that straight is usually safest, so I went with that every lap.  For awhile, I had Andrew Watson of Watson Cycles riding behind me.  We were having a good time chatting about racing and things, but at some point I encouraged him to move along past me...  I was only on lap 3 or 4 at that point and knew I'd need to pace myself a bit; I felt like I was holding the guy back no matter how much he insisted that I was pacing him.  Had I known he was in second in his category, I would have told him to get lost a lot sooner!  Speaking of passing, that was one part about the course that was a challenge.  With so much fast singletrack, it was difficult to find a good opportunity to let others by - I did a lot of bushwhacking to make way for some fast dudes.

In all, it was a great day to be racing.  The race was put on by NBX, and other than DAS and my teammates, those NBX guys are my favorite crew.  I'm really glad that the course was mostly identical to last year's because I was able to compare my times.  Last year, I finished in 3:06:55.  This year, it was about 2:54:?  Additionally, I met my goal of being within ten minutes of Karen.  I believe her time was about 2:47 (wicked fast!!).

Next week there are two races to choose from in New England.  EFTA's Weeping Willow, and Root 66's Wrath of the Boneyard.  What's with all the Ws?  Anyhow, I'm going to the Boneyard.  The willow is not for me.  Here's hoping some more ladies will join me so I don't have to race against the boys.

SIDE NOTE:
I made my own GU concoction for this race.  Chia seeds and some other junk... tasted good, went down smooth (thanks to the natural gel coating of a wet chia seed), and kept me loaded with energy.  Two thumbs up.