Somedays you're the nail, somedays you're the hammer!

Today, I HAMMERED! Yup, that's gold, and yup, I'm happy.
While just about everybody I know that races was either up in Redding racing phat tires or down in Madera racing skinny tires, I decided to forego the ten hour round trip for three hours of racing up in Redding for a small local race, which also happens to be one of my favorite courses in the country, Boggs Mountain. It is a small race just North of Calistoga in the mountains above the Napa Valley. The drive there is spectacular, and the course is a real mountain bike course with plenty of climbs and singletrack. The weather was a comfortable 81 degrees, a far cry from the two feet of snow they had just weeks ago.
Sure we had a small field, but there was definitely some worthy competitors there. Besides, it's a race...ANYTHING can happen. So my plan for the day was stay with the lead group and hope my legs would survive the 2 plus hours of racing the four laps would render. At the start of these small races, I like to get out in front and stay out of danger of someone crashing and ending my season. From the word go, I dropped the hammer, brought up the speed to the point of pain, throttled back a small bit and held it there. At the top of the first climb, I glanced over my shoulder and to my surprise, I had a gap of 15 seconds. I was feeling great so I put my head down and got to work. So much for plans of holding on...
I held that same pace all race long and never surrendered the lead. I managed to steadily increase my margin every lap, though I never felt comfortable and let up. My legs managed to hang in there and I was pleased with the results...mostly with the sensation of finally putting together a great ride where the body responded well.
This could not have come at a better time with NORBA Nationals round 1 next weekend down in Los Angeles and after my Sore Loser attitude I had last weekend with the Chuckleheads. My training is finally starting to show in the races...not just in training. That's good considering how much training I have put in over the winter...in the rain... and how many BIG races I have coming up in this, my final season as a full time professional. Again, it was a bit of an emotional day, knowing that this would be the last time I would race Boggs at the top of my game. I certainly made sure I enjoyed the ride regardless of the results on paper, but victory sure is sweet. Hopefully this is not my last...

I think this had something to do with my performance today.