Beast of the East- and oh yeah, I suck at descending

I should have known driving up that this one was going to go down in the annals. Anxiety regarding the impending pain was in the air. Ignorance is bliss I guess because I had no idea what I was in store for.

Looking out the window while heading north on Rte. 100, I could see Mt. Snow in the distance. My immediate thought was, ah, it's not that steep. I should probably not make quick assumptions. This being my 7th mtb race ever, I've come to the quick determination that I'm not a big fan of ski resort races. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the sustained 20% climbs (who wouldn't?) but these courses are just up, up, up, and down, down, down. Pat's Peak a couple of weeks ago was an absolute sufferfest- 2:40+ in 90 degree heat with a blown back and triceps. I've never experienced a pain like that on a bike. Ever.

Well, Mt. Snow couldn't be as bad. Or could it? I found out we were doing 3 laps of a roughly 6 mile loop. Like Pat's Peak it would be climb for 25 min. and descend for 15. Only thing was that the descending would be roughly 100x as hard. This was to be a course where a good technical rider would excel. And that good technical rider is not me. Lining up, we've got like 15 in our group. Whistle blows and I'm settled in to roughly 10th place as the climbing begins. I was feeling pretty good, though a trend started to develop where I'd pass a couple guys on a climb and get passed back on an ensuing singletrack descent. I remember thinking early on that this course wasn't too bad. Boy, would I ever be wrong. The last section of singletrack that shot you back down to the start/finish was ridiculous. I was sliding all over the trail and it felt like I started riding a mountain bike yesterday. I ended up washing out on a mud-covered root and going over the bars at slow speed, hitting my head (lightly) on a tree. At this point I made the executive decision that I didn't want to pull a "hilljunkie" (sorry, Doug) so I ran the rest of the tech section in lap 1 and lap 2.

Just after coming out of the woods on Lap 2, I was caught by the first Pro woman who started 2 minutes behind me. I've been making a habit of getting girl'd of late and that, along with the fact that I was getting beaten by guys I know I'm stronger than, was starting to wear on me. The rest of lap 2 and all of lap 3 went something like this: Open up gap on Pro woman (all 94 lbs of her) on climbs and let said gap evaporate on ensuing descent. On final techy descent I let her go and she thanks me. She says, "Come ride with me" as she goes by, and I stick to her like glue as she starts railing the descent. I follow her lines and I feel like I can semi-ride a mtb again. It's by far the fastest I've ridden this section all day. I guess maybe I need a little carrot dangling in front of me in the form of attractive woman to get me through the techy stuff.

I ended up having to open up a bit of a sprint to the finish as a guy in my class was bearing down on me. Not the greatest result on the day- 9th, but I'm still holding onto 3rd in the series standings. The last couple of races haven't been my best efforts or should I say, results. Unfortunately for me, mountain biking has a huge technical component and a more adept rider can gain huge chunks of time on a course like Mt. Snow. I was getting a little frustrated but I have to remind myself that I've been riding a mountain bike for less than two years and yet here I sit 3rd in the series as a Cat 1. I'm racing against guys that have been riding a mtb for 20 years. I'll get there.

Stats for metrics geeks:

17.02 miles, 2:11, 3651' vert

Lap 1: 43:02
Lap 2: 43:54
Lap 3: 43:27

How's that for consistency?!