I really have no business racing today, for a variety of reasons, which aren’t really important.  I am going to race today because it sounds like fun.

Vincent has been planning on racing here all week.  He got tired of beating upon all the expert 40+ guys, so decided he was going to be racing Pro now, which is a great decision.  There are too many guys that like to win over trying to improve, or challenge themselves.

So, I decided to tag along.  I didn’t really plan on racing, it is kind of a spur of the moment decision.  But, I hope, a good one.

Last year at this time, I was on crutches and went to this very race and waited around the expo area for Bill and Vincent to finish the race.  It is a point to point race that starts down in Fraser and finishes in Winterpark.  I have no idea what the course is like, which is fine.  I just need to live the MTB lifestyle a bit to get solid footing back into the sport.

This is part of the Colorado Freeride Festival.  It was pretty fun hanging out last year, watching the jumping and seeing the enduro guys take off, but when I was there, I wanted to race.  Now that I have that opportunity, it would be stupid to waste it because of nothings.

Okay, it is early and it is an hour and half drive up to Winterpark from Arvada.  It is going to be a little chilly, I bet, riding over to Fraser for the start.  Plus, it goes straight uphill right from the gun.  You saw how well that worked for the Sky team yesterday in the Tour.  I doubt it is going to be much different for me today.

Yesterday I raced a cross country MTB race in Winterpark.  Earlier this year, I had raced in Vail, at the GoPro games and also the Lutsen 99’r, but this race was a “real” MTB race.  Steep climbing, from the gun, and pretty technical descents.  Technical enough that I felt out of my element.

It is strange how you can get rusty at things that you don’t do often.  You know, in your mind, that you have the skills to do the task, but it seems so intimidating that you just can’t let go.

I realized this on Friday when Vincent, Bill and I rode over to South Table and started down a pretty steep trail.  So steep that we had to walk a short bit.  Then it got to a place that looked ridable, but the downside of not staying on your bike was pretty heavy.

I used to ride descents like this easily.  I knew it and that was the reason that I finally clipped in and just did it.  After I got moving, it was fine, but trying to overcome the first concern was difficult.

Gathering skills for the sport of cycling is one thing that has always attracted me to the sport. There is a huge skill set needed to excel at all disciplines of the sport.   No one rider has all the skills, there are to many.  But, possessing more of the skills make you more versatile and makes the sport easier.  Possessing skills sometimes makes up for lack of power or speed.  Each aspect of the sport needs its own skill set, although some overlap somewhat.  Cycling is a combination of athletic ability, skills and intellect.   That is the best thing about the sport.

Anyway, I got better as the race went on.  Well, I got better when I applied an effort.  It takes a ton of concentration to flow down a fast singletrack over loose rock.  The downside can be huge.

Anyway, I finished the race without a drop of blood on me, which is pretty unusual for me. Plus, I raised my bike handling skills a level.  Now just a couple more levels to go before I’m mildly content.

There was some stuff like this, but most of the real technical sections were chutes of loose rock with small drop offs.