Robidoux 2011, Race Report

What a day for racing! Second Robidoux Roundup was last Saturday on my home course and my first as a Cat 1…

I really did not know what to expect regarding my performance, I knew every single root, rock, climb out there which was going to help. Hoppe suggested that I sprint as fast as I could and try and take the hole shot since I know the course so well… Yah, whatever….

I did attempt to get in the top half which worked for the first hundred yards, but by the top of the road folks took off and I hit the hole shot like 8 deep (or something like that).  We hit the singletrack and soon realized I should have taken Hoppe’s advice. I was riding the breaks on many areas that I knew you did not have to because I was behind dudes that have never ridden out there. About 1/3 into the first lap, we started to spread out a little and about this time I realized that some dudes were redlining and slowing down bit. By the time we hit the waterfall I had passed a handful of dudes and started to drop them. At that point I thought to myself, hey, I might actually belong here in Cat 1 (was kind of surprising myself)

About this time I found myself alone, just fast enough to break away from the slower group, but not nearly fast enough to even see the leaders again. Seriously, I never saw Garrett or Travis again, they were gone!

I did not really know where I stood after lap one, refilled, and off on lap 2. My game plan was to just put it into cruise control this lap and be as smooth as I could and then hit it hard for the final lap.

As I finished up Lap 2 I found out I was doing a little better than I had thought. I thought there were still a decent group of guys in front of me.  Hoppy told me I was sitting third in my age group and fifth overall. As I was changing out my water bottles, my teammate Brad came over and said “dude, Elwell is only like a minute in front of you and he is hurting”. This gave me a little motivation to get back out for the final lap.

I pushed it pretty had for the first couple of miles when I ran into Elwell a little sooner than I expected. Brad was right, he just let me by and looked like he was hurting bad, almost injured, don’t know really what happened. I rode the rest of the lap imagining that he was behind me. Which really would not have mattered anyway, my legs were spent. My plan to take it easy on the second lap and hit it on the third really did not work, every hill my legs were wanting to cramp on me. I haven’t seen any laptimes but I am sure that last lap was pretty sad, I was in pure survival mode at that point.

But I’ll be damned, finished my first Cat 1 race 4^th overall and 2^nd in the 30-39 behind Travis.

Lots of room to improve, but okay with where I finished.

Also worth noting; JPB was putting everyones cat and age group on your calf so you know who is who. e.g. I raced Cat 1, 30-39 age group, so I had a 1-3 on my leg. Next group 40-49's had a 1-4. Garrett had a 1-youth. HA!... I thought this was flippen awesome! I hope they do this at all the races..

The trails were the best I have ever seen them! Thanks to our local trail hippy and friends!

Ethos Racing was dominant on Saturday. Took tons of podiums. Travis, Garrett, 1^st in Cat 1’s (1^st and 2^nd overall) Jesse took first in Marathon (on a SS, that’s awesome!) KRocket 1^st in hers…Had a bunch of other podiums  see below...

Results are HERE...

JPB took a bunch of pictures, you can find them HERE....

Me and Travis, Cat 1 30-39

Garrett, Cat 1, Youngins, Fastest lap I might add (34 and change)

Jimbo and Steve

Karen

Jesse 

JP Shores

Randy, AKA the Hippy