I RACED LANCE! How do you think I did? I was hoping I'd run into him and let him borrow "my" Arantix.... He didn't seem to need the help. As you can see, I did run into Dave Weins (the 44 yo that BEAT Lance last year) He was pretty cool but I didn't offer the ARANTIX. He was too tall for my medium.
THE "RACE" - IN A NUT SHELL
We lined up at 5:15 am to get a "good" position since there were 1400 entrants. The race started at 6:30. It was a long wait in 38 degree temp. I went to pee twice during that time (should have gone three times though). It was a decent start despite the huge numbers. I got a good position but had to keep a pretty good pace up the first wet cold climb to keep my position. I went out too hard as usual and I paid for it for the rest of the race. The decent down powerline trail was wet but fast. The was the most exhilarating part of the race. I passed a lot of people (that would pass me later). My gloves were soaked at the first aid station and I changed over to another pair from my drop bag but it took a lot of time with cold hands. I was passed by a hoard of riders and after I got on I was feeling pretty tired. By the time I started the 10 mile climb to Columbine mine I started cramping so I very frequently had to spin it out in granny gear. That was essentially the rest of the race. Granny spin, cramp anyway, get off hike, go again, wonder why I am doing this etc. I had a goal of 8 hr 30 min to push myself to a more realistic under 9 but would have ended up at 9:30 except 3 miles from the finish my SRAM quick link broke (4 the 2nd time this year! but no more) and because the replacement wouldn't fit I lost 31 minutes. I finished under 10 hrs in 9hrs 59 min and 59 sec. Good experience but this is just a kick your butt course between the weather, altitude and climbing.
CORRECTION; last blog I incorrectly wrote that Columbine was over 13000. Nope, it's ONLY 12300. Piece of cake. NOT!
KC kicked butt (mine too) doing the course in 7 hr 59 min for an overall 3rd place!
Chris came in just under 8 hours in 19th place against a stacked field of pros including Lance, Dave Weins, Tinker, Alex Grant etc.
Brad Mullen had a "fun" ride finishing a bit over 10 hrs.
I'll post more pics later since I'm having trouble posting them on the laptop.
The ARANTIX did awesome and drew huge attention and comments. I swear if I could have just 1 kcal of energy for each "wow" comment I might have beat Lance!
2 comments:
Great job Karl, perhaps next year we'll get a few more to go along for the trip.
I recognized your bike at the top of Columbine. I was up there volunteering in hopes of getting in next year. Hard to miss it, looks like a fun bike.
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