Laddie's Loppet (or, what a difference a week makes)

This course used to give me nightmares. Came up on Saturday and prerode with Jamison. Glad I did. I took my time and rerode a few sections to get them dialed in. We ended up clearing everything, which gave me a big boost of confidence for Sunday. Everyone talks about the "Lakeside Drops" (see above), but there are many, many spots on the course that are way more difficult. But, none of those spots is 10 inches from the lake, where if anyone crashes, they go into the drink.

Race day hit with temps in the high 80's and wicked humidity. My plan was to not go out too strong at the start and then try to bring it on the last lap. Well, I should have gone faster, because it got really, really jammed up in the first section of singletrack. I had to get off and run several times due to people in front of me falling (not a complaint, just an observation, I ate it right in front of someone later on). This really broke my rhythm and spiked my heart rate. I made it through all of the drops and sketchy singletrack in one piece and came around to start Lap 2. By now the heat and humidity were really doing a number on me. I grabbed a bottle from Jen and drained most of it before I hit the singletrack. Then, I started getting the chills and feeling like a full-body cramp was coming on. I eased way off the gas and just focused on riding smoothly and getting through the race. I noticed lots of other guys were cooking as well, so I just tried to keep it going and hoped I would recover. It was pretty slow going for a while, and all the punchy climbs were just killing me. But, at about mile 4 I saw Zilla and thought I had a chance to at least keep him in sight (I need to finish higher than him for the Series Overall). Well, I was finally able to catch and pass him, but he's got mad skills on the technical stuff, especially descents, and I knew he'd be tough to shake. He was behind me on the last steep climb up to the big boulder. I didn't have enough power to clear the boulder and went down right in front of him (again, sorry about that Zilla!). I was able to get back on and I gave it everything I had from there on out. I saw the 1k to go sign and popped it in the big ring and just went for it. I didn't look back until I got within sight of the finish. There was nobody behind me, so I rolled across the line, quite happy to just finish.

Ended up 2nd in my group, which was my best MNSCS finish ever. Not sure how that happened considering how close I was to a total bonk. Peace Coffee had a pretty good day. Jamison got second in his group, Clayton smoked me for the first time all year, and Bryan just missed the Top 10 overall in his first Comp race. I think the "dream" is still alive for a top 3 overall spot for me, but I'll have to see how the results shake out and who else is still in it. Big props to everyone at Maplelag Resort for making this the coolest race every year.

"Lakeside Drop" photo from Skinnyski.com