TSE Hump Day – Day 4.
It was day 4 of 7 today so only 3 stages remaining. Once again, as predicted, we gained on our sole competitors. Our course today consisted of Tsali like trails mostly on contour following the edge of Raystown Lake. We had two twenty ish mile laps to complete. Today we gained 6500’ in 42 miles. Yesterday we gained less but it hurt more because the climbs were continuous. Today we had 42 miles of fun rolling-dip-grade, side hill bench cut, machine made trails much similar in fashion to the trails at Dupont State Forest and that worn out place known as Tsali. This course made us smile. We laughed and had a lot of fun.
The race started with a controlled start from a paved road at lakes edge. We had to pedal about ½ mile up an 8-10% grade then into the single track. Cissy and I started a little too hard and had to back up off of it for just a tad. We shortly got into a good rhythm and started to gain on who ever we saw ahead of us. There was only one aid station today and it was located at mile 9 of the course. On our second lap just as we were approaching the aid station, I noticed the leading team in our class just up ahead of us. I was psyched. I had been telling Cissy that we were gaining on them since the second day. Finally, what I had been whining about came to fruition – our competitors wearing thin and in our sites. The aid station had tape set up to guide our path into the open field that was now a bike race aid station. When our competitors saw us they switched out some empty water bottles for some full ones and kept on. We did the same. Now we were right on their tails with 13 miles of race remaining. I thought since we had caught up to them that they were worn out, but they were evidently discounting us. Needless to say they picked up the pace. We could see them in the opposite side of the coves on the trail, just a little ahead of us then their gap kept growing. Finally they were out of sight, but not out of mind. Cissy got up to my wheel and I told her we were going to have to grunt out every hill in order to catch them. “Just look at the ground and pedal. Don’t think about nothing else except pedaling as hard as you can”, I told her. We employed that specific idea and cranked as hard as we could. I was a little sad that our competitors had gotten out of sight but I did not give up. In a race this close anything could happen. If they had a wreck or any mechanical snafu, we would catch and pass them. Not that we would wish misfortune on any team, because we wouldn’t, but we just wanted to catch them.
We kept pedaling, madly. Cissy is a stronger climber than me and she would catch me on the climbs, so I was letting it go on the downhills. We kept at it and suddenly up through the woods I caught a slight glimpse of our competitor's orange kits. I told Cissy to stay on my wheel no matter how hard. We sneaked up behind them and caught our breaths just enough to make our move. They had not noticed that we had caught back up so when I passed the first guy he yelled to his partner “I’m not behind you any more Andy, you gotta pick it up”. There I was positioned between both riders with Cissy behind the first place team’s second rider. Now it was Adam, Me, Adam’s partner then Cissy. At this point we had about 1 mile of course remaining. The four of us were flying, cranking for all we were worth. I was hoping for one more really steep long climb but from here on out it was a pure power move to get to the finish line. Adam was hurting but we were determined. Our frantic foursome approached some stray riders who obviously heard us working hard and just moved out of the way to let this freight train roll by. It was like we were creating a breeze that surprised and made each person we passed lean back away from the trail with an expression showing amazement and excitement for a close race.
Cissy and I held with them as long as we could. In this race, there is a 30 second rule. As applied to the duo team category, it means that you can never be 30 seconds away from your partner. While I was cranking and keeping our competitors team split up, I was also yelling to Cissy to see if she could pass but the guy behind me was just too fresh and we had to let em go.
They beat us by 22 seconds.
We will be at the starting line again tomorrow and I will not give up.
I forgot to put my computer on the bike this am so these stats are from Cissy’s ride.
42 miles
31.5 max
4:04
6300’ climbing
Avg 10.1 ish
It was day 4 of 7 today so only 3 stages remaining. Once again, as predicted, we gained on our sole competitors. Our course today consisted of Tsali like trails mostly on contour following the edge of Raystown Lake. We had two twenty ish mile laps to complete. Today we gained 6500’ in 42 miles. Yesterday we gained less but it hurt more because the climbs were continuous. Today we had 42 miles of fun rolling-dip-grade, side hill bench cut, machine made trails much similar in fashion to the trails at Dupont State Forest and that worn out place known as Tsali. This course made us smile. We laughed and had a lot of fun.
The race started with a controlled start from a paved road at lakes edge. We had to pedal about ½ mile up an 8-10% grade then into the single track. Cissy and I started a little too hard and had to back up off of it for just a tad. We shortly got into a good rhythm and started to gain on who ever we saw ahead of us. There was only one aid station today and it was located at mile 9 of the course. On our second lap just as we were approaching the aid station, I noticed the leading team in our class just up ahead of us. I was psyched. I had been telling Cissy that we were gaining on them since the second day. Finally, what I had been whining about came to fruition – our competitors wearing thin and in our sites. The aid station had tape set up to guide our path into the open field that was now a bike race aid station. When our competitors saw us they switched out some empty water bottles for some full ones and kept on. We did the same. Now we were right on their tails with 13 miles of race remaining. I thought since we had caught up to them that they were worn out, but they were evidently discounting us. Needless to say they picked up the pace. We could see them in the opposite side of the coves on the trail, just a little ahead of us then their gap kept growing. Finally they were out of sight, but not out of mind. Cissy got up to my wheel and I told her we were going to have to grunt out every hill in order to catch them. “Just look at the ground and pedal. Don’t think about nothing else except pedaling as hard as you can”, I told her. We employed that specific idea and cranked as hard as we could. I was a little sad that our competitors had gotten out of sight but I did not give up. In a race this close anything could happen. If they had a wreck or any mechanical snafu, we would catch and pass them. Not that we would wish misfortune on any team, because we wouldn’t, but we just wanted to catch them.
We kept pedaling, madly. Cissy is a stronger climber than me and she would catch me on the climbs, so I was letting it go on the downhills. We kept at it and suddenly up through the woods I caught a slight glimpse of our competitor's orange kits. I told Cissy to stay on my wheel no matter how hard. We sneaked up behind them and caught our breaths just enough to make our move. They had not noticed that we had caught back up so when I passed the first guy he yelled to his partner “I’m not behind you any more Andy, you gotta pick it up”. There I was positioned between both riders with Cissy behind the first place team’s second rider. Now it was Adam, Me, Adam’s partner then Cissy. At this point we had about 1 mile of course remaining. The four of us were flying, cranking for all we were worth. I was hoping for one more really steep long climb but from here on out it was a pure power move to get to the finish line. Adam was hurting but we were determined. Our frantic foursome approached some stray riders who obviously heard us working hard and just moved out of the way to let this freight train roll by. It was like we were creating a breeze that surprised and made each person we passed lean back away from the trail with an expression showing amazement and excitement for a close race.
Cissy and I held with them as long as we could. In this race, there is a 30 second rule. As applied to the duo team category, it means that you can never be 30 seconds away from your partner. While I was cranking and keeping our competitors team split up, I was also yelling to Cissy to see if she could pass but the guy behind me was just too fresh and we had to let em go.
They beat us by 22 seconds.
We will be at the starting line again tomorrow and I will not give up.
I forgot to put my computer on the bike this am so these stats are from Cissy’s ride.
42 miles
31.5 max
4:04
6300’ climbing
Avg 10.1 ish
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