Finally at Timber Ridge with daylight falling fast we suited up for a ride of the last 8-9 miles of the course. 33 degrees and a inch of snow on most of the course made for an interesting warmup. I didn't have a problem and surprisingly felt great but the rest of the crew was slipping, sliding and shivering their way around the course. With the legs feeling better than I anticipated and ready to kill it we took care of the last couple items of the day.... eating, registration and a good nights sleep. A last minute ice-cream snack before bed completed the pre-race rituals :)
Saturday morning came early and everything was going smoothly. A short but solid warmup came and went being in the 3rd wave of the day. With the countdown lacking a little enthusiasm compared to the all famous GOOOOOOOOOOOOO from Don Edburg the race was off and I knew instantly it was going to be a great day! Up the right side straight into the front 3 riders in less than 10 seconds. Years of cross racing balls to the wall left me wondering why the pace wasn't at least 5 mph faster and I had all I could do to contain myself from drilling it by myself like the year before. I played my cards perfect and just sat in the top 5 guys through the entire lead out and into the woods. There were a few surges in speed as fresh legs tried to make their way to the front but soon found they couldn't handle their own pace and fell back just as quick as they came. I stayed calm and focused on the 2-3 guys in front of me just following wheels and closing the small gaps that opened when they attacked. The miles ticked by pretty fast.... the first mile marker I saw was 27 to go and the next couple were 22, 18 and 16. The pace was perfect and I only really felt red lined once as I had to close a decent gap around the 17 to go marker. That effort left me a little queasy but a couple deep breaths got the heart rate back down and settled in.
Somewhere around 15 or 14 miles to go I was at the front setting the pace and bobbled over a little icy log pile that forced me off the bike. I quickly ran the hill after the log and did a smooth cross mount to catch back on to the back of the group I was riding with. This effort and the attack that followed put me on the edge again as I yo-yo'd my way to the group. It seemed like the group was just in front of me but the gap never really got smaller or bigger for the next couple miles. By Williamsburg Road I could still see the main group in the not to far distance as I desperately tried to get into a rhythm and close the gap. I looked down at the Garmin and saw I was more than half way there in 51 minutes! This put me on track to finish around 1:45 and crush my best time. By this point my back was starting to get pretty tight and uncomfortable for some reason unknown to me and making it more and more difficult to pedal hard like I had been for the last hour. I was trying not to panic but knew the pain was getting pretty bad fast and crippling my ability to pedal hard or fast. I knew I hadn't gone out to hard and had plenty left in the tank to keep the pace at that level. It was becoming a helpless feeling as I watched what I'm quite confident was my best Iceman and season result taken away from me with nothing I could do about it! I tried to reassure myself the pain wasn't that bad and I should quit being a sally and crush it for the less than 10 miles of racing ahead of me. This thinking only worked for so long and the only relief in pain came when I was out of the saddle. Again this lasted for only so long and soon I was unable to ride up the steep climbs. My pace and heart rate were falling fast and soon I wasn't able to stay with the big groups that were passing me. The damage was done and I was going backwards fast!
The last 5 miles were the worst and found myself diminished to walking almost every hill in a feeling of helplessness. The root of the problem is still unknown but I'm guessing a pinched nerve that I've been battling with this entire season from time to time. I managed to limp my way to the finish and complete the race in a disappointing 2:06. Some how I finished 8th in my age group out of 83 to give myself a little reassurance it was not as bad of a race as it felt. Congrats to Brian Matter for his 3rd Iceman victory in 6 years! His success never ceases to amaze me and helped me to forget about my sub-par race.
No Iceman is complete without an appearance at the Bells MTB Team end of the season party! As usual it was a great time with plenty of stories from the season. Next up is late season training block to keep the fitness up for the last couple cross races. 4-5 weekends left with a couple local races, state championships, Jingle Cross and last but least Cross Nationals in Bend, OR.
