TJ Woodruff ONLINE

photo courtesty of Nachobar.com

This race came down to the final stages once again in a way somewhat resemblant to last year. Our lead group of six played a tactical race on the fast, flat and rain-soaked course. The tacky soil was quick for the most part, but the critical areas of the course were the mud bogs that had been partially filled with wood chips - serious watt suckers. I ran the Oriflamme tires which proved to be a good call as they hooked up nicely and rolled fast all day.

From the start I was ready to race and have a rematch from last week. The first snafu was at the start when the diamond file tread didn’t hook up so well on the wet grass under the big torque. My first two downstrokes at the line yielded a cool ‘zip, zip’ sound effect, but I hadn’t moved forward. Having enough of ameatur hour I accelerated gingerly and got up the hill and into position. I moved up soon enough to sit in until the going got a bit hot towards the end of the first lap (of three). Mike launched his tire so we had to chase back up to the Lalondes. The second lap was mostly mellow and I kept first, second, or sometimes third wheel into the singletrack, but never further back. With six guys on, the train gets too stretched out for that.

During the final lap things were getting more tactical and we were sprinting into most of the singletrack sections. I might have led some of the earlier sections, but the later sections Jesse and Marko were wise to position themselves in front of me. There was some good racing going on and I was all for it. Good battles can be hard to come by, but I knew with these guys it was going to fun. Jesse had a couple good blocks for Marko but I kept the chase on hard. Mega-hard. I caught back on at one of the connector ski trail sections and had a brief moment of respite, but it didn’t last for long as we were now ripping through the mud bogs putting down some inside-out type efforts. It was the second to last bog that they got a bit of a gap and left me to chase. I could see them up the trail, but I was at the limit and closing it down for a second time was a steep order, but I hadn’t thrown in the towel. I kept at it until losing it in final mud bog, doing a pretty good slip and slide, smacking my left calf into the pedal hard enough for it to cramp. That was it for me and I had to be content with third and simply finish before getting caught from behind. I pedaled it in, but wanted more. Third place is great, but fortunately the season is young and I’ll get another fight for a win soon enough.

In other news Scot decided to race after a ten year hiatus from the knobbies. He medaled in Comp which was a solid return. Also, his brother Bret did bottle feeds for us which was a HUGE help to our performances. On race day you can’t go fast without good support so I’m grateful for those who help make it happen. Lower your rotating mass, keep fueled, your vision clear, and training on course for success. You can also find yourself a cool Swiss bike next time you’re in the market. Rumor has it the next battle might be out of my element. Some generous folks are finding me a 1×1 machine so I can join in on the fun…

-TJ

This entry was posted on Monday, June 23rd, 2008 at 9:23 am and is filed under Race Report. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.