West Michigan Stage Race and the 12 Hours of Stony Creek

To start I will open with the 12 hours of Stony Creek.  I had never participated in a endurance mountain bike race, however doing it with a few of my teammates as a team I couldn't turn it down.  My split would be around 3 hours which is great training for a Saturday.  The course was about 10 miles log with a nice mix of single track and some double track with some killer grinder hills.   I was designated as the lead out man, meaning I had to be ready to go at 8am to start things out.  My goal was to hammer it for one lap and tag off to a teammate.  The main purpose of this was to gain course position, aka get way ahead of any traffic.   I easily took the hole shot sprinting and settled into just finding a rhythm.  That really didn't go so well since I almost crashed three times.  However I finished my lap and got to rest.  We each took turns doing the same thing.  Long story short was it was a long day, but at the end of the day we had won our category and placed 4th overall.  I think I will try a few more of these races in the future.

Now to the West Michigan Stage Race this past weekend.  Probably the best way I can summarize my first stage race was "unprepared."  This was probably the most taxing race I had ever done. Saturday started with hitting the road at 4:30 AM is order to get to the time trial in time.  The time trial was a short 7 mile, 3.5 out and back.   My goal was to podium, however I just never got the legs going full steam and placed 10th.  I still wasn't to fat out of the hunt so I was hoping to pick up time in the criterium or road race.  The criterium would be a 4:55 PM Saturday and last 45 minutes.   To put it short it was a tough day in mid to upper 80's heat.  Going into the crit I was tired and cooked.  The game plan was to stay up front.  Like all game plans that went to crap fast as a first lap wreck had me sliding to the back.  I spent the next 30 minutes trying to recover but heat stroke set in and eventually with a lap to go I dropped.  Everyone on the lead lap got the same time so I only lost two places to 12th due to time bonuses. 

Sunday I would still be in the hunt during the 60 miles road race, I just needed to recover and get some rest.  Once again Sunday is was another blistering hot day, I did my best to fight and race hard.  Halfway through the second lap though I cracked and ended up throwing up on the side of the road.  Exhaustion really had caught up with me.  I road the last 15 or so miles by myself and came in 7-8 minutes down.  That dropped me all the way to 29th.  All in all I was spent, few times in my life have I ever been so tired and wiped out.  Hopefully the fitness and experience gained will benefit me down the road.