The Avalanche of Pain

Afton always has the reputation to be one of the toughest races of the year for alot of people.Its usually hot with wide open climbs that seem to never end.With the Shady Lane climb out and an added extra lap, it didn't ruin its reputation at all.For a warm up this time I just rode an easy lap instead of boring myself going back and forth down the road.I knew right away it was going to be a long race and the legs had no efforts in them.I took a spot in the second row at the start and just hung back a bit to let myself work into this one.The climbing and heat was taking its toll on the field as I joined forces with Dave Meyers and Hollywood for the first couple laps and we just kept plugging away.I rode my own race and relied on a steady state approach.I think it was lap 3 that I realized Chris was shelled in font of me and he joined our train.He must have the Samson syndrome.He shaved his legs for the first time and it was his first terrible race this year.Everyone yo-yoed all over the place.At the start of lap 4 Chris DNFed,I had a nice gap on Dave,Hollywood was gone,and I had cought Ben Moore and Jan Rybar.I picked up Ben first and pulled him up to Jan by the switchbacks of suffering.Ben took to the front with a half lap to go and put in some efforts which I didn't have.My legs were on the verge of cramping again for a full lap every time I would ramp it up.I rolled in a respectable 9th in a super tough race.I guess thats not too bad considering what the work week was like.I predicted Sam might break the top 5 and he did, taking fourth behind Jeff,Brendon,and Brian Narum.He's on a roll now.He'll be bringing a new weapon to the races now since he built up an El Santo full suspension.Next week we head up north to Mt Du Lac for some singletrack bliss.

The post race grande meal.Didn't quite make it though.I could only go 7/10.