I’ve been a racing fiend lately. The Super Loop XC race in Winter Park was my first foray into the vaunted Winter Park Race Series. Let me report that the reputation is well-earned. There are heaps of volunteers out on course, the race is well-run and a reasonable cost, and the racers are very pleasant out on course. Oh, and it IS on Winter Park singletrack….can’t go too wrong.
It’s been awhile since I’ve ridden a course completely blind – no pre-ride. I’d looked at the course profile, so I had a rough idea how long each climb was. Unfortunately I didn’t know which climb I was on! Mentally it was tough to push myself without knowing where the tops of the climbs were. The mass start meant that I had no idea who was in my category, but I had plenty of folks out on course to ride with. I found myself settling into a rhythm, rather than constantly pushing myself like I did in the CTS Wednesday Night Race – see the race report here.
So I had a great time racing, but didn’t push particularly hard, and had no idea where I finished. I washed my (borrowed) bike and headed to my car to change and hang out a bit with Bobbi and Jon Watt. Pretty soon they told me there was free beer back at the finish line for racers. How did I miss that?? I headed back down for a beer and socializing, and while I was at it, I figured I’d check my times. I found my category on the results board, but couldn’t seem to find my name. That’s because I wasn’t expecting it at the top of the list. Yeah, I won my category. Random. They gave me a sweet pint glass to hold my free beer, yay! The overall wins went to Alison Powers and Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski (better known as JHK).
To top off a fun day, I met some of my teammates from Mafia, and other folks from Boulder for deliceous fish tacos before heading to my lovely campsite by the river. Ahhh, the good life.
My nifty race winnings (and sweet team thermal!)
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