The next instalment of the Tour De Dirt series took place on Sunday 5th May at Draper MTB Park. There was a significant amount of chatter online before the race due to some significant rainfall throughout the week preceding the event. Draper has lots of sand rather than clay so does drain pretty well however, I think they received 4" of rain throughout the week. The go ahead for the race was finally given before the midday Saturday cut off for cancelling a race. I'm glad we did the race though it was definitely wetter than I was expecting on course in some sections. On the plus side all the local bike shops should be happy with the extra drive trains and bearings they are going to sell :)
A little about Draper
Draper trails have a lot of flow. So unlike the previous three races, with there endless rocks and technical sections, Draper trails are all about carrying corner speed which I will fully admit I'm not the greatest at. It also has lots of turns, some of which are bermed and some are flat, some start out bermed and end up flat and some start flat then have a berm. If I rode there more frequently I am sure I would get better at remembering which corners I can brake less or not at all for. Anyway it is what it is and here we were on race day with me having not ridden Draper since Thanksgiving.
Kids Kup
As always with these races for our family, the day starts for us with a Kids Kup race. Fiona is growing more and more in confidence at these races definitely spurred on by getting on the podium. The Kids Kup use a short course track format and all happen before the Cat3 races.
Todays course was a grassy climb followed by a singletrack descent then back to the grassy climb. The course was 0.29miles long and Fiona's age group did 4 laps.
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| Waiting to get going. |
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| Made the podium again Way to go Fiona! |
My Race
After the excitement of the Kids Kup race Fiona and I hung out and ate before my race which is later in the day. This week Fiona's race was all wrapped up by 10:45, I wasn't racing until 12:30 so we had plenty of time to relax and cheer on some cat 3 racers.
At 12:30 it was go time for me, as usual I am in a very competitive field and once again completely failed to get the wholeshot.
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| No wholeshot this time.... I'm far left at the back in this picture |
The pace of the guys I'm racing against as always blows me away. There are some seriously fast guys in my age group and the group behind me come to think of it.
We set off along the trails at warp speed however this week I was able to hang with a couple of the guys (at the back I might add) before the end of the yellow section (first trail we do) I had passed two people.
I then caught up with another guy and followed him for around 2/3 of a lap as we were similarly paced. I passed him on the orange trail and he followed me for a while before I lost him on a couple of corners.
I then had around 1/2 a lap riding solo but due to the twists and turns I could see I was catching up a group ahead of me.
One of the best things about having family and friends at these races is the support we as racers receive on the course. Here is a short video of Fiona giving me a cheer at the start of my final lap.
On the final time through the yellow trail I caught and passed two more riders who were really struggling. I was feeling good and hoped to catch Victor who has on previous courses faded pretty badly looking at his lap times on the final lap. The problem was, I was starting to feel some crampy twinges in both legs.
I finished my bottle but this time it wasn't helping. As I crossed into the blue trail I stopped to take on some pickle juice. This helped for around two corners but I was still cramping up. I reduced my effort and tried to limit my losses as I rolled the remaining miles to the finish. How much did I back off? There is a Strava segment from the parking lot up a climb and down back to the parking lot.
Here are my times from each lap :-
Lap 1 - 3:55
Lap 2 - 3:58
Lap 3 4:40.
I pushed as hard as my legs would go and finished with a smile or was it a grimace, nah it was a smile as Fiona rolled the last 100m with me. I finished in 7th place which is better than I was expecting on the start line. To be honest I am stoked about that, mostly because this race I was actually racing with people not just taking part in a solo time trial, all this training seems to be paying off.
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