TDD - Turkey Mountain Festival - 29th September 2019

Turkey Mountain Festival wrapped up the TDD 2019 series. The race was originally scheduled for earlier in the year but due to the weather not playing ball it was rescheduled for the 28th and 29th September, the event is a fundraiser for burn camp to help burn victims, they raised over $5,000 which is great. 

The festival had an omnium race series consisting of a TT and short track race which were held on the Saturday. Due to other commitments the Blades family was unable to make these events. However we did make the Sunday for the final race in the XC series.

Kid's Kup 

First race on Sunday was the kids kup races. Fiona and I got out and prerode the course and she seemed to really like it, vs the last course which she hated.
The race started and Fiona was off the back again during lap one but working hard to try and catch the riders in front of her.
As she started her second and final lap she was in 5th place but managed to pass another two riders to finish in a strong 3rd and on the podium. 

Lap two and putting in some effort

Full gas to the finish

Hi fives :) - thanks for the photo Jennifer Black

I am really proud of her racing this season, we don't get to bike as much as I would like but she has shown some real strength in her riding and finished well whenever we have had time to get a good preride of the course before the race.

Podium and looking for mum :)

The Cat1/2 course

Turkey Mountain actually has a little elevation compared to some of the courses we have been riding, it also has a technical aspect too. The course starts with a climb which by the time we rode had a pretty obvious line all the way up. Then we had a flatter section with a little bit of flow which dropped into a slightly technical descent and then a technical climb. Following this it was more flow sections then a technical descent into a short climb and a longer technical section. The final descent had a small rock drop then flat out flat section to the finish or repeat the lap. It was a 5mile lap. 

I pre rode the course after the kids kup awards, during the cat 2 race. I found the technical sections not to bad and managed to clean all but one of them and saw where I went wrong on that one first time.

The race

Before going into the race I had been doing some number crunching on my season points. I was sitting in 3rd place overall, this is a little strange to me since my best placing has been 4th.  

The only guy who was racing at Turkey Mountain Festival and could catch and take 3rd away from me was Cody Pollard. Cody had a race in hand over me as we do a best of 6 races and was 45points behind me, this meant that if he got top 4 he would be 3rd overall. 

We lined up on the start line and at the whistle we were off. As per usual I took up my role as "sweep" for the cat1 pro/19-39 age group. The guys I race against really do start way faster than I am capable of at the moment. I started the first climb and had the guys ahead of me in sight. I was feeling good, although felt my legs were once again lacking some of their usual power. I am thinking that all the running I am doing is currently having a detrimental effect on my riding but alas I do currently need to do it. 

As I continued and was passed by the various guys from the categories who started behind me I was still feeling ok, just a little under powered. I got into the first technical section and a guy who I had just let past me stumbelled. I jumped off and ran that section. When I got to the next technical section I picked a really poor line so ended up walking a significant chunk of that section too. Then I caught up with Cody, he had a flat, I asked if he needed anything and he said he didn't have a C02 so I stopped and gave him mine, hopefully this act of karma would mean that I wouldn't need it for my race. 

I set off again and finished lap 1, grabbed my bottle and continued into lap two of four. This lap was a disaster for me, my heart rate monitor decided to stop working, I didn't make it through any of the technical sections without walking and hit a tree with my right shoulder. 

I did make it around the course though and started into lap number three. This lap went way better than lap 2, I didn't make the first technical section but I did clean the first part of the second one and felt much better all the way through it. before I knew it I was starting into lap four and I hadn't been lapped. 

As I started up the first climb I heard that the race winner was coming across the line, I assumed also by this point that Cody had dropped out since he hadn't passed me. The first climb seemed to go well and although I didn't make it through the first technical section unscathed, yet again I had to dab. I did feel good on the rest of the top part of the course. At the top I stopped to give a pickle juice to a fellow competitor who was suffering with cramps. I enjoyed the downhill and almost made it through the 2nd technical climb but failed at the last moment. Oh well much better than lap 2.
Lap times
Lap One - 31:58
Lap Two - 33:57
Lap Three - 34:18
Lap Four - 35:59
So whilst I was slowing down at least my last lap wasn't 10min slower than my first lap as has happened in the past.

I crossed the line at 2:16:14 which puts me way off the pace of the winner at 1:41:23, i'm also down proportionally to where I usually am at 34% back. I did however, more by luck than anything else manage to seal up 3rd place overall in the series. 

6th Place again. 

3rd place in the series, super stoked. 

The other great thing about the series here is, they do a team points award. The top four racers from each team at each event put points towards this award. It's been a three way battle all season but I am happy to say that Bike Lab came out on top in the final race, for the third year in a row.

2019 TDD Team Champions 3rd year in a row!

The Strava

What did I learn throughout the season

As many people know I like to track data about all my exercise to see what I can learn from it. I also track where I sit in relation to other racers. This season has been tough for me in Cat 1, although the equivalent to what I raced in Alaska, it has found me racing solo a lot. 

In Alaska, although I was in a similar position time wise from the winners, I was mostly racing with people. Here that is not the case, the fields are much smaller and although the racers are fast, albeit not significantly faster than Alaska, I don't feel I am racing them as I rarely see them after the race starts. 

In the early part of the season I feel I was starting to catch the guys ahead of me however, I had a slip in performance for the second part of the season which is totally my fault. I didn't train or even really ride over the summer due to family commitments, and I would probably do the same again, ok maybe I would try and ride a little more.  

I am very happy to have finished off the season in 3rd place, do I deserve that? I sure worked harder than the other racers, ok I rode for a longer time :) But what really got me that position was riding for 6 races. Only five riders in my category did that which, makes me wonder where are the other racers in this 19-39 age group?

Here is a spreadsheet of my finish data from the races I did. I will link up the points when they are updated too. 

They even gave an award to Mort

Yes my dog is a state champion, 3rd place for being awesome.... I think they got the wrong dog as he is vocal but I would honestly class him as being a pain in the butt. He couldn't even stay quiet at the last award ceremony he was at.

See Dad, I am awesome they
even gave me a medal.