pulling a chad

I pulled a Chad. I got to the Wolf Creek Race at 10:00 I don't know why I though the start was 11:00 but they let me register since the 5's didn't go out until 10:15. However, I missed the start by about 30 seconds. I did the race anyway.

I managed to catch the pack about 5 minutes after the start but it put me in the pain cave. I forgot how crazy a cat 5 race is. There was no organized reason for the constant accelerations since there were no attacks. I managed to suffer at the back of the pack until Mill Hollow and then realized that I needed a break and let the pack go.

Bikeman Vinnie and I rode together until the last switchback when I dropped him. Having ridden Wolf Creek too many times to count I knew exactly when to push and when to hold back and the last switchback was a chance to catch a couple of guys. They looked blown so I decided not to worry about riding with them.

On the turn around I was expecting a solo TT all the way back to bench creek and that is pretty much what happened. I hit the DH hard and fast and was able to see a duo about 300 yards in front of me as I hit Mill Hollow. I worked on keeping those two in sight hoping they would blow up at the end. With a tail wind I was able to keep a hard pace 30-35 mph. At the turn off to bench creek they started to fall apart on the first climb up bench creek. I kept the pace hard was able to reach the first guy at the 500m mark and take him on the hill to the finish.

Considering I started 30 seconds late I was happy to end up in the 22nd spot.