Monday, June 16, 2008

Nevada City Classic

Feeling even less confident after yesterdays outing I lined up for the Nevada city classic with a giant pipe wrench twisting away my insides. I had heard so much of this course and the relentless suffering to be had if you didn't miscalculate the turn and end you day even faster.

The Course:
Downtown Nevada city. The start/finish line sits about 200m from the infamous downhill 90 degree corners. The course is billed as one of the hardest races in california and in a pain/minute ratio I think it is. All the suffering of an all out time trial with the puckering of a 40-50mph off camber series of 90s. When your not going down hill at 40+ your climbing. It's not the steepest or longest but you start climbing it in the big ring no problem for most of the race but as it wears you down(or atleast me) I became increasingly more dependant on the small ring for all but the downhill and flater sections.

I wanted to hit the corner at least once before the start of the race but no chance. There was very little time inbetween races. The race promoter ran such a tight ship. It was a fantastic race to attend or participate in. Well the race started and I'm still scared by the turn so I figure the best thing I can do is go to the front and hit it clean with no riders in front of me to get a better look at it. The first time through feels very scetchey so I decided to look for a clean line again on the second lap by drilling it up the hill. I stayed away for a couple laps and took a prime that I didn't even hear rung. Turns out to be a $100 cash prime. Nice. The damage was done to both myself and the pack as it was now only 15 remaining and I dangled off the back of it. Fighting the whole time I couldn't recover and ended up 13th. Spencer from The RenoWheelmen solo'd off the front to a well earned win.


1 comment:

Nick Schaffner said...

Nevada City is not a crit, it's an ITT. Glad to see you out there, good work on the prime! The P1/2 race was a death march.