I came into Yankee hoping for a top ten finish and ended up just making the podium (Expert 30-39) by 4.2 seconds. Results: http://www.raceservices.com/10/yankee/041810_ee.txt This was my fourth year racing Yankee, my fourth year racing-if the 4-7 races I do a year qualifies as a racing year-and the first year I actually prerode the course. Here are other things I should know by now:
1. Bottles disappear. Last year I lost a bottle and barely avoided bonking. This year, I carried two of the Hammer gel bottles with mix, in my jersey. I picked up said disappearing bottle on lap two and barely avoided a miserable, depleted finish. Maybe a pack is in my future...hmmm.
2. Tire pressure matters. This was my first race on the rigid 29er and it was by far my best result yet. Subtract extreme bounce, a lame, low-speed spinout, and a bottle stop...and I still would have been third, who am I kidding? Anyway, I knew I wanted to run low pressure as I pin-balled around the roots and rocks on my first preride lap and then stuck to everything with five PSI less. I liked 28-9 on the preride, but lost my gauge and rode the TT with way too much air!
3. Eat too much breakfast. Banana, yoghurt, coffee, cereal, milk two hours before with a lot of water. I like a heavy egg, meat, and bread breakfast, too, like Iceman last year. This might be its own number on the list, but warming up helps a bit, some say. Enough of this. What matters?
4. Sisu steel makes me faster.
Pontiac Time Trial this Sunday. I haven't ridden the trail yet this year, but hope to get there this week. My legs were sore on a recovery ride tonight, but I'm feeling pretty rested in general.
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