The Peak2Peak mountain bike race is held at Crystal Mountain Resort in Thomsponville, Mi. This was my first year doing this race. For most people its a great test before getting ready for Iceman in a few weeks. This year the weather was playing a huge factor in the outcome of the race and it was the talk of the morning as the beginner and sport classes took off early.
For me this race was going to be a test to the work that I have put in 5-6 weeks after the Copper Harbor Trail Festival. With Iceman coming up I wanted to use this race as a test to see what the legs were going to produce. Since I ride 100% by myself up here in the Soo I had no way to judge my fitness besides off of past rides.
For this race I was racing the 18-29 Expert Class. For the Elite and Expert Classes we had to do 3 laps on a 12 mile loop. The race is called Peak2Peak for a reason. The course takes off at the base of the mountain and then travels on a flat ground for 10 mile of the loop before making a very steep mile long climb to the highest point of the hill then making a fast switchback decent to the finish or on to the next lap.
My wave took off at 12:33. As the race started the pace was very high. After a short road section the race hit its first dirt section. This is when there was a big crash. I just seen bikes flying in the air. Then as the race proceeded the pace was high. This entire race was like a road race but in the dirt. There was no room for error and no room to rest on a decent or through some technical single track. I made it through the first lap in a decent time. I new I was feeling a little off today. The long hill at the end was getting to me and the fast paced race wasn't what I'm use to after racing in the U.P. I worked off of groups and tried to hold a solid pace for all the laps and tried to have solid lap splits. With about 4ish miles left my legs blew up. I tried my best to bring it home with a solid finish. I finished 6th out of 15 in my age group with a time of 2:33:28.
Overall I'm not thrilled about my race but I rode a smart race and did what I had to do. I just didn't have it in my legs. It has only been just over 2 months since I got over the mono and I've only put in solid training for about the past 5 weeks. So to end up the way I did in a hard class there is nothing to complain about and I just need to take this as a learning experience and get rested up for Iceman.
Thanks to all of my sponsors and family
-Mom and Dad
-Breakaway Bicycles of Muskegon
-Hammer Nutrition
-Crank Brothers
-Spy Optics
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