This week was filled with nervous anticipation of the first Mountain Bike Cup Race. On Friday I took my race mountain bike off the wall where I had placed it in September. I need to get reacquainted with an old friend before we began to inflict abuse upon one another. After the addition of bar ends, a crank, tubes and a scrub it was ready to rock and roll. I was not so sure about myself however. No matter how prepared you are you never feel totally prepared. Intervals on Wednesday were savage and extremely technical – perfect for this time of year - but tremendously taxing. Training before a race is a double edge sword. Work too hard and be under-recover for the race. Rest too much and come in flat for the race, and never peak later in the season.
As I sit here writing this I can see my gut and know I am still 10 lbs off race weight for this time of year, but I have been eating better on the whole. More importantly my FTP has improved but my peak power is down.
Monday-Tuesday: 3 or 4 hours off road on the Redline Cross fixie 44-17.
Wednesday Intervals: Total Time 3-hours, 6 x 6 min max efforts, through muddy ruts, into the wind and rain.
Thursday-Friday: Had to work all day.
Saturday: Total Time 60 minutes: scouted out the Grand Beach race course. True to character I spent waaay too long fretting about which gear to race Sunday. I raced 38-16 all season in 2008 but this is Grand Beach. Could I push 40-16, or 42-17…
Sunday: Race Cup #1 – 7th place = bad karma but great competition. Good lungs, but really bad legs; 2-days off just before a race is a really a bad idea. I feel good about my race effort and riding ability so early in the season (this was literally my second ride on a mountain bike). I held my own on all the flats despite choosing a smaller gear ratio, managed to clean the North Shore section on every lap (I am not sure how), never hugged a tree or put my ass over my tea kettle. I am frustrated, however, that we have so few races with which to gain points. With only 40-points in the pot it will be almost impossible to retain the jersey – even if I win every race from here on in (which is extremely unlikely). 6 out of 8 races would be a better measure of each rider’s abilities. If we were to make Sandilands and the Fall Classic points races we might boost attendance while giving riders 2 more chances to compete for points. We should also consider awarding additional points for participation at both Swan River and Brandon Hills. Finally, I suggest riders who attend every race might also gain some additional points.
That is me.
Ride your bike!
Your suggestions on the MB Cup and the garnering of points is a concern to some. Forward your concerns to Bill Algeo-your club rep and have him present it to the committee or better yet contact Hal Loewen and have a chat.
ReplyDeleteSo do they count all 5 Dave?
ReplyDeleteI see your point, and more races=more points makes sense to me.
Points make sense to me as long as all the same racers are at every race.Who wants to we anything just because some of the racers that may have beaten you didn't show up.It should be that if you have 5 cup races you have win 3 of them but but you have to do all 5 in order to qualify for a cup win.Lots of guys like to play the points system like not racing a race because they already have enough points etc.I personly don't care about points,i either win or lose and that is good enough for me.
ReplyDeleteI forgot to add that if you didn't win 3 three races you might have have to look at the total lap times for all 5 races combined.Kind of like a stage race,but again you would have to do all the cup races to qaulify.
ReplyDeletethis year is supposed to be best 4 of 5, but 50 bonus points if you do all 5. to encourage attendance. but that has NOT been communicated from the MCA MTB committee for some reason. (the bonus points won't work if we don't tell people.)
ReplyDeletenot all points are equal though. some races have 20 guys in expert, some have 3 or 4. their is no perfect system, and in reality, only a few people really care and they tend to do enough races to qualify for the overall.
i think it would be interesting if there were more races, not sure why we went from 6 down to 5 anyway. cory, i would hope no one person can win 3 races, hopefully the races are more competitive than that and we have a few different winners. interesting idea about the stage race - with lap times. but again, all the racers who have to do ALL the races to qualify. just won't happen.
That's why i am not in charge of any planning.(I already fired my self)
ReplyDelete