Tranquility Tire Tantrum: Race Re-cap

On the attack
Photo: Jennifer Greer

Yeah, yeah, it's been a while. Quick re-cap up to this point. Basically been training my ass off. After sweeping the Swanson Pyscowpath weekend I took a couple weeks off. In the middle of that break I managed to DNF at the Twin Bing Classic road race but helped teammate Lucas Marshall to a 2nd place finish. Then I bounced back and claimed a win at the Platte River Battle Royale for the second year in a row. Next up it was some road racing at the Omaha NOW Ashland Criterium. I managed to stay in the front group and finish 7th but man were those guys better than me. I could tell I hadn't been racing. I missed Ponca's Revenge due to a late flight the night before the race but managed to toe the line for the 60 mile Big Ring Ranch Enduro. Try as I might, I couldn't hold off a hard charging Brad Auen and squeaked out a 2nd place in front of teammate Ryan Feagan.

Which brings us to round 5 of the Psycowpath series. I'll be honest, Tranquility is far from my favorite track, but Chris Price and all the trail stewards with THOR have done a wonderful job adding fresh bits to keep it interesting. I was pleasantly surprised at how well the track rode. It's a lightening fast trail with sections that have you pushing at single digit speeds and then screaming on 25 mph straightaways.

Kevin Limpach took the early lead as Brad and I were fine with letting him set the early pace. We immediately had a huge gap over Noah Marcus and the freight train that was lined up behind him. Again it was going to come down to a tactical battle between Brad and I. Kevin began to show signs of tiring out after the first of the three lap race. Midway through the 2nd lap, Brad and I jumped around and began to distance ourselves from Kevin. Brad is a slightly better climber than me at the moment as my extra 10 pounds of off-season CX weight doesn't help me out too much. I knew on the last half of the lap my road fitness would allow me to pull away from Brad so I made the pass and drilled it. By the end of the lap I had the 20 seconds or so that I wanted so I figured all I needed to do was climb as fast as Brad could and descend a little bit faster. The legs felt good for the entire last lap and I rolled through to keep my Psycowpath win streak alive with 4 wins in 4 races. Brad finished about 40 seconds back, my biggest win margin over him this season and Kevin finished 3rd about 4 minutes down.

Hopefully from here on out I get faster and faster as I start building towards CX season. Put the cookies down...