Blue mountain is awesome. I can't say this enough times and frankly I never get tired of hearing it either.
My plan for the race was to start slow and build into the pace picking as many off as possible. Usually a good strategy when you have little confidence in your anaerobic endurance. Good plans go by the wayside very quickly when you find yourself in the lead group five minutes in.
Recently I decided to wear my HR monitor on my wrist instead of on the handlebars like I usually do. Good choice today because I hit some heart rates I don't want to ever see in a endurance race. I surely would have slowed down when I hit 184 no matter how I felt but not being able to see it I went off of my perceived exertion. I think this was a success today.
Looking at the start list I believed it could have been anyone's race. Jordan has been strong, the Alesio brothers are always a threat, Sean and Johan from Bethel have been coming on lately, James and Josh always give me trouble, Brian just won some big money race in Ct. and Greg Waggoner has found his stride this season. This race had like four different leaders in the first two laps with a chase group only about 30 seconds back. No room to make any mistakes. Lap 3 I lead with James on my tail and Eddy dangling about 30 seconds back, on lower stinger I could feel my legs start to go and in a technical section I bobbled, begrudgingly letting James take the lead. This would be the winning move for him. I gave chase but could never catch on again. Making a few more technical errors in the process of chasing let Eddy catch me right before the final ultra technical section. I knew I would need 30 seconds or more to hold Eddy off in that section but with him on my wheel my fate was sealed. Third place, a success on the gears for me. A success because I was in contention the whole time and even in control at points. Much improvement over the last few outings.
Afterwards, my good friends took me out for my birthday dinner. That made the day special. The Birdsall house in Peekskill may have the best hamburger EVER....
