Redemption @ Hilbert

What a difference a week makes. I played the game just right on Saturday in the Enduro race at Hilbert #2. I didn't go out too hard, but hard enough to keep the 3rd place guy at bay. When the time came (around the 4 hour mark) I turned it up a bit. I amped up the chase for the VW Jersey (Shawn) and caught him around the last mile of lap 8. We rolled lap 9 together and crossed the line together at just a few seconds past 5 hours. Perfection. 9 laps. 50 miles. About 5000ft of elevation gain. Oh, and I did it on a rigid singlespeed, of course. My first win (co-win) of the season. Feels good. Nay...it feels great.

Some notes, for the record: I ate well on the bike. Killed 6 bottles of Clif Shot, roughly 3 packs of some sort of energy gel, a banana, and pack of Clif Bloks. Stopped for endurolytes once, maybe twice, along with some Advil. Threw down some Fig Newtons after two or three as well. In short, I ingested plenty. Support was key too. Being handed bottles and food is key. Special thanks to Dave, Jason, and Rick. And the Bike Factory Racing cheering section was awesome. Nice little pick-me-up every ~33 minutes. Needed to urinate for the last three hours or so, but I held it off till I was done...no time for that. Only 1 minute, 33 second between my fastest and slowest laps. Lap 8 was the strongest. Perhaps consistency is key:

Lap 1 32:30
Lap 2 32:37
Lap 3 33:27
Lap 4 33:34
Lap 5 34:02
Lap 6 34:03
Lap 7 33:56
Lap 8 32:22
Lap 9 33:34

It felt good to run Shawn down. Maybe one of the few times in my memory where I turned on the chase switch and got a reward for it. Its a good feeling. Putting 14 minutes on 3rd place was pretty awesome too. Lets do it again.