Hammer and Psychle: Sizzler Race

This morning, we had great cool weather for a 9am start at the Sizzler race. Here's the female expert line up:

Can you tell Cliff Bar Giordana had a stacked field?

I got a good start and was in the lead for about a microsecond. And then the girls with the big legs passed me like I was riding backwards.

Meanwhile, my biggest fan couldn't decide if he wanted to ride with pedals or stride.

He opted for the Strider, as usual.

And I enjoyed four laps on the trail. When I pre-rode on Friday, it was dry and fast. I was bunny hopping all the root piles. Of course it poured on Saturday, so the course was brand new to me for the race. I went into the woods third, but soon fell back to fourth. I fought hard to get back to third but wasn't able to keep that lead for long. Finally on the third lap, I got back in third place, and saw the girl in second not too far ahead. So I gave it my all and got into second place towards the end of the third lap.

I was able to increase my lead in the last section and flew around the lake to start the fourth and last lap. I was feeling really good, pretty confident that I could stay in second place. A few minutes later, I got back into the single track and reached the slippery bridge they warned us of at the start. I slowed down like I had the last three laps and a guy standing in the area directed me to ride around the bridge in the mud. I declined, said I'm okay, and slipped right off the bridge...OUCH! I got up, moaned and then realized my chain had fallen off. After some tugging, I got it back on, and rode through my bruises. I had lost a lot of time and new my lead was greatly diminished.

After a few minutes, the pain had subsided and I was pack up at pace. Then all of the sudden, I got starving, not just hungry, but completely empty. Oops. All that jockeying back and forth and fighting in the woods ha made me forget to GU. And now I felt like I didn't have time. So I put my head down and just focused on finishing.