Tranquility Tire Tantrum: Race Report

This is #4 in my 5 part series of 5 race reports in 5 days.

Sunday August 8th was the Tranquility Tire Tantrum. It was the 3rd part of the Psycowpath Omaha Weekend. This was the XC race portion.

I headed up a bit early with Ryan so that he could get ready for his marathon race and it gave me plenty of time to get myself ready. The biggest challenge with the race was going to be the heat though. They had us starting a bit later in the day which put us starting in the hottest part of the day.

When it was time to line up the heat index was over a 110 degrees and I knew that a good part of this race was going to just be surviving and finishing the race. The promoter announced at the beginning that they would not be shortening the race and that we still had to complete all 5 laps as planned. I was happy that the race did not get shortened. I still need to get used to the longer races this season.

When they set us off the pace was fast and we hit the single track section I was in about 6th place and was rolling through the singletrack pretty good. When we hit the first big climb (same climb that we used in the stxc) and I was passed by one rider but was able to stay with the pack but after we went down the descent we hit a tight twisty section and I realized that I had way to much tire pressure in my tires and I just couldn't get any traction in the turns which caused me to slow down and another rider was able to get around me.

I was now in 8th position but I was able to hunt down and catch another rider later on in the race which put in 7th place were I would stay the rest of the race. The laps all kind of run together now but on the 2nd lap I went down on a turn that I slid out on due to the tire pressure. In hindsight I should have just stopped for a quick second and let some air out but I didn't want to stop in the heat cause I think that it would have been hard to get started again. I was slugging down 1-24 oz bottle of nuun per lap and probably could have been taking a second along because I was running out towards the end but I didn't have any cramping issues but I was hurting pretty bad by the end. I was hoping that some of the riders in front of me would fold in the heat but it didn't happen.

I wasn't overly happy with my performance since I think that I could have and should have ridden harder but I did finish in the money which was a first for me and kind of nice. I'm hoping to see more of that in the future.

this climb out in the open sun and heat was brutal