Iola Bump and Jump

Prove yourself, thats what every one face says. Prove your season is going to be good, prove that you deserve to race elite, prove that all that beer you drank over the winter instead of getting on the trainer didn’t matter. The first WORS race of the year alway has this feel. You can see it in their eyes, actions and mannerisms. I try not to let it bother me, I joke with Abbey about the free beer in the Mafia racing tent “I will just take one now and watch you guys inflict pain on yourselves”.

Sometimes at the beginning of a WORS race I think to myself, why do I do it? What does this mean to me, the question really hangs at the beginning of the season. I could just go ride with my friends and enjoy myself.

GOOOOO! Whoa snap out of it Cory, lets get a move on! Maciej rockets up the hill in a blaze of glory as we head up and down hill into the winding single track. Damn these guys are moving I think to myself.

As I pick a rad line I enter one of those wonderful moments of clarity one can get on a bike. I come to the realization, as I swoop through a sweet line of single track, I race because I love the rush of barely making a corner at a high speed, I love the exhilaration of just holding on to a corner and not letting that guy ahead of you pick a better line then you, and I love the clarity and perspective it gives to my life. I do it because it is pure freedom.

I hang mid pack for a few laps, and think to myself they will burn out soon. I keep a difficult but comfortable pace and ride my own ride. Smooth in the single track and fast in the double track. Keep it consistent, that is how I like to race.  Problem with that is this is Iola, in Iola there exist a different way of racing a type of racing I historically suck at. It is called giver till ya puke.

I hit it hard for a lap and my lack of speed training smacks me right in the gut as I watch the people I passed walk away from me. Not yet I tell myself, wait a few months and it will be a different story.

I finished the race a little below mid-pack. Actually one of my better Iola finishes. As I said earlier me and this race have a sort of history. If this race were a girlfriend it would be the tough un-rewarding kind of relationship that just lets you know that you should really date some one else.

Thanks to Mafia Racing who gave me a beer to help with the break up, and helped me to see I could do better.