CIRREM Race Report

Well CIRREM went down without a hiccup. It was cold, windy, rainy, snowy, you name it. 62 miles of balling up your hand in a fist to squish the water out of it. Awesomeness. I ended up in the lead group after about 5-6 miles or so. Kent had an unfortunate breakdown with his freehub. Which was later found out to have been fixed on a farm. Now that is Iowa for you.

The lead group was formed with Jed Gammel, Jared Osterlough, Sean Walker and myself. The gravel conditions kept things rolling well. It would have been slow, but Madison County seems to have some solid pack underneath it's gravel. Considering we had rain 48 hours previous to the race and the day of, the roads couldn't have been in better shape.

Once it started raining, any hopes of myself feeling good went out the window. I just couldn't get warm. The climbs on the course were the only place where I would get warmed back up again. My legs didn't want to respond on the flats. They just couldn't handle a very long pull into the head wind sections. So needless to say Jed and Sean did a lot of work, with Jared working by himself just off the back to avoid getting caked in sand.

Jared is definitely a strong rider. He put in a crazy two days with a gravel road race (rode out and back to the race) and then threw down on CIRREM. At about mile 48-50 my legs decided to give out. I couldn't keep the pace of the other leaders. I had let my "nutrition" regiment slide, which for me equals light top heavy bonkage. Luckily this day it meant light. I slammed two Powergels with caffeine and was ready to rock about 20 minutes later.

The climbing in the race was kind of broken up. Rolling gravel roads followed by a turn onto another road into the heavens. It was kind of crazy. You would be stomping the rollers one after the other only to forget that Kent Carlson put the race on and that it was going to have some elevation gain. Luckly the last major leg killer was in the 45-46 mile range. That is what killed off the last remaining fuel in my system.

Anyways Sean ended up hanging back and finishing the course off with me. If he hadn't I would have had to navigate and it would have been a brutal ride into Cummings. Which was another kick in the pants on this cold windy day. To hit the 100k mark, Kent had to bring us in just north of town and then run us back out two miles and back in. It was a mind f*ck and a half.

I had a good time and the legs are still hurting. On other fronts, I started my new job on Monday. I am working at a shop in downtown IC now. Working for the corp just wasn't working out. Hard to believe after that many years things would go down. Oh well. I have a new home and a group of people that feel like family. I had that before, except instead of having a positive owner figure, there was a douche eye in the sky. I love all the people I have worked with except a few who I will live on without in happiness. Here is to new beginnings ( I know, I know I keep saying that, but it is that time in my life.)

I am taking a true day off. My legs still need a little more recovery before I hit them again.