This post could easily have been titled “Why did this hurt so much?” or even simply, “What happened!?” It’s nice to come away from a race having learned something. Unfortunately, the lessons aren’t always pleasant. The best way I can phrase the lesson from this year’s Bavarian Bike & Brew race is like this If you want to find out whether your training is working, stop doing it for a year and see what happens.

A couple of notable things stand out from last weekend’s race. It was a super fast course and the weather was beautiful. It had rained the day/night before, so there was no dust and the traction felt infinite. (unlike a couple years ago, where a rider 20 feet in front of you would literally vanish in a dust cloud) I didn’t take any time to warm up before the race, and it starts with a mile of climbing right out of the gate.

A whole mess of stuff has changed since the Beezley Burn race. Mostly this involved training and bike fit stuff. I had a new saddle and freshly dialed geometry, and this was also the first race in which I rode with Time’s ATAC pedals. I was interested to see how things would go. This is also the race I’ve done the most in my time in Washington, so there’s a lot of data to compare it with.

Rode hard out of the starting gate and put a lot of hurt into my competitors (not to mention my own legs!). The first 2 km were on a wide open straight fire road with a headwind. Didn’t really want to be leading the charge into the wind, but I didn’t want to be following anybody else’s pace either. Shortly before we entered the singletrack, I let Peter Super and Steven Moe pass, and the three of us remained together for most of the first lap.