Ft. Custer Race Recap

It turned into a gorgeous day for racing at Ft. Custer. This is probably one of my favorite trails to race as it has lots of fun singletrack, moderate climbs, and a relatively shallow creek crossing on each lap. Many others think so too as the turnout is usually high for this race.

My race can best be summed up as I'm glad there were only three laps since each lap I lost a place, finishing third. I started out OK, cruising comfortably on the wheel of the eventual winner. I went around him just before a long section of singletrack so I could go my own pace but he later passed me back after we got to an open section and motored away. I didn't feel I could keep his pace so I let him go.

I had the second lap to myself but had caught site of the third place guy near the end of the first lap. I never saw him again until shortly after the start of the third lap. He caught up to me as I started to sense my power drop and he went around me and also rode off. I managed to finish a few minutes in front of the fourth place guy but in another lap he probably would have passed me also.

I think I may still have some residual fatigue from the Cohutta race which caused me to slow slightly by the time the race was over. But I felt like I was riding pretty well so I am not going to complain too much. But it definitely reminded me of why I prefer the longer races. I prefer to spread out the pain instead of feeling in all in just two hours.