Saturday while Lance Armstrong and Colorado's top cycling talent are racing the Leadville 100 (see previous post), Jo and I will be in Steamboat to racing The Rio Stampede. The Rio Stampede used to be The Rio 24 Hours of Steamboat. This year it's a 6 and 12 hour endurance race instead. Jo and I are doing the 6 hour solo race. Brandon, who I finished 4th place with in Duo Pro at the 24 Hours of Moab in 2005 is riding his motorcycle down from Portland to race too. He's got a bike rack behind the seat for his mountain bike, I'll be sure to get a picture.
It's my 3rd race in 3 weeks. I feel like I have good form, but am loosing some fitness. In order to recover and stave off aggravating my knee pain I've only been getting one or two rides in a week between races. Usually it's been a recovery ride followed by a tired training ride. This week managed a couple laps around Betasso and an hour on the road bike. My metabolism is off the chart and constant hunger combined with not riding as much is not helping me stay at a competitive racing weight.
The 6 hour Rio Stampede consists of as many laps as I can ride in 6 hours. The course is an 11 mile loop with about 2100 feet of climbing a lap. I'm thinking my pace will be between 1.5 to 2 hours a lap, but really have no idea as the course description is somewhat vague. I haven't been riding my weekly Superwalker so my climbing isn't what it was in July. For the 6 hour race all classes of riders are grouped into one class called the Open Class, as a result I'll be racing against much more talented competition. This along with this, fatigue and lack of riding will be significant hurdles to overcome. Not knowing who's in it and how big the field is I'd be happy finish in the top 20%, but I have a hunch if I can find my legs and everything comes together I could swing a top 5 finish! Time will tell...
Here's the course:
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