Putting up with pain

A little late reporting on the Afton Avalanche.

Afton is a weird race for me. Riding there I seem to have no serious problems keeping a high tempo, come race day it's another story.

So what I did wrong
1) Lack of sleep, maybe 6 hours.
2) Poor breakfast choice (not enough for sure).
3) inadequate fluid intake and electrolytes prior to the race.
4) leaving my Fox fork locked out during the entire warm up and first lap.
5) riding lebanon hills the day prior to the race.

those are the major mistakes i made prior to the race.

All in all I felt really flat the whole race, I was never really able to lay down some power and just blast up any hill. The start was good as usual, i was in 4th place leading into the single track with two flanders guys ( both who have in races finished ahead of me at least once). I was able to hold with them and this guy in a funky yellowish orange jersey who I have never seen before. The first serious climb near southern switchbacks the guy in yellow takes off past team flanders. If you read Sean's post you'll see he was gone for good, never saw him after that climb. Once into the single track i get right on Peter O's wheel (this kid is gonna be in expert class in the next year or two) and today he seems to be hating it right. I'm not having any fun either, my breathing is labored and my traction is horrible, scaring myself through every corner. All I can wonder is do my new tires suck this horribly? Well after riding behind peter for a bit and watching his teamate pull ahead I let him know we are coming by. Sean and myself that is. We catch his teamate in the 1st of 2 rocky sections, not because we are seriously fast, but because he is frantically trying to get his chain from between his spokes and his cassette. I still am hating the traction on these tires and am barely able to hold a line, it's hot, high 80's hot and i am bumming. Manhandler didn't seem so bad , but then again I wasn't really pushing it, so Mr peace Coffee rolls by, i stay on him until the downhill, and Sean ask's if i want him to pull and chase the peace guy (he's maybe 15 yards up the trail).I say yes take a swig of water, and watch them ride away from me. about 5 minutes later I look down at my fork and notice that I am locked out, FUCK ME i think, so I unlock it and ride a much better second lap. I save my energy for the third lap. All the while Sean Has a Minute on me and peace coffee guy has a slight gap on Sean. At the End of the second lap I have a a penn cycle guy near me, I take a water hand up and a dousing from the water station. I then feel the first of what is going to be 40 minutes of cramping. Every pedal stroke begins to hurt, little twitches of muscle spasms with every upstroke and down stroke of my leg. Not a good sign for the last lap. Penn guy passes me like I am standing still, I am now spinning in my granny gear the entire race, is it me or is afton 80-90% uphill? Not that I normally ride uphill, but this sucks when it's hot, your cramping and the water you were handed is hot gatorade. Damn now I can't cool myself off at all. I get passed halfway through the lap, with 2 guys about 30 seconds in arrears of me. I get to manhandler, and just spin, and cramp, spin and cramp, I am going 3.1 mph, so I hop off the bike and push the bike, I am going 3.1 mph, and cramping in different muscles, ah relief is different pain. I hop on my bike, look back and see the guy behind me is to close for comfort, and there is a struggling expert rider in front of me, I ignore the pain as my legs want nothing to do but lock up on this last little climb, and blaze down hill for the glory of 4th place (for the 3rd time) in my age group, and 6th overall. Thats up from 8th the week before. I think I am going to treat myself to a massage this week. Next is Mont du Lac, supposed to be fun and no way can it be as hot as afton. Is that a podium place I see?