Victory or Death

This post will consist of a tale by Taylor the Great, a.k.a Taylor Valentine. An alternative point of view was certainly called for, as there are so many different stories on the day. Stay tuned, videos are to appear in the next few posts, and if you haven't already figured out how to see them I think you'll thoroughly enjoy them. Without further ado, Victory or Death.

Victory or Death - An epic tale of undue suffering and hardship for no particularly good reason

I think the story of my ride at U.S. Mountain Bike Nationals starts about two weeks ago, when I decided to crash on my bike yet again. The problem is, that I really like corners. Ever ride with me? I like em' fast and hard (did you catch that innuendo? I put it on pretty thick). So one fine day, I threw the knobby tires on the 'cross bike and went tearing around the grassy fields at the bottom of East Rock park. I had totally committed myself to a particular corner (probably could have reached out and dragged a knee, moto-gp style) when I rolled over a piece of fallen tree branch submerged in the grass. The front of the bike lifted up, and I was not able to get the wheels back under me in time. I went down hard. Right knee to the top-tube. Sternum to the handle bars. Damage assessment: Glasses bent but not broken, knee bruised but not broken, chest sore but not broken, handlebars bent. Then I started coughing blood. Fortunately that didn't last too long, unfortunately, my lungs were full of all sorts of funk for several days after the incident.
About a week later, I was back to full lung capacity and pedaling using both legs. I put in a few solid days of riding to salvage some lost fitness before shutting things down to taper into the race.
Thursday nights I have class in Hartford. I left my car at work and got a ride from a classmate (thank, Jenelle!). The Scotty-mobile swung by at 8 to pick me up, and we drove the remaining two hours to Mt. Snow.

On Friday morning while warming up, my legs feel like complete trash. Maybe I slept poorly. Maybe I didn't eat well enough. Maybe I'm not fully recovered. Maybe I just suck at life. Whatever. Screw it. Pedal hard. Ride fast. Victory or death.
12:00 Friday. High noon. I'm standing on the line trying to convince myself that I'm not at all nervous. The announcer butchers my name on the loudspeaker. Whatever. 60 seconds. 30 seconds. 15 seconds. The whistle blows. We're rolling. Crap, where's my right pedal? Can't clip in. *click*, found it. There's the usual mad dash off the start that no one can sustain. Morons. Don't they know they have a mountain to climb? Up the North Loop climb, I pass a bunch of riders, and try to hold position on the descent. Now for the monster South Loop. Legs are feeling better. Time to put the screws to these fools. Someone is standing on the side of the trail puking. I can see the front of the race now. Scott yells something at me. Wow, this hill is steep. Some dudes are walking. I'm still on the bike. Pedal hard. Victory or death. Nuts, I think it just got steeper. I wonder how long I can hold this pace. Now we're out of the woods on onto some ski slope again. I think I can hear my own heart beating. It's freakin' hot out. Do I smell something burning? Sirens and flashing lights are going off in my head. It's not looking good. The machine is grinding to a halt. System shutdown. Blue Screen of Death. The field passes me.

To briefly recap, I completely blew myself out in the first lap while ascending the climb on the South Loop. I spent the second half of that lap trying to regain control of my heart rate and pump the accumulation of battery acid out of my legs. Coming through the start finish line, I felt considerably better, but figured I was running pretty close to DFL (dead f***ing last). At that point, there wasn't much else left to do but settle in and ride my own race in damage control mode. I rolled across the finish in 6th which isn't too shabby, all things considered. I was gunning for top 5, but I think I can live with it.
On the way back to the condo, we stopped at the SOBE tent in the expo area. They had some kind of goofy bike-powered-blender setup, upon which I vented my frustrations in the form of a high wattage smoothie. Cold and tasty. Victory.