isu race

isu hosted thier mtn race yesterday. dave, ryan, and i drove out for it. we were going to take a van, but the gals in the business office forgot to submit our request in time. so we drove out in our own cars.

a couple of gripes.
1. the course was crummy. flat. no fun. boring.
2. the directions were wrong. flat out. wrong.
3. it wasn't the iorca race.

a bit of elaboration, i am super sad that the isu race didn't team up with the iorca race this weekend. the people running the iorca races are super nice guys, and would likely have been more than happy to have the collegiate riders join in. then we would have had a whole weekend of great racing, instead of just one really bad race. the iorca race had a tt, and dirt crit on saturday, followed by the xc race on sunday. all of which i would have done if i could have...and thus qualified for overall consideration in the iowa series too (i needed 2 more races). instead, we had a race on a saturday (seriously, who hosts races on saturday?!).

so we rolled out of iowa city at about 8. directions in hand. upon reading them, i was concerned... and as it would turn out, my concerns were not unmerited. they were the single worst directions i have ever followed. (matt says i should be cleaning my room. he's right) i had to ask twice.

finally, about the race. worst course ever. 5+ miles. flat. boring. lots of gravel road intermixed with some singletrack. dave and i raced A class, for 6 laps of this punishment. punishment from boredom, from having to pedal the entire time due to the flat, from the fact that the course was no fun. ryan raced B class for 4 laps. i finished 6th, dave 8th. ryan finished, i didn't check his standings. but that alone is a feat, considering he still very new to riding. way to go, pal. on the last lap, the one guy i wanted to beat, who had been behind me the whole way, caught me right as the lap began, and managed to put a 2 minute gap on me. i wasn't really hurting, but i wasn't feeling really good either. bottom line is that he is stronger than i am, but i am still a little disappointed. oh well. that happens.