I said a few days ago when possible snow was in the forecast that 'I hope it snows!'. Well I got my wish. We had a cold front come in and dump a couple inches of snow on the ground Saturday evening before the race.
We got to the race venue and the whole course was still under the snow. The few people warming up had not caused a path yet in the snow down to the ground yet.
While I was really looking forward to riding in the white stuff Megan was already sure she wasn't going to like it at all.
We got out with enough time to do a practice lap. I was finding the snow fun with lots of traction. Of course is was a bit slippy but I knew I would have no problems riding everything fairly quickly. Megan, on the other had was really struggling to keep forward momentum and she was sliding a fair bit. I guess those fatter 20" tires where clogging up. On top of that her hands were cold.
I sent her off to warm up in the van while I did most of the course. I then went and got Megan and we barely made the start. It wasn't long and she was really tired and wanted to toss the bike in the trees and go make snowmen. I did the first lap with her and kept her going. At one point she was starting to tear up. We took a minute break and got going again. It was nearing the finish and she managed to clear all the tough slippery sections including riding up the hill to the start/finsh. Awsome !!!
I then got to go on my own and did 3 pretty good laps. I was chasing Darrin for the last 3 laps. I was hanging on tight til the last lap when he gave it a shot of gas and passed a couple people in our small group. I was at the back of the group and was hanging on hoping someone would respond. No one did and I waited to long to go, but I went anway. I think I was closing the gap back up but ran out of real estate, and energy as well.
My biggest issue was clipping back in. My SPD's were clogging bag enough I had to knock my feet against the pedals to clear snow from the clips and pedals after every remount. I guess I was lossing close to 20 seconds a lap from this.
From the results I would have made teh lead lap had I did the whole race on my own, though I was happy to ride with Megan and keep her going.
It was a fun course and I really like riding in the snow :)
