VA Derailer Series Race #6 - The Poor Mountain Hill Climb

YAY!!! 6 races started, 6 races finished. 7/7 if you count that one in Greensboro. The Derailer is done for 2008. I ended up finishing 4th out of 4 today, but I did finish this race 9 minutes faster than last year. Can you believe that? 9 minutes!!! I'm so friggin excited about that it's not even funny! I could care less about being last in the group today. I did catch Kristin and passed her near the finish, but the young'un had enough spunk left to blow me away as we got to the finish line. She's a good rider, I'm proud of her and I'm glad we've become friends.

My goal today was to finish and finish in a better time than last year. Just finishing the race gave me enough points to win Sport Women 18-35 this year. Out of the three of us (Gina aka Sting and Kristin), I was the only one to start and finish every race. Kristin missed Bedford due to school and of course, Gina had to DNF two weeks ago at Candlers because of that bee sting. I raced with a great bunch of people this year and have formed more friendships due to the Derailer Series than I ever imagined.

Let's see, what can I tell you about the race. It is of course, almost a road time trial. I think Poor Mountain is the tallest mountain in this area, and the road that goes up it is fairly steep at times. The course last year had more, larger loose rocks than this year. This year was more gravel and hardpack similar to the 1000' at Carvins Cove. It was easier to negotiate this year for sure. This year seemed easier for me as well. Funny thing is I climbed over 5.5 miles in the middle chain ring. On the lower portion, I only had to stop once and that was because I dropped my Gatorade while try to put it back in the cage. Two or three times, I shifted into a harder gear and stood up to pedal (I had worked on standing and pedalling this past week on Mill Mtn.) I didn't really use my Granny gear until shortly before the right hand turn onto Honeysuckle Rd. Even Granny couldn't help too much on that crazy hill.

After the turn, the road gets really steep. I ended up having to walk twice. Oh well, I managed pretty good on this part. I actually caught Kristen and passed her, but like I said before she was able to blow right past me to take 3rd. She's a good egg, so that's cool with me. I swear it seemed like the section on Honeysuckle too forever. I guess because it's so steep and you really can't see the finish line until you're right at it.

A few things to mention:
Dave Tompkins - Pimpin' the waterstop. FUNNY GUY!
The Green Van - sucked that they let cars come on up, but this one stayed right behind me too long, so I finally stopped and waved her by with a dirty look.
Washboard - the top near the finish is like a washboard - didn't notice it as much until the ride down. UGH!
Downhill - an idea for the future - don't let cars go down until all riders have departed the top - the dust was horrible to ride through
WRECK - one of the young male riders, maybe Daniel Buttram(?) wrecked on the descent and wound up cut up pretty bad, maybe broke some teeth and broke his arm.

The PoMo was definitely better organized this year and much more enjoyable for me personally. I scored $10 for 4th place then scored $60 more for winning the series. SWEET! Money is always a good thing! I'm glad the races are done. I'm debating the Rowdy Dog - haven't ridden there on this bike before so, who knows. Just depends on how much I ride between now and then. I hear that there will be a mountain cross series in February so I may try to do some of that?!? Otherwise it's going to be riding for fun.

Ok gotta go - The Amazing Race is on - love this show. =) Before I go, my time was 1:20... =)))