The plan was for me to hang back on Blackstar and keep the pace moderate so I had enough energy to do some extra credit going up Maple Springs later. I hadn't really gone on anything longer than a 3 hour ride in a long time, so being conservative was a good idea, especially with the recent back issues.
Well that plan went out the window pretty quickly as my friend Andy (on his all mountain bike) decided to take off with the fast folks. I still hung back a little, but after the climb started on Blackstar, I soon found myself in limbo between the 4 fast guys who took off, and a slower group. Gradually I caught Andy, and as I approached Beek's Place, I caught up to Pavel, another Troupe guy. Going through Beek's, Charlie and Jeff (the really fast guys) were coming back down to do some extra credit. It turned out I was only 5 minutes behind, and I made it to the golf ball in a personal best (I think)1:03 from the gate (Strava had me at 59 minutes from the gate to the Main Divide).
Going hard to the golf ball cost me on the Main Divide, but I made it over to the top of Motorway in 2:05 ride time from the gate (2:09 from the car). I think that was probably a personal best as well.
Everyone else but Charlie and I decided to call it a day and go catch the Superbowl, so we started up Maple Springs. The way my legs felt, I would have been happy to make it up the 3-4 miles to where the dirt starts, but I kept trudging along and made it up to the Main Divide. After I took a quick snack break, Charlie came down from the first set of towers and we headed back down.
Strava had me at 40.2 miles and 7200ft of climbing, 4:27 ride time, 5:30 overall.
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