Pot roast and Cone World.... and the Yankee Springs time trial

Sounds great doesn't it? It was. It was also what we ate the night before the Yankee Springs TT last weekend. Most other racer types might cringe at such a thought, and I would have to acknowledge it's not the preferred pre-race meal. Jody's pot roast really tasted good. You could taste the love that goes into a home cooked meal. Shortly after dinner we decided a trip to Cone World was in order. A waffle cone soft serve and chocolate dipped chocolate cone came through the window and into our waiting hands. We made short work of the fabulous treats. My point? My point is that we often times worry about trivial things. You know what is more important than having a well balanced meal with the proper proportions of each food group before a race? Having a low level of stress. I have often times been guilty of eating wheat pasta and a salad the night before a race but biting my fingernails down to the nubs, of waking up more tired than when I went to bed. It's human nature-especially for competitive types. Last Saturday I didn't do that.

The race:
We pulled into the Deep Lake Unit drive about 8:30am, and it was cold, really cold, like 28 degrees cold. The sun was bright in the sky. It was a beautiful morning. I picked up my number plate with the number 1 on it, and with cold fingers twist-tied it to my bike. At 9:15, wearing lots of clothes, I went out for a warm-up lap. The course was sandy, but I've seen it worse. I did a lap of the course minus "The Pines" and got to the start 6 minutes before I was to leave the line. I shed a bunch of clothes, leaving me with shorts, a long and a short sleeved shirt and my trusty wooley-booley wool socks.
Soon I was off and racing, and I had a little trouble clipping in off the start-but I just went with it and I was motoring down the trail in no time. My first lap was possibly the best riding I had ever done at Yankee. I powered my full-suspension S-Works right through any and all obstacles. I was riding smooth, but was pushing my body to it's max. Then, with about a mile left in the first lap my handlebars turned. I tried to ignore it, but soon reality set in, I needed to fix this! I didn't panic. I simply pulled off the trail, grabbed the tool pouch from my pocket, opened the multi-tool, grabbed the 4mm allen, tossed my tool pouch to the ground, tightened the top bolt on the stem, dropped my tool to the ground, mounted my bike and pedaled away. All this was done without panic, without frustration and without stress.
The first lap ended with dozens of spectators cheering as I was the first bike to complete a lap. I heard noise, but saw no faces.
The second lap had barely begun when I heard a buzzing noise. Matter of fact, I reached down and pulled a stick out of the chain/derailleur. I hopped back on the bike again, telling myself to treat this and the stem clamp incident as brief rests.
I knew I was down to 30 minutes of racing left, and I bumped up the heart rate a little. The next 20 minutes passed in the blink of an eye-I was in a zone.
Approaching the rootiest, nastiest climb on the course I felt my legs weaken, but I still decided to take the hill head on. I went right up the middle of it. But this time I was a few watts low on power and struggled up and over, it wasn't fast or graceful. I gathered myself at the top, allowing just a few precious slow pedals before digging in for the final push.
The finish line came after 1:30:23.1 of perfectly imperfect racing. I had tried my best, and not let my ideas of how things should be affect how things actually happened. I won the race by 25 seconds. 25 seconds, I wish I knew exactly how much stress, angst, self-doubt, ect. adds up to 25 seconds. I am fairly certain is doesn't take much at all.
Pot roast and Cone World. So, maybe I didn't necessarily ride faster than everyone else, maybe I just stressed less....