After pre-riding the course on Friday, I thought maybe it might get somewhat faster and easier on Saturday after a few races. While the hill did get packed down and faster, the rest of the course just seemed to get slower. The mud and grass was soft enough to sink way in, but firm enough to really grab your wheels. What a slog-fest. This year, I think that the hill was actually one of the easier parts of the course.
I spent the morning helping with registration, but did stick my neck out long enough to watch the start of the Cat 4 race. I wanted to see 100 guy funnel into the hill. It actually went better then I expected, with some congestion, but not too bad from a spectator's perspective.
The upside of my front row start in the 1/2/3 was a clear shot at the hill, the down shot was I completely blew my plan to not blow up in the first lap. I had great spot going up the first time, but then quickly realized on the way down that was overcooked, and needed to back way off, especially for surviving the 60 minutes. Then I crashed 3 times in the first lap, really putting me back. All through the second lap my chain was jumping all over my cassette, I couldn't tell if it was just mud, a bent hanger from my crashes, or something else. I tweaked my barrel adjuster a few turns, and finally got it to run smooth. By now, I was two laps in, back at the rear of the race, and deep in the red zone.
I focused on just riding smoothly and efficiently, and managed to catch a few guys and make up a few places, definitely riding better towards the end of the race. Coming around the back section, after the gravel, and before the stream crossing, I was weaving through the section of course that loops back on itself. Who ever was in front of me, caught some course tape on their bike, and took it with them on the next loop. So when I came into that part of the course, I encountered a tightly stretched section of course tape, sweeping across towards me at twice my speed, as he was now going the opposite direction. I tried to duck, but it caught me right across the neck and clotheslined me right to the ground. I managed to pull myself out of this mess, but the intrepid rider continued on, pulling out half the course tape for this section. I finally got past him after the stream crossing where the tape had wrapped several thick layers around his rear axle.
Then, a quick few minutes to zip tie my shift levers, swap numbers, and jump into the single speed race. Once again, I took off at the start, and found myself riding second wheel behind Yozell for a while. He was apparently taking it easy, but still I couldn't stay with him. Lost one spot to fatigue, and then it seemed like I had a gigantic gap to third, and figured that I could ride a safe race in for the last podium spot. However, fourth place was catching up fast, and I was running out of time and legs. Coming down the short hill after the pavement by the pits, I wiped out HARD, tumbling head over handlebars, ass over teakettle, and found my bike tangled up in the tape, with the bars skewed about 30 degrees to the left. At this point, he got by me, and I struggled to follow him, while slightly stunned, with bent glasses, a crooked helmet, and a bars pointing the wrong way. He was too quick, and so I rolled through in fourth.
Still, that was a lot of fun.
Start of the women's races:
Slogging:
I spent the morning helping with registration, but did stick my neck out long enough to watch the start of the Cat 4 race. I wanted to see 100 guy funnel into the hill. It actually went better then I expected, with some congestion, but not too bad from a spectator's perspective.
The upside of my front row start in the 1/2/3 was a clear shot at the hill, the down shot was I completely blew my plan to not blow up in the first lap. I had great spot going up the first time, but then quickly realized on the way down that was overcooked, and needed to back way off, especially for surviving the 60 minutes. Then I crashed 3 times in the first lap, really putting me back. All through the second lap my chain was jumping all over my cassette, I couldn't tell if it was just mud, a bent hanger from my crashes, or something else. I tweaked my barrel adjuster a few turns, and finally got it to run smooth. By now, I was two laps in, back at the rear of the race, and deep in the red zone.
I focused on just riding smoothly and efficiently, and managed to catch a few guys and make up a few places, definitely riding better towards the end of the race. Coming around the back section, after the gravel, and before the stream crossing, I was weaving through the section of course that loops back on itself. Who ever was in front of me, caught some course tape on their bike, and took it with them on the next loop. So when I came into that part of the course, I encountered a tightly stretched section of course tape, sweeping across towards me at twice my speed, as he was now going the opposite direction. I tried to duck, but it caught me right across the neck and clotheslined me right to the ground. I managed to pull myself out of this mess, but the intrepid rider continued on, pulling out half the course tape for this section. I finally got past him after the stream crossing where the tape had wrapped several thick layers around his rear axle.
Then, a quick few minutes to zip tie my shift levers, swap numbers, and jump into the single speed race. Once again, I took off at the start, and found myself riding second wheel behind Yozell for a while. He was apparently taking it easy, but still I couldn't stay with him. Lost one spot to fatigue, and then it seemed like I had a gigantic gap to third, and figured that I could ride a safe race in for the last podium spot. However, fourth place was catching up fast, and I was running out of time and legs. Coming down the short hill after the pavement by the pits, I wiped out HARD, tumbling head over handlebars, ass over teakettle, and found my bike tangled up in the tape, with the bars skewed about 30 degrees to the left. At this point, he got by me, and I struggled to follow him, while slightly stunned, with bent glasses, a crooked helmet, and a bars pointing the wrong way. He was too quick, and so I rolled through in fourth.
Still, that was a lot of fun.
Start of the women's races:
No comments:
Post a Comment