Heard an announcement that they stopped the race before me. I guess a fellow went down pretty hard in the C race. I ran into the promoter at the registration tent after the dust settled. Sounds like someone was pushing things and possibly people alittle hard in the beginning of the race.
Our race started about 15 minutes late and was going to be shorter - only 6 laps. The master Bs pushed off and we started about a minute later. The course was in the opposite direction this week, so the "hole shot" was completely different. The "hole shot" is the sprint in the beginning to get in the lead group. This is absolutely critical in a cross or mountain bike race in order to avoid the others in the bottleneck sections. I found myself in the top 5 but I decided to hold back alittle this week. Not sure if that was the correct decision. I found myself behind a couple guys and watched the guy that was 3rd last week get up in the front.
Well, I didn't feel as confident on the corners. Especially in the first lap. I prerode the course and there was one left corner that was really nasty. It was nasty for everyone, but it just threw me off. I was riding with my tire pressure about 5 psi higher this week. Decided to do that after talking to everyone that was running higher pressure. I think that was a mistake.
Another teammate (he got 6th last week) pulled up with me on the second lap and he said "let's go". Well, that's when I discovered that the legs didn't really have the same mojo as last week (he finished in second place -he's on the right in the photo - I should have held his wheel !!!).
Seemed like about 7 or 8 folks were ahead of me. By the third lap, you're in you're own little race. By this time you're racing the guys around you.
On the 4th or 5th lap I caught up with a master B rider that seemed pretty strong - I held onto his wheel on the straight gravel section since I needed a break. We exchanged pulls and were making some headway. It was a good 2 man effort. You know this when the conversation at the pull exchanges are "good work" - "same" - the talk is short since you're suffering. We caught the C rider in front of us and he started "sucking our wheel" and wouldn't do any pulling. I pulled away from the B rider on the last lap and that wheel sucker was still on me. He dropped me since he had been enjoying the break for the last lap or so.
I went as hard as I could that last lap. Mostly to hold off anyone behind me. No one passed me and I think I made some progress on the guys ahead of me. I crossed the line and went straight for the chair. I was spinning like a top when I stood up. Probably overheated the radiator and got a touch of heat exhaustion (did I mention it was about 90F).
Results weren't available until the next day. 8th place - a top ten finish - I'll take it.
Can't believe I'm going to say this, but....... I can't wait until cooler weather and alittle rain.
2 comments:
no rain yet please. Great writeup dood. I enjoyed the read. - brian
Great description of the race. Every race and every week is different. Good job. I'll be up at Welches this weekend and will do some riding there. Should be good.
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