NBX weekend, or that weekend I spent having people who know how to race bikes beat the crap out of me (cribbed from my coach's race report):
Well, that was bracing! Glad I didn't need a brace afterwards. We throw hay bails over anything that even looks scary. They don't give a shit. Not one. Pucker factor was VERY high, esp day 2.
To begin:
Drove up Friday night. Arrived at 12:30. Getting the Friday work done at a sprint meant I missed the openers. There's a lot about these big road trips I've gotta work out. (I know, this is nothing - stop laughing.) Waking up at 5:45 the next morning wasn't optimal.
Rolled into the park shy of 7 and got three, yup THREE laps in before the 8 o'clock race, I had the trainer up and working and was on the way to a fairly unpanicked, if not well rested, morning.
And then there was the racing. The pre-ride lifted the skirts on a course that was WELL beyond the stuff I've seen so far down here. LVG said the course had a lot of flow. I though that was insane, til Day 2, but that's for later. The start was OK, but I definitely don't have that aggressive NE gene. Also, they're fucking fast. From the prologue, we dumped off into an elephant graveyard. Roots like thighbones in a Serbian backyard. Easily a dozen riders were done after a hard hit there. I'd taken a fairly good look, so even when I was smashing 'em, I knew it was coming so was able to do an impersonation of someone who could ride and got through ok. Getting through ok was the theme for the weekend it turns out.
Being sensible got me through the first half lap, being slow got me through the sand, kinda. Nothing like being passed by 15 people in 100 yards. Recovering after that suuucked. I was able to get around the queue at the stairs by just running around it. That bought me a few places, for a bit. After the first lap, we settled into our respective grooves. Or ruts. Or holes. Lots of little battles. And lots of "oh, hey, if I pedal through this I don't lose as much speed!" and "Oh, THESE stakes are metal and hurt like a motherfucker when you clip them!"
The technical stuff got better as the race went on, which was awesome, but I managed to even that out by being flat and not having much pop out the corners.
Ended up in a nice little fight on the last lap, which gave me a bit of gristle to gnaw on for a bit. At the finish, I was definitely cooked. Didn't feel like there was a lot more I could have left out there. Lap times were good, if not compared to anyone else's 🙂
Should I be focusing on blasting out of corners and jettisoning the diesel approach?
Housed a burrito for lunch. (Not good, sadly, despite the LA Style description.) I think they meant Louisiana. Ate too much for dinner, but was somehow able to NOT drink 2 six packs in the hotel room. Spent some time prepping a new book and was out by 10.
AND THEN:
Must have slept like shit. The morning was not terrible, but definitely didn't feel 100%. Microwave burrito and cereal and off we went! So, so much colder this morning. Which led to the first bump up against today's "Oh, fuck, really?" theme. The first lap was scary. I felt over my head, technically. Yesterday's sweeping corners didn't seem to flow in reverse, someone found 1000 more roots, and subtracting all but 15 feet of sand would seem to be a good thing, but it still sucked. I did manage to find one corner I could do well. Taking a wide line in the corner under the pedestrian bridge set me up to rocket into the uphill, where others were just trying not to crash out on a rough off camber. The downside to my brainstorm was the potential for a wash out and flossing with orange metal fencing. More on that later.
Back to the car and warming up. Happily I packed the thermal skinsuit, so that went on. Knocked out the warmup and got numbered up. Spent most of the morning trying to figure out what to wear. It was cold. Which wouldn't normally be a problem, but when your head's not there, and the privations start mounting, the head takes each lil blow as an omen. By the time I got lined up, my head was all HP Lovecraft. My start didn't have a lot of oomph, but it wasn't horrible. Didn't give up a lot, as I'd lined up at 46. Probably went into the trees in the middle 50s. The barriers saw my usual stick-figure meets wall grace, again and again. I could lose a step in between them. Gotta do some more work on that. By the end of the first lap, I'd forgotten about how nervous/straight-up worried I was and got down to the business of not being very good at most of it, and occasionally being ok at some of it.
At lap five, I was behind two guys that had been throwing elbows. Their pissed-offedness made em sparky, so I hitched myself to their wagon and waited for the right moment. I think three right moments passed before we got to my wide-line uphill corner. The first guy was a 55+, so no worries about him. #2 was 45+. Marked! We went into the off camber/wide out bit. I got a lil excited and washed out the front tire. Held it (yes!) and came on HOT! Missed it by 1/2 a wheel. I could have gone all NE on him and pushed, but fuck that. It was nice to know I was right, in theory, if not in practice. Next year.
Oh, hell fuck really? thing #2. Head was calm, but my gloves + the lack of space under the shimano levers meant I never really had a good grip on the hoods. At one point I was seriously considering tossing the gloves and risking it. That cost me time and places. And was fucking dangerous. Pre-rides can be dangerous that way. You get lulled into thinking things are one way, when they're totally the other. Tire pressure was another lulu. I dodged that bullet though. Choosing your line at low speeds has NOTHING to do with hitting roots hard during the race. Last minute I went from 30/32 f/r to 31/34 f/r. It was harsher, sure, but holy shit did I like it when I wasn't on my cruising lap lines.
Seriously, this hand clearance thing is gonna be a fucking big deal as it gets colder.
Highlights: hanging out with @The Heckler, pitting for Clio from Kindhuman/Kudu Collective, basking in the warmth that is Team TwomBossa and being beaten up by guys who look like my dentist. HUGE shoutout to @hotsauce, who, despite riding @The Squirrel's borrowed bike, clocked lap times exactly in line with mine, with an extra for him being awesome. A seriously excellent ride. Also, he was pretty much DFL. Or DFL -10. Is that a thing? Did I mention how effing fast they are up there?
Lowlights: aging.
that was an awesome read. Thanks Sean.
