Hippo CX
The start of a race is a polite, quiet affair, with everyone sheepishly getting into position based on a call up, some guys have a swagger but most keep their head down anxiously awaiting the countdown. Feeling everyone else's tension puts me a bit at ease, knowing that they feel nervous too. I usually chit chat with whoever I'm next to, wishing them well but knowing that I'm going to go apeshit when we race.
Me telling the guys next to me don't come near me or I'll spear you with my flat bars, Pohndorf standing in the front unflappable.
We go, immediately there is a scrum on the line with some yelling as guys are elbowing each other, I instinctively get my elbows out and bounce off of the guy on both sides of me, one of them is Victor who I'm friendly with. As we move forward the scrum breaks up and everyone keeps their wheels down, we're off.
After a series of twists and turns, I find myself in 5th place about a minute into the race. At the stairs I ride past a guy to get into 4th and get behind Fedor who is riding strong. We (2nd, 3rd, me in 4th place) finish out the lap together while the leader has 15 seconds on us.
Doing the full tilt boogie at the beginning of race, chasing down Fedor.
The back section of the course has a series of climbs and then a long downhill with the occasional rock, there was also a gravel ride through section. Apparently the rocks caused a lot of flats in the race, I aired my tires a bit more before the start and fared ok.
On the series of climbs on lap 2, I was able to get around Fedor and put myself into 3rd place. For the remaining two laps I rode behind Rick who was in 2nd place, he set a solid pace and we pulled away from the field. As we pedalled up the climbs on lap 4 I saw Rick begin to fade, intuitively I jumped and got around him. Making that move motivated me to take it up a notch and make the pass stick, I bombed downhill and came around with 2 laps to go. Sitting in 2nd place, I kept the hammer down, getting glimpses of Rick on sections when the course turned on itself, I rode determined not to get caught.
My mouth was dry but the cool air kept me from getting too hot as I made my way around on the final lap. I had a gap on Rick and knew I just had to ride clean to keep 2nd place. I pushed where it was safe and eased up where a mistake could cost me. Riding toward the finish of the final lap felt good and I surprised myself with a podium, even the announcer was speechless, he had no idea who this SS mountain biker was.
Waiting for Rick at the finish we congratulated each other and Rick told me that I got 1st, Pohndorf flatted out. I stood there in a daze, but it all made sense since I recall seeing Mark walking his bike back during the race, at the time I didn't process the fact that Mark was the leader, having been so focused on staying ahead of Rick. Holy shit, I won??!!!
I do have to bring up an encounter I had with a dandy fellow with 2 laps to go. As I was racing this guy walking his bike (I'll assume he flatted out) yells at me "you're always in the way, stay out of my way". I was taken aback by this and didn't know what to make of it, he yelled at me like we had some long standing history of bad blood, not knowing what to say I shouted back "This is my 2nd race". Thinking about it afterwards, I believe he was a Cat 3 guy who caught us during the race, but I don't recall any contact with him. The Cat 3 winner did brush up against me during an aggressive pass before a gate which he later apologized for. From time to time there is some contact in racing, especially in CX, it's a part of racing. Usually the guy who initiates contact comes back to apologize or not, if you race enough you just let it go. Well this guy would not let it go and I made no contact with him. By chance I saw him at the finish area and asked him if he's got a problem with me, because I honestly don't know what the issue was. He repeated his whiny yell that I was in his way and I should have gotten out of the way. The only thing I could surmise is that at some point he flatted and now he is directing his anger at me. Still amped up from my race I told him to eat me, and as he kept walking away I told him that his flat was Karma.
Despite that ugly encounter everything else about the race was awesome. Rick, who I was racing against reminded me a bit of Dave Kahl's (50+racer) personality, soft spoken, experienced racer and a gentleman, basically someone you can battle on a racecourse yet have good conversation with afterwards.
I happened to look at CX predictions, they had me pegged for 8th out of 12, lol. In a way, moving forward can be more difficult, no one expected much out of me, myself included. My plan is to take a few weeks off from CX and race HPCX in 3 weeks, by then I'll go back to not expecting much from myself and hopefully others will as well.
The start of a race is a polite, quiet affair, with everyone sheepishly getting into position based on a call up, some guys have a swagger but most keep their head down anxiously awaiting the countdown. Feeling everyone else's tension puts me a bit at ease, knowing that they feel nervous too. I usually chit chat with whoever I'm next to, wishing them well but knowing that I'm going to go apeshit when we race.
Me telling the guys next to me don't come near me or I'll spear you with my flat bars, Pohndorf standing in the front unflappable.
We go, immediately there is a scrum on the line with some yelling as guys are elbowing each other, I instinctively get my elbows out and bounce off of the guy on both sides of me, one of them is Victor who I'm friendly with. As we move forward the scrum breaks up and everyone keeps their wheels down, we're off.
After a series of twists and turns, I find myself in 5th place about a minute into the race. At the stairs I ride past a guy to get into 4th and get behind Fedor who is riding strong. We (2nd, 3rd, me in 4th place) finish out the lap together while the leader has 15 seconds on us.
Doing the full tilt boogie at the beginning of race, chasing down Fedor.
The back section of the course has a series of climbs and then a long downhill with the occasional rock, there was also a gravel ride through section. Apparently the rocks caused a lot of flats in the race, I aired my tires a bit more before the start and fared ok.
On the series of climbs on lap 2, I was able to get around Fedor and put myself into 3rd place. For the remaining two laps I rode behind Rick who was in 2nd place, he set a solid pace and we pulled away from the field. As we pedalled up the climbs on lap 4 I saw Rick begin to fade, intuitively I jumped and got around him. Making that move motivated me to take it up a notch and make the pass stick, I bombed downhill and came around with 2 laps to go. Sitting in 2nd place, I kept the hammer down, getting glimpses of Rick on sections when the course turned on itself, I rode determined not to get caught.
My mouth was dry but the cool air kept me from getting too hot as I made my way around on the final lap. I had a gap on Rick and knew I just had to ride clean to keep 2nd place. I pushed where it was safe and eased up where a mistake could cost me. Riding toward the finish of the final lap felt good and I surprised myself with a podium, even the announcer was speechless, he had no idea who this SS mountain biker was.
Waiting for Rick at the finish we congratulated each other and Rick told me that I got 1st, Pohndorf flatted out. I stood there in a daze, but it all made sense since I recall seeing Mark walking his bike back during the race, at the time I didn't process the fact that Mark was the leader, having been so focused on staying ahead of Rick. Holy shit, I won??!!!
I do have to bring up an encounter I had with a dandy fellow with 2 laps to go. As I was racing this guy walking his bike (I'll assume he flatted out) yells at me "you're always in the way, stay out of my way". I was taken aback by this and didn't know what to make of it, he yelled at me like we had some long standing history of bad blood, not knowing what to say I shouted back "This is my 2nd race". Thinking about it afterwards, I believe he was a Cat 3 guy who caught us during the race, but I don't recall any contact with him. The Cat 3 winner did brush up against me during an aggressive pass before a gate which he later apologized for. From time to time there is some contact in racing, especially in CX, it's a part of racing. Usually the guy who initiates contact comes back to apologize or not, if you race enough you just let it go. Well this guy would not let it go and I made no contact with him. By chance I saw him at the finish area and asked him if he's got a problem with me, because I honestly don't know what the issue was. He repeated his whiny yell that I was in his way and I should have gotten out of the way. The only thing I could surmise is that at some point he flatted and now he is directing his anger at me. Still amped up from my race I told him to eat me, and as he kept walking away I told him that his flat was Karma.
Despite that ugly encounter everything else about the race was awesome. Rick, who I was racing against reminded me a bit of Dave Kahl's (50+racer) personality, soft spoken, experienced racer and a gentleman, basically someone you can battle on a racecourse yet have good conversation with afterwards.
I happened to look at CX predictions, they had me pegged for 8th out of 12, lol. In a way, moving forward can be more difficult, no one expected much out of me, myself included. My plan is to take a few weeks off from CX and race HPCX in 3 weeks, by then I'll go back to not expecting much from myself and hopefully others will as well.
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) And Appletans was SECOND at Nats in Madison behind Steve Tilford! Neither are playing at this. As for the cat 3 hero, f*ck that guy, and well handled. Keep your elbows out and take your place on Murderer's Row. As for HPCX, you're a marked man. So you've got that to look forward to.
