Sorry to worry you been studying a lot havent been on computer much. My recap will be short. Saturday morning woke up with fever, drank lot of OJ and vitamin C cough drops hoping Id be good for Sunday = First Cat 1 race. Decided to do this to get ready for next year, know I can do distance, more to get a feel for the pace.
Weird getting to race so late sunday. Got to see all my peeps come through on their second laps though and help Robbie with his issues. Talked with Norm, Bill and Ben and got ready, dropped off my bottles in the feed area and went to line up. Knew I was no contender so I started near back and stayed with main pack through first single track section. Through the rocky decents I was getting pummeled keeping up with everyone, rigid is no fun this fast. Next year I am racing a fs 26er except for SSaP. Right at the end of lap 1 I hear the dreaded pssssss. Got off and spent a few min trying to seal the puncture, eventually got it and used half co2 to fill er up. Thanks Bill 🙂. (this was my front tire)
At this point I was still in front of some people so continued on hoping I could catch up to some others. This was a pipe dream. Was dragging somewhat felt a little weak pushed on trying to eat and drink properly. Halfway thru second lap I wonder why Norm hasnt passed me, than he does. We chat for a while and he leaves me in the dust. Lap 3 comes. Halfway through lap 3 on fence descent I rip sidewall wide open on my rear tire small block 8. Have to put tube in which takes me forever. While doing this I get passed by final two 0 leg riders. Unfortunatley for me I only had half a co2 left which probably got me 10 psi. Said fuck it and went on. This was a mistake, last descent right before animal chute I got pinch flat. At this point I had no more tubes/co2 so I practiced my CX technique and shouldered my bike. Jogged animal chute and to finish. First race I had any mechanicals so hopefully I can come back and do better at Ringwood. I learned that I must carry more co2s. Some differences I saw were Cat 1 riders are faster than Cat 2 😛. Im sure most top riders dont, but I was actually suprised I saw as many people walking/not clearing technical stuff, especially towards the end. Guess I was expecting everyone to make everything but now I think about that it is unrealistic at race pace over longer distance. One interesting thing I saw was a sids rider go down hard and smack his head in the middle of a rock garden. Got right up and kept going, was pretty unbelieveable I thought he was done for. Anyway had fun and will do my best at ringwood.
Weird getting to race so late sunday. Got to see all my peeps come through on their second laps though and help Robbie with his issues. Talked with Norm, Bill and Ben and got ready, dropped off my bottles in the feed area and went to line up. Knew I was no contender so I started near back and stayed with main pack through first single track section. Through the rocky decents I was getting pummeled keeping up with everyone, rigid is no fun this fast. Next year I am racing a fs 26er except for SSaP. Right at the end of lap 1 I hear the dreaded pssssss. Got off and spent a few min trying to seal the puncture, eventually got it and used half co2 to fill er up. Thanks Bill 🙂. (this was my front tire)
At this point I was still in front of some people so continued on hoping I could catch up to some others. This was a pipe dream. Was dragging somewhat felt a little weak pushed on trying to eat and drink properly. Halfway thru second lap I wonder why Norm hasnt passed me, than he does. We chat for a while and he leaves me in the dust. Lap 3 comes. Halfway through lap 3 on fence descent I rip sidewall wide open on my rear tire small block 8. Have to put tube in which takes me forever. While doing this I get passed by final two 0 leg riders. Unfortunatley for me I only had half a co2 left which probably got me 10 psi. Said fuck it and went on. This was a mistake, last descent right before animal chute I got pinch flat. At this point I had no more tubes/co2 so I practiced my CX technique and shouldered my bike. Jogged animal chute and to finish. First race I had any mechanicals so hopefully I can come back and do better at Ringwood. I learned that I must carry more co2s. Some differences I saw were Cat 1 riders are faster than Cat 2 😛. Im sure most top riders dont, but I was actually suprised I saw as many people walking/not clearing technical stuff, especially towards the end. Guess I was expecting everyone to make everything but now I think about that it is unrealistic at race pace over longer distance. One interesting thing I saw was a sids rider go down hard and smack his head in the middle of a rock garden. Got right up and kept going, was pretty unbelieveable I thought he was done for. Anyway had fun and will do my best at ringwood.
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