Don't mind me, I'm just a little delerious from the cross race. Well, if you're reading this that must mean you want know about the cross race. Lets start with a little description of the course.
The Course: Flat as a pancake. Two sets of barriers. A section commonly known as the spiral of death (imagine riding in a circle). A nice little section that involves a stream crossing right into a run up. The course was on private land that was farm fields that were mowed down to allow us to ride our bikes. And oh yeah did I mention that there may been some mud on the course?
Yeah, there was some mud on the course. About 12 tons. The course must have been 75% mud.
The Race: So is this where I start listing my excuses? No. I take a position in the middle of the pack for the start. The gun goes off and we all flying down the course into the first turn that takes us into the first path around a field. It wasn't too chaotic, but on the far end of this loop around the field the mud was rediculous!! I was riding through most of it but when I could no longer see the rim of bike, I hopped of the bike to run with it. The however I did notice that my heroic attempt to ride through the mud was not going to go unpunished. In the other corn field, my bike starts to pick up hay. hmmmm. All of the sudden, my bike isn't pedalling anymore. Well, if my bike doesn't pedal, i'm not moving. I hop off to clear mud and grime away from the brakes and deraiulers. Racers go zipping past me. Damn. This pattern will continue for the rest of the race. I hop on ride it for a little while, it stops working or makes me work really hard, and I stop to clean it. After two laps, the mud has gotten so thick and I have lost my patience for it. What do I decide to do? Well, I know I can run, so that is what I do. I ran for probably 50% of the final lap and I didn't lose any places and may have gained at least one. It was a fun race. I managed to not fall over which is a good thing. Ultimately I finished 2nd to last. (at least I beat someone!)
It was good see the cross racers that I haven't seen in two weeks. They are all really cool people. A single speeder ended up winning my race. Way to go Peter!
What was also really impressive was watching the pit section during the Elite Master's Race. They would switch bikes every lap, and there would be about 3 people per bike cleaning it. Amazing!!!
Conclusion: Same course tomorrow. Clean the bike. I should be ready to go get some revenge for todays sorry results.
The Ride Home: So I decide my bike is way too muddy to throw in the back of my car. But my bike rack is sketchy in that it really only tightly holds one side of the fork. Oh Well. I throw the bike up there. Everything is fine until I get to the turnpike construction area. All those bumps are throwing my bike around. Every few minutes, I casually roll down the window. Stick my arm out and tighten the bike rack while driving. I'm sure the people behind me loved seeing that. I had to pee really really bad so there was no time to waste and pull over.
1 comment:
u sure that isn't manure?
Post a Comment