Monday, September 14, 2009

"Taco" race.


Sunday 9/13/09 marks my first mountain bike race. Time trials on hillside/rollercoaster and Targetto. This may all sound like a big fish story so I'll get the fish story out of the way:



Ended at Fish camp on the river I was the 5th person to start the second time trial so I was there for a while waiting for everyone else. There was beer there as I recall. Also Swag, a "taco", and a lot of poison ivy.

Okay the fish story out of the way heres the day. 5:45 am up and ready to go quick stop at mcdonalds for some race fuel and off the the races. Got down to the trail at 6:30 and started to set up the course. We were going to run roller and hillside backwards. I haven't ever done rollercoaster backwards so I was in for a treat.

The race started at 9 each of the 48 riders left on 1 minute intervals I had signed up early so I was the 9th rider out (ouch). First lap started with some speed and I flew (by my standards) through hillside. I had spiked my heart rate to 195 on the first climb and not let it recover until I was onto rollercoaster. I made it through everything on rollercoaster except the last hill (root climb from hell) I was really close but let a rider pass me at the bottom and I think that and maybe a couple other things(being 25lbs over weight, old, single speed, fat, ex-smoker, and lazy) left me running up the hill. My first lap down 4 miles in 21 minutes I was on top of the world (possably seeing things) I planned for the first root climb on hilside that I ran up the first lap the plan was hit it fast. This climb is a 110 degree turn onto a 25% grade with sand and roots. I hit the turn at 15-16 mph and picked a bad line and planted my tire on the root at the bottom, right over the handle bars. Got up collected myself and ran up the hill. My front wheel was "taco'd" so bad it wouldn't clear the fork. I hit it a few times until it would clear and was ready to call it a day. So I rode at a medium pace for 5 minutes or so and decided that the wheel would make it and I was going to finish even if it was with the bike over my shoulder. The rest of the ride was great finished at 48.09 so my incident cost me 5 minutes. Still I was very happy with that time first mountain bike race 2nd week on the single speed and only minor injuries.

The afternoon at sycamore was also a blast I got the wheel "trued" (beaten on the ground) and was ready to race took off 5th in front of Kyle. After all the jokes ahead of time about passing I was determined to stay ahead of Kyle it's only 2.6 miles I told myself. As always confidence come before the fall I slid off the side of a rut and over the bars. This trail is a 6 inch wide peace of dirt in between 2 deep 4 wheeler ruts. The wheel is taco'd again. There were some choice words and a good wheel beating. I didn't even look at my time as I knew it would be bad. Some day I'll finish a mountain race on a working bike.

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