It is turning out that without fail once a year I have a pre race meltdown. Last year was at Moody when I forgot both socks and my helmet. I was lucky to borrow a helmet from a sport rider who had already finished and I just rode without socks.
This year at the Pinnacle I completely forgot to fill/bring my camelbak and get a bottle of Accelerade made. On top of that the camelbak holds the adjustable wrench that I use to affix my oldschool bolt on hubs. So I realize in the parking lot that I cant put my front wheel on and I have no fluids for the race...JOY.
Lucky for me I found a fellow SS'er with an adjustable wrench to fix my front wheel problem and luckily I had brought a half gallon of gatorade that I staged at the start so every lap I could at least stop and pound a bunch. And lucky for me the race organizers at the Pinnacle have their shit together and had a water station handing out cups of water to racers as they went by. Problems pretty much solved...on to racing.
I actually kinda like riding without the weight of the camelbak, I might have to experiment with that a bit in the future. I actually ended up feeling really good during this race. The climbing was really tough (always is at the Pinnacle) but I felt pretty strong the entire time and the second half of the course was more than a reward for all that hard work in the first 3 miles.
There was an epic section of cross fall line trails that felt like a "pump track in the sky" (coined by Derek Griggs). Very little pedaling needed, no brakes necessary and FAST. It was such a blast to ride. and after that section was a screaming descent that was a perfect balance between technical, speed, and flow. As you can tell I probably had the most fun racing I have ever had this past weekend. Def one of the best courses I have ever ridden.
Results were pretty typical for me...came in 7th of 8 finishers. Broke the 2 hour mark coming in at 1h 54min and finished even closer to my competitors, missed 6th by about 2.5min to a guy who usually beats me by 5-10min. And coincidentally the guy who came in 8th was the guy who sold me the fork that I am currently riding (beat him by 6 mins hah!).
Finally get a bit of a break from racing (4 weeks straight) and I will finish up the series with 2 more races in August.
Good stuff mano. Bikes Built, Beer made
ReplyDeleteone time wally left for skiing without his skis, that was stupid.
ReplyDeleteyeah i cant wait to show up to a race without my bike.
ReplyDeleteI would probably just drive to the closest walmart, buy something, race it and then light it on fire.