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| Bobby 1st, me 3rd. . .not bad |
Showed up at the White Water Center about 7:30 (for the 9:02
start), got signed in and everything set up and ready to go for the race. Pre-rode a little bit of the course with
Bobby Bryson, Chris Audet (who were both doing the same race) and Matt Moosa
(who was racing with the 19-29 year olds).
Practiced a couple starts to make sure I knew what gear to start in and
then rode around easily until the start.
Got a really good initial 4 or 5 pedal strokes, but didn’t get my left
foot clipped in. I slowed down a little
to get clipped in, even with that I got into the woods in 5th place
(out of about 13) and felt pretty good about that. After staying in line for about 5 minutes,
Chris W(??_), one of the fastest guys in the race had a mechanical and had to
stop. A couple minutes later I passed
the rider in third, with Tommy Rodgers and Bobby Bryson just in front of me, I
thought that the three of us would probably be the three riding for the win.
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| Not my best start |
The three of us continued in line for the rest of the first
lap, pretty uneventfully. They were
pulling away from me on the climbs, but I was able to catch back up through the
technical sections relatively easily.
Unfortunately there were a couple times near the top of short technical
climbs where they checked up a little and I had to get off briefly and climb
back on. At the end of the first lap got
rid of my Camelbak and got a new water bottle of Infnit, as planned. About 15
minutes into the second lap I passed Bobby and Tommy, I was riding really well
and feeling good. Unfortunately
approaching a fork in the trail, didn’t see the arrow for the course until I
had already committed to the wrong direction.
Unfortunately I had to stop turn around and get back on the bike, which
allowed Bobby and Tommy to pass me.
At some point I was able to pass Tommy and after a little
bit we started to put a gap between ourselves and Tommy. Was still feeling good, at the end of lap two
swapped water bottles for another bottle of Infinit. Maybe 15 minutes into the 3rd and
final lap Bobby pushed up a climb (I don’t think he was trying to go hard), but
I just couldn’t push any harder and he pulled away like I was standing
still. At that point I knew I was in
preservation mode, and just try to ride as evenly as possible to the finish. Unfortunately I spun out at the bottom of the
climb with about 10 minutes left in the race and Tommie passed me,
unfortunately I couldn’t pull him back in, and finished about 30 seconds behind
him.
Overall I was really happy with my fitness and bike handling,
and finishing 3rd (although I could have had a better finish) given
the caliber of other riders is something I’m really proud of.
Special congratulations to: Bobby 1st the Cat 1 30-39 race,
Eric Haggerty 3rd in single speed, and Andrea Hildebrand 1st
Cat 2 Women 40+.
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