Still, after almost a week I look back at the race at Fischer Farms with mostly frustration. I had heard (courtesy of Bob Pugh) that it had rained a bunch Tuesday night in the Davidson area, north of Charlotte. As a result I decided to bring my front wheel that had a knobbier tire on it with me so that I could run that if the trail was we, after arriving it was easy to see that the knobbier tire was the way to go. After warming up (the trail was slick, but not terrible), I lined up for the start.
Again I had a bad start, entering the woods in 4th
(I think), I lost a place going through a corner within the first minute or so
and was in 5th place. The
course doesn’t have a ton of places to pass, so I was very happy that no one
was pulling away, and I tried to relax and use as little energy as
possible. During the one open area I
moved up to 2nd place, and rode there till the same section on the
second lap where I moved into the lead.
I felt really good that I had raced smart and not gotten too worried
about my bad start or being stuck in 5th place.
About halfway through the third and final lap, I took an
uphill turn too wide and Justin McClean who was riding second behind me was
able to pass me. I wasn’t too worried I
still had ½ a lap to pass him, including the long open straight away. At this point we were approaching and
passing lapped riders; unfortunately one that Justin and I were passing fell
between us (which was quite the challenge since I was about 10 feet behind him)
which allowed Justin to ride away and
Travis Beam who was in third to pass me, as I remounted the bike. Within a couple minutes of that I was
approaching another lapped rider I called out “rider up” and then “on your left”
unfortunately I called that I was going to pass on the left just as he moved
over . . .to the left, which left me no room to go around and I had already
committed to going to the left, so again I had to get off the bike and again I was passed by the
rider behind me, this time Chris Wieczorek.
Chris was nice enough to offer to let me back in front, I declined,
because that’s just part of racing (at least in my mind). That’s how we finished up.
My frustration is about the situation not the riders. It wasn’t too long ago that I was one of the
riders that was getting passed by faster riders from other classes. I think it’s harder to let people by than to
be the one doing the passing, because you can only see what’s in front of you
and you don’t know what’s going on behind you.
Also in many cases the riders we are passing are among the most
inexperienced out there. They’re doing the best they can, but it’s a
situation that’s difficult for everyone.
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