It's been a while since this race, but there were enough "interesting" things that happenned in the race I think it's worthy of a blog post.
Race was December 16th in Harbison National Forest SC, about an hour and a half from home, so not a bad drive. Nothing unusual happenned in getting ready for the race during the morning (always a good thing). Got lined up for the start, it was pretty warm that morning so I didn't need arm warmers or leg warmers for the race which was nice. . .especially for the middle of December.
Got a bad start (nothing new there), but since there's about 0.25 miles of gravel road until you get into the woods I knew it didn't matter, and I'd have plenty of time to get into the position that I felt good about. Got into the wood fourth, and felt really good about where I was, about 10 minutes in I moved into 3rd and rode there through most of the rest of the lap. As we were got to the last substatial climb of the first lap, the 2nd place rider started to slow and I took the opportunity to push and move into 2nd place. We openned up a gap to third, I was working hard (it is a race afterall), but felt like I could maintain that.
Came through the start finish line and headed back into the woods. . . but something was wrong. It took us a minute to realize we had turned into the woods in wrong place, I had actually done the same thing on my warm-up, the loop wasn't too long fortunately (2-2.5 minutes extra, I rode it after the race to check how long we'd gone after the race). When we got back to the road we didn't know if anyone else had gone the way we did, maybe some all of the other guys followed us, maybe some did, maybe none.
As soon as we got out onto the road section the guy that was leading just dropped me without appearing as though he was really working hard, there was no hope that i'd be able to stay with him if he continued at that pace. After finishin I found out this was one of the Jamis Factory riders: Jason Sager. Someone who makes his living by riding his mountain bike fast. I continued to ride hard and felt pretty good, I was never really sure when I passed someone if it wasa lapped rider, someone in my category or someone else.
With about 5 minutes left on the last loop, I caught up to someone I knew was also in the expert race. I recovered a little behind him and then passed him, I continued to push because I wasn't sure if there might be another expert that I could catch. Unfortunately I caught up to a slower rider from another class in a section of really tight trail, I asked to go around, but there wasn't anywhere really for him to let me get around, unless he stopped--which he didn't. This allowed the guy that I had passed and openned up a pretty decent gap, close back to my rear wheel. He was right on my rear wheel and just barely outsprinted me, for what turned out to be 4th place.
I felt like I rode really strong the whole race, not slowing down noticably, which for a race that was 1:50 long, with a LOT of pedalling. Jason managed to finish 4:30 head of me, doing all of that in the last 1:25 of the race, which is really impressive. I finished less than a minute and a half behind second place, which meant that I would have been in the race for second if I hadn't taken the wrong turn. This isn't to say I necessarily would have finished in second as 2nd place might have been taking it easier because he knew he had second in the bag.
Results
Pictures
Race was December 16th in Harbison National Forest SC, about an hour and a half from home, so not a bad drive. Nothing unusual happenned in getting ready for the race during the morning (always a good thing). Got lined up for the start, it was pretty warm that morning so I didn't need arm warmers or leg warmers for the race which was nice. . .especially for the middle of December.
Got a bad start (nothing new there), but since there's about 0.25 miles of gravel road until you get into the woods I knew it didn't matter, and I'd have plenty of time to get into the position that I felt good about. Got into the wood fourth, and felt really good about where I was, about 10 minutes in I moved into 3rd and rode there through most of the rest of the lap. As we were got to the last substatial climb of the first lap, the 2nd place rider started to slow and I took the opportunity to push and move into 2nd place. We openned up a gap to third, I was working hard (it is a race afterall), but felt like I could maintain that.
Came through the start finish line and headed back into the woods. . . but something was wrong. It took us a minute to realize we had turned into the woods in wrong place, I had actually done the same thing on my warm-up, the loop wasn't too long fortunately (2-2.5 minutes extra, I rode it after the race to check how long we'd gone after the race). When we got back to the road we didn't know if anyone else had gone the way we did, maybe some all of the other guys followed us, maybe some did, maybe none.
As soon as we got out onto the road section the guy that was leading just dropped me without appearing as though he was really working hard, there was no hope that i'd be able to stay with him if he continued at that pace. After finishin I found out this was one of the Jamis Factory riders: Jason Sager. Someone who makes his living by riding his mountain bike fast. I continued to ride hard and felt pretty good, I was never really sure when I passed someone if it wasa lapped rider, someone in my category or someone else.
With about 5 minutes left on the last loop, I caught up to someone I knew was also in the expert race. I recovered a little behind him and then passed him, I continued to push because I wasn't sure if there might be another expert that I could catch. Unfortunately I caught up to a slower rider from another class in a section of really tight trail, I asked to go around, but there wasn't anywhere really for him to let me get around, unless he stopped--which he didn't. This allowed the guy that I had passed and openned up a pretty decent gap, close back to my rear wheel. He was right on my rear wheel and just barely outsprinted me, for what turned out to be 4th place.
I felt like I rode really strong the whole race, not slowing down noticably, which for a race that was 1:50 long, with a LOT of pedalling. Jason managed to finish 4:30 head of me, doing all of that in the last 1:25 of the race, which is really impressive. I finished less than a minute and a half behind second place, which meant that I would have been in the race for second if I hadn't taken the wrong turn. This isn't to say I necessarily would have finished in second as 2nd place might have been taking it easier because he knew he had second in the bag.
Results
Pictures
