The XC course was a little over 6 miles beginning with a mile gravel road climb which led to 5 miles of singletrack. As we began the course i began to recall the comments about the technical aspects of this trail. However, for the first 3 miles or so of singletrack there was only climbing. Long doubletrack climbing and steep, steep sections of singltrack. This played right into my hand though as climbing is my strength. However I noticed it getting more and more tech as we rode and after we finally summited and began the decent to the gravel road things took a turn for the worst. Rock gardens, or boulder gardens i should say, and steep rooty downhill. To make it all the worse it had began to rain heavily and the roots were as slick as ice. I ended up walking the bike the last two miles of the trail and told marshal that I thought it best if i didnt race. He eventually talked me into it but said to set reasonable goals. So I did, I didnt want to finish more than an hour behind the last place rider.
(one section of roots on the course)
As we lined up to start I took my spot in the rear of a nine man field for two laps totalling a little over 14 miles. Conditions where all set for a cold, 51 degree, mud race. As we began the climb up the mile gravel road I felt fresh. I watched three guys sprint on up the road and I decided not to give chase as I was resigned to a last place finish. I couldnt stay in the back though as the guys were just moving to slow. I ended up settling into a group of 4 mid packers including me, 2 guys from georgia tech, and a guy from APP st. I held their wheel easliy but decided not to pass because I knew they would only get by me later on the downhill. This may have been a mistake. We summited the climb with the App st rider opening a little gap on me and the GT riders falling a bit behind. as we descended i expected everyone would pass me as I had no choice with my rigid bike and lacking tech skills but to walk the last two miles. To my surprise however only one GT rider passed me and the other rode and walked the last mile talking with me.
As we came back onto the gravel road i was a little inspired at how well I had held my position. As we climbed to the start finish I opened a little gap on the GT rider and crossed 5th after lap 1. I yelled to marshal "im not last!!" as I rode by. The GT rider and I rode together to the summit on the last lap but he got a little gutsey and bombed the downhill to try and take 5th from me when he saw me dismount and start walking. I hadnt seen the last three riders since the start so i assumed they were way back but to my dismay an East Tenn St rider caught up to me in the boulder garden just before we hot the gravel road. Looking back I should have pushed it a bit harder on that opening climb to put some more time on the back riders where my strength was. We came out on the road for a mile climb to the finish side by side though. He stood up and opened about a 20 sec gap on me right off the bat but i figured id close it down when we hit the steeper part on up the road. As we approached do or die time I stood to make my move and cramped, cramped bad. Iv never had any trouble with this before and now when I needed closing power I couldn't put it out. I watched him cross about 20 sec in front of me and the GT rider about 1 min in front of him. I ended up being about 10 mins in front of the next guy though.
So a 7th place finsh, but i was happy with it. This was a hard hard course and I rode in the pack and was right there with them. I wish it could have been a 5th like the first lap but for my first collegiate race i aint complainin.
We headed up the mountain to Beech for the downhill right after my race. It was a downpour by now not to mention the wind and cold temps. Marshall took his first practice run and came back covered in mud from head to toe. He said he had fallen around every corner and thought he had broke his finger. Honestly the conditions were miserable. It wasn't fun so we decided to pack it in along with about 75% of the other competitors.
Sunday I had to go to a friends wedding but marshall competed in the dual solemn race. He ended up taking 3rd out of 5 people.
Over all I would have to say it was a successful weekend. We didnt embarrass ourselves and neither of us finished last so what more could you want.
This weekend we'll be at NC State so look for that one next week.
No comments:
Post a Comment