I downed a gel (probably a bit early again so at the race in march I'll be waiting until the pros start before I down the gel) and felt that cool rush of adrenaline as I waited for Donny to start us. With the horn I was off. There was a quick crash at the first left turn and I must've passed at least one member of my class, then another guy dropped out and I knew I wouldn't be last! Kewl. So I just ponied up and gutted out the first climbs. Before I knew it I had passed them and hadn't walked (score one for Jman!). I felt strong and ready to rumble. I made it to the rear hell climb and made it about 75% up when I lost traction and had to walk the last 50 yards or so. (score one for the course) I rode the rest of the course and passed one more member of my class as he tried to dismount but couldn't unclip and over he went. (score one for Jman). He was never able to recover and I finished in 7th place out of 11. Not bad but the best part was that I was able to knock 5 minutes off of my first race. Now that ROCKED!!!!
The 4x course was fun but I put alot of effort into the XC race and I could feel it in the legs. It was not a pretty warm day and even though I had had about 2 hours to rest I felt a bit heavy legged. I did buy a new 50mm stem and that did make an enormous difference. I felt way more confident.
Donny came up with a new race format that gave us at least two runs on the course which was way better than one. I warmed up (too much to be honest) and finally lined up. When the gate dropped on the first race I was pretty quick out of the gate but one of the riders just flew ahead of me. He cleared all of the doubles and had myself and the other guy beat by the middle of the course. The other guy, his name was Gil, and I went neck and neck for the middle section but his BMX skills really came into the game on the lower course and he took second place.
We rushed back up to the top and lined up for the second heat. When the gate went down I instantly knew I was in trouble, my legs were just dead, I tried my best and saw a lower line to try and pass Gill. I tried to swoop under him but my rear tire slid a bit and I grabed som brake which killed my momentum. At the point I was shot and I literally jsut cruised into the finish. I was done for the day. Still it was a blast and I have really uped my riding ability BIG time on the course and overall as well. I'm looking forward to the race in March. Here are som pics of my races on the 4x course.
The doubles at the start of the 1st race, we're neck and neck here
Here I am pedaling out of the big berm and lining up for the doubles.
Neck and neck, I'm trying to shooty for the lower line here and failing BAD!
So in other riding news I pulled out the road bike on Wednesday the 13th and hit up the Santa Ana River Trail (SART). I'd heard about this ride recently on STR and on a trip to Disneyland the day before decided to just do it. So I started out at Green River Rd. and rode all the way to the beach! It was a great ride except for a 10mph head wind the last 5ish miles to the beach. Whew that was tough. The return ride was sweet though, the head wind turned to a tail wind and that combined with two shots of gel propelled me in the big ring all the way home. The final tally was 60 miles in 3 hours and about 45 minutes. It was just over 15mph for the ride. My knees were a bit sore but overall I felt great. I wasn't really sore on Thursday which was good news and by Saturday I was feeling well enough to hit the local trails for a quick 4.5 mile run with Kiara (my Australian Sheppard mix). Life is good and I'm feelin' awesome about my fitness right now. Thanks for readin' and keep the rubber side down!
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