Things that could have gone wrong:
brand new shoes
brand new cleats
lots of low intensity riding over the last few weeks and no hard workouts
Things that went wrong:
absolutely nothing
From the gun, I knew it would be important to push hard on the long false flat. With lots of double track climbs, this looked to be a good course for me. The cooler temps and muddy conditions felt like 'cross season, so I had was feeling a little bit of extra motivation as my tires slipped around some of the slick corners. So fun!
I held onto second place for the entire first lap. I was thrilled to ride a couple of logs that for, one reason or another, were causing me loads of frustration while pre-riding (if you rode the course, feel free to feel embarrassed on my behalf... but I still seem to have a mental block on anything higher than 6" that requires lifting my front wheel).
As we came through the start area again on lap two, I could see first place just up ahead, and saw 3rd close behind me. I shifted into the granny ring on one of the steeper climbs at the beginning of the lap, and was suddenly spinning circles - dropped chain. I jumped off and got it back on, but couldn't get back on to get going, so ran the rest of the hill. Sara came past me to grab 2nd position, and she was towing another woman in our category. Damn!
I was really pumped about the prospect of a podium, so I pushed to close that gap. On the next double track section, I was able to jump by, though Sara had pushed ahead by then. I worked on trying to build a gap on 4th, hoping to be able to catch Sara. Things were going well, until the one section of the course which was not draining well, and was a slippery, slidy mess. I had to get off on a short uphill, and ran for a bit. Second place was so close... I thought maybe riding would be faster, so I did a slowspeed cross remount (slow was all I could manage in the mud). Nope... hardly moved, and while I was trying to get going, I got passed by the woman in 4th again! Ok, back on my feet, and trying to stick with her. She got a bit of a gap through the next (rideable) singletrack section, which had a bunch of steep downs and bermed corners and was 100% fun. There was a long, grindy climb after it, followed by a long false flat. When we hit the false flat, I hit the gas, and re-took 3rd position. I had a minor slowspeed slide out on one corner, but otherwise, a nice, clean finish to the lap.
And so I finished the OCup series with another podium, in 3rd. Woot! And, despite doing only 5 races, it was enough for 2nd overall in the series. Also, the new shoes were very comfortable and felt great. Very nice way to finish up, although I've got two mountain bike races tentatively planned before the year is out.
(no action shots, sadly, but a podium photo is always fun)
1 comment:
Congrats!!! Nice finish!!
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