So I've had a couple months' hiatus from posting, so I'll catch up on the rest of the Fall Series. After my dismal performance at Camp Eagle, I had a season I could be moderately proud of overall.
The second race was Huntsville. I pre-rode the course a week before the race with Dent on my singlespeed and had a lot of fun on it. In a moment of insanity, I decided to race it in my regular Sport class against everyone else on geared bikes with suspension, on one of the rootiest courses out there. I had a pretty good race and finished 8th/21, which I was pretty happy with, especially having been on the singlespeed.
The next race was at Palo Duro Canyon up around Amarillo. We drove up to the race and stayed with my cousin Mamie and her husband Cody, who lived about 10 minutes from the race, for two nights. From there we drove on to Colorado for vacation(I'll post more about that later). On the way to Amarillo on Friday I got bad sick, including vomiting and diarrhea, leaving me extremely dehydrated for the race Sunday. The sickness continued in decreasing intensity until about Tuesday, but I raced nonetheless. I didn't expect much, but still managed to finish 7th/16. I got off the line strong and hung with the leaders for about 15 minutes, but then I felt the weakness catching up to me in a bad way. I had to back it down and just survive for the rest of the race. I honestly felt and raced better than I expected to, but definitely wasn't on my A-game.
Race #4 was near College Station at Lake Bryan. This was a mostly flat course with a lot of twisties. I again rode my singlespeed on the preride and then decided to race it. :) I like that bike, it's a lot of fun. So somehow on a rigid singlespeed I pulled the holeshot! Into the first woods section I was using my strong skills to pull away until we hit the first section of open road. Then a couple of guys came by and got a tiny gap, until we hit the next singletrack section when I pulled right back up on them. We then hit a mile+ section of dam road where I promptly got dropped by my whole class. This was still early in the race, so we hadn't had time to build any real gap yet. I spun myself out all the way across the dam and proceeded to totally blow myself up before reaching the other side, effectively ending the good start I had gotten off to. So I just spent a long time recovering and wound up finishing 10th/23. Not a bad race, but could have been better if I'd been geared a little differently to keep up across the dam better.
Next up was the Piney Hills Classic in Ruston, my home town race. The race was a stage race format, meaning the overall result for the weekend was based on the results of two different races. The first race of the weekend was the short track, but it didn't count towards the overalls for my class. It was a beginner/sport open, just for fun. I had a teammate in my class for the first time this weekend, and we intended to work together for the races. Brian is a collegiate racer, and is pretty strong. He was intending to jump to expert for the next race, so I knew he'd be good to help me and strong competition. The short track is a fast multi lap race on a smooth wide course about a mile long or so where drafting and team tactics can really come into play. We would go for about 20 minutes. Off the start we were towards the front, and moved to the front pretty quick. We traded pulls for the first ten minutes or so, then I felt I was starting to fade. So I gave Brian all I had for one last pull up the hill into the wind and then let him go. He took the win and I got passed to finish third. A pretty good start for the weekend for us.
The next race and the first one in the stage race was the time trial. The time trial course included the first 3 miles of the trail and then a fast downhill to the finish line. Riders started in 30 second intervals. I was the first to go, and Brian started 1 minute behind me. I knew he wouldn't catch me, but I had to stay at least a minute ahead and more importantly out of sight so he wouldn't have a rabbit to chase. He finished right at a minute behind me, and we didn't really know who'd won until after dinner that evening. Turns out he beat me by five seconds, so we went 1-2 leading into the cross country race on Sunday. I was pleased to finish that close to his time. He is definitely the stronger rider, but my skills and home course advantage really helped.
Going into the cross country race, our class had picked up a few extra riders only interested in TMBRA points. I knew my chances were still good for a good result, though. The start was very fast, a hard sprint all the way to the singletrack. Ruston has one of the longest starts, too. So being familiar with the trail and what was coming, I sat in about 5th to get a good draft through the first long stretch. As we neared the singletrack, I made a couple of good passes through some turns to jump up to 3rd, which is where I hit the singletrack. The leader started getting away, but I couldn't get past the second place guy. We hit the first fire road climb and I attacked past him, but the leader was long gone. Turned out he was a sandbagger who should have been expert long ago, so it's no surprise. Brian got caught in a crash early on, but eventually caught me at about mile 2 or so. We worked together in 2nd/3rd place for the next 11 miles or so, until I took a pull at the front and realized I'd dropped him. I knew this was my chance, so I went as hard as I could. Somewhere several miles later I dropped my nutrition bloks, and started going downhill. Brian caught me with three miles left and I couldn't hold his wheel anymore with nothing left in the tank. I got caught by one more rider before the end to finish 4th/9. :( I was still happy with my race, I think if I could have gotten some more nutrition down I could have held on. This gave me a lot of confidence knowing that I could ride towards the front of the race for a long time.
The last race of the series was Rocky Hill Ranch in Smithville. I had just getten my new bike, a 2008 Specialized Stumpjumper, a week and a half before the race. I took it out to the trail and prerode on it the weekend before the race and really loved it. I'll make another post about it later. So race day rolls around and me and the new bike are ready to go out with a bang. So the gun sounds and we're off, and I'm struggling to get clipped in for the first 150 yards. I finally do but I'm towards the back of the pack. We hit the first big climb and I pick a good line up and keep my momentum well to move all the way up to third spot. So that was cool. After this was a really nasty steep rocky climb that was very difficult to ride up. I had ridden up it the day before so I knew I could do it, but sure enough the rider in front of me had to dismount so I had to as well. Going up the hill I lost a spot or two, and then we had three more hills to climb in rapid succession. I made a pass or two through there, then we hit the singletrack. I caught a rider ahead of me, and sat behind him for too long I know, I should have gone around sooner. But I finally did and tried to ride a good solid pace.
At the halfway point, a rider had come from behind to catch me, and he passed me through the 4 in a row climbs. He got a good gap on me there, but then we went back into the singletrack where I was matching his pace while recovering from the hills, and then started to catch him once I began to accelerate. I caught him in the singletrack, and then drafted him for a while. I went around him and he started holding my wheel. We hit a long dirt road climb, and I thought I would get him to come around me since I knew he had the stronger legs. He came around, and then about 20 yards later he just sat up, forcing me to go. So I pulled us all the way up the road and back into the singletrack. I started to build a small gap, and then I heard him scrambling behind me on a steep rocky climb, so I attacked and got away. I stayed clear of him the rest of the race, and caught a glimpse of the guys in front of me, but I couldn't close that gap. I stayed in that spot to finish 6th/24 on the day. I'd consider that my best race of the season, even though I had a 4th at Ruston, this was a bigger, tougher field and I was strong start to finish.
So overall I finished 2nd on the Season. It was great to do well in the series we sponsored and make such an improvement over my Spring results. I went from a back of the pack finisher to a solid top ten guy. I'm looking forward to next spring, and am hoping for some race wins and the big goal of the state championship. Win or lose, I'm making the jump to Expert next Fall!!!
The second race was Huntsville. I pre-rode the course a week before the race with Dent on my singlespeed and had a lot of fun on it. In a moment of insanity, I decided to race it in my regular Sport class against everyone else on geared bikes with suspension, on one of the rootiest courses out there. I had a pretty good race and finished 8th/21, which I was pretty happy with, especially having been on the singlespeed.
The next race was at Palo Duro Canyon up around Amarillo. We drove up to the race and stayed with my cousin Mamie and her husband Cody, who lived about 10 minutes from the race, for two nights. From there we drove on to Colorado for vacation(I'll post more about that later). On the way to Amarillo on Friday I got bad sick, including vomiting and diarrhea, leaving me extremely dehydrated for the race Sunday. The sickness continued in decreasing intensity until about Tuesday, but I raced nonetheless. I didn't expect much, but still managed to finish 7th/16. I got off the line strong and hung with the leaders for about 15 minutes, but then I felt the weakness catching up to me in a bad way. I had to back it down and just survive for the rest of the race. I honestly felt and raced better than I expected to, but definitely wasn't on my A-game.
Race #4 was near College Station at Lake Bryan. This was a mostly flat course with a lot of twisties. I again rode my singlespeed on the preride and then decided to race it. :) I like that bike, it's a lot of fun. So somehow on a rigid singlespeed I pulled the holeshot! Into the first woods section I was using my strong skills to pull away until we hit the first section of open road. Then a couple of guys came by and got a tiny gap, until we hit the next singletrack section when I pulled right back up on them. We then hit a mile+ section of dam road where I promptly got dropped by my whole class. This was still early in the race, so we hadn't had time to build any real gap yet. I spun myself out all the way across the dam and proceeded to totally blow myself up before reaching the other side, effectively ending the good start I had gotten off to. So I just spent a long time recovering and wound up finishing 10th/23. Not a bad race, but could have been better if I'd been geared a little differently to keep up across the dam better.
Next up was the Piney Hills Classic in Ruston, my home town race. The race was a stage race format, meaning the overall result for the weekend was based on the results of two different races. The first race of the weekend was the short track, but it didn't count towards the overalls for my class. It was a beginner/sport open, just for fun. I had a teammate in my class for the first time this weekend, and we intended to work together for the races. Brian is a collegiate racer, and is pretty strong. He was intending to jump to expert for the next race, so I knew he'd be good to help me and strong competition. The short track is a fast multi lap race on a smooth wide course about a mile long or so where drafting and team tactics can really come into play. We would go for about 20 minutes. Off the start we were towards the front, and moved to the front pretty quick. We traded pulls for the first ten minutes or so, then I felt I was starting to fade. So I gave Brian all I had for one last pull up the hill into the wind and then let him go. He took the win and I got passed to finish third. A pretty good start for the weekend for us.
The next race and the first one in the stage race was the time trial. The time trial course included the first 3 miles of the trail and then a fast downhill to the finish line. Riders started in 30 second intervals. I was the first to go, and Brian started 1 minute behind me. I knew he wouldn't catch me, but I had to stay at least a minute ahead and more importantly out of sight so he wouldn't have a rabbit to chase. He finished right at a minute behind me, and we didn't really know who'd won until after dinner that evening. Turns out he beat me by five seconds, so we went 1-2 leading into the cross country race on Sunday. I was pleased to finish that close to his time. He is definitely the stronger rider, but my skills and home course advantage really helped.
Going into the cross country race, our class had picked up a few extra riders only interested in TMBRA points. I knew my chances were still good for a good result, though. The start was very fast, a hard sprint all the way to the singletrack. Ruston has one of the longest starts, too. So being familiar with the trail and what was coming, I sat in about 5th to get a good draft through the first long stretch. As we neared the singletrack, I made a couple of good passes through some turns to jump up to 3rd, which is where I hit the singletrack. The leader started getting away, but I couldn't get past the second place guy. We hit the first fire road climb and I attacked past him, but the leader was long gone. Turned out he was a sandbagger who should have been expert long ago, so it's no surprise. Brian got caught in a crash early on, but eventually caught me at about mile 2 or so. We worked together in 2nd/3rd place for the next 11 miles or so, until I took a pull at the front and realized I'd dropped him. I knew this was my chance, so I went as hard as I could. Somewhere several miles later I dropped my nutrition bloks, and started going downhill. Brian caught me with three miles left and I couldn't hold his wheel anymore with nothing left in the tank. I got caught by one more rider before the end to finish 4th/9. :( I was still happy with my race, I think if I could have gotten some more nutrition down I could have held on. This gave me a lot of confidence knowing that I could ride towards the front of the race for a long time.
The last race of the series was Rocky Hill Ranch in Smithville. I had just getten my new bike, a 2008 Specialized Stumpjumper, a week and a half before the race. I took it out to the trail and prerode on it the weekend before the race and really loved it. I'll make another post about it later. So race day rolls around and me and the new bike are ready to go out with a bang. So the gun sounds and we're off, and I'm struggling to get clipped in for the first 150 yards. I finally do but I'm towards the back of the pack. We hit the first big climb and I pick a good line up and keep my momentum well to move all the way up to third spot. So that was cool. After this was a really nasty steep rocky climb that was very difficult to ride up. I had ridden up it the day before so I knew I could do it, but sure enough the rider in front of me had to dismount so I had to as well. Going up the hill I lost a spot or two, and then we had three more hills to climb in rapid succession. I made a pass or two through there, then we hit the singletrack. I caught a rider ahead of me, and sat behind him for too long I know, I should have gone around sooner. But I finally did and tried to ride a good solid pace. 
At the halfway point, a rider had come from behind to catch me, and he passed me through the 4 in a row climbs. He got a good gap on me there, but then we went back into the singletrack where I was matching his pace while recovering from the hills, and then started to catch him once I began to accelerate. I caught him in the singletrack, and then drafted him for a while. I went around him and he started holding my wheel. We hit a long dirt road climb, and I thought I would get him to come around me since I knew he had the stronger legs. He came around, and then about 20 yards later he just sat up, forcing me to go. So I pulled us all the way up the road and back into the singletrack. I started to build a small gap, and then I heard him scrambling behind me on a steep rocky climb, so I attacked and got away. I stayed clear of him the rest of the race, and caught a glimpse of the guys in front of me, but I couldn't close that gap. I stayed in that spot to finish 6th/24 on the day. I'd consider that my best race of the season, even though I had a 4th at Ruston, this was a bigger, tougher field and I was strong start to finish.
So overall I finished 2nd on the Season. It was great to do well in the series we sponsored and make such an improvement over my Spring results. I went from a back of the pack finisher to a solid top ten guy. I'm looking forward to next spring, and am hoping for some race wins and the big goal of the state championship. Win or lose, I'm making the jump to Expert next Fall!!!
