Well the last two races have been so good and so bad. First was Warda, a semi local course that suits me well: not much climbing and a lot of twisty stuff. And things went my way that day. My parents came out to watch the race, and brought the RV so we stayed there that night. My birthday was the next weekend so we also had a pseudo birthday party complete with cake and ice cream. Sunday morning I was on the line at 9:00AM, following a last minute tire change due to a cut sidewall the day before. I got a good start and grabbed a strong racer's wheel and we hoofed it for two and a half laps.
We made a few passes here and there to move up to third and fourth place. About halfway through the last lap we hit the biggest climb on the course and Geoff got out of the saddle going up and I just couldn't match it. I tried to get back on his wheel but I couldn't do it, I was done. I was riding by myself in 4th at this point trying to hold onto it to the line. I lost one spot in a big open field right before hitting the singletrack again. I finished 5th, which was my best result ever and I was really happy with it. It was cool that my parents got to be there to watch it. This was a great race for me, and I thought my season was finally coming together and I was establishing myself as a top racer in my class. It was also an awesome race as Raine finished third in her third race, getting the first piece of podium pie between the two of us.
The next race up was Reimer's Ranch west of Austin. Reimer's is another course that suited me well. A bit more climbing but not too much, a lot of technical rocky stuff, and some fast swoopy stuff on the backside of the course. Off the line a racer went down right in front of me, and I had no choice but to run right over his bike. I was having flashbacks to my road race crash and I just knew my life was over, but I managed to roll right over his back wheel with a nice crunch and keep rolling. I lost several spots so I had to work extra hard to get back to a decent spot before hitting the singletrack. I hit the trail in sixth place or so and everything was going well. Over a rough rocky patch the guy in front of me lost his bottle when it ejected from his cage. I thought he would be easy to pick off in about 20 minutes when he had been without fluid so I got a little positive. Then we came over a sharp hump in the trail and somehow down the backside of it I found myself careening out of control and into a stand of trees. Luckily my front wheel missed the trees but my front brake lever was not so fortunate, taking the brunt of the impact. This resulted in a loose brake lever and a bent bolt, but nothing was broken so the bike was still good to go. Unfortunately, I was not so much good. In the deceleration that occurred when my bike and the tree came to know each other, one of Newton's laws(don't ask which one please) told me that I had to stay in motion until an outside force acted upon me. So stay in motion I did until the steer tube on my bike acted upon my ribcage, knocking the breath out of me and leaving me a nasty fleshwound. But I got back on the bike and just tried to keep moving forward, meanwhile I was moving backwards relative to the majority of the riders in my class. A bit after the crash when I was just starting to get my breath and my groove back, I dropped into a rock garden and heard the dreaded pshhhhh, that is an "all the air coming out of my back tire" sound. So this would be a nice little break to get my breath and my wits back and say hello as all the old guys passed me as I changed my flat, and soon I was back underway.
The rest of this first lap was ok, I got stuck behind some guys for too long but eventually got past them and assaulted the swoopy stuff on the back side of the course to pick back up a few spots. Starting the second lap I was motoring along in overdrive feeling ok and looking to make up some time in the technical stuff. Then not too far along I started feeling my rear tire getting a little squirmy, sure enough another flat. So I rode it as long as I could and then gave it my last shot of air. I nursed it from there on, but only got another few miles out of it at best until it was unridable again. So at this point I'm faced with at least 6 more miles of trail, no more tubes, and no more air. So what do I do? I start walking. I walked the rest of the course, sometimes thinking I just had to keep going to finish and sometimes thinking how stupid I was. While I was loathing in my self pity and approaching the finish line less than a mile away, the last rider from my class came by me. So I got dead freaking last by three and a half minutes after pushing my bike for over a quarter of the race. So that was my race. Not at all what I planned, but I guess it could have been worse. Don't ask me how, but that's what they always say so why not?
Next up is Comfort, a rocky course with lots of climbing(not good for me) but does have some fast downhills(good for me) where I can hopefully gain a little advantage. We will see how it turns out and report back. Until then, keep the greasy side down(if you're in airplane) or the rubber side down(if you're on a bike). I plan to do both Wednesday night when I fly to College Station to ride at Lake Bryan with Patrick. Sounds like fun.
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