I had a good start. I was more aggressive than I have been in the past so when I was shouldered off my line into the tape I just returned the favor. I'm still not crazy about the idea of having to push so much for a spot, but I suppose that is just the way it is.
On the first lap Joe put in a huge attack and took one guy with him (I think the rest of us may have been blocked by the other guy's teammate) they immediately got a good gap and when I looked backed I found out that I was on the end of the 3 man chase group. For two or three laps that is how it went. I wasn't doing any help at the front and the guys called me out on it. I was going to hop in front after the barriers when this happened.
I dropped my chain. The other two guys took off then and I started to chase. It took me a full lap to finally make solid contact with them again. I had just settled in to breath for a second when in the one technical section I rolled my front tire. I couldn't believe it. Three separate tire issues in 4 weeks! I walked off the course, let my bike fall, and I thought I was done. After about ten seconds I knew I couldn't quit. So I pulled the tire back onto the rim and decided to test ride it to the pits. It seemed fine so I never got a new front wheel. But I had lost a lot of time and let a few guys pass me in the process.
I ended up dropping my chain two more times. Making it a total of four stops that were around ten seconds a piece. It's interesting looking at my Garmin data after this race. After the first chain drop my heart rate shoots up for five minutes. Then after the rolled tire my heart rate drops way down and stays a few beats lower than it was for the first twenty minutes of the race. Then after then next two chain drops, it falls a few beats more with each one. Until the final two laps when I started mixing it up with Ron K., then it shoots back up again. Apparently with every setback my motivation just slipped away.
I figured out my chain drop issue once the race was over and I didn't have cx brain. It was operator error. I was cross chaining so that coming out of the obstacles I could spin out fast. But the approach was so screwy for me that I was bouncing the bike a lot and my leg was hitting the pedal making it backspin. Of course the chain was falling off the ring! If only I could have figured that out during the race and either shifted to the smaller ring or just made sure to slow down a bit more and be smooth.
Last, I have to mention Ron's great move. We rode together for the last lap and a half. On the course there is a short steep hill with a twelve inch log at the bottom. In the past, guys would try to hop the log and ride up, but not many could do it consistently, so I have always ran it. This year, the log was broken down, making the approach a lot more easy, yet seeing how I have had so many tire issues I didn't want to increase my chances of something stupid happening there so I was still running it. Unlike most other guys who were riding it this year, Ron being one of them.
The last lap he timed it great. I ran up and as I was remounted he shot by with a burst of speed because he rode up. There were maybe 600 meters of twisty turns and a tight corner left in the race. By the time I closed the gap he made on the hill it was too late to come around him. Nice.
As usual, Lauren took more photos.
Can you please explain CX Brain?!
ReplyDeleteYou are a jerk x a million!
T-tocs
Well, T-tocs, CX Brain is when your cognitive ability is thoroughly inhibited due to the lack of oxygen it is receiving and the extreme duress the body is under. All one can do is "just go" and no longer make but the simplest decisions.
ReplyDeleteCX Brain is why cx course are completely taped off. If they were not and the riders were left with the decision as to where to ride there would be mass confusion and the race would look like one of those old vibrating football games.