Race Report: Psycowpath #1-Jewell Jam Fat Tire TT

On Saturday was the first Mountain Bike Race of the season, Psycowpath #1: The Jewell Jam Fat Tire TT . This race was an mtb time trial at a new race venue. The course was shorter and really tight so it didn’t lend itself well for traditional racing but perfect for a time trial. This was actually the first time trial I had ever done and wasn’t sure how I’d do.

I was worried about the race since I was having easter with my family later in the day and was running a tight schedule and had to be in Nebraska City at 1:30 which was 45 minutes from the course. I thought I would be ok since they were sending riders off starting at 11 in 1 minute intervals. I was wrong. We had to register in advance so that they could get the start list ready. When I got the list on Friday night I saw that there were 115 riders scheduled and I wasn’t going to be going off until 1:12. I was bummed. It was too late for me to be able to race and get to my family obligations so I sent the promoter an email telling him sorry but I couldn’t make it. He called me about 5 minutes later and asked if I would go off first at 10:55. So I was again excited and finished getting everything ready to go.

I got to the venue early enough so that I would have time to do a pre-ride of the course since I had never been there before. After I got kitted up and signed my release form I was off. The course was tough with some tight switchbacks and a lot of climbing and descending. I loved the course. Like always the climbing suited me well but the descending did not. One of my goals this year is to really work on those skills and really improve my technical abilities.

When it was close to time to start the promoter told me I would be going a couple of minutes late at 10:58 instead. No problem. I was ready to go and waited a few minutes and then was off. I did make a mistake at the beginning that caused me a bit of time. When I hit the track I forgot that there were 2 really tight off camber switchbacks right away and I wasn’t ready for them. I was in my big ring for the start and when I hit the 2 turns I didn’t shift down into the middle ring and ended up being in too big of a gear to ride through the turns and ended up off the bike and had to push it up the small hill before hopping back on. The rest of the ride went ok. I had a couple of close calls especially on one log crossing that I took way to fast. I was really close to going over the handle bars at about 20 mph.

When I finished I felt I had a good time and rolled back to the parking lot where everyone else was and started talking to a couple of guys I knew. The promoter came over the loud speaker and announced that I was back and asked me how I thought that I had done. I looked down at my clock that was still running and it was just turning over to 21 minutes. So I figured under 20 minutes. After that I went back to my car and had to get going.

A little bit later that day Jason from the shop called me and said that when he saw the results they had me down for a time of 22:03. I know that my time was 20 or under so I think what happened was that they had me still down for a 10:55 start time even though I didn’t start until 10:58. I emailed the race director on Sunday and he said he would look into it but I haven’t heard anything back from him and it is still not changed. I’m not sure what’s going on with it. It is more of a pride thing for me than anything. I don’t like looking like I got 4th place in the Cat 3’s when I’m a Cat 1 and had a way better time than what is posted. I guess we’ll see what happens. I guess in the big picture it doesn’t matter much it would move me from finishing last out of 19 to 14th overall. But I still want what I earned.

Enough bitching about that now. This week is another big training block to keep preparing me for the real important races in June. It’s hurting but in the good way. Later.

Harp