Race Report: Psycowpath #2 The Swanson River City Shootout

Saturday's Psycowpath #2 The Swanson River City Shootout was the long awaited start of the XC mountain bike season for me. I've been waiting to get this season kicked off for my some new punishment in the form of longer/harder races since this season I'm finally racing Cat. 1.

In the morning I had to take my daughter to a Mayor's run and it took me way longer than expected so I was running late when I got to the race course. I only had about 45 minutes to get myself together and warmed up before it was time to get to the start line. It was different on the start line now being in the back instead of at the front like I had gotten accustomed to last season but that is the way with upgrading and hopefully in time I can show that I deserve to be up on the front line. Saturday was not one of those days though.

When the gun went off we had a long loop through an open field before entering the singletrack and I was not ready for the pace of the start and found myself entering the singletrack in about 14th place where I would spend the rest of my day. I must say that I was consistent throughout the race not losing any positions and not gaining any either. I lost touch with the guy in front of me after about a mile. I feel like I had the legs but I could not ride the turns well and I just couldn't get the flow down for riding singletrack. It really showed me that I have been spending to much time on my road bike and not enough in the dirt.

Towards the end of the first lap I took a corner a bit to tight and went down pretty hard. I didn't hurt myself but I did leave a nice scratch on my top tube where my break lever spun around and hit it. The big problem for me when I have a crash like that I tend to be a little hesitant on turns for a while and I think that really slowed me down cause before that I had the rider in front of me in my sites and after the crash I never saw him again. I also kept hitting my pedals on the ground on turns. It has been a while since I have done that as much as I did on Study. I lost an end piece to one of my pedals that I have to know look into getting replaced.

In the end I finished in 14th place out of 20. Definitely not my best showing but I am still running regular hard training weeks getting myself ready for the state championship races in June. Hopefully it all pays off.

Harp