The first race of the 08 psycowpath series is over and not a bad day for me on the track. Not a great day but not bad. So here's how it went. I met up with Robb at about 5;40 AM to get ready to leave. He was racing in the beginner category that started at 10. We loaded up the bikes and were off. Little over a 2 hour drive and we were there and greeted by some high cold winds. So I got I decided to change into my tights and sleeves and we headed out on the course for a pre-ride. The course was in pretty good shape with some soft spots and some spots that were in the low areas that were just outright muddy. This is a nice challenging course with a lot of extended climbs. The climbs aren't necessarily steep but just long and on the longest one the ground was soft so it felt like you were riding with flat tires. This is a newer course though and is really bumpy making me wish I was on this instead. My race started off at noon. I felt pretty good. I really changed the way I had eaten this year before races and it helped. I didn't feel like throwing up at all which was a problem last year.
When it was time to line up I was a bit nervous. Nervous to see how the training had really worked and how I would do moving up a category. When the signal was called I really made an effort to get and stay towards the front before we got into the single track. Another problem I had last year was falling off the back in the beginning and never catching up. I was about 10th into the singletrack. When we got into the real technical section of the course(which was great but muddy) a riding in front of me didn't make it up a steep incline causing me to grab the brakes hard when I was out of the saddle on the climbs myself and I slammed my knee it my top tube. So my knee is sore know and was killing me the rest of the race. As the race went I stayed pretty strong but I did fall back into a habit I have of when I come up on a slower rider I will stay on his wheel to long before going around him. I don't know why I do this but I think if I wouldn't have which I did on several occasions I would have gotten at least a couple places higher in the end. When it got towards the end of the race on the last big climb I was starting to make an attack on the guy in front of me I got a really bad cramp in my calve. This was the first time I had a cramp in a race and it surprised me. I know I didn't hydrate as well as I should have but I was still surprised. With this cramp I couldn't catch the guy in front of me and I couldn't hold off the guy behind me who ended up finishing 3 seconds before I did.
When it was time to line up I was a bit nervous. Nervous to see how the training had really worked and how I would do moving up a category. When the signal was called I really made an effort to get and stay towards the front before we got into the single track. Another problem I had last year was falling off the back in the beginning and never catching up. I was about 10th into the singletrack. When we got into the real technical section of the course(which was great but muddy) a riding in front of me didn't make it up a steep incline causing me to grab the brakes hard when I was out of the saddle on the climbs myself and I slammed my knee it my top tube. So my knee is sore know and was killing me the rest of the race. As the race went I stayed pretty strong but I did fall back into a habit I have of when I come up on a slower rider I will stay on his wheel to long before going around him. I don't know why I do this but I think if I wouldn't have which I did on several occasions I would have gotten at least a couple places higher in the end. When it got towards the end of the race on the last big climb I was starting to make an attack on the guy in front of me I got a really bad cramp in my calve. This was the first time I had a cramp in a race and it surprised me. I know I didn't hydrate as well as I should have but I was still surprised. With this cramp I couldn't catch the guy in front of me and I couldn't hold off the guy behind me who ended up finishing 3 seconds before I did.
In the end I finished 8th out of 23 riders in my category. Like I said earlier not bad but not great. I do know now that I did make the right decision to move up a category and ride against stronger competition. Can't wait till the next one. Here's some picks of some friends who were also racing.
The bikes loaded up ready to roll at an early 5:45 am.
Fellow T6 Teammate Millhouse on the starting line.
Ryan on the starting line ready to go.
Robb ready to awaiting the starting call.
Millhouse towards the end of a climb. Maning it up and running rigid on this bumpy new course.
Robb also on the end of a big climb.
Ryan rolling to his third place finish in his category. Congrats and nice job buddy.
Laundry day today.
Harp
