09-14-2006, 08:45 AM
LMAO!!!! Kevin I will try to remember to snap pictures at some time. Every now and then you have a beverage and don't feel like carrying your digital camera around is best for its safety. LoL
And Matt...... The first race wasn't great. It was my first time riding trails at all for about 2.5-3 months and the first long/hard ride in just as long. (Yeah, yeah, make jokes...... I was referring to biking.) Anyway..... my bike is setup for technical downhills since that is my strongpoint and it sucks on climbs, also my weak point.
Well.... we get there, and it starts pouring. Like pouring a lot..... Well I decide I am racing C class because my lungs are gone, its rainy and going to favor the climbers, and yes, it's really really wet. So the rain stops for about 10 minutes, they start our race, and then it starts raining again. I went out in the lead of 18 riders and jept the lead for the first 2 miles or so. On the first BIG climb I got passed by 2 riders. I wasn't worried because I knew technical downhills follow climbs. Sure enough, downhill rock garden, nice, wet, and really slippery. (more jokes. LoL) Well I was running super low pressure in my tires so I would be fine here. I was going rather quick and figured I could pass a rider on the outside of this berm in a more ocky section than where he was. Well he crashed almost next to me and took me out. By the time I got back on the bike I had been passed by a few more riders both there and on the next climb.
So..... then at about mile #5 of 10 (yeah.... short race) my chain snapped. It took me a few minutes on the side of the trail to fix it and I had then been passed by everyone. I managed to fic it though and race back through some of the final downhilld to finish 11th or 12 out of 18. Not too bad I guess if I consider all of the problems I had and how long it had been since I have actually "ridden".
None of us did well that day. Crapped out shifting, loss of brakes, snapped chains, etc. Basically if it could go wrong it did. If you weren't running hydraulic disk brakes your brake lines were so full of mud that by the end the weren't even working. I lost shifting at about 8 miles due to muddy/sandy lines. That was about the same for everyone. It was ugly.
I hope to do better this weekend, but don't expect it. We are heading to Kentuck to Lindsey Wilson college. They have a killer course with way more climbing than technical downhills from what I have heard. Not too good for me. On top of that they atually scope out their riders and give them mountain biking scholorships to ride for them. We should get smoked pretty nicely there too. LoL
And Matt...... The first race wasn't great. It was my first time riding trails at all for about 2.5-3 months and the first long/hard ride in just as long. (Yeah, yeah, make jokes...... I was referring to biking.) Anyway..... my bike is setup for technical downhills since that is my strongpoint and it sucks on climbs, also my weak point.
Well.... we get there, and it starts pouring. Like pouring a lot..... Well I decide I am racing C class because my lungs are gone, its rainy and going to favor the climbers, and yes, it's really really wet. So the rain stops for about 10 minutes, they start our race, and then it starts raining again. I went out in the lead of 18 riders and jept the lead for the first 2 miles or so. On the first BIG climb I got passed by 2 riders. I wasn't worried because I knew technical downhills follow climbs. Sure enough, downhill rock garden, nice, wet, and really slippery. (more jokes. LoL) Well I was running super low pressure in my tires so I would be fine here. I was going rather quick and figured I could pass a rider on the outside of this berm in a more ocky section than where he was. Well he crashed almost next to me and took me out. By the time I got back on the bike I had been passed by a few more riders both there and on the next climb.
So..... then at about mile #5 of 10 (yeah.... short race) my chain snapped. It took me a few minutes on the side of the trail to fix it and I had then been passed by everyone. I managed to fic it though and race back through some of the final downhilld to finish 11th or 12 out of 18. Not too bad I guess if I consider all of the problems I had and how long it had been since I have actually "ridden".
None of us did well that day. Crapped out shifting, loss of brakes, snapped chains, etc. Basically if it could go wrong it did. If you weren't running hydraulic disk brakes your brake lines were so full of mud that by the end the weren't even working. I lost shifting at about 8 miles due to muddy/sandy lines. That was about the same for everyone. It was ugly.
I hope to do better this weekend, but don't expect it. We are heading to Kentuck to Lindsey Wilson college. They have a killer course with way more climbing than technical downhills from what I have heard. Not too good for me. On top of that they atually scope out their riders and give them mountain biking scholorships to ride for them. We should get smoked pretty nicely there too. LoL