Photo credit: www.brightroom.com5 - Ride the Rail - It's not easy to race twisty wet single track. Especially with 3 or 4 people tailgating you, giving you the "come on dude" because your letting the gap form. You see that gap forming, hear those guys talking and shifting and riding their brakes right on your tail. Then you start thinking about all that, get tight, and it gets harder to ride fast. It like the feeling I get when I'm trying to tee off at a golf tourney in front of a bunch of people (I suck at golf). So was the case with a Bagboy in front of me. I was right on his tail and 2 guys were right on mine. We were getting the "come on, dude". Bagboy bobbled a corner and rather than fight for the spot he let the three of us go by. Now I was in the lead. Would I also have these guys yelling at me? Better focus and start ripping corners. Curvy single track: One of the great joys of mountain biking! PS - Bagboy placed top 10, also did the circuit and the road race, and was sick. What a bad ass. Good job.
4 - Engaged: The grunt I got from a recently engaged VB when I tried to start a conversation with her on one of the steeper climbs. Urgumph. Note to self: don't talk to people when they're racing!
3 - Scavenger: I looked for my - Only - bottle 5 minutes into the race and saw it was gone. I'm screwed now. No water for a 3 plus hour race except for the single feed zone! Then I notice there are bottles everywhere on the ground from other riders. I'll be able to stop and scavenger a bottle on the 2nd time around which I do, perfectly. It took all of about 10 seconds as I spied a bottle of organge sport drink, veered, stopped, acquired, and was off again. A fellow rider said "good idea" and goes for the first bottle he sees. Picks up, shakes... empty, try again. I guess sometimes you get lucky.
2 - Yard sale: Not funny for whoever the victim was, but it's always intriguing to see a body hurling through the air at high speed as this rider who crashed at the bottom of the first big downhill, you know the one with the 2 foot drop off right at the nadir. That's why people watch NASCAR right? This happened about 15 feet in front of me. That was a white knuckle decent. Heard sirens a little while later. Hope he was ok.
1 - Petrified Man: I was catching a lot of people on the 2nd lap and this one guy in a grey with orange stripe jersey had been in front of me for a long time. I had seen him on and off for nearly the whole race. Now on the back side climbs he was finally in my sights for what I thought would be my final catch and pass. I was working to catch him. Just as I got close on a very steep short section, he froze in his pedals and fell over sideways without ever clipping out. I think he saw Madusa and was petrified. Denying me of the pleasure of the catch and pass but at least gracious enough to fall out of the line so I could ride right by. See ya.
2 comments:
I would have been behind you in that race...I think you got grunted at by one of the pro gals.
That would explain the response, or lack there of, because how could the newly engaged resist that query? That is a very exciting time on one's life.
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