The 2011 Chainbreaker in Bend Oregon was a trying race for the Tensegrity crew. First off, a congrats and shout out to Alexander Jole. He raced his first mountain bike race as a Cat 3 and spent his time learning to judge his speed in corners and in the rocks.
Ryan Garner claimed his second consecutive podium spot finishing second, after winning at Bear Springs in Cat 2.
Dave Bisers rode to a 18th place finish in the singlespeed Cat with some guys pushing gear ratios as high as 36 x 16(Luke Demoe).
As for my race in Cat 1 it was rough but I am happy with the animal inside of me that I found. I finished 11th riding 38miles in 3 hr 2 min and 42 sec. I showed up to the race with 25 minutes to spare and found myself ill prepared with my warm up. It was 42 degrees when the race started and was sunny for a few minutes. Sun turned to snow, snow turn to rain, rain to hail, and hail back to snow and sun. So it was cold, really cold, and I forgot my base layer.
My race started with a big explosion out the back of the pack as I couldn't get my legs up to speed. What that meant was that I got stuck in the back on all the single track sections. Being nice I made sure to allow the leaders of the masters and the singlespeeders to pass, and let a few guys in my own race pass cause I just couldn't wind up the legs.
Then on the second lap I caught up to another guy in my Cat 1 race and asked to pass him on the descent as he was going slow in these sections. His response was this is a race and you have to get around on your own. Ok, jack A##, I tried for 2-3 minutes to get around him and he kept blocking me. This is when I remembered how to race my bike and I rode up his wheel and took control of the single track. In doing so, he may have fallen down, but I insist I did not take my hands off the bars. Remember this is a race. So I dug deep from there realizing that I better well beat that guy by a lot after our headbutting.
I rode hard, really hard. I was in a trance and starting picking off Cat 1 racers that I hadn't seen since the start of the race. I would come into the few technical sections at full speed and not let off at all. For me the tech sections are my strength. In doing so with about 20-30 minutes left to race my right wrist started hurting. I rode through the discomfort thinking nothing of it. I pushed all the way up to the finish line passing a guy in the last 200-300 meters, and missing 10th by another 13 sec.
Here is photo of me trying to not vomit while racing, although I did get some air. So now I am resting this week with a sprained wrist, which I kind of need to use at work as a PT. But who knows if it feels better I should be hitting it up in Ashland this weekend for Spring Thaw, with Ninakasi Beer to give out to other riders.
No comments:
Post a Comment