Sorry, no pictures..
The Brandon MTB race on July 29 went really well for the first of three laps. I had a strong start and felt like I could hold the pace. My legs disagreed and threatened me with cramping. Scheisse!
It was another super hot Manitoba summer day.. 30ish degrees. Many were feeling the heat.
I know the drill.. if I keep going I'll be in a world of hurt bent over on the side of the trail. I slowed down to a pace I could handle without cramping and was very quickly passed everywhere.. I'm used to getting passed in trails with tight turns. I suck at tight turns on dirt, which is a bit of setback when mountain biking.
On hills though I usually do reasonably well with few passing me.. not today though. I came in 5th out of 9 finishers. I'm happy with that.
The Morden Back 40 is one of my favorite events. I was really looking forward to it this year.
It rained. Some of the trail has a soil that gets extremely slick when wet, and so sticky I'm sure my bike weighed an extra 10 pounds with all the muck stuck to it.
I wasn't able to get into the muck ride mentally and was not enjoying walking through sections of un-ride-able slop. One racer rolled by with a huge smile and with great enthusiasm said, "it doesn't get any more technical than this!". His happiness did not rub off on me, but he did try to put a positive light on the situation.
No, I was in a mental funk as was not interested in a walk-ride thing this day, so I pulled out of the race. Lot's of DNF's with some bikes so packed with mud the wheels would not turn, but others rode most of slippery slop with great skill and agility.
The first lap went reasonably well. I caught and passed nearly everyone on the flats who had previously passed me in the single track. I was really looking forward to the second lap of this 32 kilometer event (there was also an eduro 80k event, plus a 16K 1 lap event.. something for everyone), but the first few kilometers of trail took on more rain and we're as slick as goose crap on Teflon.
Oh well. This means I have to practice riding in mud, which has a catch 22 - riding in mud on many trails will rut out the trail and destroy the trail surface.. can't do that..
My expectations were that I would have a blast riding a course I love, but the muck changed all that. What I could have done is change my expectations to suit the changed condition. Have lemons? Make lemonade.
Looking forward to next years Back 40.
No comments:
Post a Comment