Today may have been one of the most painful days I've spent on a bike. Well, at least it's the most painful it's been since I got BACK on the bike.
It was the Georgia Cross finale in Dahlonega, GA. I dropped Olivia off at her mother's at 6:30am and drove to meet my teammate, Jay, just up GA 400. We got there early and had plenty of time to get acclimated to the course. We headed out on some reconaissance laps with Brendan. It was a TOUGH course, requiring us to get off the bike 4 times per lap....and the laps were short.
It was a little damp as we were doing our final warm-up lap. I was following Brendan on the last turn on the pavement before we hit the dirt. Brendan lost it and I almost hit him. We picked up his bike and made a few adjustments to it. Turns out Brendan had hurt his wrist. We rode the rest of the lap and he was obviously hurting. He had brought up the idea of running a very curvy, very downhill section because he thought it might be faster. Right after that part is a ridiculous uphill section that was so steep that you often had to stick a hand down to keep from falling. Brendan asked me to follow him and see if riding the section was any faster than running. I was all over him after he dismounted and it beame obvious that riding was faster. Unfortunately, he tweaked his hamstring during the effort and it looked like he might be giving up his series lead after the two freak accidents.
I felt suprisingly good during warm-up. At the start I hit the front, intent on riding with the usual 5 that always seem to seperate themselves from the rest of us. I led easily through the first few turns before the first set of barriers. What happened then is unexplainable. Somehow I hit the first barrier and sent my bike flying, with me landing hard between the barriers. I looked up to see the pack on every side of me. I picked up my bike, but my chain had dropped. I cleared the second barrier, bent down and worked my chain back on ....dead last.
The next 10 minutes was some of the best riding I've done since taking up this silly sport. I flat out hammered through the field - pissed off beyond belief. By the end of the first lap I was back up to eighth and looked up to see I was right behind Brendan. I pulled in front of him and told him we needed to catch the guys up front. I continued to ride well and Brendan and I seperated ourselves from everyone else - me riding 5th, Brendan 6th.
2/3 of the way through the second lap Brendan blew by me. I had exerted myself a bit too much in my anger and knew I couldn't go with him. I was still riding well and kept a gap of about 15 seconds over the 7th place rider.....then I dumped my damn bike again! It was low-speed and I was able to get back on without losing much time. I worked to regain the gap and seemed to be holding it.
With two laps to go we came to the dreaded downhill that Brendan had tried to run. I was in the last corner before you clip out to run up the hill and I lost the bike AGAIN!!! This time it was a yard sale - my bike was 30 feet away from me. I scrambled to get it and lost all the time I had and also partially rolled my front tire. I thought about going to the pits to get a new wheel, but knew it would take up too much time. I rode the last two laps alone in 7th, the wheel too sketchy to risk it in corners to try and catch 6th place. I wasn't a happy camper at the finish, but realized that when I had the bike upright I had ridden the best I had all year. I moved to 9th overall in the series (ironically, finishing 6th would have put me into 8th in the series by 1 point!)
Brendan miraculously won! All bandaged up, he made up about 25 seconds on the leaders and won it on the last lap, also securing the series championship. He just started racing last year and has done an absolutely amazing job this year. He is a very determined, extremely talented rider, that I'm glad to call my friend.
Jay rode a great race, too, finishing 4th. If not for a crash himself, he would have made the podium. While I crashed a lot, I am mainly bruised. There were a LOT of torn up bodies at the end of the day. The course extracted more blood than all the others combined!
Jay and I ended the day by racing the "A" race. It was and hour of utter pain. My back and hamstrings were fried. I suffered the whole hour. I lost my chain a half a dozen times. It was one of the dumbest decisions I've made. We had probably already wrapped up 3rd in the team standings by then, but I rode to make sure we scored the points necessary.
I'm pissed. I honestly think I had a chance to crack into the top 5 today. It all matters not, because I didn't. I'm so angry that I'm thinking about going to Alabama next weekend to do their series final. I feel like I'm finally getting in shape and don't want to end the season wondering if I couldn't have a better race. We'll see.
It was the Georgia Cross finale in Dahlonega, GA. I dropped Olivia off at her mother's at 6:30am and drove to meet my teammate, Jay, just up GA 400. We got there early and had plenty of time to get acclimated to the course. We headed out on some reconaissance laps with Brendan. It was a TOUGH course, requiring us to get off the bike 4 times per lap....and the laps were short.
It was a little damp as we were doing our final warm-up lap. I was following Brendan on the last turn on the pavement before we hit the dirt. Brendan lost it and I almost hit him. We picked up his bike and made a few adjustments to it. Turns out Brendan had hurt his wrist. We rode the rest of the lap and he was obviously hurting. He had brought up the idea of running a very curvy, very downhill section because he thought it might be faster. Right after that part is a ridiculous uphill section that was so steep that you often had to stick a hand down to keep from falling. Brendan asked me to follow him and see if riding the section was any faster than running. I was all over him after he dismounted and it beame obvious that riding was faster. Unfortunately, he tweaked his hamstring during the effort and it looked like he might be giving up his series lead after the two freak accidents.
I felt suprisingly good during warm-up. At the start I hit the front, intent on riding with the usual 5 that always seem to seperate themselves from the rest of us. I led easily through the first few turns before the first set of barriers. What happened then is unexplainable. Somehow I hit the first barrier and sent my bike flying, with me landing hard between the barriers. I looked up to see the pack on every side of me. I picked up my bike, but my chain had dropped. I cleared the second barrier, bent down and worked my chain back on ....dead last.
The next 10 minutes was some of the best riding I've done since taking up this silly sport. I flat out hammered through the field - pissed off beyond belief. By the end of the first lap I was back up to eighth and looked up to see I was right behind Brendan. I pulled in front of him and told him we needed to catch the guys up front. I continued to ride well and Brendan and I seperated ourselves from everyone else - me riding 5th, Brendan 6th.
2/3 of the way through the second lap Brendan blew by me. I had exerted myself a bit too much in my anger and knew I couldn't go with him. I was still riding well and kept a gap of about 15 seconds over the 7th place rider.....then I dumped my damn bike again! It was low-speed and I was able to get back on without losing much time. I worked to regain the gap and seemed to be holding it.
With two laps to go we came to the dreaded downhill that Brendan had tried to run. I was in the last corner before you clip out to run up the hill and I lost the bike AGAIN!!! This time it was a yard sale - my bike was 30 feet away from me. I scrambled to get it and lost all the time I had and also partially rolled my front tire. I thought about going to the pits to get a new wheel, but knew it would take up too much time. I rode the last two laps alone in 7th, the wheel too sketchy to risk it in corners to try and catch 6th place. I wasn't a happy camper at the finish, but realized that when I had the bike upright I had ridden the best I had all year. I moved to 9th overall in the series (ironically, finishing 6th would have put me into 8th in the series by 1 point!)
Brendan miraculously won! All bandaged up, he made up about 25 seconds on the leaders and won it on the last lap, also securing the series championship. He just started racing last year and has done an absolutely amazing job this year. He is a very determined, extremely talented rider, that I'm glad to call my friend.
Jay rode a great race, too, finishing 4th. If not for a crash himself, he would have made the podium. While I crashed a lot, I am mainly bruised. There were a LOT of torn up bodies at the end of the day. The course extracted more blood than all the others combined!
Jay and I ended the day by racing the "A" race. It was and hour of utter pain. My back and hamstrings were fried. I suffered the whole hour. I lost my chain a half a dozen times. It was one of the dumbest decisions I've made. We had probably already wrapped up 3rd in the team standings by then, but I rode to make sure we scored the points necessary.
I'm pissed. I honestly think I had a chance to crack into the top 5 today. It all matters not, because I didn't. I'm so angry that I'm thinking about going to Alabama next weekend to do their series final. I feel like I'm finally getting in shape and don't want to end the season wondering if I couldn't have a better race. We'll see.
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