Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Springfield Dirt Crits Race 1 report

Tonight was the first race in the A&B Cycle Dirt Crit series.  I've been looking forward to it since I first heard about the series in June.

I'm not a really fast rider, but I can hold a decent speed for a long time.  These crits are a chance for me to work on that weakness.  Plus racing is fun.

The format for the Men's Open class is 30 minutes plus 3 laps.  The course was a little more technical and hilly than other dirt crits I've read about and each lap was approximately 1 mile.

When I arrived at Sac I discovered both of my tires were flat.  They each had a gash in their sidewalls.  I tried to patch them on the outside hoping it would be enough for the Stans to seal them but after a pre-ride lap they were both near flat again.  So I put in tubes hoping I could avoid the thorns.

I took my Stumpjumper FSR to the race because my nephew Trevor said he was willing to ride in his first mountain bike race.  He did well and ended up winning the beginners class.  He said he had a good time and he'll be back next week. 

At the start of the race I got the hole shot and was in the lead when we reached the singletrack. Right after that Cale McAninch wrecked behind me when his crank hit a stump.  It created a bit of a gap between me and the field but he closed that gap before long.  I was riding as fast as I could near my redline and couldn't pull away.  I finished the first and second laps with Cale on my wheel and on the 3rd lap he passed me.  I tried to stay with him but he just pulled away.

I felt like I was riding well so I just tried to maintain what I was doing and see what happened.  With 3 laps to go Jerred Brackett caught up to me.  Now I had a race.  I rode the last 3 laps as hard as I've ever ridden.  I was able to hold him off until the last turn about 20 yards from the finish.  It was a banked turn and when I came out if it for some reason I started coasting.  I don't know why but I did.  He got on it and before I knew it he was next to me.  I tried to speed up to hold him off but he had the momentum and beat me to the line by half a wheel.  It was an awesome finish.  My mistake cost me but I learned a good lesson.

Cale won by a pretty good margin.  It's going to be tough but I'm going to work hard to try to give him some competition in the coming weeks.

This was so much fun and I can't wait until next week.

Here's my Garmin data from the race (note the 101% max heart rate):

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