I'm a winner

Just thought I'd post a report from my MTB race this past Wednesday.

Started off as a beautiful hot day, got to the park (bird's hill) and there was a gentle breeze with plenty of sunshine.

There were more racers there than at my previous race, so that was cool. I recognized a few and said hi, exchanged pleasantries and wished each other good luck (while secretly wanting to crush them).

I decided to go and do a warm up lap and found myself holding back, not trusting the bike or myself. I slowly got through the lap and got back to the start area. Upon getting back, I noticed some dark clouds starting to roll in... not good. slippery roots are not fun.

Racing started, I was in the 4th group of riders to start (fastest start first), and right off the bat, I forgot about holding back and was just concentrating on keeping my speed up and smooth corners. First lap went off without any mishaps, passed a few guys, one guy went down in front of me and ended up pulling out after the first lap.

I was following one guy who was cruising pretty good until he clipped a pedal on a rock and broke it (there were some nice sparks from that one). He eventually pulled off to the side and let me by because he was having troubles with that pedal. So off I went.

The rain started falling shortly into the 2nd lap making some nice slippery mud and roots, making my tire choice for the race a bad one (relatively smooth for the fast sections). In the "root cellar" I ended up going down again, on the same knee, but it was a smooth landing this time and after a quick check to make sure I hadn't opened it up again, I was running through the rest of the section with my bike. I hopped on and kept going, I passed a couple more people from a different group and crossed the finish line.

I thought there was one other person from my group up the trail from me, but after checking the results yesterday, it turns out I won my class (which is where all the new people race, so I beat all the noobs).

The organizers supplied some hot dogs and marshmallows after the race and we all enjoyed them in the rain.

Just after getting my bike loaded back onto the car, the downpour hit and by the time I was home, I had a clean bike.

Another fun night of racing. Next race is July 8th.

Birds Hill ride

I've been starting to feel kinda lethargic since I banged my knee up last Wednesday at the MTB race, so I decided it was time to get back on the bike and see how my knee would do. It had been feeling pretty good the last couple of days. So, this morning I got up, got my bike ready, had a delicious waffle for breakfast (thanks Jess), and hit the road.
Weather forecasts were for sun all day and a high of ~20 deg, beautiful riding weather. However as I was leaving the driveway I looked west and saw quite a dark cloud. hmmm.... better ride faster. Off to Birds Hill park we go!
My knee felt pretty good the entire ride, no pain, just a slight discomfort on every pedal stroke. I hadn't ridden to birds hill before so this was a new trip for me, the roads were pretty good for the most part, but there were a lot of sections of pretty rough pavement. Nothing I that I couldn't handle though.
Time from our house to the park was just over an hour (1:01), once there, I did a lap of the park where there were a bunch of triathlon folks riding, and went home.
The roads on the way home seemed to be smoother than on the way out for the most part. and I was able to finish the 74.5km ride in 2h35min. It was good, I think I'll do it again.

race results...

DNS.... or did not start. I registered and all, but 1/3 of the way into my warm-up lap, my rear wheel caught a nasty root and it slid out from under me. My leg hit the bolt that holds my brake lever on and it made a nice hole just an inch below my knee. I took a quick look at it, and hopped out onto the road to get back to the starting area. Asked for the medic and got most of the mud out. He seemed kinda scared to touch it (probably because his kit didn't contain gloves), so I actually did most of the work. The adrenaline was still pumping at this point so there was no pain either. I asked him what he thought, and said to bandage it up and it'll be fine. I didn't believe him.

So, I withdrew from the race I had signed up for only 15 minutes earlier. Called a doctor (who shall remain nameless as he's not licenced to practice out of the hospital), went and watched the end of his sons baseball game, then went to his house to get it cleaned up properly (local anesthetic and everything). If he had the equipment he would have stuck a stitch in it, but all he had was medical grade crazy glue. That'll do.

So, so far I'm at 1/3 for races. Started three, finished 1. We'll see if we can improve that record.