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05-25-06, 06:25 PM
OK, now that my first DH is down in the books, it's time to break out the ol' hardtail and do some XC racing. It's a good thing this is a low-key, local weekday-evening series, because my bike is definitely not race-worthy. This was my "bike that schwag built" conglomeration of spare parts. It now has 8 speeds thankfully,and all three rings, finally; but still no clipless pedals, so I'm running my DH shoes on flats - -ugghhh! Oh well, it still weighs less than my ASX.
The whole series (7 races) takes place at Riverside State Park in Spokane. Amazing gobs of singletrack. Last night's course was supposed to be about 15 miles. I'm not sure it was that long judging by my time, but it WAS long. It's going to be used in this weekend's 24-hour race, so it was the 'big loop.' I was signed up in the Masters 40+. I liked it better when they defined it as 45+ - -those young 40-somethings can really move!
I put myself in about the middle on the start judging by what I knew of the other racers congregated there. It was pretty close. The first climb was about 150 yards after the start and I pretty much held my own without getting in any passer's way. Somewhere in about mile two or so, an racing acqauintance that I've seesawed with for four seasons went by. I used to beat him quite regularly but he must be training more because he's gotten faster in the last year or so.
It seems like this course used every climb in the park. I was starting to feel the cramps coming in my legs about 3/4 of the way through; and when I thought we were maybe headed back to the start/finish, the course would turn and go up another ***///$$## hill!
The saving grace was on the gnarly descents and rock gardens. I could carry way more speed when it pointed down hill, which gave me speed to carry across the ensuing flats too. I'd get the other guy in sight in those place and the climbs, where I must still be a bit better climber. Where he'd kill me was rough slight upgrades, where the rear suspension on his Intense would let him stay smooth and fast.
Anyway, I got third. First was a 41-year-old friend who smoked it in 55 min. The guy I was trying to catch got a 1:07:35 and I got a high 1:08. I'm going to have to miss next week, but maybe that'll give me time to remedy some of my cobbled-up drivetrain.
The whole series (7 races) takes place at Riverside State Park in Spokane. Amazing gobs of singletrack. Last night's course was supposed to be about 15 miles. I'm not sure it was that long judging by my time, but it WAS long. It's going to be used in this weekend's 24-hour race, so it was the 'big loop.' I was signed up in the Masters 40+. I liked it better when they defined it as 45+ - -those young 40-somethings can really move!
I put myself in about the middle on the start judging by what I knew of the other racers congregated there. It was pretty close. The first climb was about 150 yards after the start and I pretty much held my own without getting in any passer's way. Somewhere in about mile two or so, an racing acqauintance that I've seesawed with for four seasons went by. I used to beat him quite regularly but he must be training more because he's gotten faster in the last year or so.
It seems like this course used every climb in the park. I was starting to feel the cramps coming in my legs about 3/4 of the way through; and when I thought we were maybe headed back to the start/finish, the course would turn and go up another ***///$$## hill!
The saving grace was on the gnarly descents and rock gardens. I could carry way more speed when it pointed down hill, which gave me speed to carry across the ensuing flats too. I'd get the other guy in sight in those place and the climbs, where I must still be a bit better climber. Where he'd kill me was rough slight upgrades, where the rear suspension on his Intense would let him stay smooth and fast.
Anyway, I got third. First was a 41-year-old friend who smoked it in 55 min. The guy I was trying to catch got a 1:07:35 and I got a high 1:08. I'm going to have to miss next week, but maybe that'll give me time to remedy some of my cobbled-up drivetrain.