LowCel 

Well yesterday's race was the championship race for the state series which has been going on since April. It has been a very long year and just about everyone there was relieved that it was the last race for a while.

I went into the race with a knee that was hurting like hell! I nailed it on the stem pre-riding the course on Tuesday. I went in for accupuncture twice on it and iced it up as much as possible. That helped some but not enough. Had this been any other race I would have skipped it. Unfortunately I had to finish in the top seven to make sure I didn't lose my third place overall position. I couldn't even stand up and crank. It hurt bad enough to stand up on the descents.



Anyway, the course was extremely muddy and I spent about half of my time hiking rather than riding. It consisted of a four mile prologue then two five mile laps and then a three mile single track finish. There was about two miles total of fire roads which we all welcomed.

I started out pretty well, I made it around a mile before my first over the bars crash. I didn't feel too bad though since people were crashing left and right. Mud, steep downhills, roots and rocks is just a recipe for disaster. My worst crash was right beside a nasty set of stairs which we were instructed not to ride since they were wooden, slick, and in terrible shape. Somehow I got my arm stuck in my frame with my handlebar twisting into my arm as hard as possible. I thought for sure my arm was going to be broken. Luckily for me the stem decided to twist a little. By the time that crash was over my bars were twisted over 90 degrees and my brakes and shifters were twisted quite a bit as well. Luckily I leave the brake levers and shifters a little loose. I would prefer them to move than break. I believe my stem got bent a little as well, I'll know after tonights bike examination.

I ended up going over the bars five or six times, none of which were easy crashes. I crashed more in this race than I have all season. I couldn't believe how many crashes I saw, they were happening everywhere.

Anyway, fast forward to the second lap. I finish up my water bottle just before I get to the next climb where my wife and parent's are waiting for me. Their main job is giving me water bottles. Well I get there and my wife has already left and my parent's are there. I ask them for my bottle only to find out they don't have any. The course marshall had told them that sport only did one lap so I wouldn't be coming back through. Gee, thanks a lot! Luckily a buddy of mine's mom was there and gave me his half full bottle. Better than nothing. Once I got to a water station I was able to get them to fill the bottle up for me. All in all this cost me about a minute (including getting a bottle).

I took one wrong turn, luckily I figured it out quick. I also stood at an intersection just trying to figure out where to go. Luckily there was a car there that was able to tell me which direction some others went.



In the end I finished third in men's sport 18 - 34. I was 30 seconds behind second, nine minutes behind first. I couldn't imagine riding the course as fast as he did. My end time was 2:26 I believe. I'll know for sure once the results are posted.

What was cool was that first place was the overall series winner. Second place was second overall for the series and I was third in the race and third overall for the season. Worked out pretty well. What is even better is that over the course of the season the three of us became pretty good friends.

LowCel 

Here is a before picture of the bike as well as a few "after" pictures.



And now some afters.........







I've got to give some credit to SRAM. Even with all the mud I still had great shifting.

C Law

great job LC on the season and the race. Thanks for the report.

wheelhot

CONGRATS on your race. Well on my short XC race I managed to finish 10th could settled in 9th position if I didnt made a few mistakes but now Im training to improve on it anyway. Hopefully next year I could settle as no.1.

Is it me or it looks like your SRAM X.0 is short caged? Anyway nice bike colour. During my race whoever raced during evening (just finish raining) was practically full of mud. Their clothings and their bike colour look exactly the same and the finishing on their bike doenst matter anymore because all of it look the same. When I see they jump a ramp or so you can see chunkes of mud fell.

Haha nice race. Anyway Im quite happy with my self on the result this has been my first year full year as a mountain biker ^^

Minesbroken

nice! Good job man that must have been some hellish mud lol. How are your legs after that one? I thought I remember you saying you had bruised knees or something before the race. did they bother you during it? Oh and does the fork feel better after alittle usage?

dminor 

Way to go, LowCel! And way to finish out the season. What's this crash-in-the-last-race deal? Maybe I'd forgotten to tell you that you didn't need to, since I'd done enough for both of us Sounds like a gnarly course. Thanks for the report.

a2psyklnut

Congrats on the great finish!!!

CrashVector

Good job, LowCell!

if your bike shifted with all that mud, you are REALLY making me consider swapping out my Deore XT to an SRAM setup.

Good pics btw.

Curtis_Elwood

Nice job! Excellent report as well.

kmoses

It was a nice season indeed, beginning and ending with the two muddiest races of the year. My epic is gonna need some TLC today. And my front hub has about 1/2 a mm of play in it (i guess its back to Mike Garcia). I ended up tied for 8th in the series. Now to enjoy 2 weeks off before getting back to it.

Pheard

*Jaw drops to the floor. I'm speechless.

LowCel 

Hey, if ya look real close in the bottom of the picture of my filthy Nitrous you can see your mud packed eggbeater.

Once again, congratulations on a great season. Considering that this was your first season racing (not counting the one race last year) I would say it was a very succesful season. I wish my first season in Sport could have been half as succesful as yours.

LowCel 

The fork felt great, the few times I actually paid attention to it. I guess thats a good thing, you always notice what isn't working right.

As for my leg it hurt like hell before the race, hurt like hell during the race, and if it's possible, hurts even worse now. During the race I was never able to stand up and hammer, my knee just would not allow it.

LowCel 

Thank you!

Man I wish I would have gotten that memo! I thought I had to get all of the crashes in for both mine and your seasons. I didn't know the quota had already been met.

LowCel 

To everyone else, thanks for the kind words.

Minesbroken

take care of the knee man, good luck.

wompwomp

congrats, and take care of the knee!

dminor 

That portion of my report on my final run at the Masters Worlds was the memo. What . . . did you think it was the 'how-to' manual?

Snuffleupagus

Nice finish man. Going to try and ride Expert next year?

LowCel 

I haven't decided yet. I really want to win a couple of races before moving up. My coach is telling me that I should wait until I win a few in a row and then move up. I kind of like that idea. It seems like I've done a lot of work to never win a race (other than beginner). If things go well I'll move up mid season next year. If things go bad I'll move up the following season.

mtnbiker66

Good job on the race and the season. I know a lot of hard work and lots of time went into all of that.
Got mud.....

agarose2000

I'm new to racing (actually, haven't yet!) - in your opinion, do you work harder in training on powering the uphills or screaming the downhills?

santiago

Congrats, sounds like you had a great season and a very eventful last race.

MattP.

Awesome man! Great accomplishment!

As for the bike.. Looks like you need a new one, I'll give you $20 for that one...

EJ123

Nice.