A lesson I learned............
 

Hi all,
I had my first race yesterday (Sunday), it was the Ford No Boundaries MTB at Oleta park in Florida. What I learned is that it's mostly all the rider and not the bike. I got 3rd place in my Wave with a bike that looked like a baby's bike compared to everyone else's. I had my cheap $200 mongoose mgx 6.5 bike and I was racing against bike that were $1,000 + like Klein's (Mantra's), Specialied FSR's, Cannondale's, etc. I creamed most of those guys :p . It was a 9 mile lap, which I did in 59 mins. The 12 people who were behind me finished in 1 hour and 20+. 2nd place, which was a friend of mine (on his newly bought Mantra) beat me by 2 mins.
Just goes to show that you really don't need a fancy bike to win..(in some cases you do..lol), but that it's mostly on the rider. :)

just remember, it's not the bike that makes the rider, but sometimes it does help ;)

Congrats on 3rd place! I would agree with you to a point.

As your skill improves and you move up in race classifications, your ability and your competitions ability will be much closer. The "tools" you need to do the job become more critical and you will find the necessity for a decent bike.

Also, the higher the classification, the more important the mental aspect of racing plays a more important role as all the athletes are about in the same physical condition!

L8R

I'm still searching for my next "tool"...........Klein Mantra. :love:..... *drools..........