Just when I saw a resurgence in my form, I got shelled in 2 straight races. The first at BikeJam was totally my fault. It was the kind of course where you make no bones about getting to the front of the group as quick as you can in the first few laps and then recover and hold your position. From a back row starting position, I moved up about halfway and then started the recovery process. I just wasn't far enough up the line. In the space of 3 laps, I found myself several riders behind a split heading towards the sharp corners before the rise to the finish line. Since no one else was moving, I jumped across the gap and made it back on at the top of the hill. I made it just in time for an acceleration at the front. Damn, it was hurting now. Going through the tight turns again at the bottom, another rider almost bunged things up by shooting the inside of the corner. Some people just shouldn't do crits. It was a bit of a weird line, but if you were trying to keep the speed up through the turn, you had to delay going into sharp left hand turn so you'd then have no problem shooting through it and being up to speed with no major cost. These guys were diving into the turn, braking out when they realized they were overcooking it and then having to sprint out. I generally like to keep my efforts a bit more on the smooth side. A second effort to stay with the field made things tougher and up over the top, I just couldn't keep the speed up after the roundabout and was trying to tag onto other wheels who were having to make the same kind of efforts I was. In the end, we all lost as we got separated. One final burst got me back to the field heading into the turns at the bottom again, but I just didn't have the horsepower to stay there. I settled back into a group and a few of us started working together. Unfortunately, we were in the group of riders who were destined for that early finish. They didn't even give us a 'You suck' prime to sprint for. The second indignity of the day came a few laps later when the pace vehicle got close and we were pulled. 3 hours of driving to do a dozen miles. I gotta start getting to these things earlier. No warmup on a course like that just is not a good thing. I did get some good sun though and even was able to work on trying to overcome the cyclist tan while watching the women's and men's pro events. I also test rode a Stork bike there. This was a stupid light bike, but it certainly fit the bill as a good stiff racer. The price is a bit steep, but if you don't mind having a bike that will be lucky to survive a single fall, this is a good one. Who needs a house anyway? The race organizers did an ok job of trying to get vendors in too. It would have been nice to have more though. Maybe they need to learn from the St. Alban's crit people who incorporated a whole festival around the race. They get a decent crowd of the town's people there to see the races. And where else but in West 'by God' Virginia, would there be a 'Cornholing' Contest? That'll bring the crowds out. They sure know how to have fun down in them there hills.
http://www.grassrootsriding.com/SAGP2007.html
On Sunday, it was time to try to erase some bad memories of a mountain bike race in the WVMBA series. It was in this race I learned two things. The first was 'DO NOT TO FORGET TO DRINK EARLY AND OFTEN'. When dehydration hits in a mountain bike race, it hits hard and there's no faking it after that. The second was 'Don't heckle Betsy Shogren when you catch her'. I got my ass kicked a second time for that. I tried staying with her and after the second climb, the effort as well as the dehydration brought on that wonderful host of sparkly lights and light-headedness that just ended my day. I had gone past the point of no return and bagged it. This year would be different. Well, it was different, but the same result. Two miles in, I could feel the back bitching already. Carryover from losing a battle with an 81 Malibu at high speed has a way of coming back and haunting one. On top of that, this was the first time I'd been on the mountain bike in two weeks where I'd had a near out of body experience when my brakes went out on a very big and rocky descent. I found I had zero confidence in going down the drops and it wasn't getting any better. After a while, I ran up the white flag and rode it in with another rider who'd also done the same. Getting passed by a couple on a tandem just made things worse. On the plus side though, I didn't get dehydrated. But I definitely have to get out on the trails for some skills training to help get the ol' confidence back. With no zip on those descents, there's not a whole lot of point in me racing and that's not a feeling I like to have.
Maybe I shouldn't have mentioned Al Oliver last post. I could be paying for that one.
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