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photo:julie [more]

ft. ord
2006/01/08
senior b
6th/15
series: 2nd/72

i arrived at this, my last race of the season, with a mixture of excitement to be only 3 points behind dave samples in the overall, and complacency after the cush holiday weekends with some mental fatigue from racing most weekends since mid-september. the course was in the daycamp area again, but they changed it up a bit. they took out most of the dirt descent and added a steep, fast, curvy paved descent feeding right into the paved climb. nick had a computer and said he was hitting 40mph down it. it was the only time this year when i've felt undergeared in my 39x11 top gear. the trails were firm, tacky and fun from saturday's rain. the big log with the fast approach was there, as were the two smaller rideable logs.

i've never had a fantastic start here on the narrow, loose fireroad climb. some punk decided to do a running start. a fair strategy i guess. he got off the line in the lead, but should have mounted earlier. some of the leaders got around him, but i was stuck behind him when he did a really poor mount, bobbled, and lost his momentum right in the middle of traffic. i ran into his back wheel, and completely lost all my speed. managed to stay upright, but my start was neutralized. lost touch with the leaders where i needed to be in order to contest with samples. i saw the same guy later on. he was pretty strong but was having problems keeping the rubber side down and we leap-frogged a couple times before he finally stayed behind me.

so i spent the race working my way back up. my legs were fresh from a good taper, my pacing was good, and i gradually ate into samples' gap. julie was keeping track, and i reduced it from 30 seconds to 10 seconds at the finish. i could see him looking back to me. i got the impression he was doing what was necessary to stay in front of me. not sure what he would have had in him if i'd been able to actually race with him.

so it was a little disappointing the way the cards fell, but that's racing i guess. it would have been nice to go out with a bigger bang in my last race of the season and in the b's (yes, you can quote me on that). i did have a great time racing this series, and i can't complain about second. landed a big bottle of beer and some ritchey speedmax tireds. samples (1st) and hammond (3rd) were both excellent, gracious competitors. hammond had a great race, beating both of us for the first time and taking 4th behind some fast guys that turned up.

good vibes back at the start/finish after a quick warmdown. a bunch of the b's hung around the keg to swap stories of the season, talk gear, and watch the masters trip over the triple barriers just before the finish line. one highlight of this season for me was getting to know more of my fellow racers. carpooling with cisco and nick. warmdowns and burritos with the sf sport and spine guys; ryan, isaiah, and morgan. hardocre euro bike porn dvds from dave p. just generally interacting with more people than my immediate teammates and friends. not sure if it was the crowd this year, or my level of comfort in the scene, but it was good. i aim to continue that in the future, it enhances the racing experience. it seems like a good number of us are planning to upgrade next year, so i will have good company in the misery of spending 60 minutes trying not to get lapped.

thanks to julie for spending her birthday schlepping down to ft. ord with me. i'm glad i could deliver on her birthday wish of a podium.

so now my season is over, and i'm looking forward to getting the mtb back on the trails, riding when (and if) i feel like it, and leaving the hr monitor at home. generally being a fair-weather cyclist. i'm not doing any riding this week except for commuting. we'll see what this weekend brings. planning to get a few rides in per week to maintain fitness, but the goal is not to stress over it. i'm not going to start training on a schedule again until may at the earliest, after the wedding and honeymoon, when it's time to start thinking about 'cross again. i should be hungry for it by then.

i'm also planning to pick up some other form of exercise to try to get some balance back after only riding for 2 years. maybe get some flexibility and posture back. yoga perhaps. or maybe i'll check out that interesting kung fu group i see in the panhandle every saturday morning. i need to find something else to blog about...

<br> - retiree