I just figured out why some people take a few days to write race reports. While the details of the race may get fuzzy as the days go by, the big-picture perspective comes more into view.
Yeah, I had a crappy day - some days you're the dog, some days you're the hydrant - it was a hydrant day for me for sure. But there was still some fun had.
Anyhow, some things I didn't mention in my report which were cool/interesting.
> Richard Pirro (Cat1 40-49 winner) passed me during lap 1 and I latched on for as long as I could (meaning I watched him easily pull away). He made the course look much flatter than it was for me. I don't know how much he won by (and am too lazy to look right now), but he had a big lead at that point and it was still very early in the race.
> Some other dude in a red shirt, I'm guessing in Rich's class, passed me during lap 2 and proceeded to destroy a technical section. The rocks were begging him for mercy (but then the rocks went back to mocking laughter as I approached). I caught ol' redshirt on a climb and went past him and ended up with a pretty big gap at the top of the hill. It took him no time at all to make up that gap on the next rocky down and when he went by me again, he LAUNCHED a log, flew right into a nasty section of rocks and rode it out like Steve friggin Peat. He even put a little style into his jump. That was the highlight of my whole race. Well done whoever you are. It wasn't too long after that that I broke my saddle, which was too bad as a climb was coming up and I may have been able to catch him again and then witness another awesome show as he slayed the next technical section.
> The bee's nest thing was insane. I was climbing the overlooking hill as the shiznit was going on down on the ridge below. There was panic down there I tell ya, shouts of pain. I felt bad for the people who got caught in it. I've been stung on rides and it hurts more than it seems like it should.
I was pretty down on TVR earlier in the week as it was just too technical for my liking, but I'm coming around. While perhaps I do better on hilly and flat courses, improving my technical riding skills will only help. And it's an easy ride from my folks' house. We'll see about next year...
Anyway, on to more bike geekage of the Stravariety...
I'm new to the wonderful world of Strava. I was exploring the segments around the mid-Cape area the other day and realized that there was a 6.2 mile segment in the woods across from where I work. So a lunching I would go. I rode the niner one9 today. I'll try gears next time to see which is faster. I'm guessing the singlespeed as Willow St is super-single-speed-friendly.
Strava is awesome -- it's like a fast virtual group ride (and as we know, all group rides are actually races).
A note on Willow St: There's a bit more in there than is on the Strava loop, and it flows well both ways, so it's great to do twice in different directions. Plus the Boy Scout trails diagonally across Willow add another awesome 5 miles or so. So it's pretty easy to get in 18 or so fun miles.. (just in case you think the 6.2 mile loop wouldn't be worth the trip -- it definitely is if you're on Cape for vacation or just a weekender).
No comments:
Post a Comment