this needs a new title

the web log that is. something with fail in it. Because this weekend i flat out failed to ride well. I've failed to get the Waterville CX results finished. I failed to get the work outs in the previous two weeks because of working on the car. And to add insult to humility, well, i rolled a tubular on Saturday. Yes. My glue job failed. But i had good company. Lots of it I guess. And yeah, I should have re-glued the tires. But the one that rolled has to go get some new base tape put on. And well, I'm pretty nearly 100% certain I could have even rolled a Zanc glue job in that crash.

So yeah. Hit list of the worst of the racing, or a reason why i was having a hard time mentally racing once the race started. Saturday we pre-rode, thought maybe there was too much air in the tires. Took a bit out for the bumpy sections. Took a warm up ride down the road, and back. Only to get to the car to hear "Last Call to staging" DOH. Most all of the field was already lined up. We got there just in time to take our place. We meaning me and my fellow Planet Bike Team mate G-Ride. Basically time to slot into the grid before the whistle blew. Okay. Good - no chance to cool down. We hit the race hot. And it was fine. Pace felt okay. But that first corner after the start finish (the uphill sweeper) my rear tire went fup-fup-fup-fup-fup in the turn. Hmmm. Maybe i just hit something wrong or weird. Next turn not so big deal. Rode the hair pin when everyone got off (outside line was clear). But pretty soon, it became apparent that i couldn't take the corners as fast, the rear wheel was washing out hard core every time. Fahk. So. I started biasing weight to the front wheel. But that took my focus off of just going hard. It wasn't about just going hard any more. It was about staying upright and trying to ignore the rear tire, and keep it happy. On the plus side the low air was wicked smooth in the lumpy grass. Well the problem happened a bit later in the race. First I thought about pitting but I'm not fast enough to pit, change a rear wheel and stay on the lead lap. So it was about damage control. Go as fast as i could. Which really wasn't that fast.

I reeled back in G-ride, we were making our way up to trackrich and a handful of others when I took a hard left hairpin too hard and too weighted in the front. This was a corner that pretty much I saw someone crash in more or less each of the first handful of laps. It was a bad corner. Big berm and a lip with another berm. There is a drop off between the two. I was trying to stick it in the grass on the first side. But some how I managed to slip off the first, drop into the second with the front wheel weighted to about 75% of my weight - and the drop more or less shifted 100% of my weight forward and well, 200 pounds going straight with a wheel going left with tons of grip meant something had to give.

I went flying. I managed to roll and pull the bike up before G-ride piled into it. But when I collected myself the front wheel was jammed hard. And the tire was off. Unjammed and put back on but by then G-ride was gone down the downhill already and I was gingerly hitting the corners with a rolled tire. Hit the pits where my wheels were (by the parking lot) did a wicked fast front wheel change and was back out there. Still unable to corner with any weight on the back tire and now, no where near anyone. Yeah - I should have changed both, That would have been smart. But I didn't. i figured I'd be okay. I got caught on the final lap by a handful. When the leaders (Roger and Kevin) passed me, they were extremely polite and gracious, both of them saying thank you. Not even out of breath in the least. Chatting along. It was a long time before the rest of the guys came past... But it still really sucked. Don't get me wrong it was fun. And i was able to really focus on cornering better. But man that course was hard. Being my first time racing there I had no idea what to expect or where the lines were or how to best ride it. And I'm too slow to have anything go wrong. But it was still fun.

Sunday was a bit better. But in some ways worse. Not really that much sleep, first night it was the sounds and noises keeping me up, second night? It was a late night and still a restless sleep, and the heavy rain all night long kept waking me up. At least there wouldn't be any dust on Sunday.

Just wet grass and slick mud. I borrowed a Dugast Rhyno for the front. And to get right to the point, over compensated from Saturday in the rear. So I went from TOO much rear traction to not enough. And once again was sticking the front wheel, but no where near as hard as I was the day before on the dry course.

The laps on sunday were insanely long. Waaaaaay too long IMHO. The course itself was fun, but one of the nice thing about cross is doing a course 6-8 laps, getting a feel for it. 5 laps (4 for me even though i didn't get lapped - they were pulling people because the laps were so long). Roger was turning 9+ minute laps by my quick calculation there looking at the results. I was not. CCR crashed and G-ride got the scent and managed to rail it on his home course. I just couldn't get my head into it for some reason. I was having fun, esp lap 3 and 4. Lap 2 really really sucked. It usually does for me, and when lap 2 is that long, well. that is really really bad.

So now, well I have a tire with base tape coming off heading to Tire Alert with some of G-rides tubulars, a good perspective of how crappy i'm riding right now, and a long season ahead of me. I will change the plan for next year, but I will also not abandon the current plan.

It was a great weekend. A good way to start the year officially. (Last weekend was pre-season). Or maybe the season should really start in October at G-ster. Hmmm.

Great hanging out at the Chabot compound with some of the coolest CX races around. And being wickedly entertained by Soup's sequence of shots from Myerson's crash. That's just the first of the set, but you get the idea.

Right now I'm exhausted, battered mentally and physically. But man it was a fun weekend with the bikes.

heddwch
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