2012 GMCX... saturday's race

Okay so I should probably take a minute here during lunch to try and bang out at least one race, no?  Probably not but I'm going to give it a shot anyway.

My memory is fading and I'm probably forgetting everything anyway.  When the video is ready I'm sure there will be some corrections.


We line up. I'm not last row, but pretty f'n close to it.  Day 1 we start up the hill going counter clockwise. up the long winding steady up hill, before the intestine track into the stairs and then around and up to the top (shit, just realized I can't remember quickly how the course ran, damn it).  Sully was bitching about starting in the back with the scrubs.  I lined up behind Gary, the kid was over in the same row, Nicky was around the area too.  Chabot decided to race the 3 race.  Ringer was somewhere around the neighborhood too.  White as well.  And a bunch of folks i didn't know.

So the whistle blows and off we go. Giant race up the hill.  Man does that hill hurt.  Raced. And raced.  Around and up, Got chopped, chopped back, dropped them.  Carl crashed whole sale and sent Nick summersaulting into one of the few spots on the course with snow fence.  Okay so Carl didn't crash, a couple guys wrecked in front of him and he rolled a tire, came to a stop and Nick's only option was snow fence. I came through just in time to get him upside down in the fence on camera.  And down and around and up and around and down and up and down and turn and wow this race is hard. Nick's crash put him way back.  White was back there too.  With a couple to go White started to make a move, that or I started to slip back.  Nick was closing the gap on me too.  With one or two to go White got a lead for a minute or two, Nick bridged up and went around.  Some how at some place I made a decisive pass on them and hit the swoopy up hill back down and to the finish line.  I hit the 180 sort of there by the Pits and Chris White is just one small bag of muscle, and well I didn't want to get beat in a sprint.  And I didn't.  Was fun. Didn't suck compared to most years.  Much closer in time gap to the leader than typical for me.  Also no where near getting lapped.  Total win.  Hurt so much though.  Was a good thing.

Cooled down a bit, got on the trainer, ate food, drank water, didn't drink any more coffee, tried to work and focus on recovery.  Ate some more, walked around, cheered for friends that were racing, talked with friends I haven't seen in a while.  In general enjoyed the day.  After the women's race I went back to work.

Grabbed Kevin Noiles pit bike and headed in to the pits.  For a pretty tame course it was busier than you'd expect for a bone dry all grass race.  But when you add huge amounts of grip and super high speeds, people crash.  Kevin had gone down HARD and came in for a bike, quick exchange and he was back off.  Now here's a minor pit mechanic complaint.  High speed pits (like GMCX) are a huge pain.  When you come into them super hot catching a bike and handing it off with one person is not so easy, esp when you haven't worked with the rider before.  It worked, he wasn't so much slowed down, but man I caught the bikes both times with my body more than anything else.  Also.  Another DUMB factor was the pits were set up backwards.  Counter clockwise, so everyone was lined up against the fence between the pit and the course. Making an already narrow pit lane even narrower.  First pit exchange I had to deal with a few minor issues, got it all sorted out, and Kevin came back to get the A bike (with file treads) for the final lap, he came in to the pits out of a group and out of the pits still in contact with the group.  Granted I stopped his bike with my thumb.  but hey. it worked and he was off and racing to a respectable placing given two pits and a crash.

Was fun.

From there with Skinnywhitedude home sick for the weekend I crashed at the compound.  Again no sleep (I think there's some sort of VT curse that goes beyond sucking at the course and continues with the lack of sleeping).  But hey they have a super fancy coffee maker thing and I just kept pushing extra strong long draw coffee until my heart rate started to elevate.  Took a lot of coffee.

But we headed back to the course...  for day 2.  Here's a few shots from the weekend (credit should be in the file name)

more later

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