So. Sunday at NBX.
Kind of sort of wouldn't mind forgetting about it.
RI State Championship weekend (except that Matt B forgot to tell the officials before the weekend). I was pretty sure there was little competition for the crown of the 40-44 age group. No big deal. Stine is younger, Curtis moved to NH... No one else has been showing up or racing (or raced on saturday) to challenge me. All I had to do was finish. I got this, kind of cool you know.
So Noah and I got there a few minutes too late to get a complete lap in on the course before the first race. I had stuffed all three bikes inside the rusty race wagon the night before, that cut down a bit on our departure, still took me too long to get my shit together but we did get out of the house 10 minutes earlier.
Same food prep basically, coffee, muesli, couple egg sandwiches (well actually two for Noah, one for me - pre-race only, no need for post race, not racing the next day).
Loaded up with coffee and headed out.
Clattered over to the course. Got a lap in with the new stuff (cool and fun), headed back to the car as the Cat 4s started.
Turns out Rich Loring (NBX) busted his STI clamp on a root, rode around with the rear brake activated and then went to hop the log and ripped the lever off and smashed his head on the log and didn't finish. BUT he got an on site upgrade and was joining us in the Elite Masters race (he's 43). Oh hey look, I have someone to race now.
Noah and I headed back to the car to get his day of money. he couldn't find it. He searched, and searched, coat, bag, coat, bag, "I put it in my bag," i'm running through who I can borrow cash from, I have a $5 and a $1 not the 10 needed to day of... Resisting the urge to be Dad and yell at him for not being able to find his money. I can see he's getting a bit concerned, but he finds it. Phew.
We go get our numbers. he goes to ride around, I realize i'm exhausted. not just sleepy like the day before, but like really physically tired and sleepy. Everything was an effort. Body was just not rested.
Cranking through coffee, seems to help a bit. We had a nice spot there in the sun with the black car convention, rusty race wagon and curtis's pimp wagon.
Prep was pretty much the same as before. Got a lap in after the Cat 4 race, got changed, prep'd... wound up down warming up on the Saris trainers again to spin the legs up and warm up a bit. Then headed over to the line.
Seemed farther to the back than the day before, that or not as many people, or something. Felt weird.
I lined up over on the left side. And started. Meh, not feeling the same killer instinct as yesterday. Ryan L came flying past, nice. No dice getting on that train though, I got pinched and bounced across the worst roots going into the flyover, around and dicey juniors chopping lines only to fuck up and go backwards never to be seen again. Again got squeezed out of the preferred line going back into towards the logs.
Story of that first lap, got pushed by traffic into a shitty line, and I was just not racing well. Not badly but it was a shitty shitty start.
We got out of the sand and I picked out Rich Loring, and kind of re-focused. Drilling it where I could and started making up ground, and started to feel better with each turn. Then half way through the section after the beach run I got onto Rich's wheel, and felt really comfortable there, Wade wasn't far ahead, this was going to be good. We get to race for the championship, 3 laps to go, sweet! Coming by the pits to get the 3 to go sign it felt like the rear tire was bottoming out more than usual.
I stopped pedaling as I was going past the pits to see how flat it looked, it looked and felt okay, for a moment I thought about just running back to the entrance and grabbing the white bike. But I thought well, shit lets see... by the time I hit the right turn after the start I could feel it was definitely squishy. I lost a few second to Rich, then more at each 180. I railed that next section HARD. Rode the sand up to the bottom of the hill in the sand and remounted and rode the next section. When I hit the pavement I was riding on the rim. Fuck.
So I shifted all my weight to the front wheel and pedaled to the barriers, tried to take the turn pretty straight but the back end still rolled hard flat. (glue job held though). And with nothing but turns between the barriers and the pits, I shouldered the bike after the pits and strided the hell out of it.
Run GeWilli run. I was good, plenty of speed, probably not any slower, until oh shit, my feet turned into lead bricks and wow, this running thing is hard if you haven't been running. Shit, I should have done some running flashed into my head. Dissmissed pretty quickly by the oxygen debt. I made it to the pit, ditched the black bike, grabbed the white one just as Kyle Wolf's group came by. Ah damn it, I'm behind the wolfinator now. Shit.
No problem. Bike is good. I can drive this white bike no problem. I start going as best I can, but man I'm dead, I ain't got squat. can't really catch anyone, no one is really behind me, cue mental defeat. I still rode around not slowly but it wasn't racing. When I hit the beach sand the first time I thought, shit lets ride this stuff. Made it 3/4 or so of the way there, Cool, that was fun. Got off and nearly ripped my shoulder off. This bike is heavy.
It isn't really that heavy but compared to the black blue, the difference was significant enough to be a reminder at the barriers, logs, sand runs, ouch. But yeah i was riding, turning the corners not too bad. It was fun, no doubt. And any other year a mechanical pit bike or not would mean being lapped.
I didn't get lapped, wasn't last. But I wasn't state champ. Bike was now flat.
Yes, I did race, I did have the chance to do so. Domarski had a f'n awesome race and it was amazing watching him have a great day, I survived and the only problem was cured with 2 oz of Stan's.
I was pretty well bummed until about mid-day Monday. But I got my shit together and moved on. It has been not a terrible week....
Tomorrow the season ends though.
I am still excited enough about racing Ice Weasels that the sadness that it is over hasn't set in yet.
Frustrating, I'd love to bottle up my fitness right now and save it for September next year. That doesn't work. But we'll see if I can get my shit together enough to come in with another year's knowledge helping things. Maybe. We'll see. For now it is Ice Weasels. Wet. Raining. Gonna be pretty awesome.
A good way to end the season I think. A fun race, no pressure, just go out and have fun, results are meaningless... finish, hang out... say good bye to most of the family until next year, or at least until RdR 4.0
heddwch
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