Leading up to race day, the prior weeks training sucked. I had nothing but issues. It a moving car on Tuesday, had to take Wednesday off because my knee was swollen. Back in the saddle on Thursday, my a.m. ride was cut short on Friday, because my 3 year old has placed my lights somewhere and my back up light battery went dead 10 min into my ride. (no worries, now that I have purchased a new light, finally found his secret hiding spot)
Anyway, the reason I even wrote this, is because my races would fare no better.
I lined up with the Masters 30+ and Masters 40+ and found out I was the only 30+ in the group. Boom! 1st place!!!! I rock!!!
I brought my GoPro and bought a bigger memory card for it and guess what, the flippen battery was not charged so I was only able to record the first 40 seconds of the Masters race. Not enough for me to mess with and post.
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| Masters Race, Travis on my heels like usual. (Pic Rogers) |
Race started pretty good. Hit the start and hole about 8 back and after a lap was sitting pretty well. After about 2 to 3 laps my rear wheel was going flat. SOB!! I pitted and grabbed my spare wheel and got back in the race and had intentions of catching back up with the group that just passed me while pitted, but they were actually in a race and digging deep. I lost motivation with about 3 laps to go and sat up to conserve energy for the next race.
About an hour before the Cat 3/4's I got back on my bike (hoping the stans would seal the pinhole leek I have in my tubulars) and the tire seemed to be holding pressure so I did not worry to much more about it.
Before the race I felt like I could take a nap. Lined up and did not really know who to watch, I did not recognize but a couple guys. Start went pretty good and I got in the hole shot again about 7 back and held my position pretty well without too much effort. There was one long false flast/uphill section that drained my legs first race, but this one the strangest thing happened. I felt great!!! I am normally an out of the saddle kind of rider, but I was able to stay seated and just hammer it up.
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| Was feeling so good second race, goosed Jaret K & Rocky R on my way past them up the hill (pic Rogers) Its a good feeling when your going good and can have some fun. |
After a couple laps the I settled in behind the eventual winner and we started reeling in the leaders but every lap I found my rear tire loosing pressure again. Each lap it was getting worse and worse and with 3 laps to go I was all over the place. This sucks!!!!! The four of us were within 5 seconds of each other and It was anyone's race. I knew I would not catch them with so few laps left but really had no other choice, I was all over the place. Went to the pit, changed my rear wheel and there everyone went. I eventually caught up with the second group and ended up having to sprint up the final climb to take 7th.
Every race is a new learning experience. Sucks when you have good legs but your bike is not working with you. Any suggestions to fixing a pin hole leak in a tubular???
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| Hey! Still had matching wheels at this point!! (Pic, Rogers) |
Man, I am really seeing the value of a pit bike. When I had a spare bike, I never used it once. I could have used one the last 3 out of 4 races. Maybe I need to put some cross tires on my MTB? Travis seems to be kicking arse on his... Hopefully next race I can finish on the wheels I start with.
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