A lot has been going on the past few weeks so things fell a wee bit behind on the blog. Sunday the 13th was OCup # 2 in Uxbridge
Pre-ride went swimmingly. I thought the course had really improved since that last time I was there 2 years ago. Of course last time the course was soaking wet and my front brake started leaking DOT fluid the moment the race started. That race was a DNF so I figured I must be able to eclipse that one easily, right? All I need to do is finish. The course is far more technical than the one at Mansfield. The 1:30pm course has some really gnarly bits that keep you on your toes and take away any chances of resting a bit before your next effort. Steep drops through rocks, really tight switchbacks and some nice off-camber downhill cornering. The final rock garden is way easier than it looks as you can skip the first half of it if you just stick to the right then cut across halfway down. My overall impression of the course is that it's gonna be a harder race just because there's no long downhill like at Mansfield to rest on. It's gonna be high heart rate and effort all the way through to the end.
So race day. Well so much for eclipsing last year's result - DNF on the second lap. At the furthest point on the course while coming out of a section of single track I went OTB (over the bars) I don't know how it happened or even what I did, all I remember is that my legs were hurting like hell. I crawled to the side of the trail and managed to get my bike out of the way. Everyone who rode by asked if I was ok but I waved them all on while trying to compose myself. I was on the ground for probably 5 minutes. At that point I realised my race was over. I limped all the way back to the start line and came home. Blegh.
Even now 5 days after the accident I have a 6 inch diameter bruise where I impaled myself on my handlebars. It's not causing any problems so I can still ride and push as easily.
I also did the Trek Wednesday Night Series at Hardwood Hills. I wasn't able to get off work until later so I was late getting to the venue. By the time I got my registration all sorted and number plated zip tied on, they were calling the one minute warning. I came up to the start line with absolutely zero warmup and no idea what the course was. The pace was pretty easy off the start so I had no trouble moving up right away. I found another senior expert rider and stuck with him for a bit before I crashed. I simply lost control when I came into some obstacles and I had no idea what line I should be doing. Trying to push a hard race pace without any prior knowledge of the course is crazy hard. One moment you've got the throttle wide open before you realise that you need to be slowing down for a blind corner. Made for some hairy racing. I settled in between two riders so I could pace off them and stay on the trail. They were going slower than I would have liked but the race was just for fun anyway. The finish was a lot of fun. I could hear someone catch up to me really quickly and try to stay on my wheel. As soon as I hit the finishing straight I let off the gas to see what he would do. He stayed right behind my waiting for me to attack. Instead of doing the waiting game, I attacked off the front with about 100m to go. He got right up behind me but couldn't make the pass.
Preparations are underway for the Canada Cup at Hardwood, so these Wednesday night races are nice to help familiarise myself with the course. I'm hoping for a really good result so I've got a lot of work to do.
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